Ken Brown, Bruce LaBar, Bryan Hanson, Jacob Miller, Liam Hutchinson met at 6 AM on Saturday Jan 14 in Tacoma and headed east. We were headed for some county birding in SE WA, with a focus on Garfield, Columbia, Whitman and Asotin counties. In most years we do a winter trip to North Central WA, but in 2019 Ken, Bryan, myself and Ryan Weise came to SE WA instead and had a great trip, so we convinced Bruce to come this way this year, and Liam and Jacob, both young and very keen birders, were excited to join us. We split very comfortabluy into 2 cars, 3-to-a-car. Jacob and Liam rode with Ken, and Bruce and Bryan came in my car. We headed straigt to the Rye Grass reststop on I-90, then on east, leaving I-90 after crossing the Columbia at Vantage and heading onto Hwy-26. Liam and Jacob took on the eBirding, and we had a few lists on the way. Notable enroute birds were a flock of 60 Cackling Geese seen by all but me (driving and didn’t see) in Franklin County off Hwy 260, and several raptors from the car including Golden Eagles, Rough-legged and Red-tailed Hawks, Northern Harrier.
Our first real out-of-the-car birding was a brief stop at Washtucna, WA at the city park, for a 15 minute brief look around and leg-stretch. Lesseer Goldfinches and a 15-species list got us going. From there more driving before our first real stop at the Central Ferry HMU in Whitman County, just before crossing the Snake River. We had planned to go on Hwy 261 to Lyon’s Ferry and cross there into Garfield County, but a sink-hole had the road closed, and so we detoured north to Central Ferry, and Ken quickly adapted our schedule so we could do some of Day 2 birding on Day 1, and switch most of Day 1 to Day 2. More driving day 1, but a good on-the-ground adaptation.At Central Ferry HMU I added 8 new Whitman County birds, and everyone was happy to be out of the cars birding after a long drive. Most of the county birds were typical winter waterbirds like some ducks, Horned Grebe, but also White-crowned Sparrow and Downy Woodpecker.
From there we crossed into Garfield County, with additional stops for the day across the bridge at Central Ferry (Garfield County), Deadman Creek Road, Ilia Landing, beofre getting our hotel in Dayton at a barely passable place, Blue Mountain Motel, having dinner and then going owling at the Lewis & Clark Trail State Park. We had been there on our prior trip, and this time again got two calling Western Screech Owls, followed by two hooting Great Horned Owls to finish a strong Day 1. For me the day gave 5 new Garfield County birds, 11 new Whitman County birds, as well as 2 new Adams County birds, Golden Eagle while driving and Spotted Towhee at Washtucna.
On Day 2 we started with driving around Dayton and then walking some neighborhoods, adding 3 Columbia County first for me, Townsend’s Solitare, Mountain Chickadee and Bewick’s Wren. From here we drove some back roads adding 4 more species, Northern Shrike and Steller’s Jay on Petit Road and American Dipper and White-breasted Nuthatch at the Wooten WMA. After that we found some of the “best” birds of the day at the Little Goose Dam area. Two species rare for Columbia County were the 3rd county records of Red-breasted Merganser and Red-necked Greve, and we also added county firsts for 3 more common birds, Common Loon, Horned Grebe and Common Goldeneye. A quick stop in waning light at Texas Rapids added a pair of GHOWs as well as county first for me Gadwall. We closed the day with a spectacular flock of European Starlings and Red-winged Blackbirds, estimated at over 10,000 total birds, and at least a couple Brown-headed Cowbirds mixed in the massive flock, for the last county first of a good day.
For the last 2 nights we drove to Clarkston to stay at the Rivertree Inn, a nice and affordable hotel right on Hwy 12, Bridge Street. We had dinner at Rooster’s Landing, a nice place on the Snake River, with TVs showing the NFL football playoff games and with a good Humus Plate and fries for me (vegan) and good options for all. We had listened off and on to the Seahawks loss the day prior to the 49ers.
Day 3 was a day for Asotin County, and we had high hopes for birds both on the river and the higher plateaus. The difference between our prior trip and this time was the for this trip toere was no snow cover. On the prior trip all of the fields were snow covered, and we had nice flocks of HOLA with many GRPA, RNPH in the fields and around any cattle areas. On this trip we had almost none of these species. We saw a rare single Horned Lark, had no Gray Partridge, and only one flock of Chukar seen by the second car only huddled under a guard rail as a RTHA watched form a nearby perch. We did see good numbers of Golden Eagles, Routh-legged Hawks, RTHA including a nice dark Harlan’s, Northern Shrikes, and on the river a smattering of water birds. Really though overall not as birdy as hoped. We finished the day at the Asotin City Cemetery hoping for a Long-eared Owl seen there yesterday, but not to be. We settled for a pair of Great Horned Owls, hooting and one flew in to a tree nearby.
We had dinner again at the Rooster’s Landing and watched Dallas cruch Tampa Bay and Tom Brady. It was a wierd game, with the Dallas kicker, Brett Maher missing 4 consecutive PAT kicks. as the Cowboys won 31-14.
Category: Ed’s Birding Notes
This is where I post my personal birding notes.
North Central WA Winter Trip 2022
Last weekend Ken Brown, Bruce LaBar and I headed east for our annual winter trip to the Waterville Plateau and Okanogan areas in search for the wiinter specialty birds of the area. This year Jacob Miller joined us. Over the years this has been a trip Ken took his birding class on every winter, and then after he retired from teaching the TAS class our ABC Birding group took. For the last 2 years it has been a smaller group due to Covid concerns. Last year it was just the three of us plus Will Brooks. This year Jacob joined us. Jacob is a keen 16 year-old birder from Mason County who has been getting out with Ken from time to time, and this trip held the possibility of 5 ABA lifers for him.
