With thanks to Marv Breece...correction that at Bottle Beach we had many Semipalmated PLOVERS not Sandpipers although we tried to find at least one of the latter. Also should have said "including some more Long Billed" about the Dowitchers. More Short Billed than Long Billed there. Sadly no Curlews and surprisingly no Peregrines. Also I tried hard but could not find a Yellow Warbler.
Blair Bernson
Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
On Fri, May 4, 2018 at 4:59 AM, Marv Breece<
marvbreece at q.com> wrote: Hi Blair,
Nice report! What would we do without Bottle Beach? Did you really mean Semipalmated Sandpipers, or possibly Plovers instead? Also, A lot of Long-billed Dowitchers seems unusual there.
Good birding to you, Blair.
Marv
From: "B B" <
birder4184 at yahoo.com>
To:
tweeters at uw.edu
Sent: Thursday, May 3, 2018 10:03:21 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Birding the Coast Today - Full Swing Migration
Still being on East Coast time, I awoke at 3 this morning and decided to just get going and with no planning went down to the Coast. Stops included Brady Loop, Hoquiam STP, Grays Harbor NWR/Bowerman Basin, Westport, Open Beach south of Bonge Road, Tokeland and Bottle Beach. I ran into many other birders at Bottle Beach who had also birded the open beach at Ocean Shores and the stories were the same LOTS of shorebirds. Some details/highlights for me:
Brady Loop - foggy and no shorebirds other than Killdeers found.Hoquiam STP (at low tide) - they sure have messed it up for shorebirds, lots of ducks, some Caspian Terns, Long Billed Dowitchers, Killdeer and a few Least Sandpipers.
Bowerman Basin - many hundreds and maybe thousands of shorebirds scattered at low tide. Mostly Western Sandpipers and Semipalmated Plovers. At least a few Least Sandpipers. Highlights were a single Whimbrel and only one larger plover - an American Golden Plover - golden speckled back, black face and belly and white extending only part way down its side.
Westport - a single Wandering Tattler at the second groin from the lower viewing platform near the restrooms, lots of Common Loons and a single Pacific Loon (probably more), only a few Brown Pelicans, quite a few Pigeon Guillemots.
Tokeland had no shorebirds - many Loons and Guillemots and Western Gulls - again fairly low tide. I did not see any shorebirds along Fisher Avenue but did not scan. Others reported Whimbrels far out.
Open Beach had many hundreds of birds - more Western Sandpipers than anything else but many Semipalmated Plovers, Dunlin and Sanderling. I had one Sanderling that was in almost full breeding plumage. All others were still mostly in their winter attire. Westerns and Dunlin were in breeding plumage. I saw zero larger shorebirds.
Bottle Beach was a real treat - thousands of birds. More Western Sandpipers than anything else, but many Dunlin and Semipalmated Sandpipers. At lease two gorgeous Ruddy Turnstones and many Black Bellied Plovers in various plumage stages. Also at least two dozen Red Knots in breeding or near breeding plumage. About 20 Greater Yellowlegs and we found only a single Least Sandpiper. Many Dowitchers - more Long Billed.
No rain and no wind but no sunshine either.
Really a fun day.
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