Sunshine and great views of American and Pacific Golden Plovers together (Photo by Kathleen Miller) were the highlights of our trip to the coast last weekend. After meeting at the usual I5-Hwy 512 park and ride we took foggy drives through Wenzel Slough Rd and Brady Loop. The highlight was a large flock of mixed geese, mostly Cackling, with Canada and Greater White-fronted in good numbers, with 7 Sandhill Cranes looking on from the background off Foster Rd.
Be the time we arrived at the Hoquiam STP the fog had mostly cleared, but we missed the previously reported Red-shouldered Hawk. A surprisingly few birds were on the ponds, and we wasted no time pushing on to the coast. We went to the Oyhut game range first and this was the best shorebirding of the weekend. We sorted through good numbers of Greater Yellowlegs to find at least 5 golden plovers. We has spectacular looks at both species, actually counting the 4 primary feathers projecting past the tertials in the American’s and the 3 on the Pacifics, noting that both edges of the tertials had golden spots on the Pacifics, whereas only one edge had the spots on the Americans. It was a great case study. We has good looks at Least, Western sandpipers, and Dunlin there too. Long-billed dowichers gave us good looks too.
At the jetty we found 3 “rock-pipers”, Black turnstone, Surfbird and Wandering tattler. We skipped stops at the open coast to pick up Sanderling, assured that it would show up somewhere for the trip. Not! At the Ocean Shores STP we added a Spotted sandpiper.
A good night’s sleep after the heartbreaking Husky loss to Stanford brought another sunny day Sunday.
(Photo by Diane) We started at the Westport Marina, and the hoped for 4th or 5th rockpiper species failed to oblige. Impressive numbers of Brown pelicans were noted. The Marbled godwits and Willets obliged at Tokeland and we saw our first Great Egret far away on the tide flats. Graveyard Spit and Midway Beach added little except a fast-passing Perigrine falcon at Midway. (water too deep to get to the beach) Bottle beach was a dud, with 6 Black-bellied plovers the only shorebirds noted despite perfect timing of the tides. Back at the Coast guard station at Westport we poured through about 1000 Marbled godwits but could not make any into other types. Nice looks at a Herring gull were fun there. We ended the coast birding at the Westhaven State Park area and the jetty there, where we added shorebird species #17 & 18 as a Whimbrel called loudly overhead before landing near the base of the bluff, and 4 Semi-palmated plovers were also heard nicely as they flew in with a flock of Least sandpipers. We dashed away leaving very strong winds and a rapidly approaching rain storm.
We drove through Brady Loop again on the way home, and found yet one more Pacific golden plover at a flooded field pond with 28 Killdeer. A nice way to end the weekend.
Here is the trip list for anyone interested:
Report Details
Date range: Oct 5, 2013 – Oct 11, 2013 Total # of Species: 99
Total # of Checklists: 19
Location(s): 46.9735x-123.8170 – Oct 5, 2013, 6:25 PM; Bottle Beach; Brady Loop; Hoquiam STP; Midway Beach; Ocean Shores — Bill’s Spit; Ocean Shores — Pt. Brown Jetty; Ocean Shores STP; Ocean Shores–Oyhut Wildlife Area; Tokeland; Tokeland — Graveyard Spit/Fisher Ave; US-WA-Ocean Shores- interpretive Center; Wenzel Slough Rd; Westhaven SP; Westport — Coast Guard Station/spit; Westport — Marina
Summary
Oct 5 Oct 6 Oct 7 Oct 8 Oct 9 Oct 10 Oct 11
Number of Species 85 57 — — — — —
Number of Individuals 4,510 7,890 — — — — —
Number of Checklists 11 8 — — — — —
Highest Count for a Species (sample size) Hide Sample Size
