Hello All,



Feeling a bit restless with all the great birds being seen and not beeing seen by me, I decided to go for all the recent sightings at full throttle. I woke up 3:30AM Wednesday morning and headed to Cape Horn hoping that the Hooded Warbler was still around. I arrived at Cape Horn around 8AM, heard the call note and attempted to see the rarity but it stayed deep in the foliage. Used playback on ibird and Mike Clarke's recording to confirm call note for warbler (dead on). I do have a recording of the call but it is faint due to it's distance in the trees. Onto the next rarity...



I arrived at Tokeland at 1PM to pick up the two Elegant Terns on the rocks surrounding the Tokeland Marina waters. I also ran into Doug Schurman and his Wife. There was also another birder from Port Angeles named Mary that enjoyed looking at the terns with us. There was a lighter colored Godwit that seemed to really look like a Barred Tailed Godwit, only I didn't have enough time to wait to see the bird fly to see the bird's rump area. Doug got some great photos as he naturally does!



Then onto spot three Wandering Tattlers at the Westport Jetty. Next stop, Bottle Beach and succesfully found my target bird: a Red Knot. There were also Baird's Sandpipers.... etc... unfortunately no Hudsonian Godwit, only one Marbled in the distance...



Thursday, before heading back to the East Side I picked up the Great-Tailed Grackle at Sam Peach Park in Tacoma at 5PM. I didn't find it there when I arrived at 4PM then went back and much to my luck it was hanging out!



To my great advantage my girlfriends house in Moses Lake was 15 minutes from the Eastern Pewee location. If anyone keeps up with my personal life... It is not the same girl I was with in Yakima. Anyhow, I got to the Eastern Pewee location around 645AM and immidiately heard it at the location described at Matt Yawney. Anyhow.... To sum it all up: four rare birds in two days. Not bad eh? Pics eventually to come on my Flickr site. Maybe after a nap or four.



Good Birding,



Kevin Black
kevin.black at wallawalla.edu<mailto:kevin.black at wallawalla.edu>
Richland, WA
http://www.flickr.com/eager_like_a_deer/