Observations of the passing seasons |
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2003 - April - March - February - January - Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge visit, March 2001
- Insiders' Guide to the Olympic Peninsula - Creeping with Utah Nature Study Society - Tidepool - Association for the Study of Literature and Environment
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Signs that spring has arrived are all over our yard right now. The shot of a few crocus blooming alongside the sidewalk in front of the house shows just a few of the flowers up and blooming right now. Other blooms include our forsythia bush next to the front porch and the grape hyacinth in the yard. Add the bright yellows, blacks, and whites of the Goldfinches that are coming to the feeders and a majestic Red-tailed Hawk seen circling high overhead earlier this afternoon and there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic as spring arrives here in Puget Sound country. I woke to the coldest morning of the winter and after defrosting the car for Natalie and sipping some tea inside the warm living room, the first thing on my mind was dealing with the frozen bird bath and filling the bird feeders in the yard. With low temperatures around 20 degrees F, even the sugar water in the hummingbird feeders had started to freeze. Not long after filling the feeders and while the warm water I used to fill the bird bath was still gently sending tendrils of steam vapor into the cool air, birds were everywhere mobbing the feeders. Among the visitors were three Golden-crowned Sparrows feeding on the ground under the feeder and four Goldfinches at the thistle seed feeder - the first of either of these species that I have seen in our yard this month. Later in the day it was sunny and fairly warm, but there is still a nip of winter in the air...
Natalie and I left home around 7 a.m. this morning to meet with Rolan Nelson in Purdy for a full day of birding along the northern edges of the Olympic Peninsula. Our agenda was to bird in Sequim at the Three Crabs Restaurant along Dungeness Bay, to head west through Port Angeles to bird at the Salt Creek Recreation Area and Crescent Beach, then to drive into Olympic National Park along the Elwha River, and time allowing to squeeze in a stop at the John Wayne Marina on our way back toward Tacoma. The biggest highlight - it was a great day for ducks. We had all of the sea ducks and by Rolan's count 17 duck species in all, and it was great to see "Stumpy" the Emperor Goose is still present at Lincoln Park in Port Angeles. I hadn't read anything about him on the Tweeters email list since August, 2002. I am also starting to think that John Wayne Marina is a fairly reliable place to see Black Oystercatcher during mid and low tides, especially around sunset. Prior to seeing three oystercatchers this evening, Natalie and I saw two oystercatchers in the same location and under the same conditions on March 2, 2002. By my count we came away with 58 species along our 286 mile route. Here are the nitty gritty details - Sequim Bay near Jamestown: There was a lot of waterfowl out in this far end of Sequim Bay, but we didn't bother to get out our spotting scopes to get exact counts of to tally all of the species when we stopped around 9:30 a.m. We just scanned the scenery with our binoculars and moved on to points to the west... - Great Blue Heron Sequim and Three Crabs area: Clouds obscured the tops of the Olympic Mountains while we looked north into Dungeness Bay and scanned the river where ducks were feeding, trying to grab the food before the gulls could get the morselfs at the mouth of the river. Mount Baker looms white and towering to the northeast of here, and the lighthouse on Dungeness Spit is shining with the light being cast upon it by the sun. - Red-tailed Hawk being hassled by two crows as we entered town, another balancing on a power line alongside the road out to the town of Dungeness Dungeness Recreation Area: We only drove into the entrance here and resisted the urge to walk down to the foot of Dungeness Spit. We surely would have picked up at least a half dozen other species by heading into the woods, but I didn't think we had time for that today. - American Kestrel Port Angeles (Hollywood Beach): - House Sparrow Ediz Hook: Despite all of our visits to Port Angeles over the last few years, this is the first time that Natalie and I have driven out onto Ediz Hook. We'll be back, for sure. This short visit yielded our only shorebirds of the day, but just as we were setting up to take some photos of the Black Turnstones and Sanderling, a couple of families and their kids decided to step down toward the inner harbor shore and to scare all of the shorebirds off. Maybe next time... - Barrow's Goldeneye Lincoln Park in Port Angeles: We made the visit to this park for one reason - to see if "Stumpy" the Emperor Goose was still around. He was! But we also found some other interesting birds here, including two Eurasian Wigeon. - Canada Goose (20, 4 were Dusky sub-species) Salt Creek Recreation Area and Crescent Beach: (Turn north from Hwy. 112 on Camp Hayden Road...48 deg, 09.899 N; 123 deg, 41.873 W, 42 feet elevation) - Steller's Jay Elwha River area: (48 deg, 00.591 N; 123 deg, 35.462 W, 523 feet elevation at the last bridge over the Elwha River) - Varied Thrush John Wayne Marina: (48 deg, 03.740 N; 123 deg, 03.001 W, 15 feet elevation) - Common Murre What a great day!
