Today I decided to ignore the light rain, and headed with Marian to Everett to try for the apparent adult female Yellow-bellied Sapsucker that has been faithfully seen in a specific tree for a couple of days. On arrival, after traffic, I noted a couple of birders looking up at a tree, and on closer approach the birder left was good friend Bruce LaBar (see episode #3 of The Bird Banter Podcast). He pointed up, I saw the bird, dashed back to the car for my camera and to fetch Marian. A few photos, a short time in the rain, and we had had enough, but WA species #396 for my life state list is in the books, or on the blog and in eBird anyway.
I see Yellow-bellied Sapsucker nearly every summer when I visit Maine. They are pretty common around the family camp at McGrath Pond, but I’ve not made a chase for the occasional one seen in WA until now. Years ago I was not really trying hard on my WA list, as I had seen them many times on the east coast, and lately the times just have not worked for me until today. One of my easier stakeout ticks.
After this Bruce and I tried for a Harris’s Sparrow that had been seen just blocks from the YBSA, but rain made it tough birding, and we only gave it a half-hearted try.
I finished the day with a couple of stops in Edmunds, the waterfront and the nearby marsh, and added 5 more Snohomish county ticks, Harlequin Duck, Black Scoter, Brandt’s Cormorant, Black Turnstone and Surfbird. Lunch in the Panera Bread drive through and an easy drive home before traffic made for a great day of birding in Snohomish County.
Good birding and very good day!
Category: Ed’s Birding Notes
This is where I post my personal birding notes.
An Outdoor Family Gathering in Leavenworth, WA with Great Birds
Marian and I drove to visit two of her sisters and her niece at Carol’s house in Leavenworth. Soon after we arrived, Carol asked what the little white bird in the top of a pine tree might be. After I located it, and initially misidentified it as a N. Saw Whet Owl, we figured it out to be a Northern Pygmy Owl. Cool for Marian who has heard them several times this year but this was a visual first for her, and a great yard bird for Carol.
This was a two pygmy species day, with Pygmy Nuthatches also at the feeder, though the pair of male and female White-headed Woodpeckers definately overshadowed the nuthatches.
A fun afternoon and good way to pass another day in Covid times. We spent most of the afternoon outdoors, at social distance, taking turns warming up at the fire.
Good birding and good day!
A Nice Morning Birding Thurston County
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and today was an unexpectedly beautiful day. I headed to Thurston County to look for some winter birds for my county list, and to see some different areas from the usual Pierce haunts.
First stop was at Tolmie State Park where early AM sunshine, light at my back, and calm water yielded great baywatching, and I saw all 3 loons, Pacific was a new county bird, and a distant Rhinoceros Aucklet was too. All fall huge flocks of Pine Siskins have been in the area, and today was no different, with a
Next stop was a new area for me, the McLane Creek Nature Trails, where no new Thurston birds were found, though I listened and looked for Red Crossbills and Hermit Thrush in good habitat. It is a really beautiful spot, with well maintained and lightly used trails. Check out the Wood Ducks, Gadwall and the pond itself.
I finished the day with two stops near the capital in Olympia, getting Barrow’s Goldeneye at KGY Point (named for the radio station there I think) and Western and Herring Gulls on the north pool of Capital Lake. 56 Canvasbacks were the only filter-busting species there. No rain all AM, and a nice outing with 5 new Thurston birds, ending the day at 164 for the county life list.
Good birding and good day!
Eastern Washington Early Winter Trip Days 3-4
The third day of the trip was without a doubt the toughest day of the trip from a weather and finding birds standpoint. We headed south from Spokane hoping to go to Steptoe Butte and bird around the Rock Lake area. Whitman County is another area I’d not birded much at all in the winter birding timeframe (I know it’s really autumn, but in the birding year migration is mostly past, and the winter residents are largely in place for the winter) and so I had hopes of finding most of the available wintering water birds, as well as a variety of land birds. We headed south in pretty heavy snow. By the time we got to the turnoff from Hwy 905 in Cheney it was really snowing heavily. We continued past Turnbull and got to the overlook to the Whitman Quarry Pond, but couldn’t really find a good overlook, and headed to the south end of Rock Lake. When we got there it was more a freezing rain and pretty stiff wind, and there were almost no waterfowl on the lake. The only duck was Bufflehead, but Black-billed Magpie and Belted Kingfisher made for a disappointing 3 county lifers.
