Dear Tweeters,

Today, 26 April 2014,?the two American White Pelicans that Wayne Weber found yesterday were right there again off Fish Point, Samish Island. I phoned Howard Armstrong, and he and I were able to observe them at long range for ten minutes or so. 1025-1050.

Soon, a misty bank obscured them, followed by a torrential downpour that chased me off the island. However, at 1133, as I was birding from Sullivan Road on Samish Flats, I spotted them, flying up from Samish Bay far to the north. The two pelicans slowly spiraled higher and higher into the sky, making big circles above the area where Chuckanut Drive goes through Bow. I took my eyes off them at 1144 to look at some WWII-vintage warbirds that came growling over the area, and then I lost them.

From there, I ran up to Whatcom, and was rewarded with some nice shorebirding at Semiahmoo and Blaine Marina. There were about a hundred Whimbrel, plus a couple of Black-bellied Plover, Killdeer with a baby, two Short-billed Dowitcher, a few Greater Yellowlegs, and hundreds of Dunlin and Western Sandpiper. Eight or nine Sanderling roosted on a structure in Drayton Harbor off Semiahmoo.

I was so glad I didn't go to Portland for the Rustic Bunting!

Yours truly,,

Gary Bletsch