Yesterday it was a sunny day so I went out birding for a good chunk of the day. I went down to the Park for a bit then later in the day I went to the Turnaround and stopped by the Lake on my way back home.
At the Park I walked down and waded across by the mouth of the river, but the water was a little deeper then I thought and I got a little bit of water in my boots.
I walked out onto the beach. There were quite a few gulls on the beach, but the sun was behind them so I couldn’t see them very well. There were a lot of shorebirds there though so I went and looked at them. On a little mud flat by the mouth of the river there were a lot of Black turnstones, and a few Surfbirds, some Rock sandpipers, Semipalmated plovers, Western and Least sandpipers along with a godwit. As I looked at the godwit I decided that it wasn’t a Marbled godwit so I took photos of it. As I took photos of it I decided that it was likely a Hudsonian godwit. I took some more photos of it and while I was doing that something spooked most of the shorebirds, but when I looked around to see what it was I didn’t see anything that looked like it would spook them. I took a few more photos of the godwit then I headed on down the beach. I looked through some of the gulls on the beach, but there were kids out playing on the beach and chased them off so I did not get a very good look at them. When I was out in front of the visitor center I saw quite a few Marbled murrelets by the shore along with three Red-necked grebes, the hatchery had released their salmon fry some time earlier in the week so I figured that that was why the murrelets and the grebes were there. I walked up into the forest and walked down the trail. As I walked downt eh trail I saw a deer coming down the trail so I stopped and watched it for a few moments before it moved off into the woods.
Later in the day I went and stopped at the Turnaround. I walked down on the beach and saw a Marbled godwit, some Semipalmated plovers, Least and Western sandpipers along with a Hudsonian godwit, Short billed dowitchers and some Dunlins. I took some photos of the Hudsonian godwit and later decided that it was likely the same one I saw at the park. Will I was watching the shorebirds I noticed a Western sandpiper with a yellow number band on it’s right leg and a red band on it’s left I took some photos of it.
After I was done at the Turnaround I was to the lake, but I did not see anything that seemed out of the ordinary for this time of year, but while I was there I did see someone pair a gliding. After I was done at the Lake I headed home. Banded Western sandpiper
Rock sandpiper
Marbled godwit
Hudsonian godwit