Aftermath: 68 plus 10

Good Morning, Shelton!

 

Next day birds

I hate to be a broken record on this point, but I will be adding other posts to talk about my evening watching the Seahawks play Carolina with the Shelton locals, about my stay at the Shelton Inn, and my breakfast at Blondie’s Restaurant. The “other stuff” really is going to be a big part of this blog, but to do it right, I’m going to focus on the birding in this post.

1.  Do scrub-jay families use blue eye filters?
2.  Am I really going to take pictures of people's houses?
(I won't make it a habit.)

After sleeping in (I rarely do this on birding trips), I walked the Mountainview area of Shelton.  Ebird has a lot of pins dropped for Western Scrub-Jay, Eurasian Collared-Dove, and Anna’s Hummingbird in this neighborhood between I and M streets, so I parked at Jefferson and J, and walked a block.  Western Scrub-Jay (69) popped up for me right away, and I eventually found a hummingbird feeder with an Anna’s happily feeding.  With those birds in the bag, and with a neighborhood dog barking fairly incessantly, I decided to head out.  I had planned to go right to the Skokomish Valley for missed birds, but as I headed up 101, I saw the Fairgrounds/Sanderson Field and had to make a stop. 

Sanderson Field

Sanderson Field is interesting habitat.  I was hoping for a good hawk or harrier cruising the open fields, but they were pretty quiet.  I walked in to find a trail through the fields and Scot’s broom south of the field.  Pacific Wren, Bewick’s Wren (70), Fox and Song Sparrows, and Spotted Towhee were found in the dense brush, and a Steller’s Jay was found in the more wooded area as I continued down the path.  There are reports on Tweeters of California Quail from this area, and it was very tempting to continue down the path, but I resisted the temptation for now!

I really do plan on walking a long ways into that stuff some time.

Skokomish Valley

Falls emptying into S.Fork Skoke.

Side trip - High Steel Bridge

I returned to the grange, wanting a better look at the swans I had seen the previous day, but they made no appearance.  A second attempt at the Green Heron also failed.  This time around, however, I was able to find a gull that finally left me feeling good about Herring Gull (71) for an ID, and an easier ID on a Ring-billed Gull (72).  I also found sparrows I had missed the previous day, with great looks at Golden-crowned (73) and a large flock of White-crowned (74).  I swear I heard a Lincoln’s Sparrow call.  It made me stop the car, and I heard a few intermittent calls – kind of a smack…but not as hard as a Fox Sparrow, or even (I thought) a Junco.  I couldn’t trace the calls to the source, though, so I had to let that one go.

Purdy Cutoff Road

Here I was again, looking over this little slough, and I stopped the car very early for some swans!  I have the picture here, and once people get a good look at them, I may decide to call one of these a Tundra Swan.  There is no yellow in the bill, which would have been helpful, but the dark of the bill meets at a smaller point at the eye for the middle bird (and maybe one or two of the other birds, but I like the middle one!).  If I do get an ID on this, I’ll add it numerically after the others on my list.  Nothing else new here.

Swan number three has a nice head shape, and narrow black lores, but... If I'm calling it a tundra, it's hard to figure out why it wouldn't be as white as the Trumpeter Swans in front of it?  Also, I just didn't realize that swans even this far into the
year would be that short of full size.  This was a tough one for me to let go, but for now, I'm ready to, unless someone adds new information. 

 

Skokomish Delta

Red-breasted Merganser - Hood Canal

Mark had suggested that there might be a lot of American Coots at the mouth of “The Skoke”, so I was pretty excited, as that species (a Code 1???) seems to be a headache for most county birders.  This day was no different than any other for me in Mason County in that regard – no coots!

At the mouth, I did have a lot of waterfowl, including my first Western Gull (75 – finally one with a dark mantle and a nice clean white head), Red-throated Loon (76), and several Gadwall (77) further into the estuary.

Goldeneyes, White-winged and Surf Scoters, Common Loons, American Wigeon, Horned Grebes –all were hanging around the mouth of the Skokomish in high numbers.  I went farther up the Canal for one last stop at a view point in Union, where I added the last bird on my list for the weekend – a Western Grebe (78).

Birds I didn’t get:

I feel like I left a lot of good birds out there on the saltwater:  Black Scoter, Long-tailed, Harlequin and Ruddy Duck, Northern Shoveler, Eurasian Wigeon, Cackling Goose, American Coot, Pacific Loon, Pied-billed and Eared Grebe, Clark’s Grebe, Brandt’s Cormorant, and all of the Alcids.   Thayer’s Gull may show up in some of my pics with a little time, coffee and help.

In the farmland, and interesting goose (cackling, greater white-fronted, snow), or sparrow (Lincoln’s, white-throated, Harris’s), or blackbird (Rusty, yellow-headed, or maybe a Western Meadowlark), or raptor (Northern Harrier, Cooper’s, Sharp-shinned, Rough-legged Hawks, or a Merlin) would have been nice finds.  A Northern Shoveler could just as well have shown up out there.

Lil’ birdies:  Brown Creeper, Red Crossbill, Bushtit, American Goldfinch, Yellow-rumped Warbler (or any other more interesting wintering warbler – most of which would show up in the summer). 

Theler birds:  Hutton’s Vireo, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Wilson’s Snipe, Hairy Woodpecker, Virginia Rail and Barred Owl are all regular visitors to the park and could have been found on this trip.

Green Heron.   Gotta get that guy.  I will.

Band-tailed Pigeon.  They’re around.  I’ll see some.

And notably:   I got not a single owl, nor a single gamebird.  That’s got to change!

February will have another Big Day, although I may change up the path and locations to target some of the birds I’m missing.  I’m going to miss some birds anyway!  May as well change up the ones I get, and still try to mix up the settings.  Saltwater can be found in other places besides Hood Canal – It might be nice to get to Hartsene Island, or Kennedy Creek.  Farmland out by Matlock might be good to check, as it’s not birded as often, and could bring me past Lake Nawhatzel where American Coots are sometimes found.  Some of the wooded parks in the west end of the county might be better for Band-tailed Pigeon or (if I got to slightly higher elevations), Sooty Grouse and Gray Jay.

It will be interesting to see how things start shaping up – I’m sure that sightings between now and then will affect my path, and I may change plans a little during the day anyway!

Until that next post, happy birding, y’all!