This midday I was able to get out birding, and since I needed to go to Puyallup anyway I kept going east to Ashford hoping for maybe a Pine grosbeak, N. Pygmy owl or Townsend’s solitaire. What I got was beautiful snowy scenery adn the dipper at the usual Elbe stop. One was singing under the bridge in response to a recording, but didn’t come into view. Another was far upstream and the only photos I could find the bird in were in flight.
Overall a nice drive on a cold snowy day.
Today Kay and I made another trip to try for the Snow Geese off Portland Ave between choir performances but no luck. After lunch Kay helped with the baby shower for Maya and so I was free to get out. First stop was another try for the GWFG or PEFA at Van Ogles Ford Road, where neither were seen, but to my surprise 11 Western meadowlarks flushed from the field beside the swan area. A FOY Pierce bird for me.
Next with the goal of getting in a good walk and maybe finding a woodpecker or the dipper under the bridge I headed for the Foothills Trail parking by the Carbon River bridge. On the way out no dipper by the usual spot at the bridge, and just after I passed the bridge it started raining hard. I walked out 45 minutes as it continued to rain, and almost nothing was calling or moving. Good exercise, but very few birds. On the way back more of the same, but as I approached bridge, almost to the car, i heard an American Dipper singing loudly from upstream of the bridge. I looked an a pair was standing on a rock in the middle of the river maybe 30 meters upstream. As I watched they both flew downstream, and I managed to find one on a rock past the bridge for dark photos.
Except for the rain a nice walk, and a second FOY Pierce species today. Typically I texted Bruce about the dippers and as I was parking at S. Prairie he texted back that he had a dipper at S. Prairie earlier this morning. You have to get up early to get anything ahead of Bruce Labar. A good day.