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| Just... picture this with only the light from the lamp ahead |
Stop one: Mary Theler Wetlands
I got myself to bed early-ish Friday night. The beauty of choosing Mason County is that
it’s not thaaaaaat far from home. An
hour and 15 minutes gets me to Theler Wetlands in Belfair, which was my first
stop of the trip. I arrived ready to
check off my first bird of the day, and I expected with some certainty that it
would be Barred Owl.
Now, before I describe the owling of the morning, I want to
describe the setting. I walked to the
gate that leads to the trail complex from the main parking lot, and it was absolutely
gorgeous. The copper gates were visible
by the light from the streetlamp-of-sorts, one of several that lit the first
part of the path. I didn’t get a
picture. I didn’t get a picture, and
then I looked for owls, and I came back and the light was out, being switched
off at… 5AM perhaps?
Fortunately, for the pretty-pictures-are-happy readers of
this blog, I had no response at all from a Barred Owl as I hooted some “Who-cooks-for-you?”’s
into the misty sky. That means I’ll
undoubtedly be back to check for them again.
The bird seems regular to the point of friendliness from the reports of
regular birders and field trips to the wetlands, so I’m sure that I’ll be able
to get back and show you exactly why you need to visit the wetlands at… say…
4:45 AM. I was surprised to find the
gate open, and strolled a little ways in, hoping that more open space would let
my call carry to the owl, but I heard nothing but some Mallards (1), and
American Wigeons (2), waking up early.
Krabbenhoft
Road:
I saw this report on eBird (an old report, mind you) of a
Northern Saw-whet Owl, so I figured it couldn’t be horrible habitat. I took
Highway 3 towards Shelton, and found Krabbenhoft Road on the right. This road starts with some nice dense woods,
and opens out to a little bit of development along Pickering Passage (which
separates the peninsula from Hartsene Island.
Nothing!
Island Lake, via…
…John’s Prairie Road.
I was driving along Highway 3, and was probably close to the “correct”
turn, when I saw “Prairie”, and submitted to wanderlust. As it turns out, prairies appear to be good
places to put business parks.
Nonetheless, this road took me to a soccer complex atop this hill
northeast of Shelton. It has a powerline
cut right alongside, and some good woods abutting it, so I tried quite hopefully
for owls. Nothing!
Island Lake itself was not far from here. I continued down to Brockdale Road and was
basically right at Island Lake Road. I
drove it to the lake, parked and walked the streets. As with all of the previous stops, I was very
intrigued by the habitat. I figured with
the lake itself, and a wetland adjacent to it on the southeast side of the lake
that some owl or another would find food there, and be interested in one of the
calls I was making, but… Nothing!
Skokomish Valley
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| Skokomish Valley from above |
I missed the entrance to Sunnyside Road, where there had
been owl reports as well (I found that turn on Sunday morning), but tried the
first couple of miles on Sunnyside for owls.
Nothing!
I will have a hard time not returning to the exact same
spots, simply because I have this sense that I was right about the habitat, and
the owls simply need to come around on this point. I understand the lack of wisdom in that plan,
and will try to hit other good areas, relying on a wide net to catch these
birds that seem to be fairly difficult to find in the county.
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| Red-tailed Hawk - Skokomish Valley Road |
In the dark here, the first calls I heard were Killdeer (3),
and the whistling of Green-winged Teals (4).
I started up the road to look for swans that John Riegsecker had told me
about behind the Skokomish Grange. I nearly
passed it, but pulled off into the large gravel/mud parking area near the sign
advertising a native plants class. I
walked behind the grange, and heard the birds starting to wake up: Song Sparrow (5), Dark-eyed Junco (6),
Spotted Towhee (7), and Bald Eagle (8) called from the small stand of trees
near the road, and from the bushes behind the grange. Great Blue Heron (9), Common Raven (10), Golden-crowned Kinglet (11), Ruby-crowned Kinglet (12), American Crow (13), and European Starling (14) made up the rest of the morning chorus. Four Glaucous-winged Gulls (15) flew overhead as I decided that the swans must have moved on.
