Subject: [Tweeters] Grays harbor birding
Date: Aug 18 18:39:33 2016
From: Jeffrey Bryant - jbryant_68 at yahoo.com


To finish that post from the field--at least the subject line came thru--Bottle Beach was disappointing on all fronts on incoming to high tide this afternoon. The gulls mostly opted to rest on calm waters and distant sandbars well beyond scope range. Shorebirds made a very poor showing also, with just a cluster of SB Dowitchers, BB And Semipalmated Plovers, and common peeps.
Spent two days in Ocean Shores prior to that visit, sneaking birding stops into a family trip as possible. The jetty was the only spot for shorebirds, with at least 8 Wandering Tattlers, a pair of Surfbirds and both Turnstones. Hundreds of Sooty Shearwaters cruised southward offshore.
As previously posted, Oyhut Game Range is almost completely dry. I walked all the way from Tonquin Access to the STP at high tide, and found only Killdeer, three Least Sandpipers and one flyover Greater Yellowlegs! even the dependable marshy area over towards the STP side is bone dry. Without some serious rain in the next month, the golden-plovers may be the only shorebirds that turn up there en route south. The STP ponds held one GRYE.
Only really noteworthy bird was a CLARK'S GREBE in a raft of Westerns feeding very close in at the base of Damon Point with dozens of Murres, RT and Pacific Loons, and mostly White-winged Scoters.

Moral to the story is, if you're planning a Grays Harbor birding junket, it might be best to concentrate on the Westport side of the water.



Jeff bryant

Seattle

jbryant_68 AT yahoo