We met at my house in Tacoma at 6 AM, and headed over the mountain. The passes were back open after the big snowfalls recently, and we cleared Snoqualmie and Bluett Passes uneventfully before our first stop at the Wenachee Confluence Park for a toilet stop and a quick look at the Columbia River. There was a lot of snow and we made it a very brief stop before heading north along the river and up onto the Waterville Plateau through McNeil Canyon. Jacob took on the eBirding task, and by then had already completed 8 checklists mostly travelling. I think Black-billed Magpie was the first of many FOY species for all of us.
Once on the plateau we encountered patchy fog that seemed to come and go as we travelled. Our first stop was on D road where Ring-necked Pheaasnt and American Tree Sparrow were our top birds.
As we travelled the plateau Horned Larks were common but not present in the vast numbers we see some years. The Lamoine windbreak had heavy snow so we passed on trying to walk in for one of Jacob’s possible lifers, Long-eared Owl. More on that later. We finally found our first Rough-legged Hawk on F road along with 6 Snow Buntings in a flock of Horned Larks. We had a Golden Eagle there too, one of I think 10 we saw on the trip, a significant percentage of the total WA population.
We added well hidden Gray Partridge at Withrow, but the real excitement of the day was when I carelessly made a U-turn in the fog on H road as we gave up on finding a Snowy Owl there in the fog and drove onto a soft shoulder and then into a snowy field getting hopelessly stuck.
AAA was pretty worthless, and by the time I had waited 45 minutes on hold, Ken had called the grocery store in town, the clerk had walked next door to the cafe, and Ron, a man of few words drove out to tow us out of the field with his “big white pickup” F-250. He had to first go to his farm to get a chain, and declined payment with his longest sentence of the meeting, something to the effect. No, this is God’s Country and our here we help people.” Thank God for Ron.
This cut our afternoon an hour or so shorter, so we headed down to Bridgeport, with no luck on the prior Sharp-tailed Grouse trees on the hill which have largely burned.
At Bridgeport State Park Jacob immediately spotted the Northern Saw-whet Owl in the usual tree, as Great Horned Owls hooted and an unexpected flock of Western Bluebirds flew overhead calling. If you check the linked checklists you’ll see a trend, I like the other old guys have deleted some species Jacob listed, most of these were “heard only” by his sharp ears.
From here on to Omak where Bruce and I shared a room at the Omak Inn and Jacob and Ken got singles at the Riverside Inn.
Friday Jan 14th we headed towards the Okanogan Highlands out of Tonasket. The usual first stop at Fancher Road made us think we might miss Chukar on the drive in and we saw our first one well past the farm where a large herd of cattle were gathered, before seeing over 200 once we stopped to look around. In addition 3 Gray Partridge were there, but fog made distant viewing tough, and no Golden Eagle or falcons were found.
Next across the main road on Siwash Creek Road we finally found 4 Sharp-tailed Grouse in literally the last of a long stretch of river birch trees. This was another lifer for Jacob, and a bird we all missed in 2021.
Red Crossbills were found here as well as many stops on the trip, along with Clark’s Nutcracker, Mouintain Chickadee, and Pygmy Nuthatch, but no White-breasted Nuthatch was to be found, and was a miss for the trip.
Next at the Snow Park we added our first of only 2 Northern Pygmy Owls of the trip when Bruce spotted one in a distant tree line. One lonely Snow Bunting was seen on Havillah Road. In Hungry Hollow we stopped when Jacob spotted a bird. The other three of us quickly spotted a flock of Bohemian Waxwings and assumed that was Jacob’s finding. They were in plain sight.
No, Jacob was on our only Pine Grosbeak of the trip, nearly invisible in an evergreen tree, so we got a great two bird stop. I got no decent photos of the grosbeak, but check out the photos by Jacob on the eBird link to see how well hidden it was.
My favorite sighting of the day was on MaryAnn Creek Rd
where a big flock, estimated at 120 birds, of Gray-crowned Rosy Finches was feeding in a snowy field, giving great prolonged looks. This is a bird we often see on this trip, but rarely this well, in these numbers, or in such a natural beautiful location.
On Davies Road we added White-winged Crossbill when both Jacob and I heard them flying overhead and we saw them land.
We managed a small flock of Snow Buntings on Chesaw Road and finished up our day with yet one more try for the elusive Great Gray Owls near the Snow Park, with no luck.
Saturday we headed first for Concunully. Our hopes for this day were Goshawk in Concunully, and maybe Gyrfalcon somewhere. Thanks to Jacob’s sharp eyes he spotted a flying Goshawk, and we all got on the bird after it perched on a hillside out of town. Of course turkeys were everywhere and we managed to skip out of town ahead of the real Concunnully attraction, the Outhouse Races. On the way out of town we encountered maybe the most amazing stop of the trip, on Hess Lake Road. It is really just a small road to an obscure wildlife area, but it appears to be a Golden Eagle buffet stop. We had many Gray Partridge, Chukar and 5 Golden Eagles including this one taking a Gray Partridge.
Jacob heard, I managed to hear, and after a trudge through the snow to get closer we all managed to see a wintering Canyon Wren.