I am really impressed with the biodiversity that can be found in the West Hylebos Wetland State Park near Federal Way. Natalie spent a couple of hours in the park, walking the 1.1-mile boardwalk trail and counting the birds and viewing the early spring plants in this ancient bog. Right off the bat we were greeted by a Red-breasted Sapsucker - our first of the year in Washington and the first we have seen in Western Washington in more than a year. The last time we saw a Red-breasted Sapsucker was last fall on a trip far up Icicle Creek outside Leavenworth, where this sapsucker species is fairly rare. Here are the 30 species we saw on today's short local trip: Mason Gulch - - Red-tailed Hawk being dived at near the top of the gulch by an American Crow Along Schuster Parkway/Tacoma waterfront - - Belted Kingfisher On the east end of the Hylebos wetlands near Milton - - Bald Eagle (2) West Hylebos State Park - We walked the entire boardwalk trail today. Along the way we found Indian Plum in full bloom, nettles plants and skunk cabbage are emerging already, and the fallen tree limbs and moss-covered trees are brimming with mushroom and lichen. - Chestnut-backed Chickadee Puyallup River mouth (as seen from near the Simpson mill) - The low tide exposed a lot of the ground around this section of the river, which really isn't much like a river at all through the Tacoma tideflats since it is confined in such a ditch. I sometimes have to wonder just what birding would be like in the Puyallup and Tacoma area if the Puyallup River wasn't forced into a straight canal from Puyallup to its mouth in Commencement Bay. Just imagine an estuary larger than that found today at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge to the south. - Canada Goose Gog-le-hi-ti Wetland - Since there was some daylight left, we decided it was high time to wander the Tacoma tideflats and find the small wetlands near the Puyallup River. We eventually found our way, though it was getting cooler and the tide was too low to draw many species into the wetland this afternoon. - Red-winged Blackbird Ruston Way - As we drove back toward home we opted to continue driving the length of Ruston Way before turning up the hill. Spending a little time viewing the low tidal area closest to the old Asarco plant gave us two more merganser species, making this a three merganser day... - Common Merganser Jane Clark Park - We swung around to the north end of this park that is just a few blocks from our North Tacoma home and heard the incessant calling of a bird that we were able to locate and identify as a Bewick's Wren, making this a two-wren day... I am back at home today and decided to take a few minutes to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count. It just so happened that I did my count during a morning sun break, and as a result I was able to see a few more species than I would normally see. The highlight of the list was seeing eight Golden-crowned Kinglets, a first for our yard even if I did cheat a little by including them. They were in fact in the Douglas Fir tree in the neighbor's yard across the street. I decided to start my count when I saw the kinglets. Here are the 13 bird species I saw in 20 minutes looking out the windows and also making a couple of visits outside to look around with my binoculars: - Golden-crowned Kinglet (8) Not too long after I stopped counting the clouds closed back in, and I went out to refill the bird feeders that had been emptied over the weekend while we were in Eastern Washington. You can check out the Great Backyard Bird Count site at Birdsource.org. Update: Just a few minutes later the small roving flock of Bushtits arrived to feed on the suet feeder that hangs in our snowball bush. That means the only other common visitors missing for the day are Gold-crowned Sparrow and Song Sparrow...which just showed up actually as I am writing this...
