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: Western Kingbird
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.
JBLM Today for NOBO with Ken
Today Ken and I got out in Pierce to look for Northern Bobwhite at the site it has been seen last month. We initially tried to use Google Maps which took us through Roy to a blocked entry onto JBLM, then circled around going in the Roy Gate, past Chamber’s Lake, Left onto East Gate Rd then backtracking towards Roy to the spot. We parked, walked along Muck Creek a half mile or so, and back with no NOBO heard or seen, but then as we were giving Sophie a chance to tinkle I heard one sing a few hundred yards further down the road. We walked down, heard it sing repeatedly, and eventually one flew past us across the road. This was a FOY ABA bird for both Ken and me, and a first time Pierce bird for me.
From here we decided to go back to Chamber’s Lake to see if the Bank Swallows seen by Michael yesterday were still around, and sure enough on likely the same wires near the lake were maybe 100 swallows, at least 4 of which were Bank swallows.
From here we cut back across East Gate Road to 8th Ave. and onto area 15 where we hoped to find Vesper Sparrow. We had one bird we think may have been a VESP but it was wet (raining then) and we got only backlit looks and just could not firm the ID enough. No success at relocating after it flew, or maybe success at a true ID as another species, but no confident IDs of VESP. We did see lots of Chipping sparrows, and saw a Western Kingbird. Likely an early returning migrant, but we wonder if maybe a breeding bird or juvenile.
Anyway after this we tried driving a ways down the road flanking area 13 looking for VESP but no luck.
It was great to see Ken again after my month in CA and good to be birding on home turf.
Caroline our niece is visiting so probably not much more birding this next week.
Taking a Break from Yard Work Yields Lazuli Bunting and Western Kingbird
Today I had a short window between yard work and covering SDC so the PAs could go to their quarterly meeting, and when Bruce texted about not just the usual Lazuli Bunting but Western Kingbird in Orting, where to go was clear. I had only an hour to bird after dashing down the hill to the Orting Valley and getting to the 178th Street hotspot, but it was enough. I checked the powerline and fenceline on the way down 178th but couldn’t find the WEKI. Lazuli buntings were on station and singing all over the place in the field past the bend in the road, in the Scotch Broom as Bruce described. I had at least 4 birds, two males singing and posing near the gravel trail, and another two singing farther away at the same time. I think there were a minimum of 6 birds singing, but reported 4 on eBird.
I made it a quick stop in this area to have time for another look for the kingbird, and just before giving up on the way back I spotted the WEKI on the wire from the utility pole just in front of and to the left of the cell tower. I managed a digiscope ID quality photo. In the photo I can see the white outer tail feathers, and in the scope clearly saw the gray overall color with yellow belly. These birds seem to frequently stop at this location in migration at this time of year. last year Bruce and I had them in the same field 2 days earlier in May.
Two good FOY Pierce County birds. Thanks Bruce.