Subject: [Tweeters] Re: WOS Grays Harbor trip 29 April
Date: May 15 20:18:56 2017
From: Nagi Aboulenein - nagi.aboulenein at gmail.com


Hello All -

Sorry for the delay in responding to Brian?s post - here?s a link to some photos from the WOS field trip, as well as some Red Knot photos from Bottle Beach SP on April 30th:

https://flic.kr/s/aHskWyTMEr

Good birding,

Nagi




On April 30, 2017 at 10:46:21 AM, B&PBell (bellasoc at isomedia.com) wrote:

Hi Tweets

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Yesterday, WOS folks took a trip to Grays Harbor County. We started out early from the Seattle area under broken clouds and a 44F temperature. It took us a while to get down to the Olympia area because of the delays for southbound I-5 construction near Fort Lewis. During a quick stop in West Olympia we saw ROCK PIGEON and VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW. On the way out west we had a COMMON RAVEN and a RED-TAILED HAWK fly over the road.

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Our first real stop for the day was at the Hoquiam Ponds where we found MALLARD, GADWALL, GREATER SCAUP. LESSER SCAUP, GREEN-WINGED TEAL, NORTHERN SHOVELER, AMERICAN WIGEON, EURASIAN WIGEON, WESTERN GREBE, EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVE, OSPREY, TREE SWALLOW, EUROPEAN STARLING, REDWINGED BLACKBIRD, BARN SWALLOW, GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL (only one, very unusual at the lack of gulls). We cruised along the willows and picked up WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW, GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW, SAVANNAH SPARROW, MARSH WREN, COMMON YELLOWTHROAT, ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER, SONG SPARROW, CANADA GOOSE, TURKEY VULTURE, AMERICAN CROW, RING-NECKED DUCK, NORTHERN PINTAIL, BAIRD?S SANDPIPER, and LEAST SANDPIPER (back at the eastern end of the ponds). We still had high broken clouds and the temperature had dropped to 40F, but no wind.

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On out to Ocean Shores and the north jetty. The tide was very far out and we could walk on the sand about three-quarter of the way out to the end of the jetty, but in spite of this we could not spot any rock shorebirds. A couple of WESTERN GULLs were present. A large flock of DUNLIN were north on the beach and as we tried to work our way up they progressively moved further north. There seemed to be some smaller shorebirds with them but we finally had to give up. Back to the jetty and up onto the rocks where we successfully found a WANDERING TATTLER, the prime target for one of our members. In the channel we had PELAGIC CORMORANT, RED-THROATED and PACIFIC LOON. We drove back north into town and then drove a ways up the beach, picking up GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULLs, many flocks of SANDERLINGs, WESTERN SANDPIPERs and a couple of SEMI-PALMATED PLOVERs.

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A brief stop at Ocean City State Park for lunch gave us BROWN CREEPER, BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE, and AMERICAN CROW. The clouds had closed and the ceiling dropped and we had some light rain going back east. A single BUFFLEHEAD was sighted along the way.

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We made the run around to Bottle Beach to get there before high tide. By now we had light mist and some wind. Lots of photographers out at the beach, but the shorebirds were way up the beach. A single CALIFORNIA GULL was on the close beach. We walked quite a ways up and got to a spot where we could scan the shorebirds. A large group of BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERs, DUNLIN, WESTERN SANDPIPERs, LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER, RED KNOT(at least six) and nice views for our group, and two AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVERs. Then everybody flushed even further up the beach to the north, they were now at least one-half mile away. The whole group of birds lifted off and a PEREGRINE FALCON dove on them. A portion came back down the beach and were closer to us (it was now raining steadily), and we could see LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER, SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER, DUNLIN, GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL, offshore in choppy water there were two WHITE-WINGED SCOTERs and about 6 RED-BREASTED MERGANSERs (really difficult to get numbers because of the distance and chop). A single RUDDY TURNSTONE flew by. A BAND-TAILED PIGEON flew over the road on the way home.

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At spots during the day we saw KILLDEER, CASPIAN TERN, GREAT BLUE HERON, NORTHERN HARRIER, AMERICAN ROBIN.

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We saw 66 species for the day under less than ideal conditions, but got some really excellent views for a great group of folks.

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Good Birding!

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Brian H. Bell

Woodinville WA

Mail to bell asoc a t iso media dot com