Ken Brown, Bruce LaBar and I met at 6 AM yesterday to go on our more-or-less annual pilgramage to see our FOY birds that are most easily seen in eastern WA. I chose this day because we could all go, and because the weather looked promising. As we got over the Cascades about 7:30 it was clear that the weather was going to cooperate, and as we got to our first stop for sage species though still chilly, there was almost no wind (rare for this wind-farm area) and the sun warmed things up. Sage Thrashers were singing in all directions, and we also added the expected Brewer’s Sparrow and hoped for Vesper Sparrow both singing and perching in view for us.
One of the cool things about birding in the spring in wide open areas is that the birds there have big loud songs. At our next stop, the Wild Horse Puget Sound Wind Farm HQ, Sagebrush Sparrow was no exception, as were Mountain Bluebirds, Say’s Phoebe and more thrashers and Brewer’s Sparrows.
From here we worked our way along the Old Vantage Hwy to Vantage. Along the way we stopped to see the Great Horned Owl on a nest at a cliffside area, and then on to the Gingko boat ramp, where Rock Wrens were singing, but we missed Canyon Wren.
From here we headed to the County Line Ponds. At County Line Ponds the American Avocet and Black-necked Stilts were easily seen, but the highlights for us were large flocks of Sandhill Cranes calling and flying overhead, an immature Golden Eagle on a utility pole, singing Horned Lark, and great studies, thanks to Ken’s expertise, of the Gambellii subspecies of White-crowned Sparrow.
From hgere on to Othello, where very few blackbirds were to be found, though we added Yellow-headed Blackbird we dipped on Tricolored. FOY Cliff Swallows, that nest in numbers under bridge there were FOY for all of us, and we looked over the vast flocks of Cackling Geese, finding one Greater White-fronted but no rarities. Shorebirds were overall absent. (Killdeer and Black-necked Stilts were there).
We enjoyed the weather, the Mariner’s game on Ken’s phone, and our company as we crossed the Columbia NWR to the Moses Lake area for FOY Clark’s Grebe before heading home. On any trip there are some cool finds.
When the Mariner’s saved their terrible road trip from total disaster with a 10 inning 6-1 win our smiles were cemented for the ride home.
I think Bruce and Ken both had 15+ FOY species for the trip (I went to Yakima last month, so had a few of these) and one more great day birdng with friends is in the book.
Category: Bruce
Florida Jan. 2023
Marian and I had a nice vacation in a friend of Marian’s Big Pine Key home from Jan 21 until Jan 31, and it was very quiet and pleasant. Overall cooler than last year, and quite windy at times. We visited Key West one day, and a couple of beaches nearby other days, but overall I birded locally a bit each morning, and we relaxed a lot. Binged on a couple of Prime series, and read a lot.
Jan 31 I dropped off Marian, and that afternoon I headed north to Oleta River State Park, where for a few weeks an ABA first (accepted by the Florida Bird Records Committee, not yet by ABA) Yellow-headed Caracara has been seen. It has seemed to develop a pattern of a morning visit to fish cleaning areas, and in the afternoon, after things at the picnic area quiet down, stopping by the Pelican Pavilion Picnic Area to look for scraps. I got there about 2:45 and waited. At about 5:03 I spotted the caracara come in low over the beach, and three birders, including me, got great looks and photo ops for about 20 minutes.
Amazingly, after picking up Bruce that night, spending a day with Mariah Hryniwich and her spouse and partner Luis who took us out for a great day of briding, I took Bruce back and the bird gave a repeat performance on the next day.
On the day with Mariah and Luis we got several exotics, Spot-breasted Oriole, Red-masked and Mitred Parakeet, Orange-winged Parakeet (not yet listable), along with Limpkin and several other cool species. It was fun to be with Mariah and Luis for the day.
After getting the Caracara we headed north, spent the night in North Ft. Lauderdale, had a great dinner at a Jewish kosher deli for hummus and Mediterranean food, and a nice night at a the Fairfield Inn and Suites, we headed north to have a nice walk, but no Nanday Parakeets, at Loxahatchee NWR, before ticking Florida Scrub Jay at Jonathan Dickinson SP. A long drive back to Miami, then overnight and at the airport to head to Barranquilla, Colombia for a week of birding.
Some Days are Just Special
A delayed post here about a really terrific day of birding at Tokeland, WA with really good birding buddies Ken Brown and Bruce LaBar. Often days of birding have their ups and downs. Maybe the birds are good, but the weather is lousy. Maybe you find some desired species and miss others. Maybe traffic is tough on the way to or from the destination. Then some days seem like not much could go better. Friday, Oct 27, 2023 was one of those really great days.
