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| The pinkish-lavender color running up Forest Road 23 and down through the southern part of the county is the route from the day. It overlaps with some other days, so I tried to run it wider where necessary. At left is the corn dog wrapper that held the official tally for the day - 78 species. |
"Jim, madness may have no purpose or reason... but it may have a goal." - Mr. Spock to Captain Kirk; Star Trek - The Alternative Factor, 1967
"Persons trying to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. By Order of the Author." - Mark Twain
Points of clarification:
- I am... and always will be... a Star Wars kid. Don't read too much into the use of a Star Trek quote, ya Trekkies!
- The day below may have some sprinkles of madness in it, but they really came from the sun and lack of sleep. The goal of seeing as many species of birds as possible in Mason County this year is very much intact. The reasons for setting the goal were magnified on a day where I had a low likelihood of adding many birds to my list.
- What are my reasons for setting the goal? What are the motives? One of the big goals for the year was to take abstract things (lines on a map, ebird markers showing the presence of a species, descriptions of trails and towns, emails from people) and experience/explore them. I just want to get to know the Whole Damn Place, and this trip... yeah, just read on.
Bre had found a way to free me up for two days. She's been a blessing; There'll be some part of the post for June 24th that will make a vague reference to that. Getting two days meant a late meeting for her, though, so I had to pass on an early departure Monday night. I had it in my head that I might try to run up on Monday to try for Common Nighthawks, one of the two reasonable nesting birds I was aiming for this month.
I got to bed and messaged Cara Borre over in Gig Harbor to let her know that I'd be over the next morning, "Expect me in your driveway by four!" That was the plan. I swear that I never need an alarm clock. I can tell myself to get up at nearly any hour and pull it off with ease. I must have still been tired from a busy last week of school, Father's Day and other festivities during the weekend. I woke up around 4:30 A.M. with my phone showing that I'd gotten a few texts.  |
| My phone says this was around 6:30 AM |
Around 6:30 AM
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| Purdy Creek near the George Adams Hatchery |
Red-Eyed Vireo. That was the first target bird of the day. Cara and I had both seen the other three species of vireo that a person can expect to find in Mason (Warbling, Cassin's and Hutton's), but Red-eyed Vireo is a Code 4 bird, meaning that there are more than five sightings of it historically, but it's not an annual visitor. Basically, there is a pattern of occurrence, and birders who have found them in the county said that the George Adams Hatchery on Highway 101 was as good a place as any to find them.
We were lucky enough to arrive when a worker was out and about - she saw us with the binoculars and was happy to talk to us about our target birds for the day. She of course asked if we were there to see American Dippers, which I have had on a few trips here. Hearing our goals for the day, she directed us to the back of the hatchery, where a path leads one to Purdy Creek, and to a marsh where Cara and I found Virginia Rail. We tried for Sora - another code 4 bird that we looked for throughout the day.
Already, this was a good start to a good day - Cara had a better understanding of the birds, and of habitat in general, including trees (here she refreshed me on cottonwood and alder), and I had done enough research to find good places to make attempts at these unlikely birds.
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| Salmonberry |
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| House Wrens here, and a deer! |
We were making our way up Skokomish Valley Road, and stopped at the Trout Hatchery on Eells Springs Road, along with a few other spots to have a listen. We were really trying to get up to Forest Road 23, where we were hoping to find Ruffed Grouse. A stop right before we went up the hill gave us some nice birds, including Olive-sided Flycatcher and Cassin's Vireo. Pulling up the forest road and heading through the first clear cuts, we got talking about House Wrens. These are listed as a Code 4 bird for Mason, but we had both found them in different places during the year. Pulling over to get a picture of a deer, we listened for birds and found a House Wren singing along with the White-crowned Sparrows, Cedar Waxwings and Orange-crowned Warblers.
Like... 8:30 to 10:30
Ruffed Grouse are one of the handful of Code 2 birds left for me. This code means that you aren't going to stumble onto these birds constantly and/or everywhere, but with a good effort in the right times and places, they shouldn't be too hard to find. In conversation with Terry Sisson, who has the big year record for the county at 179, he said that Ruffed Grouse can be found "Everywhere and nowhere!" There really are reports from a lot of different places, but my belief was that there were two ways to find them: Drive gravel roads early in the morning (and I figured we were too late for that), or walk for a long continuous time through reasonably good habitat.
