Two New State Birds in One Day

Bruce LaBar and I headed east chasing two birds neither of us had ever seen in WA. Ken Brown was planning to join us but I got a call about 3:40 AM, about 20 minutes before I expected him to meet me at my house, that the power was out at his home and he needed to stay home to keep everything going. So I picked Bruce up at 4 AM and headed for Spokane to try to find the Black-throated Green Warbler that has been found in Waterfront Park there a few days earlier. Bruce hadn’t gone yet primarily because he had been recovering from major back surgery. He called the night prior to see if I was up to chase the Eastern Bluebird, a first state record, that had been found at Leslie Groves Park in Benton County. On talking with Ken, he suggested we make a loop for both birds, either in one day or if needed with an overnight stay. We decided to try for both.
Snoqualmie Pass had 50 mph traffic until we were headed down the east slope, but overall traffic was fine, and the roads in good shape despite the snow. A big plus for us for the whole day was that due to slow travel over the pass, Bill Tweit was just about a half hour ahead of us, and as we approached Spokane he and Bruce talked, first to tell us where to park, at the Centenial Hotel lot, and minutes later that he was on the warbler with great directions. As we quickly walked across the bridge onto the island in the river, Bill waved us over and pointed to the warbler. Bingo, WA lifer #408 for me and #459 for Bruce.

An active bird and poor photos, but a sweet bird for WA.

After drinking in this bird for a half hour or so we left and headed for Benton County and the Eastern Bluebird. A remarkably similar story as Bill was ahead of us, gave us parking info and then as we walked into the park he pointed out the bird for us. This was a spectacular finding with a great back story. It was posted initially on iNaturalist, discovered by I believe Charlie Wright, and the birding community notified and descended in mass the next day. We arrived on day 3 for the bird I believe, and in beautiful sunshine it cavorted with another county first for me, a Mountain Bluebird.

The grayer bird is a female aspect Mountain Bluebird, and the brighter one is the Eastern Bluebird.

Note how the orangish breast extends all the way up to the bill, unlike in a Western Bluebird where the throat would be blue. Also note the white belly.

After a safe drive home, 666 miles later we were happy birders. Here is Bruce’s eBird Profile.
Of note Ken and Jacob Miller got out the next day and got both species too.
Good birding.