Fellow birding freaks, All this talk about shorebirds prompts me to pose a question about birding in Washington state. Thanks to Northwest and other airlines, this is a contiguous (enough) state. We will be doing the Westport pelagic trip and will then bird all around the Olympic Peninsula and Victoria Island, and then back to Seattle via Whidbey Island. It is sort of the reverse of the trip described in Cooper's A Birder's Guide to Planning North American Trips, Chapter 15 Besides the obvious pelagic birds and the Skylark, we are hoping for a Sooty Grouse. If anyone has birded this area recently, any tips would be appreciated, from where to bird to where to eat. In the past, I've noted that many Ohio birders enjoy sharing details of their birding trips out of state. It's a nice break between reports of what someone did or didn't see, or what birds are, or are not there, or when or when not to use a tape. Or, you can respond off list. On a note related to this trip, I recall that Ernie Lymes did this pelagic trip a few years back and reported that it cost him about $1000 for one life bird. I can't recall where this was reported. If you can, I would love to read it again. Hope to hear from a few of you. Joe in the woods Somerset, Perry County, Ohio ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]