The weather remained really difficult, so instead of trying for Steptoe Butte we drove to Pullman hoping for a FOY Washington Blue Jay. On the drive there we didn’t see a Rough-legged Hawk, expected by me, but did see a flock of about 18 Snow Buntings as they lifted off the road in front of us and flew into the wheat stubble and disappeared. 13 individual BLJAs had been seen the day prior, but no luck for us. It was my first visit to WSU, and in a couple of hours poking around we did add Mourning Dove and Cooper’s Hawk on campus, and another 7 first county species at the Pullman-Koppei Community Gardens by a small creek in town. Great looks at Lesser Goldfinch was probably the highlight.
We tried for Steptoe Butte in the afternoon as the weather cleared, but the access road was blocked by a gate, so this ended a pitiful day of birding.
Saturday was the day to drive home, and I decided to try for a few winter Ferry County birds on the trip home. We drove to the Keller Ferry, with a short stop at the Reardon Ponds on the way. Nothing there, but it was a beautiful cold clear day. We tried the Davenport Cemetery on the way, but it was blowing a gale, and very few birds were found, despite really trying for an owl in the trees.
By the time we got to the Lincoln County end of the Keller Ferry the wind had died down, and it was spectacular. The Eastern WA ferry system is a free, on-demand ferry system every 20 or so miles along the Columbia River, letting people cross without building little used bridges. We were the only car on board, and I managed to see Horned Grebes on the Ferry side for a county first. The only birding we did was on the Swawilla Basin Road loop, from just above the ferry, through the basin, and up to join the Manilla Creek Road just east of the Coulee Dam. My car’s navigation system suggested to look as a better option than retracing our way back to the ferry area, so I forged ahead. The birding was passable, adding Gray Partridge, and a number of small passerines including Horned Lark and Bewick’s Wren to my Ferry life list, but the road got sketchy and pretty steeply uphill in the last 2-3 miles. I took over driving from Marian half way through the loop, and was glad it was me not her that got us stopped on the icy steep two-track detour around a washed out main road part way up the hill. With some backing up and trying again a few times I managed to skid the way up the hill and we made it without help, but it was really dicey for a while. Memory accomplished.
My goal was to push my county lists over 100 in Spokane and Lincoln Counties, and closer in Whitman and Ferry. This was done, ending at 102 for Spokane, 101 for Lincoln, but only 89 for Ferry (minimal effort) and 71 for Whitman (weather obstructed effort).
Overall a nice get away. The Hampton Inn & Suites in Spokane was great, clean easy and affordable.
Part 1 Eastern WA Winter Trip Nov 2020
I decided to make a trip to Lincoln, Spokane and WhitWandermere man Counties to add some winter species to my county lists this week. Yesterday Marian and I left Tacoma about 5:30 and drove straight through with just stretch and potty stops to Sprague, where we birded the eastern end (in Lincoln County) where it was clear but cold. Maybe the most productive stop was when I misnavigated and we missed the through-town route to the south side of the lake, and stumbled onto a good mixed flock of ducks in a small body of water east of Hwy 23 (Ebird list here) where we saw 8 species of duck and Tundra Swan. We struggled to see much on the lake, but did make the eBird alert with a Red-breasted Merganser.
From here we headed north to the Reardon Ponds and to the winter route described in the WA Birding guide, as well as Mill Canyon. Birding was slow overall, adding Rough-legged Hawk, Northern Shrike, and on the ponds Hooded Merganser, Snow Goose, Cackling Goose, Canvasback, and Trumpeter Swan (on the part of the ponds across the road from the birding developed area.)
In Mill Canyon birding was slow, adding BCCH and MOCH as wall as RBNU in the forested area, and Horned Grebe, Greater Scaup and Belted Kingfisher at the river at the end of the canyon road.