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| Fields full of gulls - a common sight for the morning |
As I drove farther up Skokomish Valley Road, I saw gulls on
the fields to the South, so I pulled over.
New calls greeted me: Evening
Grosbeak (16) flying overhead, House Sparrows (17), and Pacific Wren (18). As I tried to turn some of the gulls into
something more than Glaucous-winged Gulls and hybrids, Red-winged Blackbirds
(19) popped up in the field in front of me, and a Pileated Woodpecker (20) gave
its awesome call from far behind me in the woods lining the North side of the
road.
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| From the bridge at Eels Spring Trout Hatchery |
I made my way a little farther up the road to the turnoff
for the Eels Spring Trout Hatchery. This is a fairly reliable spot for Green Heron, and I had seen it under
the nets on my only previous trip here over a year ago. A Belted Kingfisher (21), and several Great
Blue Herons greeted me at the first set of ponds, while Pine Siskins (22) and
several Steller’s Jays (23) added to my list, barely a half-hour after the sun
had come up over the horizon behind the clouds.
I pulled up to the main sheds that served the ponds, and
walked from there to the back set of ponds beyond, where a Bufflehead (24)
floated around with little baby trout jumping around it (I tried to capture that
with a picture – no luck!). American
Robin (25) was the last bird I added in the back portion of the hatchery before
I crossed back towards the Visitor Center and sheds. I was greeted by one of the workers (someone
I would run into the next day as well).
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| Pond... things at the hatchery. I need to learn about what they are doing here. |
I… have very few boundary issues. That is to say, I talk to strangers. On this entire trip, I don’t think I
regretted it once. I got talking with
this guy about how his morning was, and then moved on to talking about the
Green Heron. He told me that he sees it
there throughout the day, every day, and pointed out where some of its more
common haunts were. I asked if many
people came by just looking for it, and he said, “Yeah, but mostly in the summer.” I told him why I was looking for it in
particular, and about the year I had planned.
How many birds? I told him about
the idea of 150 and the record of 179 species seen in a year, and the number
seemed astonishing to him. We chatted a
little about owls in particular, before I decided to head out on my way back
towards Hood Canal.
Stopping at the Grange one more time on the way out, and I
got the Trumpeter Swans (26)! Only six,
instead of the nineteen that were there the previous day (and that may have
included some Tundras the day before), and… I am not a photographer. I don’t know why the camera misbehaves at
times, but I got a crazy-blurred picture of them, which made it a bit
impossible to search for a Tundra Swan in the mix. In the back of the field, a Red-tailed Hawk
(27), screeched and took a perch over the field before I head back towards
Highway 101.
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| What kind of a jerk includes really bad pictures like this? This kind of jerk. |
I found a great pull-off along the way where I was able to
get a lot of the birds one would expect in farmland: House Finch (28), Brewer’s Blackbird (29),
Rock Pigeon (30), Mew Gull (31), Black-capped Chickadee (32), and a pair of
code 5 Eurasian Collared-Doves (33).
Now, the code 5 just means that there have been fewer than five years of
sightings of the birds in the county. I’m
sure that they will eventually have a code that better fits how easy it is
getting to find them everywhere in the state.
Bird number 34 for the trip:
American Dipper! The George Adams
Hatchery at the junction of Skokomish Valley Road and Highway 101 is a fairly
reliable place to find them, and I had good luck today with a bird popping up
quickly.
Purdy Cutoff Road
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| The view from most of Purdy Cutoff - lots of slough-y goodness |
This road runs along a great little slough, and I saw a lot
of puddle ducks for the first time here. I’ll start by throwing out that I saw a female
duck – lightly colored sides with a teal-like appearance, longer dark
bill. I went for my camera. I came back.
It flew. The camera will be a
burden and a blessing this year!
