by Ed Pullen
Start Time: 4 AM
Estimated Miles driven: 190
Weather: Mostly light rain in the early morning, heavy rain from about 10 AM until 2 PM, then cleared
eBird checklists: 28!!
Drivers: 2 cars Ed Pullen and Peter Wimberger (with some sharing)
What a Day
This big day was a significant change from recent annual big day attempts, in that it is a few days to a week or more later in May, and the route was new. It worked great as it was the highest big day recorded in the 20+ years Bruce has been doing these efforts. The prior record of 137 species was in 2011.
We debated about changing the date or cancelling based on the weather report, but decided to go for it as individual schedules didn’t allow a change for everyone. We pretty much followed ABA big day rules except for using 2 vehicles, as cramming into one vehicle for the super-long day effort seemed unwise and uncomfortable.
We started the day meeting at the lower Puget Park at 4 AM, in light rain and well before the 5:36 AM sunrise where we quickly saw and heard the expected pair of Barred Owls. Will, Max and Peter stopped at the top of the park before meeting us and heard migrating Swainson’s Thrushes, a sign of the great young ears on the trip to come.
From there we drove to JBLM, starting our list at the end of Chamber’s Lake at 4:51 just as dawn approached. Will pointed out Cinnamon Teal in the dark, that most of us recognized over the next few minutes as the sun approached the horizon. Wood Duck, PB Grebe, Sora, Virginia Rail, and Olive-sided Flycatcher calling distantly were highlights, and really active singing birds gave us 37 species on the 49 minute stop there.
We drove across the back road to Muck Creek, adding MacGilvary’s Warbler, Brown Creeper, Red-breasted Sapsucker, and lots more at a quick stop by the small pond there, and at Muck Creek missed Bobwhite, but added California Quail, Hairy Woodpecker, House Wren, Purple Martin, American Kestrel as part of the 34 species at Muck Creek.
At Story Road, the next stop we got remarkable close looks at a Vesper Sparrow that flew to a bush right beside the car near Range 72, and added Western Bluebird, Western Wood Pewee, and then dashed for the Hermit Warbler stop. The Hermit sang loudly for us straight overhead in a tall fir tree, and we kept it to a 3 minute stop.
At the Thirteenth Division Prairie area we added the hoped for Western Kingbird and Lazuli Bunting along with a Bullock’s Oriole female and several other species.
Driving through Lakewood Will made an incidental list for the obligatory Rock Pigeon as we dashed for the Chamber’s Creek/Bay area. At the area by the fish ladder/dam in a very quick stop we were really pleased by a late Greater Yellowlegs, Bufflehead, Common Merganser, Hooded Merganser and Osprey. At the stop across the road from the railroad tracks scopes turned out to be terrific, with a single unexpectedly late Red-necked Grebe spotted by Peter, the only Common Loon of the trip, along with Marbled Murrelet, Rhinoceros Auklet, a single Surf Scoter, Greater Scaup, all three cormorants, Bushtit close enough for everyone to hear, and American Wigeon. This was an “exceeded expectations” stop by far, and set us up for a great total species number, as at the late date finding salt water species that had mostly left for breeding grounds was a risk.
We got to the McNeil Trail in Dupont at 8:41, but fog descended making viewing really difficult, but Will got us onto a Nashville Warbler in the bushes right in front of our viewing point, and we made it a quick stop as we could barely see the mudflats. No Ringed-bill Gull, shorebirds or really much else made the stop unfruitful otherwise.
Next stop was Titlow Park, where a brief seawatch was not fruitful, but we added Pileated and Downy Woodpecker, Cedar Waxwing, and heard and saw lots of passerines for a species total there of 31.
Hutton’s Vireo was a miss at Titlow, so we stopped at two place on the periphery of Pt. Defiance park, finally hearing two at the turn at the top of the hill by the Vassault entrance.
