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.
Tag: Ancient Murrelet
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.