Ken met me at my house at 6:30, a really civilized time we thought, and we picked up Bruce and headed for Tokeland, WA where a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher had been found two days prior and seemed to be sticking around. The drive down was full of talk of Mariners baseball, the MLB playoffs and World Series, along with the usual catching up with each others lives. Immediately on arrival at the designated 8th and Kindred intersection we parked a block away and as we walked to the intersection saw a birder aiming his long lens at the wires over the intersection. I shouted to Ken and Bruce that THE BIRD was on the wire. We walked up in beautiful crisp cool air and morning light to see the WA lifer for Ken and myself Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in exactly the same place it had been for the last 2 days (off-and-on).
We all celebrated the great bird, spent some time watching it, and headed off to the marina to look for the other target birds of the day. It was near high tide, and the usual flock of Marbled Godwits were immediately under the bank on the shoerline of the marina, and we quickly located the one Bar-tailed Godwit among the maybe 1000 or so MAGOs. Over 30 Willits were in the flock, along with a few Short-billed Dowichers. A bit later as we walked out to the fishing pier to look for the female King Eider (a.k.a. “Queen Eider”) we got great looks at the county first for me Surfbird, far from surf, huddled at along with the godwits.
The eider was spotted far out off the jetty for identifiable but poor views, but later in the day we all got much better looks. We spent the rest of the day birding the marina, enjoying the sunshine, and generally feeling great.
The drive home was easy, and we all got home for dinner safely. Overall an A+ day in my way of looking at life. Great friends, great birds, great weather. It all adds up to a memorable day.
May there be many more!
January Big Day for Pierce County
Today Bruce Labar and I undertook a January Pierce County big day. This is in response to a challenge from WA birder to fill out the various counties in WA with big days for each month. Per WA Birder at the end of 2016 only 3 WA counties have had a big day report submitted for each calendar month. In Pierce only May has had a big day report submitted. We after today, January will have had a report.
We completed our day with 21 eBird lists submitted, 88 species total, I saw 87 and only Bruce saw the YRWA at the Gog. The highlights/lowlights of the day were:
-Rain and wind in the predawn hours making owling very difficult, and we found zero owls despite tries for Barn owl in Fife, Barred owl at Puget Park and Pt. Defiance, and Saw whet and Great-horned owl at Pt. Defiance.
-Good success at DeMolay Sandspit at Fox Island where we found everything we expected except for Common loon, though we didn’t find any hoped for unexpected birds like BLSC, MAMU, ANMU, or SPSA. In retrospect we probably took too long here.
-Titlow added expected EUWI and HOME in little time at the back pond.
-We tried to hit Owens Beach on the way by but the road was closed because of “tree work.”
-Ruston Way yielded Black turnstone as hoped, and an unexpected flock of BRBL at Dock St.
-We missed PEFA on the Tacoma high rise buildings (recovered later at Mount’s Rd.) and the Gog was a disappointment, with no HEGU, no GLGU at 11th St Bridge or the Gog though others had it at the Gog earlier in the morning, and nothing “good” at all there.
-Taylor Way gave us the expected CITE, Least sandpipers were as expected at the end of Alexander, but we spent time missing the HASP at the base of the 11th St. draw bridge spit, and also missed the NOPI that have been regular there.
-Brown’s Point was a flop, with no MAMU or anything else special.
-We missed Killdeer everywhere today including the sandy beach off Marine View Drive where it always is found.
-South Pierce began with PEFA, NOHA, RTHA but little else at Mount’s Road after waiting out a rain front while we got the WTSP at Easterday along with PUFI.
-At Edmund’s Marsh in Dupont we easily added MODO, DOWO, ANHU and huge numbers of RWBL, DEJU and mixed sparrows and finches.
-The Redheads found yesterday by Will remained at American Lake Murray boatlaunch along with the usual winter CANV, along with GRSC, LESC, RNDU, AMCO and other ducks.
-Only RBDU was at Harry Todd, no CAGU which we missed today.
-No WODU at the Puget Sound Wildlife area, and only RUDU on a lightening stop at Waughop.
-We ended the day with quick looks in waning light in Steilacom, adding COLO and RNGR from a roadside pullout past Sunnyside Beach overlooking the mouth of Chamber’s Creek.
