Dear Tweeters,
Thanks to Phil Wegener for alerting birders about the Red Knots at Hayton Reserve, when he spotted them this morning! This afternoon, the 23rd of May, several other Skagit birders and I were treated to a ten-species shorebird extravaganza there. We saw these shorebirds:
--55 Black-bellied Plover (thanks to Bob Kuntz for the laborious task of counting them)
--1 Semipalmated Plover
--3 Killdeer (two adults and a baby)
--1 Marbled Godwit
--1 Whimbrel
--3 Red Knots in lovely breeding plumage'
--15 Dunlin
--10 Western Sandpipers
--5 Least Sandpipers
--1 Short-billed Dowitcher
When I left Hayton, the Knots and many of the Black-bellied Plovers were standing around out in the khaki-colored dirt of the fields. The shorebirds did not settle on the mud-berm, mid-lagoon, where they so often rest at high tide during their southbound migration.
It might be worth birders' while to visit Hayton again tomorrow evening, as the tide comes in. The best time to go there for shorebirding is usually when the tidal waters begin to flow into the big muddy lagoon. Morning, though, often involves staring into rising sun. 
Thanks again to Phil for getting the word out promptly!
Yours truly,
Gary Bletsch

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