On the drive to Spokane we saw a Short-eared Owl in Spokane County as twilight came on as is typical with this species.
Today we headed to Mt. Spokane SP where White-winged and Red Crossbills were easily seen right near the parking lot, and just down the road from there Pine Grosbeak and Townsend’s Solitaire.
We stopped at several places on the way down the hill, with few birds, then at the Feryn Conservation Area while looking for and not adding Rough-legged Hawk we did add American Kestrel and Ring-necked Pheaasnt. The surprise stop of the day was at the Wandermere Golf Course Lake, hoping for Barrow’s Goldeneye, and getting that along with most of the other ducks hoped for in the county. The rest of the afternoon, a drive to and around Turnbull NWR was largely a bust. Incredibly few birds, but 2 Moose, and on the way out a few waterfowl on a pond near the blocked entrance to the refuge.
We ended the day trying for the Blue Jay in town, but no luck. Tomorrow is for Whitman County, hoping for winter birds there. I did manage to get over 100 on my life list for Lincoln and Spokane Counties, just barely at 101 & 102 respectively.
Now to sleep and hope snow allows the birding tomorrow.
King and Snohomish County Birding Nov 4, 2020
Today Marian worked on a school project with her grandson Ethan in Lake Forest Park, so I rode up with her and birded the nearby Snohomish waterfront and at Juanita Bay Park in King County. It was really warm, in the 60’s, but also windy making birding tough.
I had really not done much salt water birding in Snohomish, and at Richmond Beach Saltwater Park the wind and waves made it tough viewing, but at Ocean Ave. I managed to pick up 5 new county species, Horned and Red-necked Grebe, Surf Scoter, Pelagic Cormorant and Pacific Loon. Then in King County across Lake Washington I walked the path at Juanita Bay Park. It was really windy, but I managed to hear one, maybe two Virginia Rails doing their grunt calls. County birding continues.
SW WA County Birding
Marian and I took a break from politics, seawatching and Pierce County and headed off south so I could try to put a few more WA counties into the >100 species seen bucket. Thursday was a beautiful day, and we started at a clearcut in northern Cowlitz County that is not far from I-5 but gets into higher elevation habitat that I’d not birded in Cowlitz before, Barnes Drive State Forest South. It’s a fairly extensive clearcut with easy parking and access. Canada Jays were seen and heard almost immediately, and when I whistled my NOPY imitation two Northern Pygmy Owls responded almost immediately from either side of the logging road to the cut area. We tried but could not locate them, though they moved around a bit. Lincoln’s Sparrow, Fox Sparrow and Varied Thrush were also new Cowlitz species for me, pushing my county list from 98 to 103 on the first stop. We then headed to Wahkiakum County.
A California Gull at County Line Park was #98 for the county, followed by Pine Siskin at Brook’s Slough and a pair of Downy Woodpeckers near Andrew Emlen’s kayak tour shop on Steamboat Slough for #100. We spent a beautiful late afternoon at Julia Butlere NWR where Lincoln’s Sparrow, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Peregrine Falcon and Virginia Rail brough Wahkiakum one ahead of Cowlitz at 104 and the sun set on a beautiful day.
After staying in Kelso we awoke to wind, rain and cold weather. Fog was thick and birding nearly impossible. We tried some car birding in the Woodland Bottoms area, and #104 for the county were a few Northern Shoveler at the Longview Sewer Ponds. We did see lots of Sandhill Cranes in the bottoms, but quit early there and headed for the primary county of my trip, Skamania.
Stops just past the county line at Franz Lake just got me wetter, though even in the heavy rain both swan species were easily seen. We headed for Rock Creek Mill Pond, where a Ross’s Goose had been seen the day prior. Highlight there was meeting Jim Danzenbaker. Jim is a very well known WA birder, prior WOS president and Battleground, WA resident. He had birded the area despite the rain and wind and not seen the ROGO, saving me some wet searching time. We had a nice chat, and I added a somewhat unusual Western Gull, along with American Coot and Pied-billed Grebe to my list.