Lessons learned for Feb. Maybe spend less time at Fox Island. Hope for better weather for owling. Consider limiting time looking for stake-out rarities, we might have spent too much time on Harris’s sparrow. Reconsider direction of route, consider starting south after Fox Island. I’ll add additional thoughts here if I have any.
Here is the day’s totals from eBird.
WEEK REPORT: Species Totals
Report Details
Date range: Jan 22, 2018 – Jan 28, 2018 Total # of Species: 87
Total # of Checklists: 21
Location(s): 1527 Narrows Dr Tac, Tacoma US-WA (47.2647,-122.5368); 3100 Taylor Way, Tacoma US-WA (47.2608,-122.3763); American Lake — Camp Murray boat launch; Browns Pt. Lighthouse Park; Easterday Rd. SW; Edmond Marsh, DuPont; Fort Steilacoom Park; Fox Island Bridge; Fox Island–Tacoma DeMolay Sandspit Nature Reserve; Gog-Le-Hi-Te Mitigated Wetlands; Harry Todd Park; Mounts Road – Nisqually Tribe Site Turnout; Point Defiance Park; Port of Tacoma – Alexander Avenue; Puget Park; Puyallup River–11th Street Bridge; Ruston way; Sunnyside Beach Park; Tacoma, Hylebos Bridge; Thea’s Park; Titlow Park
Summary
Jan 22 Jan 23 Jan 24 Jan 25 Jan 26 Jan 27 Jan 28
Number of Species 87 — — — — — —
Number of Individuals 3,103 — — — — — —
Number of Checklists 21 — — — — — —
Total Number of Birds (sample size)
Species Name Jan 22 Jan 23 Jan 24 Jan 25 Jan 26 Jan 27 Jan 28
Cackling Goose 150
(1) — — — — — —
Canada Goose 134
(4) — — — — — —
Trumpeter Swan 9
(1) — — — — — —
Cinnamon Teal 1
(1) — — — — — —
Northern Shoveler 56
(2) — — — — — —
Gadwall 8
(2) — — — — — —
Eurasian Wigeon 3
(1) — — — — — —
American Wigeon 114
(8) — — — — — —
Mallard 128
(8) — — — — — —
Green-winged Teal 30
(2) — — — — — —
Canvasback 6
(1) — — — — — —
Redhead 4
(1) — — — — — —
Ring-necked Duck 22
(3) — — — — — —
Greater Scaup 13
(2) — — — — — —
Lesser Scaup 13
(3) — — — — — —
Harlequin Duck 2
(1) — — — — — —
Surf Scoter 88
(5) — — — — — —
White-winged Scoter 20
(1) — — — — — —
Long-tailed Duck 7
(2) — — — — — —
Bufflehead 59
(10) — — — — — —
Common Goldeneye 45
(8) — — — — — —
Barrow’s Goldeneye 48
(6) — — — — — —
Hooded Merganser 1
(1) — — — — — —
Common Merganser 20
(6) — — — — — —
Red-breasted Merganser 88
(7) — — — — — —
Ruddy Duck 5
(1) — — — — — —
Red-throated Loon 4
(2) — — — — — —
Pacific Loon 2
(1) — — — — — —
Common Loon 1
(1) — — — — — —
Pied-billed Grebe 3
(3) — — — — — —
Horned Grebe 77
(9) — — — — — —
Red-necked Grebe 1
(1) — — — — — —
Western Grebe 33
(2) — — — — — —
Brandt’s Cormorant 14
(2) — — — — — —
Pelagic Cormorant 23
(4) — — — — — —
Double-crested Cormorant 52
(12) — — — — — —
Great Blue Heron 5
(5) — — — — — —
Northern Harrier 1
(1) — — — — — —
Bald Eagle 10
(8) — — — — — —
Red-tailed Hawk 4
(3) — — — — — —
American Coot 260
(2) — — — — — —
Black Turnstone 13
(1) — — — — — —
Least Sandpiper 12
(1) — — — — — —
Common Murre 1
(1) — — — — — —
Pigeon Guillemot 69
(4) — — — — — —
Rhinoceros Auklet 11
(2) — — — — — —
Bonaparte’s Gull 50
(1) — — — — — —
Mew Gull 240
(7) — — — — — —
Ring-billed Gull 12
(1) — — — — — —
Western Gull 2
(1) — — — — — —
Iceland Gull 30
(1) — — — — — —
Glaucous-winged Gull 75
(7) — — — — — —
Western x Glaucous-winged Gull (hybrid) 20
(1) — — — — — —
Western/Glaucous-winged Gull 316
(6) — — — — — —
Rock Pigeon 170
(2) — — — — — —
Mourning Dove 15
(1) — — — — — —
Anna’s Hummingbird 1
(1) — — — — — —
Belted Kingfisher 3
(2) — — — — — —
Downy Woodpecker 1
(1) — — — — — —
Northern Flicker 4
(3) — — — — — —
Pileated Woodpecker 1
(1) — — — — — —
Peregrine Falcon 1
(1) — — — — — —
Steller’s Jay 2
(2) — — — — — —
California Scrub-Jay 7
(2) — — — — — —
American Crow 51
(10) — — — — — —
Common Raven 2
(1) — — — — — —
Black-capped Chickadee 9
(2) — — — — — —
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 4
