On the Pacific coast of North America there are several stopover places for migratory shorebirds to rest, feed, gain weight and strength for the next step of their long migrations. In spring the rush is on for these shorebirds to arrive on their Arctic breeding grounds at just the right time, and so at these key staging locations there can be vast numbers of shorebirds. In Washington State Gray's Harbor is one of these places.
Bottle Beach is a special part fo Gray's Harbor that is one of the last areas of nutrient rich sand to be covered by an incoming tide, and so if you arrive at Bottle Beach 2-3 hours before the high tide you can watch the flock of shorebirds move closer and closer. If high tide happens late in the day, it can look like this on a nice spring day in late April or early May with a glorious sunset as a backdrop.
It can be a joy and a challenge to sort through the 30,000+ birds present to identify Western Sandpipers, Dunlin, Least Sandpipers, Short-billed Dowichers, Red Knot and Black-bellied Plovers to find the less common but possible Baird's Sandpiper or American or Pacific Golden Plover that may be hiding in the flock.
A sunset like this makes just being there pretty wonderful.
Good birding.