We headed back towards our “rest of the day” destination, Cameron Lake Road hoping mostly for Gyrfalcon and maybe White-headed Woodpecker. None of these birds obliged, but a flock of Snow Buntings estimated at 1200 birds was a pretty cool consolation prize.
We got off the plateau early so decided to do a river watch in Brewster and there Bruce spotted this bird.
Sunday we dedicated the time before driving home to finding Jacob his lifer Snowy Owl. I managed to stay on the roads of the Waterville Plateau, the fog was less problematic, and after driving a while, passing the scene of my off-road adventure of Thursday, on the drive back on H road, between 14 and 15th Jacob and Bruce simultaneouly spotted this owl.
After we told Jacob we almost never see these owls in flight, it decided to show us it can fly.
No luck on a Gyr, and after a high-stepping foray the whole length of the Lamoine Windbreak in deep snow, we headed for home. For the trip:
83 Species (for me, a few more on Jacob’s list of things like Brown Creeper, Golden-crowned Kinglet, etc. This is the highlights)
Here is a link to the eBird Trip Report, a cool new eBird feature.
Lifer Dickcissel in Washington
A few days passed in the week before Christmas and I didn’t chase the Dickcissel found on the Sequim CBC by the Waggoner brothers. Finally, on the morning of Christmas Eve I decided to go for it. The weather held, and I got to the location in Sequim by about 8:15 AM on a cold clear almost sunny day. When I got there there was one other vehicle, and before long I saw a birder near the back of the big field where the bird had been being seen. I wandered back and he felt that the owners had in days past been tolerent of birders walking in the field, so we explored. He told me that he had been hearing the Dickcissel, and sure enough almost immediately the bird started giving its rattly call, exactly like the “flight call” on the Sibley app.
After a while other birders started to arrive, and before they came Peter and I had followed the rattle call from the south end to the north end of the brushline at the back of the field. After a while the bird showed, initially in a bare tree about half way from the road to the back of the field, then it flew to the mustard field, and finally perched in a tree at at the back of the field for good looks and these photos. A really successful chase.
For me WA species #404.
Medellin, Colombia Early Oct 2021
I arrived in Medellin, Colombia on Oct 2, 2021 from Los Angeles via Ft. Lauderdale, FL on Jet Blue on a red-eye that left the night prior.
Brett met me at the airport, and surprisingly I didn’t feel badly at all. We relaxed that day, and on Tuesday Brett, Valeria and I visited the Museo Casa de la Memoria, and enjoyed the city. The museum was intense, difficult as all of the plaques were Spanish only and it would have taken me hours to get through just a few of them, but it was very good.
Monday, Oct 4th was day 1 of guided birding in Colombia with Ivan Lau, a guide recommended by Diego Calderon, a prior guest on the podcast. Ivan was terrific, and handled taking me along with my son Brett and his girlfriend Valeria on a very nice, long and strenuous day of birding near Medellin.
We met near my hotel in Medellin, and struck off for La Romera, a preserve just south of the city. We were birding there shortly after 7:30 AM after a a couple of stops along the way where we saw a nice variety of birds, including Colombian Chachalaca, Yellow-faced Grassquit, a fly by Bald-faced Ibis, Cattle Egret, House Wren, Blackburnian Warbler and others.
Once at the preserve, which is a place you can park outside and access on foot, we got into lots of birds from the get-go. I’ll not try to walk through bird by bird, but give an idea of the place. It is a well maintained mostly paved trail, which is long and at times fairly steep. The primary reason many birders go there is for two endemics that can be accessed there nearby a major city. We managed excellent looks at both of these. The easy one is Red-bellied Grackle, which was noisy, not shy, and seen multiple times.
The hard one was picked out quickly by Ivan, Yellow-headed Manakin. It is tough because unlike many manakins, it tends to be silent, and often sits still. He picked it off a branch well off the road, and got not just our group, but another guide and his client on the bird for great looks and for me a documentation photo.
The rest of the walk was overall birdy. Highlights were cool hummingbirds (no feeders there so tough to find and see) like the very elegant Western Emerald, Tourmaline Sunangel (cool name or what), Collared Inca (my favorite) and Long-tailed Sylph, which would have been my favorite if not distant and in poor light. Lots of colorful and novel species to a North American birder like me, including Tanagers (bay-headed, golden, scrub, flame-rumped, blue-and-black, and the common palm and blue-gray), Flowerpiercers (Rusty, masked, bluish, and white-sided), several tiny Spectacled Parrotlets, Turdus thrushed Black-billed and Great Thrush, White-naped and Chestnut-capped Brushfinches, Russet-crowned and Slate-throated Warblers (the STWA here is yellow not red with black), tons of always cool Blackburnian Warblers and Swainson’s Thrushes, and Black-winged Saltator.
After lunch, we went to a higher elevation area called San Sebastian de la Castellana where a much rougher trail took us from about 1900 meters to over 3000 meters above sea level, and pretty much exhausted me though it was a beautiful hike. We came into two nice mixed flocks along with several bamboo specialists and higher elevation birds. Maybe the coolest was Southern Emerald Toucanette seen near the top of the hike, along with nice hummingbirds, a Black-browed Peppershrike, and lots more.
I have two more days with Ivan planned on Wednesday and Thursday so am excited about that. I think today was 70+ species with 35 +/- lifers. I’ll count later.
I took a day off on Tuesday, and spent the day with Valleria and Brett in Medellin. We visited a really cool area called Comuna 13, an area that until recently was notorious for being the epicenter of the Colombian drug trade, extremely dangerous and now is a prime tourist attraction, with music, street performers, vendors, restaurants etc. It is a cool story well outlined here.