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| Lesser Scaup - I... stress out sometimes when I see scaup, but this one is close enough to see well, and had a nice peaked head. |
Among the birds that stuck around long enough for me to view
them: Ring-necked Duck (35), Lesser
Scaup (36), Hooded Merganser (37), and Common Goldeneye (38). A Downy Woodpecker (39) gave its soft “peek” note from the trees
behind the slough, and I continued on my merry way. I was running a little short on time at this
point. It was ten o’clock, and I needed
to get to Belfair, then Theler before returning to this neck of the woods for
Still Water Farm.
Driving straight to
Belfair without stopping to look at...
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| Canvasbacks - code 3 |
Hey! Canvasback!
I had to stop for these code 3 birds (40), and also picked up
Double-crested Cormorants (41), which had eluded me on all previous trips to
the county. This is where I also got Chestnut-backed
Chickadee (42), which were plentiful any time I made a stop like this along the
south side of Hood Canal.
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| Double-crested Cormorants, and... help me out. What gull is that?? I want it to be a Thayer's but am suspicious of my wishes. |
Driving from there, I didn’t exactly look for birds, but Horned Grebe (43), Barrow’s Goldeneye (44),
Common Loon (45), Surf Scoter (46), and Red-breasted Merganser (47) were all
close enough to shore to make some easy identifications as I drove. There were so many of each of the birds above
along the way, along with Common Goldeneyes, Belted Kingfishers, and various
gulls.
Belfair State Park
I purchased my annual Discover Pass, and asked the rangers
about owls. “None that seem to stay in
the park regularly.” I feel like I
should explain the owl thing. I would
never ask random people if they knew where I might find a Lincoln’s
Sparrow. If they had one in their back
yard, most people would barely notice, let alone identify the bird. Many (most?) people seem to have owl
stories. I used this on the Christmas
Bird Counts to scout out my own neighborhood (“I heard one hooting last week!”
is the answer I look for and eventually get from the poor people I ask.), and
it helps me to find them. Enough people are
excited by owls they’ve seen/heard to remember where they saw them, so I often
ask.
Speaking of owls, I had done so poorly with my calculation
of perfect owl habitat in the morning; I really needed to have a little
redemption. I had looked at the tides
for the day, and saw that high tide was at 8 or so in the morning. I figured this would be a bad time to be at
Belfair, as no mud would be exposed, so 10:30 seemed like it would be a lot
better for shorebirds. Bingo!
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| Dunlin - Belfair |
500 Dunlin (48) were foraging where Mission Creek empties
into Hood Canal. I’m hoping to get here in
different tide conditions to see if I can really nail down the best conditions
for finding shorebirds at different locations in the county. The rest of the park gave me some birds as
well, including Northern Pintail (49), Greater Scaup (50), Common Merganser
(51) and a hundred or so Brant (52) out in the water, with Varied Thrush (53),
and Red-breasted Nuthatch (54) in the trees.
Mary Theler Wetlands
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| I don't know why, but this is one of my favorite pictures of the trip. It shows some of the best of what Theler is in one shot. |
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| Huuuuuuuuuuuuundreds of Northen Pintails scattering at the sound of a gunshot. Theler Wetlands. |
Back again in the light, I arrived a little after 11:30
AM. I called Mark and Beth Biser to let
them know that noon was going to be a challenge. They own Still Water Farm, and had invited me
down, not just to bird on their property, but for soup! I set out at a quick-ish pace along the path,
although the joggers using the trail were still passing me regularly
enough. Theler had a list of code 2
birds that I was hoping to pick up:
Hutton’s Vireo (no), Purple Finch (55), Wilson’s Snipe (no), Marsh Wren
(56) and Virginia Rail (no).
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| Belted Kingfisher - Theler Wetlands |
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| Harlan's Hawk |
A couple of rarer birds made an appearance, however, with a
Northern Shrike (57) showing up as I walked the main path. It dove and disappeared before I could get
the camera on it, but a Harlan’s Hawk (not a new species but a subspecies of
Red-tailed Hawk) took its place on the same tree when I returned. I also heard the call of a distant American
Kestrel (58), shooting a mile away shot of the code 3 bird. A Northern Flicker (59) was my last bird from
the park, and I hustled/jogged/racewalked back to the car to get down the road
to my lunch appointment.