The rain let up a bit, and several stops along the river added Herring Gull, a somewhat uncommon Surf Scoter, and Greater Scaup. At the Drano Lake Fish Hatchery area a Common Loon was in the protected area of water, and an American Dippers was near the hatchery bridge. Lesser Scaup by the mouth of Windy River, and then time lost wandering around the Strawberry Island area yielded just CBCH and California Gull, leaving me far short of the hoped for list for the day, at 82 life in the county.
No good places we could find to stay in Stevenson, so we crossed the Bridge of the Gods to Hood River, stayed at a nice Best Western, and in a first for the Covid-time at a restaurant on an outside deck with a gas heater and had a vegan burger and I tried a flight of local beers.
Saturday turned beautiful, and we headed for higher elevation Skamania County. My navigation skills failed us, as I tried going up the Wind River Hwy with goal of lots of stops enroute to Takhlakh Lake Campground. Well, we made lost of stops, had plenty of Canada Jays eating our of Marian’s hands, and wound up on a dead end road at Steamboat Lake. I cried uncle, we made it back to Trout Lake, finding “Tire Junction” on the way, and took main roads up to the campground, getting there about noon.
Highlights of the wandering route were a Sooty Grouse Marian spotted beside the road, and I managed to relocate just off the road with a little bushwhacking, a flock of Red Crossbills at Old Man Pass Sno Park, and beautiful scenery.
The campground at Takhlakh is spectacular, with Mt. Adams just across the lake. A NOPY responded to my whistles, and circled all around us several times eluding visuals. Oddly for Oct 31 an Osprey called and circled overhead. Mountain Chickadee was the only additional county lifer.
We made our way back down, making a few stops in Klickitat County at Trout Lake and Bingen Pond and adding Yellow-rumped Warbler as the sun set on Halloween, 2020.
at a Pizza Place, great pizza, a couple beers on draft, and a table without service far from other places, and stayed dry.
We stayed in Oregon again in Hood River at another Best Western, and decided to try a Pizza Place, great pizza- really great pizza, a couple beers on draft, and a table without service far from other places, and stayed dry. I decided to try to get Klickitat to 100, and we managed Sunday morning, adding Peregrine Falcon, Northern Harrier and Virginia Rail at a quick stop back at Bingen Pond before heading for an area familiar to me from summertime birding, the Lyle-Balch Cemetery and Acorn Woodpecker area. In short order we added Varied Thrush, Steller’s Jay, and California Quail, getting to #99. The pond was nearly dry, but on getting down the hill to the old granary area for Acorn Woodpecker, a Red-breasted Sapsucker flew into the small treed just across Old Hwy 8. I found a great parking spot to look for ACWO, about 100 yards east of the Balsh Hill Rd junction with Old Hwy 8, pulled in and set up the scope. In a few minutes an Acorn Woodpecker flew in and perched atop a very tall snag. This turned out to be what I think may be a new granary tree. It’s easy to see, maybe 100-150 yards from the road, and in clear sight just east of straight across from the place I parked. At least 3 ACWO were working the tree, and it had lots of acorn holes.
We wrapped up the trip back at the Rock Creek Mill Pond park, adding Northern Shoveler and an unusual Snow Goose to my county list, leaving it only 94.
The trip home was uneventful, and on getting home we watched the Seahawks (on recording) destroy the 49ers to wrap up a great trip.
I now have >=100 species in all the counties in WA west of I-90. My next big county listing trip may be to Spokane, Ferry, Lincoln and Whitman Counties in a week or two.
Little Gull at Point-no-Point on My First Big Birding Day Since Surgery
I had a total R hip replacement surgery just over a month ago, and though I’m recovering really nicely, I’ve not been able to get out on anything close to normal birding trips. Friday, Brad Waggoner, my guest on The Bird Banter Podcast #34 located a Little Giull at Point-no-Point (PNP). Little Gull Hydrocoloeus minutus is a bird that is only rarely seen in North America, and has not been seen in WA very often. When I heard about this sighting it was already past midday, and I thought too late to try to chase on Friday. I called Ken Brown, my guest on The Bird Banter Podcast #2 and my great birding buddy, and he was at PNP looking when I called, but had not found the LIGU. We made plans to meet at his house at 6 AM the next AM and go together to try again. Moments later Ken called back to tell me he just got the bird, really close to shore, but he was up to go again with me the next AM.