Wednesday Brett and I headed for the mid-Magdalena Valley area with Iván and a drive Harley, who is also a birder. The day prior with three of us we took a larger van, but today was a standard taxi, which worked out just fine. It was about 1 ¾ hour drive to get to the final destination, with a couple of roadside stops and a quick breakfast along the way. The breakfast stop was at a roadside restaurant near the final destination, which has stunning valley views. When we arrived it was clear at the stop, with clouds in the valley below, just stunning, and there were a few birds in the treetops just outside the restaurant. By the time we left, we could barely see the trees for the dense fog that had rolled up the valley.
The day of birding was on a public dirt road from the highway down to the river below, maybe 2-3 miles long, and active birding the whole time. A couple of endemics were the primary attraction for listers, Beautiful Woodpecker (lives up to its name) and White-mantled Barbet, but the birds were just flat out great the whole morning. We spent about 4 hours altogether, with lots of great birds including new families for me including my first Jacamar (Rufous-tailed) and lots more. Out eBird list, which Iván was very helpful to keep had 70 species for Iván and 68 that I kept on mine. Unfortunately I messed up my photo download due to terrible internet at my hotel, and lost most of the photos for the day.
After lunch at another place with birds and a view, we made a brief stop at a small wetland area near the airport adding several birds to my Columbia list like Blue-winged Teal, Common and Purple Gallinule, and Cattle Tyrant to my life list.
Thursday was a shorter day. Just Iván, Harley and me, and we went to the San Pedro de los Milagros area with the primary goal to bird a family dairy farm there and find one of the newest species in the world, Antioquia Brush Finch.
This bird has a cool story. It was initially listed in a species in 1969 after a museum specimen was found that was a new species. Extensive looking for the bird in the San Pedro area did not yield any live birds, and it was suspected to be extinct. This area is heavily used, mostly for dairy farming and potatoes. The potatoes there are heavily treated with pesticides, and not a lot of habitat is left. A local birder and environmentalist, Rodolfo Cporrea Peña whose uncles run the areas largest dairy farm, had known people looking for the Brush Finch, knew what it looked like, and after church one Sunday noted a brush finch on outside church. He took a cell phone photo, sent it to the researchers, and it was felt to be an Antioquia Brush Finch. More searching on his farm led to several individuals, and now there are felt to be about 20 birds on his families farm, and maybe 150-200 total known individuals. Rodolfo Carrea Peña has formed an organization to help try to preserve the species, and is working with local landholders to try to improve habitat. Here is the article by Rodolfo and others about the bird. They seem to like brushy edges of fields, and his family farm has not cleared, and has protected the steep ravines and other difficult to farm areas, leaving quite a lot of good habitat. Overall a cool story, and we managed to get great looks at 4 individuals, some at pretty close range.
The birding there was not as exciting as the day prior, but for a heavily used agricultural area we did see some pretty cool birds including Golden-fronted Redstart (or as Iván prefers Whitestart), a metaltail, finally good looks at Lesser Violetear which we had been hearing and barely seeing for all three days, and soaring Broad-winged and White-tailed Hawks (one each).
I got back to town in time for lunch, to find a place for a Covid test (negative) so I could fly home Saturday, and to spend the rest of the visit relaxing and visiting with Brett and Valeria.
A total of 159 species in 3 days of birding, about 86 of these lifers. I visited and birded a new continent for me, South America, and saw a really cool city, Medellin. We also visited the cultural museum in Medellin on Friday morning. Tuesday we visited a really cool area called Common 13. This was infamous in the late 1980-2010 time frame as one of the most dangerous crime and drug riddled areas of the world. It is on an extremely steep hillside, and had very poor road access, leaving residents with few work options, and making it nearly impossible to police. An infamous police attack in the early 2000’s led to a number of deaths (drug gangsters? Innocent residents? It is unclear) but did not lead to much real change. The turning point seems to have been building a cable car line to the area in about 2012. This gave residents the ability to get to work, get in and out of the area reasonably, and in addition good sidewalks and a large escalator system was built onto the hillside. It has since turned into a major attraction, with famous graffiti artists/murals on every concrete roadside wall, many street vendors and performers, and it seem much safer and is bursting with energy now.
I loved the cable car system. On Friday visited the Parque Arvi, at the end of another cable car line to the large park there. A bit of a hike gave us time in the forest and a few birds, but mostly a spectacular vista on the way up and down.
From what I saw Medellin is a fine place to visit, with good hotels, pretty inexpensive food and lodging, and excellent birding nearby. I can’t wait to explore more of South America on future visits.
Birthday Birding 2021
I had a great 2-day 67th birthday birding experience. On my birthday I had planned to head to the coast about 12:45 PM when Paul Baerny was meeting me at my house, and we were to head toward Westport with a stop to pick up Ken Brown at McCleary. About 11 AM the GroupMe Pierce County Mafia group started going wild. It began with Will Brooks telling us he had a Long-tailed Jaeger at Dune Peninsula, only 2 miles from home. I waffled about going, as I’d seen this species just a few days ago also with Will at Dunes, but decided to make a quick dash down for the bird.
On arrival there Bruce, Marcus, and Heather were already there, and in addition to the STJA had Common Terns. After some looking I managed to see the 3 COTE standing on a long in the distance. Then Heather spotted a dark shearwater making its way towards us coming down the passage between Dash Point and Vashon. We all got on it and followed it for a long time as it flew towards us and finally all the way across in front of Vashon and off towards the narrows. It was dark, minimal if any white/silver wing linings, seemed to have a small bill and Will and Charlie (up above on the gravel parking lot) confidently called it a STSH. County lifer for all! I had to leave for the coast trip, but two more STSH made a similar flight in the next couple of hours.
