On the way home from working with Brett today I made a stop at 134th St (beside the old Van Lierop’s Farm Stand) looking for the Lesser Goldfinch sighted there recently. I had not really birded this area before, and found that walking the road plus the dirt road beside the big field gives access to large areas of dense brush and trees with a big field on the other side of the dirt road.
Right as I parked on the side of 134th near the ramshackle barn I heard a LEGO calling. It called repeatedly and sang a few times but I never could get a look at it in the big tree beside the road, then it flew away. No luck with callback recordings. Next I walked down the road and onto the dirt road off to the left. There I saw a large flycatcher working from the top of a tree way over by the Shaw Road overpass. It was a WEKI. It then flew high right across the dirt road, singing and sallying about until it landed on the large snag in the far corner of the field. There was another WEKI there, 2 total, and they had ?courtship like interactions and hung out in the snag. ? a nest tree?
Tag: WEKI
Back in Pierce
This morning I got out birding in Pierce County for the first time since April 16, and so Pierce FOY birds were pretty available. That said I missed the real target of the morning when I could not find the Brewer’s Sparrow at the 56th St Stormwater Ponds. I met Bruce Labar an Peter Wimberger there though and did manage to get lots of American Pipits and a Greater Yellowlegs.
Next stop was at 178th Ave in Orting to look for what has become the annual Western Kingbird there. Bruse and Peter were there too and Bruce located the bird on a fence post.
Shortly after 6 Band-tailed Pigeons flew into a cottonwood nearby for my 4th FOY Pierce species this morning.
This afternoon there was a Western Tanager calling and singing in the back yard while I weeded.