Plus five! 10/1 in Mason County

I had ideas for a title, "The Hunt for Redheads in October", "Tim wakes up and smells the tertials", "Betting on a Longspur", but I don't know if any of them really fit.  That said, this was a trip that was kind of the second of my two September days, and I went ahead and kept formal track of species, so it was a big day to boot. 

The way it always starts!

Seven Eleven has been awfully good to me, although I was sad at 4:30 AM that they didn't have the juice blends they usually sold at such a better price than anything at Starbucks or anything that rhymes with Shmodwalla.  The pumpkin spice coffee almost made up for it.  It let me know fall was here, and I really do love the season.  Apple cider, pumpkins, leaves, crisp air... and for my birding, it was time to make a last attempt at some migrants, and an early attempt at some of the winter birds as they returned.

Oak Patch Lake - early

Camp Spillman

I made it to Camp Spillman some time around 6 AM, and briefly tried the roads for Ruffed Grouse.  It seemed like doing this in the dark wasn't the best idea, so I just parked it by Oak Patch Lake and waited for civil twilight.  Civil twilight is one of my favorite times, and probably one of my favorite ideas.  It's the time in the morning before the sun comes up when it is bright enough to walk around. The very start of civil twilight in spring is amazing! 

I'd go here if I was a grouse

This morning, the lake woke up with a Great Blue Heron, and a bird that was nasal... it had me thinking coot (but turned out to be Pied-billed Grebe when it finally got light enough), which would have been a new bird.  The next birds to join the chorus were Northern Pygmy Owl and Barred Owl.  I enjoyed them for a while, and listened to the sparrows waking up.  Once civil twilight rolled around, I realized that I had Pied-billed Grebes, and decided to drive the roads for my grouse.

Grouse!  Within a few hundred feet of driving, a Ruffed Grouse (170 species for the year) took flight from the side of the road after a moment in my headlights.  It disappeared from the road, becoming as invisible as the other thousand Ruffed Grouse I had certainly driven by this year.  I kept driving the roads and found mostly Varied Thrushes, with some American Robins mixed in.  On the way out, I added a Cooper's Hawk and a few Gadwall at the lake.

Dewatto... say it like Keanu Reaves, come on!  D'wahhh tohhh...  Now try not to say it like that next time/forever.

Spiderwebs and dew

I really didn't need to go to Dewatto.  Nobody had just seen an amazing bird there.  It isn't a place that has a history of people seeing X, Y or Z.  I just hadn't been there before, so I kind of did have to go there.  I made a few stops and side trips along the way.  Blacksmith Lake sounded like a good idea - Tahuya-Blacksmith Road is one of the major roads through the area, so getting to Blacksmith sounded nice.  Unfortunately, many people thought that Blacksmith Lake sounded nice, they built houses all around it, and I had no view. 

On the way to Dewatto, I passed farms, fields, rivers and marshes.  It was great habitat, and may have been interesting to visit back in the spring!  Golden-crowned sparrows and a Gambeli's White-crowned Sparrows called from the fields before I finally got to the mouth of the Dewatto River. 

(Shut up and just show the picture, Tim!  Okay!

Shhhh....)

(Thank you!

... no problem!)

Dewatto Beach is around the corner from the mouth of the river, and I got to see a few saltwater birds - Common Loon, Horned Grebe, Pigeon Guillemot, Double-crested Cormorant and a few gulls. 

Pigeon Guillemot nests near Dewatto

Dewatto to Tahuya

Don Lake

I meandered up the road a bit, and found a turn for Don Lake.  I was game at this point, having American Coot and Northern Shoveler on my needs list still.  In my most optimistic dreams, there were Cinnamon and Blue-winged Teals waiting for me on some of these lakes as well!  Nothing on the lake - nothing!  I got out and enjoyed some of the other passerines, including Yellow-rumped Warblers, Red-breasted Sapsucker, and Downy Woodpeckers.  It was pretty enough, but it didn't seem like there was anything more to see, so I got back on the road from Dewatto to Tahuya.

I passed another lake on my left, the Tahuya Peninsula is full of these little lakes - and pulled over to take a look.  This one was Tee Lake, and it turned out to be a good stop!  First I found a Northern Shoveler (171) sitting in the middle.  I was sorting out the plumage on it... ducks are in all kinds of odd plumage this time of year... when the shoveler next to it dove.  Weird...  Then I remembered that Shoveler's don't dive!  Hmm...

