August birding, day two - an easy morning at Theler

Morning overlooking Oakland Bay on the south end of Shelton

I woke up at 6 on David's couch, and realized I needed to head back to the hotel to get a change of clothes and check out.  I snuck out and made my way up to Shelton, and decided to make a bee-line for Belfair.

Theler Wetlands, we meet again!

It will be interesting to see how many trips I make out here in the end, but I do get good birds when I visit.  This trip to Theler was no different.  The first good find was a Baird's Sandpiper.  I have mentioned that I heavily prefer hearing birds to seeing them.  My friend Pete used to rib me about that "It's called birdwatching, Tim."  So seeing an interesting sandpiper was of course at least a little stressful for me.

But here we go - what did I notice about this sandpiper:

1.  Wings extend past the tail.   This is one of the most important field marks for a Baird's, and could be seen in quite a few of the pictures I took.  I can also thank Pete indirectly for the picture.  When he passed, I purchased the scope from his daughter, because I figured Pete would keep bringing me good luck with birds.  Creative bit of digiscoping, and expanding things on my phone, but it came out pretty well.

2.  Medium length, dark, mostly straight bill.  You can see that it's a bit longer than what you might see on a Least Sandpiper, and a bit straighter than what you might see on a Western.   The legs were also dark, although the lighting on this picture obscures it.  I also was told something about the scalloping on the back... but I started to feel lightheaded as I looked that carefully.  Please enjoy the scalloping in spite of me.

3.  Buffy/peachy coloring on the face and breast.  The breast is a little obscured here, but it's still evident.  Something nobody mentioned to me was the pattern of color around the bill - but if you look at field guides, there's often the dark patch between the bill and the eye, framed above and below by lighter patches.  It was nice to have a bird so close that I could really study it.

OH!  And this is a code 5 bird in the county!  So it was a really fun find, and brought me to 168 for the year. 

169

After a whole year of looking in the right habitat, at least one near miss, and an extended search near a nest, I found a Northern Harrier patrolling the salt marsh.  A code 1 bird, which just means I should have found one ages ago.  The only birds left that are supposed to be that easy are American Coot and Northern Shoveler, although I have some serious doubts about those coots!

I brought home corn, honey, peaches and potatoes

I got a call from my daughter as I checked the water at Belfair.  "Hi Daddy!  I was just wondering what time you were coming home."   Meltmeltmelt.  So I packed things up at Belfair (where the interesting birds were Bonaparte's Gulls in winter plumage), and made my way home, taking  (Highway 3 (and stopping at an awesome fruit stand - peaches are in, just make sure to ask which ones are the goooooood ones), then a quick stop at Kennedy Creek (Okay, not that quick - I tried for a quick nap as the water was way out and I was way sleepy.  I also ran into Joelle and David once more here before I left!) where I found no new birds, but saw my first Northern Pintails of the fall, then to 1-5 to Renton and home.

169 is the total for the year - 11 off of the record.  Reports of Semipalmated Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher, and a possible Sora at Theler already have me tempted to make another run!