Still Water Farm
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| Wood Ducks - Still Water Farm |
Mark and Beth Biser own and reside on a 48 acre tree farm on
Webb Hill Road, north of Shelton. 20
plus acres of their farm is a protected peat/forested wetland system, which is
a resource they share with others as one of their management objectives. I took the fun way up winding Webb Hill Road,
and arrived at nearly 1:30, full of apologies for being later than expected. They took me in, asking for my coat and my
list in return for a bowl of soup and a seat by their window to watch their
feeder. Not a bad deal at all!
I will admit, I got few pictures during the stay, and will
want to get more on future visits, but the conversation was excellent, ranging
from birds to glaciers to hypoxia (Hood Canal has extremely low oxygen levels,
which factors in to the management plans for large property owners like the
Bisers). At the feeder, I added two
difficult enough birds: Anna’s
Hummingbird (60), and Wood Duck (61), and Canada Goose (62) with dozens of the
ducks enjoying the lake that surrounded their home enough to make it a
peninsula of sorts. Mourning Dove (63)
reappeared, having spent much of the morning at their feeder.
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| Western Hemlock - the state tree. It's growing on me. Mark pointed out that they can be identified at a distance because the top tips over. |
After a perfect lunch, including a second bowl of black bean
soup, I stepped outside with Mark to walk the property a little. It had gotten a bit quiet in the afternoon,
but I did add a Fox Sparrow (64), which had been enjoying a feeder on the side
of their home. We spent a good bit of
time outside talking about trees, which in the immediate area included Western
Red Cedar, Douglas Fir, Western Hemlock and Lodgepole Pine, the latter being
the tree that provided lumber for their home.
We made our way down to the water, where Belted Kingfishers,
Song Sparrows and a Double-crested Cormorant were found, and we took a look at
a nest box for Hooded Mergansers, that apparently had truffles growing in it
one year! I asked him about
chanterelles, having heard rumors that the county was famed for its mushrooms. “Everywhere”,
he said with a smile as we headed back to the house.
I had to head out, especially given the quiet forest, but we
made plans to meet again, with owls, grouse, quail, and bitterns on the table
as possible birds on and around their property.
I will have other posts on this blog where I talk about the county,
beyond just the birds, and I got a good start on several of those posts during
this visit.
Hood Canal
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| Peregrine Falcon - Potlatch State Park |
I made my way up to Potlatch State Park, and got another
code 3 bird, a Peregrine Falcon (65) which soared past and then perched in a
solitary tree. The rest of the road up
to Hamma Hamma was pretty quiet, as the mist was settling back on the fjord,
and the light slowly disappeared. I saw
many of the same birds that I saw on my way to Theler, but added Red-necked
Grebe (66), White-winged Scoter (67), and a distant Pelagic Cormorant (68) to
finish up my birding day.
I stopped at the Hama Hama Seafood Company (which, yes, I
just looked up, is spelled differently than the river that empties into Hood
Canal nearby) just as they were closing up their operations outdoors. I am coming back. The menu included grilled oysters and an
oyster po’ boy that the gal inside raved about.
They were still doing sales inside, so I grabbed a couple of oysters and
sat outside to open them up and enjoy. |
| I can't tell you how good these were. It's been four days since I ate them, and I can still remember the taste. |
A note on opening oysters – I did bring my oyster
knife! Before heading out on the trip, I
thumbed through Reif Larson’s “The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet”, to make sure
I had all of the necessary components for adventure: 1) A map.
Check. 2) A magnifying
glass. If my binoculars counted, then
yes. 3)
Adventure pants. I’ll give my
blue jeans a half-check on that. 4) Guns and knives. I had to at least bring the oyster knife to
get a B+ on this standard.
The oysters were Hama Hama’s, including one beach oyster and
one Bluepool, which is a tumbled oyster.
More on that in another post, but for anyone that enjoys oysters, I’ll
just say it was a perfect way to end the day.
I had the faint briny sweet taste of the oyster lingering all the way
down 101 as I headed towards my bed in Shelton that night. |
| End of the line - Mason County near Hoodsport |
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