Many thanks for your observations.Ron Postronpost4 at gmail.com
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------ Original message------From: ByersDate: Fri, Aug 17, 2018 9:42 PMTo: tweeters at u.washington.edu;Cc: Subject:[Tweeters] Jetty Island
Hi Tweeters,                I had never been to Jetty Island, just offshore from Everett, before.  Bill and I went today because other birders had report significant numbers of shorebirds there.  There's a small foot passenger ferry that runs from the mainland out to the island between July 5 and Labor Day.  It's a short ride, but it's a popular destination for families and children, so I would avoid weekends and arrive early.  Although many people are going to the island, 99% appear to be there for the beach on the south and west side.  There is also a volleyball camp.                Once on the island you can walk up to the lagoon on the northern end of the island-;probably best on incoming tide.  Today when we arrived at the lagoon we quickly realized that the mudflats were covered in shorebirds.  We were almost the only people there.  These birds were mostly juvenile Western Sandpipers-;I estimated 750, but there might have b!
een more, and significant numbers of Least Sandpipers and Black-bellied Plovers.  There were also some Semipalmated Plovers, dowitchers, and yellowlegs and Killdeer.  Yesterday a Baird's Sandpiper was seen there and today I'm pretty sure I found a Semipalmated Sandpiper.  These birds kept a fair distance from us, so photography wasn't great, but possible for identification.                We then walked to the south end of the island where, away from the people, there was a big gathering of Caspian Terns (150 or so) and at least that many Black-bellied Plovers, many still in partial breeding plumage.  They all looked like they were getting ready to fly south.  But in looking at Ebird records for the Black-bellied Plovers, there are none this year for anywhere south of Everett, even though there have been significant numbers observed at Jetty Island all month.  Where do these birds go when they head south?                While we wai!
ted for the ferry to take us back across the channel, we noted flock after flock of small shorebirds flying over the water.   Once on the mainland, we stopped at North View Park and did see the Great Egret north of the park that has been there for a while.  The whole area was very birdy today!Charlotte Byers, Edmonds   
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