Today's birding was more scattered than we would have liked, partially due to our desire to get a few more photos and to see more birds in the Waterville Plateau after spending the night in a hotel in Brewster last night and also due to the fact that Natalie and I were both battling bad headaches as the day wore on. Instead of researching in the Banks Lake Wildlife Area as planned, we drove Hwy. 2 east from the Waterville Plateau and then took Hwy. 17 south toward I-90. Here are some of the highlight bird species from each of the sites we visited: Bridgeport area: - Sharp-tailed Grouse (1) seen by Natalie only flying along Foster Creek near the bottom of Bridgeport Hill Rd. The highlight of our birding today was definitely watching a coyote running toward a pair of ducks in Foster Creek and just below our vantage point on Bridgeport Hill Road. The coyote then scrambled up the snow-covered hillside across the draw from us and stopped at the top to look back at us. As Natalie and I agreed when talking back at home tonight, sometimes it is a bigger treat to see mammals on these cross-state trips than birds, because it is so much harder to see mammals than the birds that we all expect and know ahead of time to be in certain habitats and at certain times of the day. Dry Falls area: - Bald Eagle (2) Sun Lakes/Lake Lenore/Soap Lake: - American Coot (300) in a large flock near Hwy. 17 Quincy Lake Wildlife Area: - American Kestrel (10) Potholes Wildlife Area and Dodson Rd.: - Bald Eagle (3)
It was a great weekend for birding! We ended the day with a visit to the Potholes Wildlife Area, backtracking a little from the Quincy area to see what we could find in one of our favorite birding areas in Eastern Washington. The numbers of bird species are down compared to the summer and fall months, but the views like the one in the shot above are excellent! As we drove back home toward Western Washington we hit the normal weather conditions - snow and rain on Snoqualmie Pass and hard rain that kept me on my toes driving in the traffic on I-5 heading south to Tacoma...
Natalie and I made our first trip back to Eastern Washington since the end of October today, this time to see what winter birds remained on the Waterville Plateau and to do some book research on the area. What we found was mixed rain and snow that turned to just rain before darkness fell tonight. In between we saw 32 species of birds, including the Northern Shrike shown in the photo above... Cle Elum (around 10:30 a.m. under overcast skies): - Dark-eyed Junco Near Teanaway River: - Red-winged Blackbird (heard) Swauk Prairie: - Prairie Falcon (2) playing tag and exchanging places in a tree top On the north side of Blewett Pass: - Bald Eagle sitting in a tree alongside the creek that runs down into the Wenatchee River at the intersection of Hwy. 97 and Hwy. 2. Wenatchee area: - Belted Kingfisher (2) along the Wenatchee River as we drove past Waterville Plateau: - House Finch Near Bridgeport: - Canada Goose
The Waterville Plateau stands at about 2,500 feet in elevation, as its open farm fields stay snow covered much longer than the rest of Eastern Washington. In fact, while some of the fields were coated with 8-10 inches of snow and others with just a couple of inches of the white stuff, areas like Cle Elum and Wenatchee were nearly snow free. This is a lot different than last year, when we made the trip to this same area during the first day of a three-day birding trip with an intermediate birding class from the Tahoma Audubon Society. The photo above shows an aging schoolhouse in the Lamoine area along the northern edge of the upper Waterville Plateau...
After hearing too much bad news about the build up to war in Iraq and the now confirmed threat of North Korea firing a missile at the Pacific Coast of the U.S. - right where we happen to live - I simply had to take a break from it all today. And so around 3 p.m. I put on my hiking boots and grabbed the binoculars and camera for a walk down to Puget Creek. I kept an informal count of birds I saw on the walk. Here are the highlights: Six Anna's Hummingbirds, two Nothern Flicker, Varied Thrush, American Robin, American Crow, European Starling, Black-capped Chickadee, Song Sparrow, Spotted Towhee, Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned Kinglet. Along the walk I snapped the shot above of crocus blooming in the back yard of a house near the bottom of Puget Gulch. And I ended my photography for this walk with the shot below of the reflection of a tree against the deep blue sky as seen through the lens of a mud puddle.
