Bruce LaBar led our area of the Gray’s Harbor Christmas Bird Count today, and everything worked out better than expected. The weather report called for rain all day, getting worse as the day progressed, along with high winds. The winds came, though maybe less strong than predicted, but we had only maybe 2 minutes of light rain.
We started the day at the Brown’s Point Jetty in Ocean Shores, after Bruce met me here in Tacoma at 5:45 AM, then Gene Revelas in Olympia and Laurel Parshall in 
At the jetty it was high tide and really crazy high seas. The expected rock-loving sandpipers put on a good show at the base of the jetty, with 5 Rock Sandpipers, 50 Black Turnstones, and 20 Surfbirds. Otherwise not a lot to see there. At the Game Range we added loons, gulls, ducks and sandpipers, including a single Long-billed Dowicher, and our best bird of the day IMHO a Black-legged Kittiwake sitting on the backwaters there.
Later we hiked to the end of Damon Point, where Short-eared Owl and a Wilson’s Snipe flushed, and a single Long-tailed Duck floated off the end of the spit.
Overall a much more pleasant day than expected due to good weather, and good birds. I like doing this CBC in part because it gets my WA state list off to a fast start. This brings me to 93 species for WA in 2020, and puts my Gray’s Harbor list ahead of my Pierce County (where I live but have not birded much since the new year).
Tomorrow the Vashon Island CBC with Ken Brown and others.
Good Birding.