I gave myself a break today. Ken and Heather Voboril went out owling early, in the cold, wind and rain, and in 3 hours heard one Great-horned Owl. One more than I had predicted when last night after getting home from the Gray’s Harbor CBC I called Ken and bailed on owling on his Vashon CBC. I met Them and Jacob Miller, a young and new-to-birding birder at the Purdy Park & Ride at 7:50. I tried scoping in the barely light for the Black Scoter on Henderson Inlet, but with the weather there was not enough light to see anything that early.
We did our usual routes for the CBC, and it was fun to get to know Jacob a bit, a home-schooled and very sharp 14 year old from Mason County who has been birding for about a year. The birding in general was slow in the AM with far fewer finches, sparrows and the like in the Burley area, and then the rain came in ernest. We spent much of the AM driving neighborhoods looking out the car windows for feeders and flocks. Nothing really notable was found.
In the afternoon we went to Long Lake, a segment of a different section of the count area, where Ken had found some good birds scouting the day prior. Heather spotted the Canvasback, very distant but identifiable. Hundreds of Ringed-neck Ducks dominated, but big numbers of PBGR and AMCO were seen, and in the boat launch area Jacob spotted Hariy Woodpecker and Red-breasted Sapsucker, usual for the area, but good FOY birds for me.
We wrapped up at Blackjack Creek area where Heather and I heard the Virginia Rail we had missed in the AM, and Ken and Jacob scanned the fields for raptors, largely without success.
As usual a good day of friendship and birding, lots of new FOY species (easy in early Jan) and cold hands and ears.
Say goodbye to the CBC season.
Tag: Ken
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.