Hello Tweeters,

Bill and I spent Friday birding on our own in Ocean Shores,
then joined a WOS group (of 18!) on Saturday to look for birds in Tokeland,
Grayland Beach, Westhaven State Park and the marina at Westport. We enjoyed
both days, especially birding with the other like-minded WOS members. More
eyes usually means more birds.

Our best bird on the first day was the American Pipit.
There were about 50 of these little wagtail relatives running around on the
dry lawn at the Ocean Shores STP. That was also where we saw almost the
only shorebirds of that day-a handful of Least and Western Sandpipers at the
edge of the sewage pond. At the Point Brown Jetty we were surprised to have
several loons fly over our heads. I don't remember having this happen
before and I wasn't even sure what bird I was seeing at first.

On day two the bird of the day was the Snowy Plover. On
rare occasions we have seen one or two of these dainty plovers at a
distance, dodging between tussocks of grass. Yesterday at Grayland Beach,
one of our group counted more than 40 in the seaweed wrack from a recent
high tide. They stood their ground as cars and dogs went by closer to the
beach and as we stood on the uphill side about 100 feet away. It was one of
those "I feel so privileged to see this" moments. On the whole shorebirds
were scarce. We did see 12 species, but, except for the Willets and Marbled
Godwits at Tokeland, generally just 2 or 3 of a species.

I've put a lot of pictures on Tweeters lately, but I
thought, since these were from Washington state, I would risk doing it
again. At the link below are the best photos we got from this excursion to
the ocean.



https://www.flickr.com/photos/29258421 at N07/albums/72157710862687767



Charlotte Byers, Edmonds

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