[Tweeters] shorebird movement, and a Fisher (Willapa Bay)

[Jeff Gilligan]

I returned to Willapa Bay yesterday after being away for about 5 months.  Friends had used the house off and on all winter, usually for the razor clam tides on the ocean beach.  They had been feeding birds off and on all winter, and started doing so again a few days ago before my arrival.  Douglas’ Squirrels come to the seed feeders.  There are also suet feeders.  A few minutes ago a Fisher dashed across the deck, about 15 feet from the living room floor to ceiling windows.  I had seen one last fall in Ledbetter State Park, which I had expected to be a once in a life time sighting.


As expected for the date, the bay and open beach now has very large numbers of migrant shorebirds.  Even at the bight n the bay at my house, the rising or falling tide has hundreds of Western Sandpipers, many Dunlin and Semipalmated Plovers, and dozens of Short-billed Dowitchers, and Black-bellied Plovers.  


Jeff Gilligan

on Willapa Bay