I got home, had lunch, and then Paul and I headed west, picked up Ken, and went first to Westport. A few godwits were at their roost on the jetty by the marina entrance, but not the desired Bar-tailed Godwit, just maybe 110 Marbled Godwits. We went over the marina dock area, managed two Wandering Tattlers on the groin rocks (FOY for Ken) and then walked out the docks to the bridge area where most of the godwits were roosting on the sandy beach right below us. This was maybe the closest look I’ve had at a BTGO, one worn adult with the large flock of MAGOs, as well as one Whimbrel and one Willet.
After a not-so-great vegetarian fajita dinner (frozen veges) we headed to Bottle Beach for high tide. Lots of Black-bellied and Semipalmated Plovers, peeps and not much more really there. A nice sunset though.
We met at the boat at 6 AM Sept 3, and headed to sea in a pretty dense fog that lasted until about noon, making seeing much difficult. A FOY Pomarine Jaeger was maybe the best bird of the morning trip out. We did manage a shrimp boat with a nice flock of birds headed out, but photo ops were limited by fog. We kept going out to the continental shelf, and set up the least productive slick I’ve ever witnessed. For a half hour birds just didn’t come to the fish oil and beef suet slick at all. A Long-tailed Jaeger did fly past, for the only one of the trip, but really slow.
On the ride back in we found the same shrimper, after the sun came out and the fog lifted. It was really great, with tons of birds. See the photo at the top of this post for an idea of the numbers. Here are some photos of some of them.
We continued to port, seeing lots of Common Murre, several Cassin’s Aucklets and lots more Short-tailed and Sooty Shearwaters on the way. It was a remarkable trip for many reasons. The biggest was that Brian Pendleton was onboard. Brian arranged this trip to allow him to get to sea this year. Brian is a very talented birder, but has been living with a form of ALS for years. At this time he is restricted to a wheelchair, and is unable to hold optics at all. In spite of this he managed to get on every species we saw bare-eyed, and inspired everyone aboard with his tenacity, talent and spirit.
Short-tailed shearwaters were also remarkable in their huge numbers. Once into deeper water they far outnumbered Sooty Shearwaters, and gave us great opportunities to compare these two very similar species.
Overall a great birding start to my 68th trip around the sun.
Mason County Big Day May 4, 2021
Ken Brown, Jacob Miller and I undertook a Mason County Big Day on Tuesday May 4th. This is something that to the best of our knowledge has not really been attempted, though on WABirder there are big day reports for Oct (66), Nov (57), and Dec (57) reported, those are months where realistically a big-day record could not hold up against a peak spring migration attempt.
Ken and Jacob did all the planning, and I was along for fun and good birding. Ken and I decided camp out at Jacob’s family’s Skokomish Valley Farms where we planned to begin the day. We were delighted to discover on arrival that we could sleep under cover in the home that they are building, and that Jacob had several nice comfortable sleeping pads we could add to our camping gear, so after arriving about 8:30 PM we quickly crashed on the floor there. I was especially ready for sleep after my Pierce County Big Day the day (Sunday) prior and working Monday. So Monday night passed quickly, and at 4:30 AM Ken’s alarm went off and we were birding by 4:50 AM.
The hoped for Barn Owl did not cooperate. Barn Owl was our only stake-out owl, so without this we faced a possible big day without any owls. Still the Skokomish Valley Farm and surrounding properties came through big-time with birds. Jacob led the way, as it is his near-daily birding turf, and despite fog and drizzle we had a list of 57 species before we left the farm at about 8:25 AM after 3 ½ hours and per eBird 4.89 miles of mostly walking. Highlights were a drumming Ruffed Grouse, a Sooty Grouse both calling and seen perched high in a distant snag. Western Bluebirds, Evening Grosbeaks at Jacob’s feeders, many singing House Wrens and MacGilvary’s Warblers, Chipping Sparrows, and most of the early-arriving migrants were found.
Leaving the farm I spotted a Varied Thrush flush from the roadside, and when we stopped for the other guys to find it we added our first Pacific Wren. Near the river Vaux Swifts zoomed overhead, and many Common Mergansers swam and flew around. Our first Warbling Vireo was singing, but the hoped for Cassin’s Vireo was not located.
With 60+ land birds listed, we headed for salt water. Our first stop was at Potlatch State Park, where despite being pretty dispersed and mostly distant scope views we managed 11 Common and one Red-throated Loon, Red-necked Grebe, Pigeon Guillemot, Common Goldeneye, Surf Scoter, and a fly-by Whimbrel.
At the Hwy 106 overlook. One of the low-points of the day was a grumpy worker/resident across the street who shooed us off the parking pullout (private property) so much of the viewing was from the side of the road. Still we managed another Whimbrel and a few ducks and gulls.
At Union we added a Red-breasted Merganser, three Purple Martins that we heard for a long time, scanning the sky before realizing that they were nesting in a utility pole and calling from a perch there, our only Western Grebe of the day, and across the road a perched distant FOY for most of us Western Tanager.