Species Name Oct 5 Oct 6 Oct 7 Oct 8 Oct 9 Oct 10 Oct 11
Greater White-fronted Goose 50
(2) — — — — — —
Snow Goose 2
(1) — — — — — —
Brant 9
(1) — — — — — —
Cackling Goose 600
(1) — — — — — —
Canada Goose 500
(5) — — — — — —
Cackling/Canada Goose 80
(1) — — — — — —
Eurasian Wigeon 1
(1) 1
(1) — — — — —
American Wigeon 400
(3) 3,000
(1) — — — — —
Mallard 170
(5) 1
(1) — — — — —
Northern Shoveler 30
(2) — — — — — —
Northern Pintail 20
(3) 800
(2) — — — — —
Green-winged Teal 30
(3) 8
(1) — — — — —
Greater Scaup 4
(1) — — — — — —
Lesser Scaup 8
(1) 2
(1) — — — — —
Surf Scoter 40
(2) 200
(4) — — — — —
White-winged Scoter 4
(1) — — — — — —
scoter sp. 20
(1) — — — — — —
Hooded Merganser 3
(2) — — — — — —
Red-breasted Merganser — 1
(1) — — — — —
Red-throated Loon — 4
(2) — — — — —
Common Loon 10
(2) 25
(4) — — — — —
Pied-billed Grebe 1
(1) — — — — — —
Horned Grebe 1
(1) 1
(2) — — — — —
Western Grebe 9
(1) 9
(2) — — — — —
Brandt’s Cormorant 1
(1) — — — — — —
Double-crested Cormorant 20
(6) 400
(6) — — — — —
Pelagic Cormorant 4
(2) 12
(3) — — — — —
Brown Pelican 20
(1) 450
(5) — — — — —
Great Blue Heron 2
(5) 18
(3) — — — — —
Great Egret — 1
(1) — — — — —
Turkey Vulture — 4
(2) — — — — —
Northern Harrier 1
(2) 1
(1) — — — — —
Red-tailed Hawk 2
(3) — — — — — —
Virginia Rail 1
(1) — — — — — —
Sandhill Crane 9
(1) — — — — — —
Black-bellied Plover 8
(1) 50
(3) — — — — —
American Golden-Plover 2
(1) — — — — — —
Pacific Golden-Plover 3
(1) 1
(1) — — — — —
Semipalmated Plover — 4
(1) — — — — —
Killdeer 10
(5) 28
(1) — — — — —
Spotted Sandpiper 1
(1) — — — — — —
Wandering Tattler 2
(1) — — — — — —
Greater Yellowlegs 25
(1) — — — — — —
Willet — 7
(1) — — — — —
Whimbrel — 1
(1) — — — — —
Marbled Godwit — 1,000
(2) — — — — —
Black Turnstone 25
(1) 4
(1) — — — — —
Surfbird 2
(1) — — — — — —
Dunlin 4
(1) — — — — — —
Least Sandpiper 40
(2) 13
(1) — — — — —
Pectoral Sandpiper 2
(1) — — — — — —
Western Sandpiper 200
(3) — — — — — —
peep sp. — 400
(2) — — — — —
Long-billed Dowitcher 9
(1) — — — — — —
Heermann’s Gull 1
(1) 40
(2) — — — — —
Mew Gull 1
(2) — — — — — —
Ring-billed Gull 20
(3) 30
(4) — — — — —
Western Gull 8
(4) 16
(5) — — — — —
Western/Glaucous-winged Gull 100
(4) — — — — — —
California Gull 24
(4) 6
(3) — — — — —
Herring Gull 4
(1) 1
(1) — — — — —
Thayer’s Gull 1
(1) — — — — — —
Glaucous-winged Gull 6
(2) 2
(2) — — — — —
Western x Glaucous-winged Gull (hybrid) 40
(3) 40
(4) — — — — —
gull sp. — 300
(4) — — — — —
Caspian Tern 6
(2) 1
(1) — — — — —
Rock Pigeon 2
(1) — — — — — —
Band-tailed Pigeon — 10
(1) — — — — —
Eurasian Collared-Dove 4
(1) — — — — — —
Mourning Dove 3
(2) — — — — — —
Belted Kingfisher 1
(1) 1
(1) — — — — —
Northern Flicker 2
(6) 1
(1) — — — — —
American Kestrel — 2
(1) — — — — —
Peregrine Falcon 1
(1) 1
(1) — — — — —
Steller’s Jay 4
(3) 16
(3) — — — — —
Western Scrub-Jay 4
(1) 1
(2) — — — — —
American Crow 12
(5) 10
(5) — — — — —
Common Raven 1
(2) 4
(3) — — — — —
Black-capped Chickadee 16
(2) — — — — — —
Marsh Wren 2
(1) 4
(1) — — — — —
Bewick’s Wren 1
(1) — — — — — —
Ruby-crowned Kinglet — 1
(1) — — — — —
American Robin 55
(5) 4
(1) — — — — —
European Starling 300
(6) 80
(4) — — — — —
Cedar Waxwing — 8
(1) — — — — —
Common Yellowthroat 1
(1) — — — — — —
Yellow-rumped Warbler 6
(2) 2
(2) — — — — —
Spotted Towhee 10
(3) — — — — — —
Savannah Sparrow 8
(4) — — — — — —
Song Sparrow 16
(5) 4
(2) — — — — —
White-crowned Sparrow 4
(1) 1
(1) — — — — —
Golden-crowned Sparrow 20
(2) — — — — — —
Dark-eyed Junco 4
(1) — — — — — —
Red-winged Blackbird 120
(2) — — — — — —
Brewer’s Blackbird 60
(2) 20
(1) — — — — —
Brown-headed Cowbird 2
(1) — — — — — —
House Finch 2
(1) — — — — — —
American Goldfinch 1
(1) — — — — — —
House Sparrow 2
(2) 1
(1) — — — — —