Today I led a trip of 12 TAS birders, mostly ABC grads, to see what we could find in Pierce County on a spectacularly beautiful sunny day. After finding very little except the Queen Eider on the sound over the last 3 days I decided we’d try for fresh water and land birds. We met at the Hwy 512-I5 park and ride we headed for the Mountain View Cemetery marsh and oak woodlands. The best birds of the early morning were raptors. Two Peregrine Falcons spotted right off by Richard Smethurst and later Red-tailed hawk, Cooper’s hawk were added. The second Cooper’s cooperatively sat at close range while we enjoyed great views.
Next were two stops at American Lake. First at he Camp Murray Boat Launch site and relocated the Canvasbacks that I had seen yesterday along with large numbers of Common Goldeneye mixed with other usual ducks and grebes. Over at Harry Todd Park there were no Boneparte’s gulls to sort thru, but we got nice comparison looks at Mew, California and Ring-billed gulls. Having most of the gulls be adults makes it easy. the gulls are adults.
Next we headed for Mount’s Road in hopes of a Swamp sparrow, but nothing happening on the sparrow front. A Greater Yellowlegs was the best find. We finally had some luck not including sunshine on the last stop of the morning. The sun armed everyone up including the sparrows, and we sorted through a nice flock of Golden-crowned sparrows and before long got great looks at a White-throated sparrow. Here is a photo by Kathleen Miller.
We also had great looks at Fox Sparrow, some even singing.
We quit about 1:20 PM. Great weather, an experienced group of birders, and finding the WTSP as my Pierce #212 for 2015 made it a great morning. On the way home I picked up a vegan chocolate cake for Kay’s party tonight, and now the Huskies are crushing the Beavers. A great day. Going to the movies tonight with Peter W to see Bridge of Spies while the wives get together.
Author: edpullen
Queen Eider
I got a chance to chase my first new 2015 Pierce County bird this morning, the female King Eider that has been hanging out off Ruston Way in Tacoma since discovered by Bruce Labar a couple of days after I left for my Rio Grande Valley trip. I had to look around a bit but she was a bit NW of the prior reported sightings. She was feeding actively near shore by a small rocky point just past the Lobster Shop. She was underwater far more than on the surface so I didn’t get any decent digiscope photos. Now off to work for the afternoon on short notice. This was Pierce County bird #211 for 2015 for me. Loving it.
Short-eared Owl at Gog-Li-Hi-Ti
I was on the way home from our administrative office at SFM today where I stopped by to pick up some things, when Bruce Labar called to let me know he had flushed a Short-eared owl at the mitigated marsh called Gog-li-hi-ti near the tide flats in Tacoma. I dashed home, got boots and binos and headed there. On the way Marcus Roening called and asked how far out I was. I had not even left home and he was already there. He graciously agreed to try not to flush the bird away until I arrived. On getting there Bruce and Marcus had flushed the bird again and were awaiting me to move closer. The owl was in the corner of the marshy middle area, nearest the river and the original first pond area. As we moved that direction the SEOW flushed and lazily flew across to the side nearer the third pond. While there we also saw several Wilson’s snipe, about 55 American pipits and a smattering of other birds. Marcus and I tried for the “Bridge” owl but not to be found (a Barn Owl sometimes roosts under the overpass that runs beside the area). This was Pierce county bird #209 for 2015 for me, far more than I had even considered possible when I started the year with Kay on Jan 1 with a day of birding the county. Tomorrow I hope to add White-throated sparrow.
Nothing New on Commencement Bay Today
Kay and I got out after a movie at the Grand this afternoon looking for a Parasitic Jaeger or Ancient Murrelet from Dash Point, the Brown’s Point Lighthouse, and the log booms on Marine View Drive today. I had hoped to take advantage of the only dry day of the week if the weatherman is correct to add one of these species to my Pierce County year list, but it was not to be. The Western Grebes at Dash Point today were very far offshore, so no chance to see if the Clark’s was still around. Very little at all at Brown’s point. At the log booms there were a good number of gulls on the logs at a near high tide, and a nice flock of mostly Boneparte’s gulls far out on the water, but no jaeger was there to harassing them. We did pick out one Thayer’s gull.