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| And why wouldn't a Ruffed Grouse be here? FR 2340 |
It was a nearly perfect morning for walking, so we got out and started a lovely stroll up FR 2340.
Nearly right away as we got out of the car, we had Sooty Grouse booming from the side of the road - unseen as they have been every time this year. We had a whole mess of birds, including Red-breasted Sapsucker, Willow, Hammond's, Pacific-slope and Olive-sided Flycatchers, Warbling Vireos, Gray and Steller's Jays, Common Raven, Brown Creeper, Pacific, Marsh, Bewick's and House Wren (House Wren coming again at Lake West), Golden-crowned Kinglet, Swainson's Thrush, American Robin, Cedar Waxwing, Common Yellowthroat, Wilson's, Orange-crowned, Black-throated Gray, Yellow, Yellow-rumped and MacGillivray's Warblers, Spotted Towhee, Dark-eyed Junco, Song Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Western Tanager, Black-headed Grosbeak, Purple Finch and Red Crossbills.
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| Cara looking for a warbler on the path to Lake West |
There was a fairly easy path to the lake itself, and we were amazed at the number of bugs on the lake - thankfully at a distance. This is the lake I would have driven to immediately if I had gotten out the door the night before. It seemed to be close enough to clear cuts and big enough to support some bugs, so I figured it would be good for Common Nighthawk. We made plans to return.
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| Lake West - Duckless, although we did hear Pied-billed Grebe and House Wren from the shore. |
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| One of several dragonflies we enjoyed and failed to identify - it really is starting to be a nice time to see them! Identification was obfuscated by the fact that "Green Dragonfly Washington State" brings up endless pages about the Green Darner, the official state insect... which is blue. |
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| Fields smelling like fresh-cut hay |
It was a day of eating poorly, to be sure, and I will admit that a stop at the Shell station near Sanderson Field led to the purchase of a corn dog. It smelled... so... good. From there, we headed off towards parts of the county that I had missed completely before.
Noonish
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| If nobody else names this, I'm calling it the Arcadia Peninsula |
I had a couple of hunches regarding the area between Hammersley Inlet and Skookum Inlet. It's technically a peninsula, with Totten Inlet running around part of it as well. The very end of it, Arcadia Point, peeks out into the fingers of South Puget Sound, and it has a creek running through the middle of it - Mill Creek - that at least on the map appeared to have some wetlands where we might continue our searches for Sora and American Bittern. I got the tingly feeling I get every time I'm driving new places.
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| Field - Binns Swiger Loop Road |
We took Arcadia for a little while before turning onto Binns Swiger Loop Road. I misread this on my map as Bunns Swinger Loop, which made our inner 12 year old boys laugh, and got us talking about Hurley Waldrip Road with similar results (the latter, we decided was perhaps a paint color inspired by a weak stomach at a fraternity party). We came across a nice marshy area with enough water for a mallard and some vocal Virginia Rails. Another tough bird became the topic of conversation - Cinnamon Teal! It's a code 2 bird, but... we don't know anyone who has birded the county who seems to know what the spots are or times of year for finding these birds, outside of going to Theler a lot and crossing fingers.
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| Marsh on Binns Swiger Road |
We rejoined Arcadia and then took a turn down a road that hinted of water views. We parked at a point that had a view of Mill Creek and got the attention of a woman who owned one of the properties. This was one of the highlights of the trip in some ways - she invited us to the back side of her house (I... may have dropped a hint about trying to get somewhere that would let us see the water, but I think she enjoyed the company as much as we enjoyed the invitation). Her house was sitting on a beautiful spot, with Mill Creek emptying into the salt water of Hammersley Inlet - the two bodies of water forming two sides of the triangular parcel.
She was apologetic about the slightly wild yard, but we quickly moved on to discussing the trees, the birds (she gets Barred Owl, and we showed her some Pigeon Guillemots in the Inlet), the plants (roses and St. John's Wort came up), and shellfish (she gets money from a gentleman that seeds for several types of shellfish and harvests them from her little bit of shoreline - surely not the only such arrangement in the county!).
