January has been a very good month for me, though not so much for birding in Pierce County (my home county). A group of friends and I made a foray to southeastern WA birding for 4 days, and my daughter Jean left just 2 days ago after a really nice 8 day visit, so my county birding has been less than energetic. I’ve spent 2 days birding in Kitsap County with Ken, the Vashon CBC on Jan 2, and a few hours last Friday, and have 78 species in Kitsap. For comparison starting today I had only 90 species in the rest of the month in Pierce. I felt like getting out birding alone today, and challenged myself to get 10 FOY birds in Pierce today to get over 100 species for January.
I didn’t set an alarm, but woke early, and got up at 5:30 and decided to try again for the usually reliable Barred Owl at Puget gulch. I tried both at the top and the bottom, submitting two eBird lists with zero species despite pretty good effort and use of recordings. I tried quickly at Garfield Gulch also well before dawn, but similar results there. From there I drove to Place of Circling Waters expecting a FOY Northern Pintail, and hoping for maybe a overwintering Spotted Sandpiper or Band-tailed Pigeon. Yes on the pintail, no on the others. It was getting lighter slowly and a slight snow fell while the temp hovered around freezing.
I made very quick stops hoping for some gulls at Gog-li-hi-ti and the 11th Street Bridge, but really very few gulls to scan over. I headed back on Portland Ave. towards I-5 and noted a big flock of gulls behind a fence on the R side so I made a U-turn and checked it out. It is a garbage transfer station, and I drove in for a look. There were hundreds of large white-headed gulls, mostly our usual GWGUxWEGU hybrids, and the worker there said I could look them over, but no luck spotting a Herring or Iceland Gull. The gulls were very active, going right into the building for garbage.
On to McNeil overlook, where I managed 5 Greater Yellowlegs and 2 Dunlin, but no raptors (not even 1 Bald Eagle) and as the tide was high not much was seen on the remaining mud. Still, 2 FOY shorebirds was good. No luch there for Hermit Thrush, Purple Finch, or Hairy or Pileated Woodpeckers that I had hopes of finding.

Next at Mounts Road I had better luck. A perched FOY Northern Harrier was easy, on a low post out over the frozen marsh. Lots of FPY Marsh Wrens were active right near the road, and a FOY Virginia Rail replied to a recorded grunt display call. The feeders are no longer in use at the end of Easterday Road, but I walked down and back the whole road hoping for a woodpecker or more likely a Purple Finch, but no luck.
I took the cutofff from Dupont to Steilacoom for a look from the platform where the expected flock of 110 FOY Western Grebes was easy, and a pair of FOY Greater Scaup not so easy. I continued on towards Chambers Bay, and while stopped by the fish ladder, a single FOY Eurasian Collared Dove flew and circled high overhead. On to the Chamber’s Bay Golf Course beach access bridge. I hoped for FOY Murre there, and a nice group was far offshore, and while looking at them at least 2 FOY Bonaparte’s Gulls flew through my scope view. They are easy in the fall in boig numbers, but only a few overwinter. The same is true for California Gull, and luckily an adule FOY bird was on the water close to shore. I had tried earlier to pick one out of the big flock of Short-billed Gulls on the water, but found none so this was a lucky find.

This made 12 FOY species before noon, and I was feeling pretty great. I decided to get a nice walk and try the afternoon at Ft. Steilacoom Park. I had a nice walk, was pleased to see some sign of life returning to the pond after treatment for algae seemed to make it lifeless the last couple of years, with 17 Ruddy Ducks, 3 NOSH, and a couple of coots present. I hoped for Purple Finch, woodpeckers, California Quail, RBSA, HETH, or something new, but settled for a good walk.
I got home about 2:40 and had time for a short nap and a workout at the gym to wrap a really nice day, ending January with 102 species in Pierce. For perspective I think of >200 species in Pierce for a year is decent, and last Jan 2022 I saw 109, and in 2021 114 in Jan.