Ken and Ed led a trip to the coast with so many ABCers interested that we started Saturday Oct 8 taking 16 birders in 4 cars to the Westport-Tokeland side of Gray’s Harbor, 7 more birders joined us Sunday for the Ocean Shores side, and the 7 + one holdover repeated the south side of the harbor on Monday. Weather was good, exceting morning fog most days, and birding was surprisingly excellent.

The route was to the Hoquiam STP first on Saturday, then on to Bottle Beach, Tokeland and Graveyard Spit, North Cove, MIdway Beach and then back to the Hoquiam STP to chase the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper found there by Shep and others after their weathered-out pelagic.

I won’t go into great detail, but here are the highlights:

Day 1:

-At the STP good numbrers of ducks, a few Pectoral Sandpipers seen through the fog.

-At Bottle Beach we arrived early for the incoming tide, spent an hour or so on the trail adjacent to the beach where a good variety of common birds were seen well, then on the beach we had 10 species of shorebird including 3 Sanderling, 12 Marbled Godwit, 1 Black Turnstone, +/- 400 Black-bellied Plover, 6 Semi-palmated Plover, Dunlin, Western and Least Sandpipers.

-On to Tokeland, where the arguably best bird of the trip, a Hudsonian Godwit had us all fooled for a while until Ken (who else) correctly IDed the bird as a Hudsonian Godwit a bit after we left. This one rarity was mixed nicely with an estimated 350 (probably more) Marbled Godwits, a good number of Willets and one Whimbrel.

-We made a short stop at North Cove hoping for Franklin’s Gull which had been reported earlier in the week without luck.

-A nice walk out into the wet fields at the end the road to Midway Beach yielded one Wilson’s Snipe, a nice walk in a wet field, and good numbers of distant ducks and Long-billed Dowichers, and one American Pipit.

As we left there Ken found out about a reported Sharp-tailed Sandpiper at the Hoquiam STP, so instead of birding the Westport marina we went back there, near our hotel, and got excellent looks at this rarity in great light on the east side of the middle pond in the nearest short patch of muddy shore.

Day 2: After Mexican food for dinner at Mazatlan and a night’s sleep at Econolodge we joined the arriving second party group and headed for Ocean Shores, with a short try at the Hoquiam STP for the STSA without luck in foggy conditions.

-At the Brown’s Point Jetty we did a seawatch, with waxing and waning fog, but were pleased by a nice flock of rocky shorebirds that flew in and found one Rock Sandpiper and 6 Surfbirds mixed with at least 50 Black Turnstones. A nice variety of seabirds made the watch enjoyable.

-Nothing special at the Ocean Shores STP on a brief stop, and we walked the Oyhut Game Range area from the new path at the Tonquin Ave entrance. It was very slow overall, but a nice highlight was flushing 5 Lapland Longspurs from almost underfoot, calling their nice rattle to be heard by most and a nice look as they flew up and away. Nice numbers of Red-throated and Common Loons were fun to see, and a Peregrine gave great overhead flight looks as it soared high above us as we got to the parking lot at the end of the stop.

-After lunch at the playfield by the airport, we went to the Quinault Casino beach access with high hopes from excellent reports there in recent days, but a dense fog rolled in and we almost saw the water. Zip.

-We killed a little time at the Cabana Pool, waiting for the tide to receed a bit before going to Bill’s Spit hoping for shorebirds. The pool area was pleasant but without many birds. Bill’s Spit had the tide just going out, and as more sand became available the largest group of shorebirds of the trip gave a nice show. Highlights were several Red Knots, good numbers of Dunlin and Western Sandpipers, lots of gulls to sort through, and one shorebird we had to leave unidentified due to distance, but always fun to try.

-We tried in the afternoon with better light to recover the STSA for the new arrival birders, but were not able to confidently ID it among several Pectoral Sandpipers who were more distant than they had been Saturday.

-Monday, after dinner at the 8th Ave Bar and another night at Econolodge we again headed south. The stops were similar to Saturday, but we missed the HUGO at Tokeland, picked up a Pacific Golden Plover at Bottle Beach, and took some time to explore a new area at the mouth of the Cedar River just south of Tokeland to find a few county birds for the county listers in the group.

Here is a link to the eBird Trip List.

112 total species

23 species of shorebirds including Hudsonian Godwit, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper and Pacific Golden Plover as nice finds on the trip.

Good birding.