Hello,
I spent the day scouting out Whidbey Island for a field trip that I am leading for Seattle Audubon on Saturday. Most of the wintering birds have not come back in big numbers but I did see a nice mix of birds. One of the highlights for me was 54 Black Oystercatchers on the rocks at West Beach at Deception Pass State Park. I thought this was pretty amazing until I went to Ala Spit on the east side of the island. There were at least 63 more oystercatchers on the beach on the south side of the spit. I say at least because the birds stretched down to the end of the spit and there could have been more that I could not see. 117 Black Oystercatchers in about a half hour made for a good day..
I did find the two Marbled Godwits that Tom reported yesterday behind the Keystone Cafe on Crockett Lake. I got some help from two women who were doing a shorebird survey on the lake. They had seen the American Avocet which has been hanging around at the south end of the lake. I was not able to locate it.

Neil Zimmerman
Brier, WA