I’ve been laid low since Monday night with a flu-like illness, and today finally felt good enough to feel like some fresh air might help. I drove to Spanaway Marsh and took a pitifully slow stroll around looking for Pierce County FOY birds, found just 2, Wood Duck and Hutton’s Vireo, but not finding the hoped for Purple Finch, Red Crossbill, Virginia Rail or Band-tailed Pigeon. Overall just nice to pretend to feel well enough to go birding.
Category: Pierce County
A Day in Thurston and Pierce: Black Phoebe and Eurasian Green-winged Teal
Today Ken was finally feeling well enough to get out birding, and we met at 7AM at the I-5 / HWY 512 Park and Ride to try to track down some local eBird rarities and fill out our state and Pierce County year lists.
First stop was the American Lake Camp Murray Boat Launch where we saw three Canvasback that were WA FOY for Ken. Also had at least 120 Tree Swallows streaming across the water. Could not make any other species of swallows.
Next stop was Easterday Road trying for WTSP, not to be. Next was the Mount’s Road Tribal Turnout area where I located a Northern Shrike, we had a FOY Pierce County Sharp-shinned hawk for me, and we headed for Nisqually to look for the wintering RSHA.
No luck there with the hawk, but we did meet Brian Pendleton, and it was nice to see him again and bird there together. I got a FOY Red-breasted Sapsucker just before we headed back for the car, but no RSHA despite nearly 2 hours of searching.
From here we continued south a couple of miles to the Hawk’s Prairie Settling Ponds where a Black phoebe was calling loudly enough that we got on it immediately and spent a bit of time birding that area.
We spent so much time at Nisqually that we decided against treking to Longview to look for the NOMO there, and instead headed for Gog-li-hi-ti to look for the SBGU wintering there. On the way we detoured to Orting where we got Ken the wintering Trumpeter Swans (FOY for him) and made a quick stop at the Fife Levy Pone on the way to Gog-li-hi-ti.
At G-T-H-T and the 11th street bridge Gull bathing spot we had no luck looking for the SBGU, but we did find the Eurasian Green-winged teal that was located there over the weekend.
Last stop of the day was at Ruston Way where I was able to drive us straight to the location I had recently seen the immature Snow Goose and Ken added it to his year list.
We also saw a close in Pelagic Cormorant that was starting to get it’s breeding red face.
I got two WA FOY birds (RBSA and BLPH), one ABA FOY Bird (RBSA) and 8 Pierce FOY birds, DOWO, BUSH, YRWA, WEME, SSHA, BEWR, PISI, and TRSW. Ken added several FOY WA birds too.
Sunshine, birding with a great friend, and a day of total leisure. Life is good.
A Walk at Wildwood
Today Kay and I took an afternoon walk at Wildwood Park, near home. It was a sunny day and nice to get outdoors. We spent only about a half hour, and the best birds of the day were a pair of Brown Creepers, heard initially by me, sighted quickly by Kay, and eventually seen well by both of us. I was able to get Kay onto the single-note ultra-high pitched call notes. We got good chances to compare with the Golden-crowned kinglets heard before and after the creepers.
We also had a Pileated woodpecker working a big snag in the area near where we often get the nesting Barred owls.
Tomorrow off for a day in the field with Ken.
Black Scoter and Greater White-fronted Goose
Today I broke free from working on our rental for long enough to dash to Ruston Way to look for Black Scoter that he had seen there yesterday afternoon. They had been seen last weekend also. I first went to the Thea’s Park lookout over the waterway where they were seen yesterday, but none there. Next I went down Ruston Way to the spot just past the Chinese Reconciliation Project Pavillon where on first pass none were seen, but I turned around and they must have all been diving because six Black Scoter (eBird list) were very close to shore and in plain site I got digiscope photos before I had to head back to meet our roof repairmen.
I got that task done and decided to check out the Mountain View Cemetery. I was hoping to find a good flock of sparrows to see if maybe a White-throated or even Harris’s might be mixed in, but the oak area was very quiet. The good find of the stop though was a Greater White-fronted Goose with about 45 Canada Geese on the lower cemetery lawn.