Twanoh State Park yielded Red Crossbill, and we managed a small group of 3 each Common and Barrows Goldeneye át a stop when they were spotted from the car. On the way back we stopped just shy of the usual Hwy 106 pullout to avoid the grumpy guy, and a receding tide yielded more shorebirds, adding Western and Least Sandpipers, along with N Pintail, Gadwall, American Wigeon, and a nice flock of Ring-billed Gulls. Another stop off Hwy 106 gave us Green-winged Teal.
Hunter Farms was our last big-haul of birds for the day stop. It came through nicely. The best bird of the day in our collective opinion was spotted by Jacob on a fenceline. A Western Kingbird was a county lifer for Ken (and of course for me too), and FOY for all of us. Jacob had spotted American Pipits in a plowed field from the initial scan, and we all located about 3 sneaking around the plowed furrows after some looking. Of course, after we saw them and relaxed a flock estimated for the eBird list at 25 bird took flight calling. Ken promised Wilson’s Snipe in a certain area of moist field on our way out, and sure enough two flushed about 10 steps into the field. A Lincoln’s Sparrow atop a bramble was our only one of the day.
The biggest miss of the day, possibly excluding the Barn Owl, was the hoped for shorebirds at the Kennedy Creek Estuary along Hwy 101. It was one of the most out-of-the-way stops, and we hoped for at least Greater Yellowlegs and hopefully Black-bellied Plover. On arrival the tides seemed good, but a single Killdeer was the only shorebird in sight. Nearby we did add House Sparrow and California Scrub Jay in Shelton though.
A stop in Shelton at Goose Lake gave us one of the highlights of the trip. As we looked around for ducks, adding Lesser Scaup and Ring-necked Duck to our list, Jacob heard a Bushtit. It was a species we needed, but he was hearing it across the lake, maybe 150 yards away. I hear pretty well for an old guy, but had no chance of hearing this bird. Ken looked for a minute and walked towards the car giving up, but I studied the far side of the lake bushed in the scope, and amazingly a single Bushtit was flitting around. I yelled to Ken, he jogged back, and got on the bird also. Jacob never could see the bird, so for him a heard only species, though he was the talent that found it. Woodpeckers were in abundance there too, with Red-breasted Sapsucker, Hairy and Downy all present.
We tried for Vesper Sparrow and Horned Lark at the Shelton Airport, without luck, and headed for Still Waters Farm. Mark and Beth Biser, acquaintances of Ken and friends of Jacob, have developed a large wetlands property into a fabulous nature area, with wooded wetlands, surrounding vegetation, and incredible numbers of Wood Ducks using nest boxes that they maintain. We listed 33 Wood Ducks, but they get even bigger numbers. We also took a break there, sitting on their back porch and marveling at the place for a few minutes before adding Pileated Woodpecker on the walk out.
Mark suggested that we try for Mountain Quail on E. Eagle Point Drive nearby, and we didn’t find any, but did find a singing Cassin’s Vireo while looking around.
We headed back to Jacob’s place via E Eell’s Hill Road from Shelton, and took our time hoping for raptors, Pygmy Owl or anything new. We did come into nice numbers of calling warblers, including Black-throated Gray and Townsend’s (our only ones of the day) before we headed back. Our plan was to wait for dark and hope to add the Barn Owl, but Ken and especially I were spent. We called it a day about 8:30, too early to hope for the owl over the fields and headed for home.
Our list for the day was 118 species, 116 IDed by all. Ken missed a couple of distant or faint heard-only birds, Jacob came through with his talented young ears and eyes, and we all had a great day. I added two Mason County firsts, the kingbird and American Pipit. My WA year list got up to 250, adding 10 FOY birds, mostly recently arriving neotropic migrants.
We travelled 99 miles by car, about 8.5 miles on foot, spent about 16 hours birding. The bar has been set for a Mason County Big Day, and a really enjoyable day for all three of us. Another year: timing seems just about right, we managed really all of the expected returning and remaining passerines. Misses were shorebirds, accipitors, and owls. We might be able to have a stakeout GHOW or BARO, and should be able to get the Barn Owl at Jacob’s place with some luck and maybe starting a few minutes earlier. Scouting the day prior for shorebirds might help. A nesting Cooper’s Hawk would be great.
Always good to have a wish list.
Birding the Area Near the Talari Mountain Lodge
Marian and I took a 3-day 2-night trip to an area just uphill from San Isidro over the last 3 days. It was nice to get off on our own for a few days, really nice to get out birding with a great local guide, Andres Chinchilla, and finding lots of new birds was really fun.
On Thursday we drove to an Quebradas, an area described in our Finding Birds in Costa Rica book as good birding with steep trails. The steep trails part was highly descriptive, and we barely scratched the surface of the area. I struggled to ID and find birds, but we did ID one legitimate Costa Rica bird, Slaty Antwren. Our list was only 7 species, but honestly we spent most of the time looking down at the very steep, at times slippery and difficult trails. Scenery with a rushing river, dense jungle, and lots of fauna was really nice.
After our trek there we found a great little bakery for lunch, where we sat, cooled down and had a nice relaxing lunch before going to the Talari Mountain Lodge.
The lodge is quite a place. I agree with the guidebook describing it as a great place for beginning tropical birders. The grounds are heavily planted with fruiting plants, the feeders well stocked, the deck a great place to bird from, and overall an easy place to get good looks at relatively common birds. Lots of photographers like the place, but our first day we were the only guests, Friday several more joined us including a couple from the SE U.S. who are annual visitors to the American tropics.
Friday Andres met us about 7:30, and we birded Talari for 55 minutes, listing 41 species including Smoky-brown Woodpecker, White-winged Becard, and Stripe-tailed Hummingbird. From there we went to a fabulous feeder setup just above the entrance to Parque Nacional Chirripo.