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| Mount Rainier from Arcadia Point - we left with only Pigeon Guillemot in the water. Squaxin Island straight ahead. |
2-4 on the Old Olympic Highway
Cara and I made our way back out to 101, and then to the Old Olympic Highway. This stretch of road runs parallel to 101 on the south side, and was a spot I wanted to investigate for California Quail. Yet another code 4 bird that we were hunting for, these little guys seem to have been largely pushed aside by Mountain Quail, but there have still been a couple of leads to follow. The county compiler for Mason County shared that this road was a place where he had found them in recent years, so I thought it would be worth a shot.
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| Find the garter snake! |
We started by investigating the Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail, but found some pretty foreboding signage. The coming of the fourth of July, and the dry season on the way have closed some areas to public entry. We wandered in a little, and were treated to a Pacific Northwest Garter Snake, but limited our exploration to the area within eye-shot of the parked car.
Heading up Old Olympic Highway, I was looking for two things: Quail habitat, or people. People know where there are quail. I've got this idea about owls as well. People won't notice a lot of the birds around them, but quail are active enough and look silly enough to get people's attention. We drove without seeing much of either quail or people before we found ourselves at the tractor dealership.
I walked out to the field where the two gentleman were trimming the grass and adjusting signage, greeting them with the explanation that seems to have been working when I approach complete strangers. 1) Clarify that I'm a birdwatcher 2) Mention that I'm doing a Mason County big year. 3) Explain that some birds have been hard to find but this is a good spot. 4) Ask if they've seen California Quail 5) Put my finger on my forehead and wiggle it around like the thing on a quail's head.
We had nobody at all imply that they had seen these birds anywhere down this road ever, but... but! The gals in the office thought that the trails up behind the dealership might be worth a look, "We could give you a golf cart..."
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| Easiest decision ever |
We found no quail on the way up or at the top, but what an interesting bit of help! Cara had been driving the whole day, so I had fun getting to take the cart up the hill. It's not the simplest of things to do a steep hill with a cart that has no reverse and sloooooow brake response, but the fresh air felt great. We got to the top and watched this clear cut for a little before giving up on this particular exploration.
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| Clearcut above the Old Olympic Highway |
Somewhere around 4 til 5:30 or so
We actually left Mason County briefly *gasp* and ducked down to McCleary on Highway 108, then meandered our way over to Cloquallum Road to get back in to Mason. It was a new way to enter the county (I think I've come in from four others so far this year!) and it got me thinking that I should be collecting these signs.
As we entered the county, we stopped at one of the earliest places we could. I looked down at the river below and saw a steep bank, "This would be a good place for a Bank Swallow", I mused, when a brown swallow flew overhead making... well the sound was a little different than the Northern Rough-winged Swallows I'd heard recently - not as monotonous and repetitive - although in the end, we decided that's exactly what it was. This decision was not taken lightly, however, and because the birds were backlit, we actually clambered down the river bank, and hopped onto the gravel bar at a narrow part so that we could get a good look-see.
The birds finally showed us that they lacked any collar across their chest, and we decided at that point that being down on the gravel bar carrying binoculars with a full view of someone's living room was a sketchy thing. Bank Swallows are a code 5 bird, and I honestly didn't even have them on my radar for the breeding season, although I love the idea of learning the calls better and keeping a close eye out for them in the fall. They often pass through in the fall without collars, I believe, which makes identification tricky, so the calls would be only one piece of it, but eyes and ears will be open!
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| Schafer State Park signage |
We made our way up Cloquallum and made a quite forgettable stop at Star Lake - I hadn't realized that it was just a resort lake that was developed right up to the edges. We peeked in between two houses to see an empty lake, and decided to move along! The forests between there and Schafer State Park were frighteningly dense. I had just finished a unit on fire ecology with my ninth graders, and the densely packed trees did not look like healthy forests at all. With the fire danger up this summer, I could picture an awful lot of trees going in one fell swoop.
