Dear Tweeters,
Today, the seventh of August, I decided to look for Baird's Sandpipers at the Samish West Ninety. It took me quite a while, but eventually two Baird's Sandpipers showed up with a little flock of Least and Western Sandpipers.
A short while later, I was walking along, musing about a conversation I had had the other day, when I was telling another birder about having seen Black Turnstones at the West Ninety, and what a surprising find that had been. Suddenly four shorebirds flew up from the mudflat--three BLACK TURNSTONES and an even more surprising RUDDY TURNSTONE! They put down near me, but I could not get a photo, because my camera insisted on focussing on the one little tuft of grass that stood between me and the little flock. Then they took off, heading to the north. 
Every once in a while--a long while--this sort of thing seems to happen to me. One thinks about a special bird, and lo, here it is! Maybe it's just a withdrawal from the First National Karma Bank.
A few more minutes later, a couple of Semipalmated Plovers flew by. Then a big flock of about ninety Black-bellied Plover started calling and wheeling over the bay--a Peregrine Falcon was scaring all the birds up. I think those plovers headed for the spit at Camp Kirby.
As I was getting into the car in the parking area, there was one more surprise, albeit not a shorebird. A crow was calling from the trees in the parking area. The whole area had been absolutely overrun with Ravens the whole time I was on the Samish Flats, but crows aren't very common at the West Ninety. He just stayed hidden in the canopy, giving the occasional "caw-caw-caw." I wonder what that was about.
Yours truly,
Gary Bletsch
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