The owner Rolando has a great hummingbird feeder setup along with a fruit feeder, nice plantings, and a short trail down into a canyon. It was a great place for really good looks at the birds we saw, 36 species in total, but 11 lifers, essentiall all with very good looks, many with photos. IMO the best birds were Red-headed Barbet, Red-faced Spinetail, insanely colorful Violet Saberwings, Garden Emerald, Speckled, Golden-hooded and Silver-throaed Tanagers, and Scarlet-thighed Dacnis. It’s a place that could serve cervasa, and charge by the hour. Instead it is 2000 colones to park (about $3.20 USD) and a treat to the senses.
Today we got mixed up directions from Carlos, the owner/operator of the lodge. He arranged for us to use Andres again today to visit Cusingos, but didn’t tell Andres until this AM (he works an evening shift at a Kombuchca factory in Covid times) and didn’t tell us to meet him at Cusingos not at the lodge. This led to not getting to Cusingos until about 7:55 and missing the best 2 hours of the day for birding. Still a great day and really cool place. The famous and late-great Dr. Alexander Skutch bouth ther property there in 1941 (Andres says 75 hectacres for $10. USD) and rehabilited what was a cow pasture into what is now a second growth rain-forest. It is price as CR places go with a $20./ person USD entry fee, but has a nice gift shop, good easy trails, and great birds. In 3 1/4 hours there we saw 56 species including lots of lifers, with more great looks at great birds.
Highlights for me were a much better looks at Scaled Pigeon than we had at Talari early this AM, soaring Double-toothed, Short-tailed and Broad-winged Hawks, Russet Antshrike, Bicolored Antbird, three species of manakins, Rufous Spadebill, Rufous Piha, Golden-crowned Spadebill, Ochre-bellied Flycatcher, Golden-winged Warbler, Gray-headed and Bay-headed Tanagers, and maybe coolest of all an army-ant swarm. These ants are just tenacions, with a column maybe 100 ants wide steadily marching along just climbing over and past anything in their way.
We managed great looks without any bites, which Andres describes as “very strong.” An experience I did not regret avoiding.
We finished with a road overlooking a big farm, with nice looks at a Mourning Warbler, and more looks at previously seen species. We finished around noon, made a couple of errand stops in San Isidro coming home, and cooled off in the pool here.
A nice trip. I finished the trip with a CR list now of 308, 295 so far on this trip, 138 lifers, and so far feeling like I’m getting better if not at all good at birding here.
Rest tomorrow, to San Isidro Monday for Covid testing to allow us to fly home Thursday, a mangrove swamp boat ride Tuesday, then off to San Jose Wednesday for a flight to Florida Thursday. The trip is winding down and I feel like it has been a huge success in all regards.
Good birding.
Ed
2-Day Trip to Parque Nacional Carara with Carlos Urena
A short dirt road toward the coast after that yielded excellent birding, including the targeted Pale-breasted Spinetail, and also great morning looks at 32 species total. Best IMO were Gray-crowned Yellowthroat, 4 White-throated Crakes, a Yellow-throated Elaenia, and Blue-black Grassquits with lots more Morelet’s Seedeaters.
Next stop was one of the trip highlights. We went to the Finca Martatima Rice Fields at Playa del Rey. The fields were mostly dry, but wet areas remained and the birding was really great.
One of my hoped for trip birds, Southern Lapwing, were in a small flock very near the road.
A very cooperative Mangrove Cuckoo posed for photos.
Isthmian Wrens, Scrub Greenlet, Tropical Pewee, , Northern Jacana, Purple Galinule, Gray-cowled Wood-rail, Green-breasted Mango, Groove-billed Ani and Wood Stork were among the list of 60 species there.
We made a trip to Boca del Rio Parrita where our only gull of the visit so far was a fly-over Lauging Gull, and a Bare-throated Tiger-Heron (wow!) posed.
A few shorebirds padded my Costa Rica list, including Semi-palmated Plover, Willet, Whimbrel and Least Sandpiper, nice to see some birds I could ID.
Next was birding the road into Playa del Guacalillo. Carlos got us onto a good number of birds there, the most challenging of these was the Common Ground Cuckoo. This bird called and called, and we finally bushwhacked out to find it huddled under some branches, likely a juvenile.
Other nice finds there were:
We finished the day trying for owls after dark, really without success until I cried uncle about 7 PM and we headed for the room for the night and dinner at Villa Lapas.
The next morning we were up to bird the grounds form 6-7 before breakfast. Three species of trogons, Slaty-tailed, Black-headed and Gartered, all male and female pairs called and gave us good looks, and White-winged Becard, Piratic Flycatcher, White-necked Jacobin and Scaly-breasted Hummingbird were all lifers for me.
After breakfast we headed for Parque Nacional Carara, and spent the morning birding trails there. The birding was good, as this is the area where the dry tropical forest of the north of Costa Rica west slope meets the wet tropical forest of the areas south of the park. Birds of both areas are possible here, and we saw lots. Highlights of a 45 species list included a Great Tinamou walking silently under the trees, Baird’s Trogon,
great looks at White-whiskered Puffbirds,
male and female Black-hooded Antshrikes, Black-faced Antthrush, Cocoa Woodcreeper, Plain Xenops, Lesser Greenlet, Orange-billed Sparrow,
White-shouldered Tanager and Bay-headed Tanager.
