I was just surprised to look at the little remaining mud/gravel islands off my yard on the Long Beach Peninsula to see a flock of apparently first summer Bar-tailed Godwits. i saw them when I was putting something in my car. I got my car binoculars on them, and after looking at them for a few minutes went toward the house for a camera, but they lifted off and flew low along the bay to the north. Some were partially red below, but most were without red. Several small mud/gravel islands form on the changing tide at my little bight, which often attracts shorebirds.

The last shorebird other than Killdeer that I had seen from the yard was a Greater Yellowlegs on May 23.

I am very familiar with Bar-tailed Godwits from Oregon, Washington (Tokeland and Illwaco), Alaska, Asia and Australia.

I do not remember the year, but the late Harry Nehls once found an even a larger flock of Bar-tailed Godwits near the parking lot at Ledbetter State Park in early June.


Jeff Gilligan