I just returned from a two-day trip to the coast. It was raining at La Push and the sea was high, but I did find two Sooty Shearwaters and a Fork-tailed Storm Petrel flying beyond the stacks off First Beach. Neah Bay was not spectacular for rarities (didn't find Nigel Ball's Red-shouldered Hawk for instance, though looked hard several times), but the numbers of certain species were interesting. For example, I estimated 17,000 California Gulls of all ages on Hobuck Beach on the first evening, but the numbers varied from 3,000 up on the four times I walked the beach. Savannah Sparrows were everywhere, an estimated 350, particularly among the clumps of kelp stranded at high tide that first evening, but this morning (26th) there were only 27 along the same route! Near downtown Neah Bay, there was a late Swainson's Thrush, and an impressive flock of warblers that contained an estimated 36 Yellow and 6 Orange-crowned. It would have been easy to leave with very different impressions depending upon which of the 3 days and where you birded!

As an autumnal post script, flocks of Sandhill Cranes were very evident, with 230 seen today.

Bruce Paige
spruceak at yahoo.com
Sequim, WA