On April 20th, the COASST interns went on our quarterly field trip. This spring, we went to the south coast of Washington and surveyed South Leadbetter A and Oysterville Beach, both north of Long Beach, WA. The eight of us set out from the University of Washington at 7am sharp, reaching Long Beach at around 11 am.  Once there, we met up with a local COASST volunteer and split into two groups. One group went with Liz on South Leadbetter A, and the other with COASST Senior Intern Stephanie, on Oysterville Beach.

These field trips allow us to get hands-on experience surveying beaches and identifying beached birds. We found two birds to practice our ID skills on–a set of Red Phalarope wings and a Herring Gull, both on South Leadbetter A. The weather was surprisingly nice that day; the rain stayed away, and the sun even made an appearance. There were some people out flying kites and taking walks on the beach, and even a few horseback riders. A great time was had by all.

Shannon, Scott, and Elizabeth collaboratively bounce observations off each other as Liz challenges their ability to identify!

COASST interns gather after a successful identification.