We met at his house Sat AM, and headed for the point. Enroute we made a short stop to try for a Barn Owl, and insteaed heard Great Horned Owl and Barred Owl, but not the FOY Barn Owl Ken wanted. Still a nice start.
We got to PNP by 7:20 and started looking for the Little Gull. The day prior there was a big flock of Bonaparte’s Gulls at the location. Little Gulls are typically found associating with BOGUs, and for the first 3 hours we had no luck with the gull. We were the first birders there, but over the AM another 20 or so hopeful birders showed up. Finally, about 10:20 after Brad arrived, and the tidal action picked up, a nice flock of BOGUs streamed in. A shout out by Grace Oliver that she was on the gull as it flew in and settled on the water got us all excited. Another birder declared that he was on a gull on the water with white wing tips. This was a really helpful tip. If you look at photos or drawings of Little Gull, you’ll see that in winter plumage the adult has nearly the same grahish cheek sopt as BOGU, but also has some black on the top of the head. In addition the adult LIGU lacks the black wing tips of BOGU. It is not what jumps out of the field guide, but in a flock of birds on the water to me was much easier to spot thatn a little black on the head. I scanned for a gull with no black wing tips, and quickly found a candidate. It also had the black on the top of the head, seemed maybe smaller than the BOGUs, and so I stuck with it. I passed off the scope to Paul Baerny and he saw it, and on getting the scope back the bird had drifted but I got back on it. Then, after a couple of minutes the gull lifted its wings to take flight, and several of us shouted out that the jet black underwings were seen. I followed the gull for a couple of minutes as it flew among the flock of BOGUs, and got great looks.
My only prior LIGUs were in July in Maine when 3 birds were apparently either failed breeders or early returning gulls at the mouth of a coastal river. Those were in breeding pliumage, and cool too, but this was a WA first for me, and WA bird #395 for me. 5 more to 400.
Such a great day to break out of my post-surgery limitations. After leaving the point, Ken and I also found a huge gathering of loons, with about 35 Common Loons, and 355 Pacific Loons at Suquamish.
A great day. Good birding. Good day!
Birding Since Return from Chelan
A bit of catch up here since it’s been about 3 weeks since I got back from a week at Chelan. It’s been mostly about shorebirds and sound-watching in Pierce County since then, as the juvenile shorebirds are moving through, and we are starging to get jaegers back. So here are the highlights of the fall migration recently.
In the first week back I tried a couple of times for Sanderling at Chamber’s Bay Beach Access, but had no luck until the next Friday when I managed to find one on a walk with Marian.
While I was there I got a text about a Baird’s Sandpiper at Levee Pond, and dashed there, where just after I got there Bruce joined Marian and me to look at this bird.
This made for a nice 2-FOY Pierce birds in a day.
The day prior to getting these two species I joined the Theler Wetlands walk with Fay, Diane, Ken and John R. for a nice morning there. I managed three Mason firsts, Merlin, Bushtit and Ring-necked Pheasant. This is the only one with a photo.
A couple of days later, Aug. 30th brought a sighting of Black Phoebe at the 56th St Stormewater area, and Marian and I got there just before dark, and with patience (I had tried without patience earlier in the day) we spotted not just the BLPH but also a Sora.
The next great bird was at the McNeil Overlook where after Marcus and I searched for a while, Heather on taking over their scope almost immediately spotted these two Marbled Godwits.
Though distant you can get a feel for the pretty spectacular light for the great distance. Their warm brownish color just popped.
Just after I left them for Marcus to finish his conference call, they called me to say that they had a Heermann’s Gull. It has flown out of sight before I got back and I missed this one.
