This afternoon I joined Art Wang and about 30 Tacoma high school students on a birding walk from the far end of Point Ruston, near the Yacht Club where we met, and slowly birded and talked our way around the point to just past the boat. Overall not very birdy, very talkative group with a few moderately interested kids and lots of others with varied levels of birding interest. Art was good at keeping them somewhat on task, and we saw the common species. Marcus joined us late in the walk. No BLTU, but a WEGU was a Pierce FOY bird over near the Yacht Club.
Category: Pierce County
DeMolay Spit and Fox Island Bridge
This afternoon I broke free to get the winter specialties for Pierce at the Fox Island Bridge area, and managed all except for Common Murre, which should be pretty easy at other locations. A nice flock of WWSC was off to the left from the spit area. All three loons were present, 4 Long-tailed ducks were seen from the spit over near the bridge, but not seen later from the base of the bridge?? After several scope passes Harlequin ducks were on the inside of the bridge very close. Wind made looking far out for COMU difficult.
Quick Outing for Glaucous Gull and Peregrine Falcon
Abut noon, also low tide, I dashed over to the 11th St. Bridge to look for the Glaucous gull, but it was not with thei 60-70 bathing gulls. While there I did manage a distant look at the Tacoma resident Peregrine falcon high on a brown building to the right of where it is often found on the tall white building with window ledges.
Since the GLGU was not at the bridge, I decided on a quick try at the Gog, and sure enough I got pretty nice looks at the gull on the roof with a large flock of big guys. I managed digiscope photos, but on trying with the camera, couldn’t see it and on looking back in the scope, it had moved out of sight.
This brings me to 74 for Pierce in 2018.
Cleaning Up 2017 Leftovers
Today I made time before and after Rotary to try for some uncommon Pierce birds left over from 2017. No luck at the 11th St Bridge area for Harris’s sparrow where Marv Breese and I looked without success in the morning. Then on the way to Puyallup I did manage a distant look at the Gyrfalcon at Steele St. where I was able to get Katherine Cooper onto the bird in the tall cottonwood tree.
After Rotary and grocery shopping I first tried for the Black phoebe at the Oxbow Remnant area, without success but at Radience Blvd. I did flush the American bittern just as I stepped onto the berm.
Getting two nice Pierce County FOY birds for the day was sweet.
Welcome 2018
Despite having to complete moving out of the back of the house today, I managed a bit of a start on Pierce County birding. I looked briefly for the Gyrfalcon at McChord AFB but no luck, and Heather Voboril had no luck yesterday either, so maybe it has moved on or met a jet collision.
A first light scoping from the condo yielded nothing unusual. Then a walk with Kay on Ruston where the best bird was an Orange-crowned warbler at the little park at the bottom of Starr St across 30th where it was flitting on top of the blackberry brambles.
Pretty much usual birds on the water.
Later after a Home Depot run and after looking for the Gyr I visited the American Lake Camp Murray boat launch, and managed 10 Canvassbacks far across the lake by the shore with many other ducks and coots. Also a very nice mobbing of DEJU, BCCH, RBNU and a DOWO near the little backwater beside the parking lot.
At Harry Todd Park I got RBGU and CAGU along with WEGR.
Species count for the day (and year) is 42.
Gyrfalcon at McChord
Yesterday after working at SFM Hartland SDC 7-2, I stopped by the spot on Steele St where the Gyrfalcon has been seen. It was quite foggy, and I was not dressed for the cold or wet ground, but I set up my scope and scanned the power poles on the east side of the runway from the road next to the trucking parking lots. No Gyr on the first pass, or on a second pass. Other birders showed up, and I spent a few minutes scanning other fences, and potential perches. I walked to the end of the road, and on scanning again presto, the Gyrfalcon had flown in and was perched on the nearest power pole. I walked back to higher ground to get views unobstructed by the fence, and digiscoped very distant photos. Adequate views for ID, i.e. a very large grayish brown falcon, powerful looking shoulders, thick tail, and very short wings, but the fog and distance made it less than satisfying.
Today after finishing the decisions with Kay on the remodel issues, and before going to her doctors appointment, I brought Kay back hoping for another look. No bird on the power poles, but after looking around a bit I located a distant dark area in a tall tree to the east of the air base. On scoping it was the Gyrfalcon, and views were better than yesterday. After getting good but distant looks, I decided to try walking down the dirt road toward the tree. Incredibly the road led right beside the tree, and the Gyr just sat there quietly. I got much better photos, and went back to get Kay. She walked down also, and we both got close up looks, probably my best looks ever at a Gyrfalcon perched. On my first walk down I think it was calling too, a fairly soft squeeky call note, not too much different from an AMKE.
At one time an accipitor, I think a SSHA but possibly a COHA was perched very close to the Gyrfalcon in the same tree!
CBC on the Sound
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.
Puget Creek Drainage Park
Today it was sunny, calm winds, and cold. A nice day for a walk, so I first headed to Gog-li-hi-ti and birded all the trails. Then after an early lunch I walked down Ruston Way to Puget Park. It is a well maintained trail up the creek drainage from Ruston Way to Proctor. Interestingly at the top of the park the straight trail that looks like it goes across Proctor St. on the maps actually goes about 80 feet under a bridge on Proctor crossing the gulch, and continues maybe a half mile to a dead end. The trail up to Proctor St. is off to the left, looks like it goes back down the gulch, but really just is a series of stepped switch-backs up to a small playground on Proctor. From there I walked back down 30th to home. None of the areas notable birdy, but a nice day anyway.
A Weather Break in the Afternoon
Today was a rainy morning, but when I figured out the TV/WIFI problem before the Comncast guy was due at 2 PM and so I took advantage to try again for the Redpoll at the Gog. No luck at all, really pretty quiet there, but on the way back I stopped at the gull bathing spot on the Puyallup River, and got great looks at the Glaucous gull. I saw it fly in, had backlit looks on the water, but then it flew up to a container for close up looks where I helped a birder (Allen) get on the bird and got nice photos.
Local Rarity Chases Today
Today Ken came over to chase the Glaucous Gull and Common Redpoll that had been seen near the Puyallup River recently. I made a really quick stop for the gull at the 11th Street Bridge without luck before meeting Ken and Bryan at the Gog. We chased two good sized flocks of PISI around for a couple of hours without any luck, and then headed back to the bridge to try for the gull. Very few gulls were at the bridge, but lots at the mouth of the river, so after a while we drove across to the Stewart St. entrance to the trail to the river mouth and hiked out there.
Lots of gulls, a good flock of Dunlin, and a few other birds but no GLGU at the mouith, but while out there we got a text from Peter W. that the GLGU was back at the gull bathing spot. We quickly walked back to find that it had flown away towards Gog-li-hi-ti just before we got back.
So back to the Gog where we almost immediately got on the Glaucous Gull on a container with pretty good scope views.
Another hour + of chasing siskins around failed to show the Redpoll, though I did spot a Black phoebe over the water in the second field. Marv Breese had the Redpoll, and I think I got a glimpse in his camera viewfinder, but none of the rest of us could locate it again before I left just after 1 PM. A nice day one Pierce lifer for me, but disappointment on missing the CORE.