Today I met Bruce Labar and Will Brooks to try for owls before getting out on the Citizens for a Clean Sound boat to bird the salt water areas of the count circle. We managed to find just one Great-horned owl at Pt Defiance and missed Saw-whet owl there as well as missing Barred owl at Puget Park.
We spent a little time on Ruston Way looking for Black turnstones, and missed them too.
The boat left at 9 AM with Sam at the helm, and is a very nice boat for birding. It has am covered relatively heated area with good visibility, and we did the usual route. Best birds were 4 Ancient murrelets spotted flying away by Will, a flock of 10 Long-tailed ducks, and lots of gulls and common alcids to sort through and count. I did the number recording, but was still able to get looks at all of the species and lots of birds.
After finishing at 2 PM I dashed to Brett’s to finish the shed roof before getting a text from Michael C. that their CBC group had a flock of 29 Common redpolls on Alexander Ave near the power station. I dashed there directly, met Bruce there, but the CORE had apparently moved on through.
Category: CBC
TAS CBC on a Boat
For the first time I did the Tahoma Audubon CBC from the luxury of a boat. I was able to join Bruce Labar, Charlie & Linnaea, Peter Wimberger, and others on the Sea Scout 72′ boat on a clear, nearly windless cruise of the Puget Sound waters in the CBC circle.
Before the boat Bruce, Peter and I joined Ken Brown, Ryan Weise, Heather Voboril, and Bryon Hanson at Point Defiance so Peter could lead us to the Saw Whet Owl he located there on his early morning walks. We drove right to the area and in short order heard initially a faint tooting call, then a very nearby screech call, then persistant and nearby tooting. Really cool. Two distant GHOW were also calling in the same area.
After that we headed for the boat, and boarded right at 7:30. Bruce was pleasantly surprised to see Charlie and Linnaea there as they are leading the first Neah Bay CBC on tomorrow, and it’s a long drive there. Still they added a big + in finding good birds, as Charlie was all over distane birds, including several Cassin’s Aucklet sightings, and finding the first Ancient Murrelets. Surprises were seeing exactly ONE Boneparte’s Gull, missing the 2-3000 that have been seen recently, and overall relatively few alcids. Still a good day and a warm, easy way to do the TAS CBC.
