Hi Tweets,

I was working up north today, so stopped at Eide Road at 4 pm and had a nice group of shorebirds.

My favorites were 2 juvenile Baird's Sandpipers in their sweet Buffy plumage with nice black centers. Also present were 4 Lesser Yellowlegs, 6 LB Dowitchers and a Least Sandpiper.

>From there I stopped at the Stanwood STP and looked from the gravel area opposite from QFC. I was able to locate the Franklin's Gull on one of the blocks. Quite a mixture of ducks, as well.

Topped the evening off with a sunset kayak trip out of Warm Beach on a rising tide to the mouth of Hatt Slough. My nephews favorite game out on the mud flats is to run from island to island as the tide comes in. I decided I'd do a birders version and kayaked out to the submerged logs and the sand bars and waited for the shorebirds to come to me, since a high tide at sunset is pretty ideal.

350 Western Sandpiper - all juvenile with the exception of 3 adults (and yes, I did scan them all, pretty easy at 20' as the tide pushed them to my island)
38 Least Sandpipers
43 Greater Yellowlegs
2 Lesser Yellowlegs
238 Black- bellied Plovers (vast majority were adults)
5 Semipalmated Plovers

It was a wonderful evening for a paddle and shorebirds.

Good Birding,
Sent from my iPad

Marcus Roening
Tacoma. WA
C: 253-988-8313
Marcus.d.roening at gsk.com