Since then seawatching, mostly from Dune’s Peninsula has dominated the Pierce County birding scene. Parasitic Jaegers have moved in to take advantage of the lingering Caspian Terns. On Sept 5th I was tied up recording an episode of the podcast when the text chain alerted us of Will, Marcus and Heather having THIRTEEN PAJAs from Dunes. After I finished the episode I dashed over and managed to see just two of them, still one was a nice close fly-by.
Shortly after this Heermann’s Gull flew right in front of us to give another 2-FOY Pierce birds.
Nothing new since then, but yesterday was a really pretty morning at 56th St and the light was perfect for some photos.
A Week at Lake Chalan in August
A week in Chelan in mid August may not be the most popular birding location in WA, but that was the time for Marian’s time share this year, and a chance to get out of Dodge for a week, explore some new roads, and spend hot afternoons in the lake seems too good to pass up. I managed to get in some good county birding too.
On the trip over I stopped at a dirt road pull out near Liberty hoping for some new Kittitas County lifers, but by the time we got there it was late morning, over 90 degrees, and things were really quiet. Two species, but hearing and seeing Red Crossbills high in the pines was fun.
From there we headed towards Chelan with our only stop enroute at Entiat at the city park on the lake, hoping for shorebirds. The park was packed with people, and devoid of shorebird habitat and birds.
Sunday morning though we decided to beat the heat, and got up and drove up the road to Chelan Butte, starting birding there at daybreak, about 5:56 AM. It was a really nice morning. State FOY Dusky Grouse were on the roadside, Lewis’s Woodpeckers were all over the place, a pair of playful Gray Flycatchers gave a great show, and Sharp-shinned Hawk and Olive-sided Flycatcher were also first Chelan County birds. The road gets really steep near the top, fun to drive and the vistas from the butte are spectacular.
A quick stop at Chelan Falls Park again looking for shorebirds yielded none, but added Caspian Tern to my Chelan list. It is a nice park, and on a weekday early could be a good stop for passerines and water birds.
Maybe the best birding day was Monday, when we again got up early and headed up into the highlands out of Entiat. The first stop was great, just a mile or so up the Entiat River Road on the abandoned old road beside the river (Lake Entiat). Bullock’s Orioles, Gray Catbirds and a Yellow-breasted Chat were highlights, but we had a list of 23 species and lots of numbers. A Lazuli Bunting was singing like crazy but refused to give us a look.
From there we drove up the Entiat River Road, with stops by rocky cliffs, and by orchards to see what we could find. Western Bluebirds put on a show, along with California Quail just everywhere. When we got to FR 5300 (Mud Creek Road), a route described in the WA Bird Finding guide, the ride up the hill went through nice riparian habitat down low, then pine forest higher. FOY White-breasted Nuthatches were nice, along with several stops for flocks coming in nicely to Pygmy Owl imitation whistles. Red Crossbills were very common, and Cassin’s and Red-eyed Vireos, MacGilvary’s Warbler, White-headed Woodpecker, Red-breasted Sapsucker, and a nice look at a Great-horned Owl that flew right in front of us then perched for looks and photos highlighted the drive. Instead of going further up the Entiat River Road we decided to enjoy the morning cool and just do this road slowly and enjoy it. 32 species including 6 Chelan County firsts were really great.
The rest of the week we had Marian’s daughter visit and so birded a bit less. I did get up to the Waterville Plateau hoping for shorebirds in Douglas County. The supposed flooded field on Heritage Road was not flooded, but Atkin’s Lake was great. I fought the sun a bit in the morning as the only good viewing was from the west looking east, but got great looks very close up at county first Baird’s Sandpipers, distant looks at Wilson’s Phalarope and Long-billed Dowichers, and very distant looks at about 1400 dabbling ducks, most too far and too backlit to ID, but fun to try.
The last fun bird of the trip was a pair of Common Nighthawks that put on a show over the lawn behind the Wapato Point condo we stayed in on Friday night.
A quick stop at Confluence Stat Park in Wenachee on the way home yielded no shorebirds or much else, and we got home safely.