Happy New Year!

I had a lovely weekend in Mason County on January 10-11, and came out with 78 species to start the year!   There will be posts to come with more pictures, but I am waiting for a USB cord for my camera.  Those posts will include a bit more of the narrative of the day, but I thought I could sum up the numbers of it with a post here.  The picture above was from my second owling stop.  By my best reckoning, I made 7 stops for owls with the lightest of drizzles, and came out empty-handed. 



Skokomish River Road farmland

I had my first birds in the Skokomish Valley, birded from there up to Belfair State Park and Theler, then straight down to Still Water Farm on Webb Hill Road before finishing the day birding Hood Canal up to Hama Hama.   That brought me 68 species, with the last ten coming Sunday morning with a few birds in and around Shelton, a return trip to the Skokomish Valley Road, and some longer stops on Hood Canal for some salty birds.  The lists below have the birds as they were added, all tallied up on eBird.  Birdlog is the app I used to add most of the data - very easy!

I found 57 of the 93 code 1 birds in the county, 11 of the 51 slightly harder code 2 birds, 8 of the 30 code three birds, along with the code 4 and 5 birds that I knew would be easy this year (Western Scrub-Jay and Eurasian Collared-Dove).

It was a good start with the birds, and I'll be able to add more about all of that other Mason County stuff (people, maps, weather, food), once I can actually get pictures off of my camera!

Hood Canal from a pull-off between Union and Twanoh State Park. 
There's a better picture on my camera!

After those posts, It's a little wait until my next trip out.  My birthday is February 1st, which should ideally be the date of the Seahawks last game of the season.  I'm aiming for a Jan 31st day trip to Mason County with my family.  I'll keep my eyes open for some birds while I'm there, but it won't be anything like Saturday!

Waterfall from the High Steel Bridge