We were undecided about stopping at Dune Peninsula Park, but were running well on time so decided to make a quick stop. Bingo- Will initially picked out a flock of 45 shorebirds that landed on the water far offshore, to add Red-necked Phalarope, and then three Brown Pelicans flew down the channel from in front of Brown’s Point, a California Gull flew by, and remarkably Will was able to identify 5 distant ducks flying by as Barrow’s Goldeneyes. Another great stop.
A quick stop at Thea Park added a late Short-billed Gull (previously Mew Gull) and we headed for the Frank Albert Farm fields as light rain steadily became not so light at all. We slogged through the heavy rain out into the muddy fields, and I quickly looked at two small plovers with a ring on their neck that I wrote off as Killdeer without setting up my scope. Peter scoped the first ponds and identified them as unusual for spring Semi-palmated Plovers. The start of a great stop. Max used his 6’5” height to point out Amerian Pipits over the berm at the end of the field that we all got on, and we hit the dabbling duck jackpot in the ponds in the back, with the hoped for remaining 3 Blue-winged Teal, plus Cinnamon Teal (in the daylight this time), Green-winged Teal, N. Shoveler, Gadwall, and Mallard. On the walk back out as we neared the cars, Will excitedly shouted out Lark Sparrow as he and Max spotted a sparrow fly quickly in front of them only to disappear into the hedgerow, and not be relocated.
A stop at Levee Pond was not productive for Green Heron, but the 56th St Stormwater ponds added the expected American Coot, Ruddy Duck and a high-flying calling Belted Kingfisher, and an unexpeted Long-billed Dowicher.
Drive by new birds on Hwy 162 near Spooner Farms were Brewer’s Blackbird and Eurasian Collared Dove as we drove to the West Orting Farm Fields hotspot. Miscommunication about the direction to travel the loop led Bruce and me to be a minute late at where Will, Peter and Max had just seen a Peregrine Falcon (not to fear we all saw one later in the day) just as Will explained to Max that finding a Northern Harrier here at this time of year was not likely, only to have one leisurely fly by really obviously about 1 minute later. Vaux’s Swift, another Western Kingbird and a nice flock of 75 American Pipits along with a small group of Least Sandpipers were highlights of Orting. We tried at 178th Street quickly for Lesser Goldfinch, but it was a miss for the day.
We tried to recover Green Heron at the Voight’s Fish Hatchery, but no luck on the way to the foothills areas off Hwy 410, so settled for a single Turkey Vulture finally getting up as the rain cleared and we drove on.
I upset Bruce by running an eBird trip report, but he was less disappointed to hear the we had 125 birds already. At FR 70 it was really quiet, and we added no new species there. Chrystal River Ranch Road gave us American Dipper that Bruce spotted upstream from the first bridge. It also gave the older participants a chance to hear and see some species that younger ears had found in the lowlands, like Black-throated Gray, Townsends and Orange-crowned Warblers, Evening Grosbeak, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, and we added no new species but excellent looks at three Lazuli Buntings at the corral area, including a nice female bunting.
We went on the FR 73 where we missed the hoped for Red Crossbills, and failed to add hoped for lingering or moving unusual Empidonax flycatchers. We also surprisingly missed Townsend’s Solitaire, which Will reminded us is never predictable anywhere, though at visits earlier this week were numerous in many of our stops that afternoon.
We made two stops near Crystal Mountain Ski Resort, missing Sooty Grouse near the ski lift area, but at some beaver ponds off the main road driving out we added very distant booming grouse, and had a lucky Hermit Thrusht close range.
We made owls nice bookends of our trip, with N. Pygmy Owl tooting at a known place off the Crystal River Ranch Road to wrap up our birding for the day. We planned a celebratory dinner in Greenwater at the bar (closing early on Sunday Night, or Enumclaw, also closed up tight) but did enjoy a wrap up beer and burgers at the Parkway Bar in Tacoma, where Peter ordering an Impossible Bacon Cheeseburger make this vegan laugh, as did Peter’s story of the t-shirt exchange. Ask him if you see him.
Overall a great way to celebrate Will’s 24th birthday, getting to know Max, and bird hard all day.