A delayed post here about a really terrific day of birding at Tokeland, WA with really good birding buddies Ken Brown and Bruce LaBar. Often days of birding have their ups and downs. Maybe the birds are good, but the weather is lousy. Maybe you find some desired species and miss others. Maybe traffic is tough on the way to or from the destination. Then some days seem like not much could go better. Friday, Oct 27, 2023 was one of those really great days.

Ken met me at my house at 6:30, a really civilized time we thought, and we picked up Bruce and headed for Tokeland, WA where a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher had been found two days prior and seemed to be sticking around. The drive down was full of talk of Mariners baseball, the MLB playoffs and World Series, along with the usual catching up with each others lives. Immediately on arrival at the designated 8th and Kindred intersection we parked a block away and as we walked to the intersection saw a birder aiming his long lens at the wires over the intersection. I shouted to Ken and Bruce that THE BIRD was on the wire. We walked up in beautiful crisp cool air and morning light to see the WA lifer for Ken and myself Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in exactly the same place it had been for the last 2 days (off-and-on).

We all celebrated the great bird, spent some time watching it, and headed off to the marina to look for the other target birds of the day. It was near high tide, and the usual flock of Marbled Godwits were immediately under the bank on the shoerline of the marina, and we quickly located the one Bar-tailed Godwit among the maybe 1000 or so MAGOs. Over 30 Willits were in the flock, along with a few Short-billed Dowichers. A bit later as we walked out to the fishing pier to look for the female King Eider (a.k.a. “Queen Eider”) we got great looks at the county first for me Surfbird, far from surf, huddled at along with the godwits.

The eider was spotted far out off the jetty for identifiable but poor views, but later in the day we all got much better looks. We spent the rest of the day birding the marina, enjoying the sunshine, and generally feeling great.

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The drive home was easy, and we all got home for dinner safely. Overall an A+ day in my way of looking at life. Great friends, great birds, great weather. It all adds up to a memorable day.
May there be many more!