Following Steve Giles post, I raced up to Eide
Road hoping to find a cooperative Sharp Tailed,
the species I had hoped for yesterday. Steve
kindly provided more detailed info which I see he
then posted on Tweeters. When I arrived at Eide
(around 1 pm) the hunters were all gone, the light
was good and even from a distance it was clear
that there were a lot of birds on the ponds. I
also spied Gregg Thompson's trademark yellow cap
(and gigantic lens) and joined him. He had arrived
just shortly before me, also drawn by the prospect
of the Sharp Taileds. To make a long story short,
we tried for almost two hours to find the birds.
Hundreds of Dowitchers (including one we thought
was possibly a short billed), some fly-by
westerns, perhaps a dozen Dunlin, numerous Lesser
Yellowlegs, a few Greater Yellowlegs (see more
later), a dozen or more American Pipits and 5
Pectoral Sandpipers but alas no Sharp Tailed.
Three of the Pectorals were very bright juveniles
and two were much duller with chest markings still
distinct but much paler than the others so we
figure they were more likely adults. Very
possible that we could have simply missed the
Sharp Taileds as two of the Pecs were out in the
dense and large Dowitcher flock and we almost
overlooked them.

We had a great consolation prize however. We saw
a Greater Yellowlegs with something in its bill.
Turns out it was a small fish and we watched it
reposition it several times and then finally
swallow it whole. Neither Gregg nor I had seen
this before. Pictures (along with some of the
Pectorals) can be seen at
https://picasaweb.google.com/103072475474183849815/EideRoadOctober102013?authkey=Gv1sRgCKuLnZyW8PLCjAE#

I am sure Gregg's pictures will put these to shame
- but it was a lot of fun. Hope the Sharp Taileds
are rediscovered. After the great week I have had
- no complaints here.

--
Blair Bernson
Edmonds