A Brief Stop at Ruston Way in the Rain
Today after leaving our rental place in Tacoma Kay and I made two quick stops on the Ruston Way waterfront and before we turned in to park in the public lot beside the Lobster Shop had sighted the immature Snow Goose feeding on the lawn with a flock of Canada geese, and one stubby-billed smaller Cackling Goose. Barrow’s goldeneye, Brant’s and Pelagic Cormorants, a Pigeon Guillemot, Horned Grebe, Surf Scoters and Mew Gulls were the other species of note here and further on down near the new development and parked ship. This stop was a nice way to pass time until lunch from Infinite Soups, a great place for Vegan soups as well as many other soup options, and a glass of red wine from Corina Bakery and seeing a documentary about life in Irqn called Jafar Panahi’s Taxi at the Grand Cinema.
Tomorrow off to the Okanagan area with Ken’s birding class for a 3-day weekend foray. It will be his last class trip, as he is stepping down after leading this twice a year class for about 30 years!
2015 Wrap Up
2015 was a very eventful year for me. I retired at the end of August, my Dad passed in August, and I had both lots of time to travel and tried to accumulate a Pierce County year list.
Here were some of the birding highlights:
Pierce County: I got to know Bruce Labar much better this year. He was very helpful in showing me some new Pierce areas, sharing sightings, and having some fun birding together. Probably the best “new” area was the back route to Grand Park near Sunrise were we relocated American Three-toed and Black-backed Woodpeckers on a couple of hikes there in the summer, and I saw the “Park”, really a giant meadow, for the first time. It is really Grand. Mountain bluebirds everywhere, Golden Eagle soaring, vistas to enjoy, and great hikes. Other cool birds were Northern Pygmy Owl both on the hikes to Grand Meadow and early in the year at the Ashford Park, the female King Eider Bruce located on Ruston Way, Ruffed Grouse in Graham, a Black-bellied Plover in Tacoma at Alexander, and totaling 212 species for the year despite quite a few misses including no Black Scoter, missing a few rarer vagrants while travelling including the BTBW at Gog-li-hi-ti.
California: I spent a bit of time in CA this year, adding a couple of ABA lifers, Bell’s Sparrow and Yellow-footed gull at the Salton Sea.
Texas: Kay and I spent 2 weeks in Texas at the Lower Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival and a week following that. It was a great trip, with highlights of adding 7 ABA lifers for me. Maybe the coolest was the Northern Jacana at Choke Canyon.
Arizona: Bruce Labar and I spent 4 days in SE Arizona in Mid October, and had a delightful trip. The canyons there are just amazing, and although we missed on some targets including Montezuma quail and Rufous-crowned warbler, we did get great looks at the Sinaloa Wren, Tufted Flycatcher, Arizona Woodpecker and Lucifer Hummingbird. I was able to hear a distant Whiskered Screech Owl at Ramsey Canyon.
Cross-Country Drive: Kay and I drove Dad’s Lincoln MKX across country and had a nice though very hot trip in early September. We got to see a few cool off-peak season birding spots including MaGee Marsh in Ohio, and the Platte River in Kansas, but the only lifer of the trip was the introduced Eurasian Tree Sparrow near St. Louis.
Maine Whale Watching Trip: We got great looks at the Bush compound in Kennebunkport, but for birds the highlights were hundreds of Wilson’s Storm Petrels, and nice comparisons of Great Shearwater and Cory’s Shearwaters. Cory’s was a lifer for me.
Overall a really great birding year for me. I added 24 ABA lifers, the most in many years for me, far surpassed my initial goal of >200 Pierce County year birds, was in the top 100 ABA 2015 e-Bird listers, a total surprise to me pointed out by Diane Y-Q. I ranked 99th at 475 ABA species this year.
We also made trips to Nicaragua to visit Kay’s brother Keith, and I saw just 41 species in the time there, though not a birding trip. We did better in Yucatan, seeing 126 species there, including hundreds of American Flamingos at Rio Lagartos.
Next year my goal is to try to add 14 ABA species to get to 700 life species.
Happy New Years to all and good birding.
TAS Trip Today
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.
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.