Dear Tweeters,
There was a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper at the Fir Island Game Range yesterday, Friday evening the fourth of September. Please excuse the late notice; Yahoo Mail is no longer functioning via Microsoft's browser, for some reason.
Last night was the first time this shorebird season that I have witnessed the phenomenon of "shorebird boats" at the Game Range. This usually happens in the evening this time of year, when the main pond is full of water, and shorebirds ride around on slowly floating logs, often at close range and with excellent lighting. Over the past few weeks, I have seen a very few logs with small numbers of sandpipers on them; last night was the real naumachia. The species involved included both yellowlegs, both dowitchers (mostly Short-billed), Pectoral Sandpipers, the Sharp-tailed, and even a Wilson's Snipe. Best viewing is from atop the dike, facing east, with the viewing blind--the one with the ludicrously low ceiling--at one's back.
Hunters have told me that the Early Goose Season begins today, the fifth, and lasts five days. Luckily, the part of the Game Range where the shorebirds float by is within the "safety zone." Birding at Jensen Access, the Samish Nineties, and other WDFW accesses might be a challenge for a few days.
As I sat in my car in the boat-launch parking lot, tallying the list and listening to the radio as the Mariners beat the Rangers, I heard what was almost certainly the "quock" of a Black-crowned Night Heron, a species once fairly common on Fir Island, and now virtually absent for the last ten years. I turned off the motor and jumped out, but never heard it again. It pays to stay there until dusk.
Yours truly,
Gary Bletsch
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