I walked most of the way back up the steep road on 36th Street and then was stopped and sketching Mt. Rainier when Natalie drove up on her way home from work. Cool! A free ride back home... Wow...sitting here to work at the kitchen table just paid off for the day! There have been tons of birds feeding in the yard this morning, and all of a sudden a few minutes ago they started to scatter. I looked out in time to see a Sharp-shinned Hawk swoop into my field of vision from the right, coming in to circle around the snowball bush from the west. It curled in behind the bush and in a flash it was in pursuit of House Finches and Dark-eyed Juncos that scattered in every direction. The hawk completed its spin around the bush and dashed toward another bush in the corner of the dog kennel next door, somehow twisting and turning to avoid hitting the building and the chain link fences in a tight area no more than a foot wide. It whirled in the air and turned around in pursuit of one bird, a House Finch, flying back toward the snowball bush and gaining fast on its potential snack. The finch reached the bottom of the bush ahead of the hawk, forcing it to fly by and try to balance on top of the bird feeder for a second before it flew past the window where I was watching to land on the gate that leads to the back yard, no more than six feet away. The hawk flew off to the south, with more birds scattering in its wake...
Evidence that spring has made an early arrival here in Puget Sound country is everywhere right now. I have seen rhody bushes in full bloom, crocus and daffodils in bloom, and in our garden the broccoli raab that I planted last fall is starting to bloom as well. I am torn about this. I love to see spring on the way! But I am also concerned that this is a year with no winter in the Pacific Northwest. This is the first winter I can remember that I have not seen a single snowflake fall in Western Washington. With all of the sunshine outside this afternoon I couldn't resist going for a short jog, and after running a little more than a mile I stopped and walked along the top of Mason Gulch, trying to see what birds were hanging out in the late afternoon sun. I felt a little naked since I didn't have binoculars with me, but all I could make out were Northern Flicker, Dark-eyed Junco, a couple of Steller's Jay, and fly-by's by a couple of Glaucous-winged Gulls. I didn't see the local Red-tailed Hawk this time around... The sun is shining brightly today, and to take advantage of it I ate lunch down along the Commencement Bay, sitting in the pickup with M and watching Double-crested and a couple of Pelagic Cormorants sitting on the pilings that sit in the bay near the outflow of Mason Creek. After eating we took a cold walk along Ruston Way, and on our way back to the truck we could see a single Red-tailed Hawk sitting in a tree near the mouth of Mason Gulch. It looks like our regular red-tail is still around, and I can't help but wonder if this could be the same young hawk that Natalie and I watched being trained how to hunt by another adult red-tail near the top of the gulch a couple of summers ago...
Driving was the name of the game today, as Natalie and I made our way back home from Gold Beach, but along the way we did make one stop at the Umpqua Wayside to see the Roosevelt Elk gathered there and to get a feel for the birds in the area. The first thing we saw before even pulling into the wayside was two white birds at the top of small fir trees that looked like they could be White-tailed Kites. Once we were stopped there was little doubt - what we found were two kites at one end of the marshy fields and another pair of kites off to the east at the other end of the fields. The closest pair on the west end of the site even appeared to try to mate at one point. There was a pretty good sized elk herd right near the highway on the opposite side of the road from the Umpqua River, and in among them there were good numbers of Canada Geese. Meanwhile, a single Bald Eagle was hunting over the fields, as was a Red-tailed Hawk at the back of the site and a couple of Northern Harriers in the foreground. This was our only real birding stop of the long drive home, but along the way I also kept count of the Red-tailed Hawks seen along the road, with a grand total of 30 before darkness fell when we were a little north of the turnoff for Longview, Wash. On the last day of our stay here in Gold Beach we ventured south into Northern California to see what birds we could find as well as to visit the redwoods. And what a day for birding! We ended up seeing 10 species in Oregon, mostly from the top of Cape Sebastian just south of Gold Beach, and we added 27 species in California. Cape Sebastian around noon:
From the breezy and cold top of the hill we could look down on the Pacific Ocean and across the wind-blown pines and fir trees near the top of the viewpoint. My first sighting here was a Cooper's Hawk navigating the winds in a flash as it moved across our view and threw itself into the top of a tree about 300 yards away. Here is what we saw: Tufted Puffin, Surf Scoter, Black Scoter, White-winged Scoter, Pigeon Guillemot, Clark's Grebe, Cooper's Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Common Murre. Later as we drove south on Hwy. 101 near the turn off to the trail to Indian Sands I saw my first Turkey Vulture of the new year, flying north... In California, first near the town of Smith River: I saw a White-tailed Kite first sitting in a bush in a farm field east of the highway, and then taking off and kiting over the field to give away its indentification as we continued driving south on Hwy. 101. Other birds we saw on this pass through the area included: American Kestrel, European Starling, American Crow, Red-tailed Hawk, and Turkey Vulture. Jebediah Smith State Park: We paid our $4 and parked under the redwood trees near the shores of Smith River, where people were fishing, and Natalie and I walked down to the river's side to do some drawing and see what birds we could find. The biggest surprise: A Spotted Sandpiper probing for food in between its tail bobbing and weaving on the sand accumulated on the shore across from our parking spot. Other birds included: Common Raven, Glaucous-winged Gull, Belted Kingfisher, Red-breasted Merganser, Varied Thrush, and American Robin. Again near Smith River: I took a wrong turn while trying to find the mouth of the Smith River, and before turning around we saw a Northern Flicker fly across the road. Mouth of Smith River: This was our best site of the day! Among the sightings were:Black Scoter, Pelagic Cormorant, Killdeer, Red-breasted Merganser, Bufflehead, Sanderling, Bonaparte's Gull, Glaucous-winged Gull, Mew Gull, California Gull, Black Turnstone, Rock Sandpiper, Black Phoebe, Common Tern.
These are the first Black Turnstones I have managed to see! We also saw a couple of Rock Sandpiper mixed in with the flock of turnstones, though I didn't get any photos of them... Just north of Smith River along Hwy. 101 in California: The best bird of the day was our last though - a bright adult Red-shouldered Hawk first seen sitting on the power line, then flying to a fence post in the field next to us where it caught a rodent and flew across the road with it. I took some photos of the hawk with our Canon A2 camera, so it will be interesting to see how the photos turn out when we get the slides developed! Natalie and I did some birding during the off-and-on rain showers along the Rogue River today, which was a good way to get more grounded after getting up in a rush this morning to hear the horrible news and see the video of the space shuttle Columbia disintegrating in the atmosphere as it came in to land with its seven crew members around 7 a.m. Pacific Time. We got up to the news at 8:30, and we were away and birding by 10. Probably the biggest highlight of the day was watching a light-colored Merlin in blackberry brambles just north of the north jetty. It appeared to be hunting the birds I could hear chirping in the distance but that I couldn't quite ID just from their song, but it flew off to land among the stunted pine trees across the road without catching lunch. Right after seeing the Merlin, we found its prey - a flock of 150 or more Yellow-rumped Warblers feeding in the pines to the north. Our next birding stop was at the west end of the old mill site, just a little way up the Rogue. Last year at the end of March we watched a Black Phoebe when we stopped here, and although at first all we saw was a pair of Red-tailed Hawks circling over the mill site, a loud peeping toward the river turned out to be our small friend once again. Was it the same bird? Hard to tell, but just like the phoebe that has been hanging out at the Julia Butler Hansen National Wildlife Refuge near Longview for the last two winters, it seems coincidental that here again is a phoebe. We continued up the river and stopped just below the bridge at Lobster Creek. Not many bird surprises here other than a Great Egret flying near the overhead power lines just a little way downstream. We also saw three Common Mergansers that flew over when they were scared off the river by a jet boat. After stopping to see some Bufflehead inside the marina at the south jetty and then returning to Natalie's grandmother's place where blackbirds and starling were hanging around the neighborhood, bringing our day's total number of bird species to 26 in three cloudy hours. |