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| Salal |
Thing opened up once more at Schafer, and Cara and I took a little walk. I think we were certain that there was little to nothing new that we were expecting bird-wise, but it seemed important to spend some time at a state park in the far corner (or nearly the far corner) of the county. Taking a little half loop, we stumbled onto Salal, and lichen. Lots and lots of lichen. I had read that there were poachers of a sort, people who came into the Olympic National Park and drove off with lichen to sell to floral shops around the world. I'm not endorsing it, but it at least made sense after seeing and feeling the amazing lichens on the trees on this path. 
We finally made our way out of the park around 5:30 and wondered... how can we get to the farthest Southwest corner of the county... right along the Satsop River?
5:30-6:30
"Can I help you?"
This was a sentence we had heard far more often than some goal-oriented neer-do-wells skulking around the hidden corners of the county with binoculars may have deserved. One more time, then, we were getting this question.
Cara and I were pulled over on the side of the road squinting at the map, when a woman asked what we needed. I explained that we were just trying to find a way down to the river, and I explained why (see above, minus the quail thing).
"Well... you can go up to the crest of the hill, and there is a trail that goes down to the river, or you could come up my driveway there and walk the river from my property."
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So we accepted another gracious offer. and followed her directions behind their home, down to a dry creek bed which emptied into the Satsop. Very early on, we played for Bullock's Oriole, the species I dreamed would show up in this tiny little area. We were treated to a single cackle, and spent much of this time wondering if it was a Bullock's, or one of the handful of Brewer's Blackbirds that were using the fields and trees nearby. Nothing made us sure of the presence of orioles, so we continued down the streambed, which got more and more narrow as the bushes on either side impinged on our path.
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| Yay! |
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| Hold on a minute... |
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| Oh, never mind |
We actually spoke at length on a bird that she and her husband had seen regularly this summer, and only this summer. Pictures of Grosbeaks and Orioles all looked like they were on the right track, and the varied song she described could have been any of the above, but she didn't have enough information to make us sure it was or wasn't an oriole. (But, m'lady, if you are reading this, please use the message feature here and let me know if you've discovered more!). All of this tromping around on her property, and she tells us... "You're free to come and look again! It doesn't matter if we're here or not." Cara claims that the welcome we received all day had to do with her gender, and not necessarily with my charmingly disarming smile and pleasant unthreatening disposition. We may never know!
We need two things: Food and nighthawks (the rest of the evening)
We high-tailed it back to Shelton, where we found many places were closed or not serving food at 7 PM. Nonetheless, we came out of town with a growler full of beer from Grove Street Brewery, and a warm bag of MacDonald's "food". In town, we added a Western Scrub-Jay to the list for the 75th bird of the day.
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| Common Nighthawk - 161 |
Heading up towards Forest Road 23 again, we stopped in the first clear cut, and were treated to Common Nighthawks (161 for the year) nearly right away. "Peent!" they called out to us - three of them over this first field. I watched one dive and got puzzled by a noise. "You heard a vroom!" Cara told me excitedly. I watched and for 15-20 minutes this nighthawk repeatedly rose... rose... rose... then dove quickly, only to cup its wings at the last minute and swoop back up, producing a deliciously fake "Vrooooom" noise at the bottom. We ate our dinner, had a glass of Rye Ale from the growler, and enjoyed the show.
Rejuvenated by vroom and ethanol, Cara decided we needed owls. We drove up past the High Steel Bridge, picking up at least a dozen more nighthawks on the way (including at least one calling from Lake West as expected), before stopping in a nice open area to call for owls. We pissed off every American Robin in the neighborhood, and got a call from a distant Barred Owl.
Figuring this was our last bird of the day, we made our way back to the Skokomish Valley when we got one more bird, and a new one for Cara for the year - a Barn Owl passing right in front of the car! We stopped to listen for it for a while before deciding it was just time to call it a day, and I think the car was telling me it was 10:30 when I closed my eyes, and much later when we landed at Cara's place. She may have explained how to use the water in their camper before my head hit the pillow, but I honestly can't remember.
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| Tough to see, but there is a Common Nighthawk in this lovely scene |
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