This morning at the 56th Street Ponds I arrived just after Bruce and although shorebirds were absent except for 5 Greater Yellowlegs a male Cinnamon teal cruised the far pond and just before leaving several Lazuli Buntings responded to a recording, and one perched for a brief look.
Quick stops at Sha-Dax and Levee Pond did not yield a Green Heron, but at the distant wet area near the end of Levee Rd 2 Greater White-fronted Geese and ond Cackling goose were with several Canada Geese, and straggling Gadwall, Green-winged Teal, N. Pintail and N Shoveler were still there.
The Long-billed Curlew persists at the Puyallup/Sumner field alongside Bowman-Hilton Rd.
Last stop was at the usual Lesser Goldfinch stop on Riverside Drive, Sumner and after a bit of looking a male and female came in to a recording, they seemed to prefer the calls, as the song earlier didn’t attract them.
A nice morning. I hope to show Kay the Curlew on the way to work this afternoon.
Category: Bruce
Long-Billed Curlew
Thanks to Will Brooks who found the LBCU and Bruce Labar who called me while he was seeing the bird, I was able to make a frantic dash to the newly plowed field just off Hwy 162 near 80th Ave. to see my first Pierce County Long-billed Curlew about 12:50 today, get photos, and dash back to Good Samaritan Hospital to park and get to work by 1:30 and precept for the East Pierce County Family Medicine Residency program for the afternoon. The power of eBird and a good cell phone network is amazing. Pierce County species # 243 is on record now. Check out my best photos on eBird.
Back in Pierce
This morning I got out birding in Pierce County for the first time since April 16, and so Pierce FOY birds were pretty available. That said I missed the real target of the morning when I could not find the Brewer’s Sparrow at the 56th St Stormwater Ponds. I met Bruce Labar an Peter Wimberger there though and did manage to get lots of American Pipits and a Greater Yellowlegs.
Next stop was at 178th Ave in Orting to look for what has become the annual Western Kingbird there. Bruse and Peter were there too and Bruce located the bird on a fence post.
Shortly after 6 Band-tailed Pigeons flew into a cottonwood nearby for my 4th FOY Pierce species this morning.
This afternoon there was a Western Tanager calling and singing in the back yard while I weeded.
More Spring Arrivals
Today was a day for work around the house, but I started the day off right with an exercise walk from the edge of Manorwood past Pierce College and around Bradley Lake and back. The road was closed to traffic and on a sunny morning the birds were singing nicely. Best bird of the walk was Black-throated Gray Warbler with at least 3 singing loudly for FOY IDs. Also had at least 2 Hutton’s Vireos singing, and I think I heard an Evening Grosbeak, though I was not sure enough to list it.
Kay and I were about to head out on errands after meeting Steve to review and send in taxes when Bruce Labar texted that he had a Yellow-headed Blackbird at the 56th St. Stormwater Ponds. Kay and I headed there on a revision of our errand route, and sure enough after a few minutes a bright breeding male plumage YHBL strutted along the sandbar between the 2nd and 3rd ponds. This was both a FOY WA bird and a first ever Pierce species for me. We only stayed a few minutes, but for a day not focused on birding two FOY Pierce and WA birds, and a new Pierce lifer made it pretty great. All photos digiscoped.
Longmire and Back
Bruce Labar, Marcus Roening and I met at the Roy-Y Park & Ride at 7:20 AM and headed for Longmire Rainier NP in hopes of finding a few FOY Pierce birds. At Longmire it was generally quiet but we managed to find a small flock of mixed chickadees, CBC’s mostly, but at least 2 Mountain Chickadees. We also enjoyed a pair of dippers on the river from the bridge area. As always amazed at how they “dip” under the rushing water and bob back up again oblivious to the cascade of freezing water. Two large flocks of Pine Siskins were FOY for Marcus.
We made several stops on the way back, best by far was hearing and then seeing a FOY WA Pygmy Owl on a back road out of Ashford.
We met Will Brooks on 416th and he told us he had heard a California Quail at Kreger Lake so we continued out to that stop. No CAQU but we were all pleased by a FOY pair of Cinnamon Teal.
Our last stops around the 13th Division Praires at Ft. Lewis yielded two California Quail and a Western Bluebird, but we were not able to locate the Horned Larks Will had seen and heard earlier.
A great day with 2 WA and 5 Pierce FOY birds.
Tundra Swans on the Orting Farm Loop Today
Today I tried once more for the Brant in the wet fields between Riverside Rd and Auto Way in Sumner, finding a diminishing flock of Cackling Geese behind the Honda dealership again, but today the Snow Geese were gone and the Brant still not found. Rain was found though and increasing hard rain at 33 degrees, so I decided car birding was in order.
I headed for Orting hoping for Peregrine Falcon or who knows what. I got two good FOY Pierce birds as in a flock of sparrows on the Orting Farm Loop off Calistoga I had nice looks from the drivers window at an obliging Lincoln’s Sparrow and near the end of the loop I noted four big white birds with the Cackling Geese. I assumed Trumpeter Swans, but was really surprised and pleased to see four Tundra Swans, one with a really lot of yellow in front of the eye on the bill. I hoped for maybe Bewick’s Swan or even Whooper Swan, but it was just a very upper limits of normal yellow on the bill of a Tundra. I called Bruce Labar to come see and while I waited for him another 3 Tundra Swans walked into view. That was two good birds on one of my favorite winter bad-weather birding-by-car drives. Sweet.
JBLM Prairies Today
Today Bruce Labar and I met at the Roy Y park-and-ride at 8:30 AM and headed for the Ft. JBLM prairies and Chambers Lake hoping for some early Pierce County birds. At the bobwhite spot a fire may have forced the birds to move, but no luck on them of CAQU but I did get Pierce County FOY Cooper’s Hawk, Wood Duck and CORA. Chambers lake added nothing new but big numbers of RNDU, BUFF and LESC.
Next was the prairies in Area 13 (maybe some on restricted area 14, and 15 where we found a Northern Shrike, but no RLHA or other targets.
A quick trip to Kreger Lake area was quiet, the lakes still iced over, but I did learn of a new way to see Silver Lake from a resort on the back side to avoid stopping on the road by the angry farmer’s driveway, that’s nice Overall a good half day, 5 FOY Pierce birds and almost no rain