Before heading to a mangrove area Carlos was flagged down by a local fellow who offered to show us Black-and-white Owls roosting. We followed him to an open woodlot where a short walk from the road yielded a roosting pair.
We made a fairly brief stop at a mangrove swampy area adding “Mangrove” Yellow Warbler, Tropical Gnatcatcher, American Pygmy Kingfisher, Barred Antshrike, and Northern Scrub-flycatcher.
We finished strong, driving back to a stakeout Common Potoo near Quepos. I expected a small bird looking like the end of a branch. Instead we saw a quite large bird looking like the top of a fence post. Carlos thinks it is on a nest there. It was amazing.
Overall a great 2-day trip. It is great to bird the tropics with the help of a good guide. I’m struggling to find many species I can ID otherwise, tall trees, fleeting looks, mostly new species to me, and getting to the best parts of the best areas is a challenge by myself.
Counts at the end of the trip: Costa Rica Life list: 247, CR list for this trip total: 228, and exactly 100 world lifers for the Costa Rica trip so far.
A day to recover and visit family is up for tomorrow.
Good birding.
Ed
A Day in a Cloud Forest
Marian and I spent our first day ever in a cloud forsts yesterday, using a guide Carlos Urena, located in San Isidro. We met him at 6 AM and headed straight for the highest road you can reach by SUV in Costa Rica, about 11,000 feet! On the ride up to elevation we started weeing many Sooty Thrushes, an all dark Turdus with an orange bill. We arrived at the eBird hotspot Parque Nacional los Quetzales- Cerro Buenavista communication towers. Here is our eBird list if you want to see the location. It was a perfectly clear cool (about 52F) morning when we started birding about 6:54 AM. Almost immediately we heard and located Timberline Wren skulking in the low brush, and soon added Volcano Hummingbirds which were all over the place.
Other specialties were Black-capped Flycatcher, Black-billed Nightingale Thrush, Volcano Junco, and Large-footed Wren. We stayed up high there for just under an hour and a half, and were feeling pretty good about getting on birds, the nice break with coolness, and a perfect weather day.
From there we headed to and spent the rest of the day on a road adjacent to the National Park, San Gerado de Dota – Quetzal Valley. Part way up the road we stopped at a delightful little restaurant, with feeders and for the price of buying a very nice fruit drink we got to use the clean, outdoor flush toilets and watch the birds.
From here we headed to the main resort which is a spectacular place, with great birding, trails we could manage, and a lodge where we parked and took a birding hike from and had lunch by the hummingbird feeders. The plan was to drive to a mid-trail location, use a lodge truck to take us up to the highest part of the trail, and hike down for birding. On the ride up Carlos spotted a Respendant Quetzal perched over the road just as I drove under it. We backed up to get a look, and just as I spotted the bird through the very top of the windshield it flew away. I got a very brief look at it perched and in flight. It was an immature male, and Marian got a look at its landing perch from the back seat, but it again flew and was not relocated.
Áfter parking we too the loop trail, hiking slowly and birding for maybe 4-5 hours, seeing lots of birds, and loving the experience. Highlights were a large flock that came in to Carlo’s Costa Rican Pygmy Owl recording. One of the highlights of my birding here so far was this group of Long-tailed Silky Flycatchers that perched on a nearby tree to watch us and the show.
Here are a few of the other species in this flock.
The hike was about 4-5 hours long as we stopped lots to look for birds and moved slowly. All along the walk Black-faced Solitaires were singing, and near the end we saw a pair briefly on the trail. Just as we got back to the car, this one bird popped out of a nest cavity in a dirt bank, with two chicks on the nest. That likely explains why it sat there as I walked close for nice photos.
For the rest of the afternoon, after a nice lunch at the lodge watching their hummingbird feeders Marian rested while I walked along a trail looking for a better view of the quetzel, and instead found these Torrent Tyranulets, and saw this incredibly beautiful stream.
Overall a great first day of guided birding, with lots of lifers and first Costa Rica birds.
So far so good on this trip.
Good birding. Ed
Days 2-3 at Finca Tres Rios
Marian and I have mostly visited the first few days in Costa Rica, but each morning have managed a birding walk, and yesterday we spent the late afternoon watching from Jean and Alan’s fabulous deck. In the mornings I’m finding that although crack-of-dawn birdsong is rocking, the birds don’t seem to really move around to be seen, at least by me, until the sun really rises. Dawn here is about 5:55AM but I seldom have been seeing much until about 6:20 or later. Then the next 60-90 minutes are the best part of the day, and by 10 AM it is pretty quiet again.
Yesterday AM I went out mostly alone, after waking very early, and was pretty discouraged by almost no birds seen until about 6:20 when the sun rose. Best birds yesterday IMO were a Yellow-green Vireo, a great look at a Slaty-backed Trogon from Jean’s deck in the afternoon, and hearing a Spectacled Owl right behind our cabin after dark.
Today Marian and I took the car, and birded the road into Jean’s out to the village of Tinamaste. Cool birds were Southern Rough-winged Swallows and Blue-and-white Swallows, Masked and Black-capped Tityra, White Hawk, and just getting great looks at lots of others. Giant Cowbird was cool, it really is big with a long bill for a cowbird.
I locked us out of our cabin this AM, and Brett saved me from climbing over the outdoor shower wall to get the key, and climbed in himself. Marian thought that was a much better idea.
A rest for now, then this afternoon off to the coast for a swim at Dominicalita beach and dinner there. Hopefully for a few birds of the coast.
Nos vemos! Buena observación de aves!