Tweeters,

Unlike Mike Patterson, I do not have the slightest difficulty in believing that there were 1100 Red Knots in Bowerman Basin recently. Grays Harbor is a well-known staging area for this species in the spring. The high count of Red Knots for Washington in eBird is 4000 birds in Grays Harbor on May 10th last year. Dennis Paulson cites a high count of 6100 Red Knots in Grays Harbor on April 27, 1981. On the other hand, the high count of Red Knots in eBird for the entire state of Oregon is 55 birds.

Anyone unfamiliar with the status of Red Knots on the West Coast should read the species account in Dennis Paulson's "Shorebirds of the Pacific Northwest" (1993). Red Knots essentially skip over Oregon in their spring migration, and Grays Harbor (and to a lesser extent, Willapa Bay) is the major spring staging area between California and Alaska.

Just because Red Knots are uncommon in Oregon does not mean that 1100 of them in Grays Harbor would be unusual.

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net



-----Original Message-----
From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu [mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Mike Patterson
Sent: May-15-15 6:29 AM
To: Tweeters
Subject: [Tweeters] Re: Where did 1100 Knots go?

1100 Red Knots seems like a lot.

I might suggest (in the gentlest way I can muster) the following, very tentative, I'm not saying I'm right way...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/Sanderling_In_Mating_Plumage.jpg/800px-Sanderling_In_Mating_Plumage.jpg

--
Mike Patterson
Astoria, OR
The phenological margins
http://www.surfbirds.com/community-blogs/northcoastdiaries/?p=2753