Subject: [Tweeters] Warm Beach Shorebirds, Snohomish Co.
Date: Oct 4 21:26:56 2014
From: Marcus Roening - Marcus.D.Roening at gsk.com



Hi Tweets,

Heather and I conducted our final kayak paddle to the mouth of Hatt Slough off the Stillaguamish River. It was time to reclaim the kayaks from the grandparents, before the winter tides take them off on their own unescorted adventure. The weather guru, Cliff Mass, promised a "dirty front" and thats what we got - a lot of clouds with a couple rays of sun and then a cloud burst.

The season has definitely turned with all of the molting Mallards seemingly replaced by American Wigeons - we only saw a dozen Mallards in the hundreds of wigeons. The unexpected bonus was a sudden cloud of 350 white geese rising high into the sky - SNOW GEESE, our first of the season, followed by 30 Cackling Geese.

And the shorebirds did not disappoint either. We went out on the incoming tide of a very high tide searching the logs among the reed beds. Birds of note were that we were able to float on by:

160 BB Plover (and likely more)
1 adult RED KNOT still with red on about a third of its Breast
9 juvenile Short-billed Dowitchers
60 Dunlin - my first of the year here
40 Least Sandpiper
60 Western Sandpiper
13 Greater Yellowlegs

Other birds that were a bit unusual for this muddy sandy estuary or hanging around late
were:

3 Caspian Terns - flew over the kayaks and getting late
91 Double-crested Cormorants - I have only seen a couple before in almost 20 years so it was quite the surprise to see so many, must have been some good fish coming downstream
4 Surf Scoters - at the edge of the estuary
12 Barn Swallows
19 Horned Grebes - again seldom seen in this end of the bay

Best access point for reaching the estuary is the boat ramp on Hatt Slough off of Marine View drive.

Good paddling,

Sent from my iPad

Marcus Roening,
Tacoma. WA

Marcus.d.roening at gsk.com