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Week Thirty, October 8-14
Sunday, October 14, 2001
Natalie and I walked down at Titlow Park along the Tacoma Narrows today, as a way to continue our birding on a second day this weekend and to work out some of the soreness from our long walking spells yesterday. We found a fair variety of ducks and pond birds in the freshwater ponds on one side of the railroad tracks at Titlow Park - including coots, American widgeon, canvasback ducks, a kingfisher and others - and then we watched gulls and double-crested cormorants along the saltwater shore on the other side of the railroad tracks. It was a picturesque evening, although a bit cool. But for late fall, this kind of weather is welcome. We need rain, after suffering through last year's record-breaking dry spell, but for sanity's sake, we have to have a few days like this too.
Saturday, October 13, 2001
What a long day! After rising at 5 a.m. to make our way to a meeting place before caravaning southwest toward Grays Harbor, we watched a great sunrise over harvested corn fields near Satsop, caught a glimpse of a red shouldered hawk along the field's periphery, then drove farther west to Ocean Shores for a real goal of the day - to see and identify Pacific shorebirds. The all-day trip took us to places like Bill's Spit, where we watched long billed curlews at high tide along the inner section of Grays Harbor, and where hundreds of gulls took to the air at once, revealing a group of marbled godwits in the midst of the gulls and handful of curlews. And later we ventured over to Damon Point for a long, vigorous walk as the tide rose and filled a marsh area where a harrier hunted along the edges of the water while we tried to distinguish between dunlin and a handful of western sandpiper mixed in along the shore.
While the tides weren't at the best stage for catching a glimpse of many shorebirds, especially along the open ocean side of Damon Point, we did get very close to a pair of juvenile long billed dowitchers. I snapped the photo above of the dowitchers as they tucked their bills back against their bodies and basked in the excited gaze of birdwatchers.
Natalie and I were both beat once we returned home from the trip around 7:30 p.m. I would guess we walked between three and five miles today, and a lot of the walking was on soft sand or gravel.
Besides the birds, we also watched the Lady Washington sailing ship making its way through the heavy surf at the mouth of Grays Harbor, watching the spectacle from the jetty. That is where I snapped the photo below.
Friday, October 12, 2001
This was the first real blustery day of the fall. Winds topped 30 miles an hour and windblown rain lashed the south side of the house most of the morning. What today lacked in rain volume it made up for with wind - just the kind of dramatic weather I enjoy.
In the back of my mind, I have been hoping that today's wind will result in even more interesting birding along the Washington coast tomorrow than normal. Sometimes on the day after a windy day, sea birds can be seen along the inland shores when they normally can only be found far off the shore. I guess we will see about that tomorrow.
Thursday, October 11, 2001
I didn't have the digital camera with me this morning, but I still stopped along Ruston Way on my way back home after driving Natalie to work. The tide was extremely low and I wanted to at least take another look at the shore along the mouth of Puget Creek during such a low tide. I couldn't see a whole lot more than I did a couple of weeks ago, when Natalie went down to the shore to do monthly beach monitoring. It wasn't low enough to see the tops of the eel grass off the shore here, but I stood and watched the birds fly underneath the buildings along Ruston Way and the gulls picking shellfish off the shore while I sipped my morning tea.
Wednesday, October 10, 2001
Last night Natalie and I started something new, a birding class at the Tahoma Audubon Society. The intermediate class looks like it will be challenging because it is going to expand my horizons. I enjoy watching birds and learning how to distinguish between them, but I have yet to spend any real time either specifically seeking out specialized habitats or trying to learn the small differences, for instance, between shorebirds. It was shorebirds that we went over in last night's class, and we have a field trip to the Ocean Shores area planned for this weekend. Thank goodness there won't be a test.
Tuesday, October 9, 2001
I ventured outside in the failing sunshine tonight for a walk over to Mason Gulch. The signs of fall are everywhere now. The upper canopy of the trees that line the bottom and sides of the gulch is thinning as the leaves fall. And those leaves that remain are turning subtle shades of yellow and orange and brown. Bird life in the canopy is much diminished. The swallows that swoop over the grass nearby when I take summer walks are gone, and I neither saw nor heard any signs of the red tailed hawks that were a constant feature of the gulch airspace just a month ago.
I walked farther north to take today's photo. This shot of Northeast Tacoma and Dash Point, across Commencement Bay, was taken from alongside the old Baptist Seminary on the hill top near the site of the first public library in Tacoma. The library is long gone, except for a plaque that commemorates where it once stood, but this viewpoint offers a great chance to look north at the passage of Puget Sound between Vashon and Maury Islands and the small waterside towns of Des Moines, Dash Point and Browns Point.
Monday, October 8, 2001
Rain returned to Tacoma today, but not an overwhelming rain. It was just enough to remind me that this is indeed fall.
I snapped the photo above along the south side of our house, where a California poppy held the droplets of late afternoon mist...
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