(1) — — — — — —
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
(2) — — — — — —
Pacific Wren 3
(2) — — — — — —
Marsh Wren 6
(2) — — — — — —
Bewick’s Wren 1
(1) — — — — — —
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
(1) — — — — — —
American Robin 13
(3) — — — — — —
European Starling 66
(3) — — — — — —
Fox Sparrow 7
(2) — — — — — —
Dark-eyed Junco 90
(2) — — — — — —
White-crowned Sparrow 15
(1) — — — — — —
Golden-crowned Sparrow 38
(3) — — — — — —
White-throated Sparrow 1
(1) — — — — — —
Song Sparrow 23
(8) — — — — — —
Spotted Towhee 8
(3) — — — — — —
Red-winged Blackbird 98
(3) — — — — — —
Brewer’s Blackbird 30
(1) — — — — — —
House Finch 2
(2) — — — — — —
Purple Finch 4
(2) — — — — — —
House Sparrow 9
(2) — — — — — —
Most notable misses:
American kestrel, Killdeer, Marbled murrelet, American goldfinch, Pine siskin, Varied thrush, Northern pintail, Wood duck, both accipiters, Virginia rail, Herring gull, 3 owls, Hairy woodpecker, Hutton’s vireo, Bushtit, Lincoln’s sparrow, and the two rarities we had hoped to find, Harris’s sparrow and Glaucous gull.
Two More FOY and One County Lifer Today
This morning I headed out just after daylight in hopes of seeing the Snow Bunting located yesterday at Brown’s Point. On arrival Bruce, Peter and a Seattle birder were standing about 20′ from the SNBU near a blue trash can just off the beach. It was another super-easy Pierce lifer.
Bruce agreed to go over to Dash Point to see if we could find an Ancient Murrelet, and again it was really easy. I had one to the left of the pier before Bruce even got out of his car. No photos of this guy as he was very busy diving.
I only stayed out about an hour, and got two FOY Pierce birds, and the SNBU was a Pierce lifer for me. Quite a great morning.
Rough-legged Hawk at Gog-li-hi-ti
Late in the day yesterday Michael found a Rough-legged hawk at Gog-li-hi-ti and this AM Heather and Bruce relocated it. Bruce texted and I broke away from my pledge to help Kay pack up the kitchen stuff prior to our renovations that now start this Saturday. I dashed quickly and as I walked in Bruce and Heather appeared to be watching the hawk fly across the opening. As I got closer Bruce yelled, “In the top of the tree!” I looked at the top of the tallest cottonwood and there it perched. This was a Pierce County first for me, and one I’ve chased up Mt. Rainier, down to Mount’s Road, and never seen before in Pierce.
It seems to have hung around for most of the Pierce listers to see today, so joy abounds.
Later today I stopped at Dash Point after a dump run with Brett hoping to get the Ancient murrelet but no luck. Tomorrow AM I hope the Snow bunting that was seen at the Brown’s Point Lighthouse Park hangs around for another county first.
Sunrise is Closed
Today Bruce and I headed for one last day at Sunrise before it closes for the winter. We are late, looks like it closed already, when we got there the gate was down just past the turnoff to White River Campground. As an alternative we went up to Chinook Pass by Lake Tipsoo and birded there, and on several stops on the way back down, ending our mountain birding at Crystal Ski Area. Very few birds were seen, and we headed back to Tacoma. Quick stops at the Gull Bathing Spot and the new path to the mouth of the Puyallup river showed the usual gulls, a stop at Marine Park yielded my Pierce FOY Black Turnstone, and we ended by looking over the Point Defiance Park Gig Harbor overlook BOGU flock for PAJA without success. Home by 2 PM and the BLTU gave me 212 Pierce species for 2017, tying my prior high from 2015. With 2 1/2 months to go I should find something new to set a new personal best Pierce year list, hopefully soon.
