Hi Tweets,

It was a good weekend for shorebirds on Port Susan. Heather and I spent an hour near Stanwood at the end of Eide Road enjoying the diversity on Saturday. With the kind of perfect morning light and blue skies that you always hope for in the northwest, we sorted through:

62 Long-billed Dowitchers
10 Lesser Yellowlegs and 1 Greater Yellowlegs
12 Western Sandpipers
3 Juvenile RED-NECKED PHALAROPES
1 juvenile WILSON'S PHALAROPE - an unexpected treat

And if you're looking for the GREATER YELLOWLEGS, they are definitely at Warm Beach, where we had up to 29 in one spot, with more likely around the corner.

Later in the afternoon a kayak adventure on the incoming tide around the estuary of Hatt Slough produced our first Black-bellied Plovers of the season. With a best guess of 150 perched among the widely spread half sunken logs.

And a nice surprise of 5 BONAPARTE'S GULLS were mixed in with a group of a nearly a 1000 gulls.

A group of 3 Turkey Vultures were quartering the marsh and during a Sunday walk on the dikes, we heard the always slightly humorous grunting of the VIrginia Rail - a first in this location for us.

Good Birding,

Sent from my iPad

Marcus Roening
Tacoma. WA
Marcus.d.roening at gsk.com