Catching Up
Life has been hectic since getting back from the coast ABC trip. See the post on the ABC site for a report on the rest of the trip.
Highlights since returning have included seeing the Franklin’s gull at Dash Point (Pierce FOY) and best of all the Lesser Black-backed Gull at the 11th St. Bridge. I was working at Brett’s house on August 5th, planning a couple of hours of work before heading to Rotary, when Will sent out a group text that he had the LBBG. I quickly left, binos but no scope, and on arrival at the bridge Will and Michael Charest both had the gull in their scopes from the shore just upstream from the bridge. It was only maybe 40 meters out on the sand bar, and I got great looks, a couple digiscope photos on Will’s scope, and drank in great looks. The gull was obvious through binos, by its very dark back and wings, its yellow legs, pale yellow eye, and was felt to be a 3rd year because it lacked much for white spots in the wing tips. This was a Pierce lifer for me.
A Heerman’s gull, again found by Will Brooks, has been hanging out on the Marine Park all this week, and I was just driving into my parking spot here at home when will texted us all. I hopped back in the car and again without a scope easily found the gull on the pilings as described.
Yesterday Bruce and I spent the morning birding Pierce from the south back to Pt. Defiance. Stops at Mount’s Road, Easterday Rd, the trail at the end of McNeil (where Bruce showed me a better place to look over the delta area), a new spot for me called Saltar’s Point Park in Steilacoom, Sunnyside Beach, and Pt. Defiance gave us nice looks at lots of common birds, but nothing outstanding.
FOY Pierce Semi-palmated Plover
Today the informal Pierce County birders text chain came through again, as Michael Charest relocated a Semi-palmated plover seen earlier at the Freeman Road mitigation. He texted Bruce and me at 4:46 PM and about 5:30 Bruce and I arrived about the same time and easily saw the bird with the other peeps. 196th Pierce species of 2017.
Bushwhacking Around Government Meadow
Today Ken, Bruce and I went to try for the woodpeckers seen recently at Government Meadows. Bruce drove and we got to the horse camp 19 miles on FR 70 on the left off Hwy 410. The first 10 miles are paved, then it’s dirt but a pretty good road. Note-to-self to stay straight at the fork where it looks like the better dirt road turns left. At the horse camp there is a pretty nice toilet and a good picnic table.
Our plan was to first bird the 3/4 mile trail from the horse camp to the PCT. Given this we made our biggest mistake of the day, leaving our water and lunch in the car, planning on picking it up prior to going on toward Government Meadow. On Saturday Marcus and Wayne had two pair of Black-backed woodpeckers, one at the start of the trail, and another near the junction with the PCT. We found one Red-breasted sapsucker near the start of the trail in the snags on the left, and near the piled up decomposing logs a bit farther in we had another sapsucker we hope is a Red-naped sapsucker, but may be a hybrid RNSA x RBSA. I’ve sent this out to several of the top birders around and await their opinion.
No BBWO though, and so we decided to bushwhack our way to the small meadow where Bruce and Peter W. had seen nesting BBWO last week. From there we managed to get to a different meadow, not find the BBWO, go on to find an off trail route to a large meadow we think may have been a part of Government Meadow with a backtrack to chase a drumming RBSA to the meadow Bruce had us aiming for initially. From there after finding the large meadow we could not locate the PCT, initially looking for a trail off the meadow, then taking a steep dirt road (Naches Trail) downhill, back to the meadow, behind the meadow, then back again. We finally decided to bushwhack back to the initially targeted meadow, which we managed to find pretty easily, and then bushwhack up to the PCT. By now it was about 2 PM and we were thirsty, hungry and tired by the time we got to the car. I never really felt lost, but certainly we were a bit confused as to the best way to get back onto the Pacific Crest Trail again though.
We did manage good birds on this exploration of the area. In one of the meadows we found Lincoln’s sparrow, had a fly by of a calling Evening grosbeak, Gray jays were around with one flying in for a close look while we watched the possible RNSA, and Hermit thrush, Varied thrush, and DEJU were seen several times each.
After a late lunch and rehydration on the drive back down FR 70 Bruce spotted a Ruffed grouse on the side of the road. We managed to stop, all get nice looks, and get photos as it puffed up and strutted before walking into the grass.
For me 4 FOY Pierce county birds, Evening grosbeak, Gray jay, Pine grosbeak and Ruffed Grouse, with a possible fifth if the sapsucker is deemed to be a Red-naped.