Just good enough! - Redhead, Lake Tee

I looked at it again, and saw what seemed like a Canvasback at first.  The shape seemed wrong and I dug out the field guide. 

!

I pulled the car around and got onto the shoulder, got the scope pointed at the bird, and got what may be the crappiest picture of a Redhead (172) in the history of birding in the county.  Digiscoping has been kind of hit or miss for me, so I was happy to get one that actually showed me the patterned end to the bill.  This was a Code 4 bird that wasn't even properly on my radar, and an awesome surprise.

Tahuya to Belfair
 

Tahuya River Mouth

Tahuya itself was pretty socked in with fog.  As I dropped down from Tee Lake to Tahuya, it got thicker and thicker.  Hood Canal was actually gorgeous like this, even though I had no chance to see very far out into the water.  Even so, I had a couple of nice stops.  One was at Summertide Resort.  I had parked at the dock, and was met by the owner as she made her way out of her home to open up for me.  She let me go out to the dock as long as I didn't block the boat launch.

Foggy morning on Hood Canal

I didn't find any birds to speak of, but it sunk in... these people rent kayaks!  I looked out into the fog, and tried to imagine what was on the other side.  Heading back in, I asked about rentals, and just for fun asked how long it would take to get to the other side of Hood Canal from there.  "Oh, not long.  We're right across from Alderbrook.  It might take a couple hours if you really dilly-dallied."  My eyes lit up, and I looked again at the fog, then back at the owner "Not today.  But... I'll be back!"  I promised, imagining myself crossing the water through all of the grebes, loons and cormorants... maybe with some Common Murres passing me?  Time's running out, but I love this idea.

The other interesting stop came after I'd pulled to the side of the road to look at a loon.  For the... twelfth? twentieth? time this year, I was invited to someone's home to look at birds.  The gentleman who had been clearing out some furniture from his vacation home offered to let me view from his deck.  Now... it was still foggy, so I really didn't see anything at all, but I've loved every time I've been welcomed like this.

Belfair State Park

Cackling Goose - Belfair State Park

This place took a lot of my time!  There were so many ducks back in town, and gulls, and geese.  I had to pick through a lot of birds!  I'd been staring at so many Pintails and Green-winged Teals, trying to make them into something else, when a flock of Canada Geese dropped in, along with a single Cackling Goose (173).  After enjoying the bird, I got back to the gulls.  There were a few Glaucous-winged and California Gulls, and I ended up picking out a Mew Gull as well!  Not a terribly rare bird, but just another sign that winter was coming.

I spied more ducks farther up from the main beach and walked it up to investigate.  They were mostly mallards, but there were also a dozen American Wigeons.  No Eurasians showed up, so that's still a bird that I'll be looking for as the year wraps up.  On the way back, a Merlin and a Northern Harrier took turns patrolling the beach, the Merlin scattering the birds from the beach pretty thoroughly!

Theler Wetlands 

Another repetition of this picture

It's been an awful lot of trips here, but there are just too many birds that have shown up in the amazing and varied habitat.  Shorebirds have been pretty good here, and I knew time was running out to find Short-billed Dowitchers, which had been seen off and on throughout the fall.  Today I made a bee-line for the shorebird habitat, keeping only half an ear out for interesting chip notes. 

Dowitchers - both of 'em

I made it around the corner, before hitting Big Bridge (yep.  I'm just going to name it.  It's the biggest bridge there, and it's the one where 99 percent of the shorebirds have been found this year), and right there were six dowitchers waiting for me to look them over.

!

Now, I've talked about how much better my ears are than my eyes.  Call notes and songs stick with me pretty well, but feathers... I just... I mean there are so many different feathers, and where they show up when a bird is roosting... or flying... I just get confused.   The code word I have used almost universally  has been "tertials".  When people start to note the finer points of identification and field marks and feathers, I'll throw in something like, "Well, and then there's the tertials.  I mean... Just Look at Them!"

So I think (and I want to check with Alanis Morisette on this one) that it's particularly ironic that one of the trickier ID's I pulled off involved tertials. 

A few weeks earlier, I had shown up at the mouth of the Cedar River in Renton to pick up a new county bird - a Semipalmated Sandpiper.  While I was there with a few other birders, we finally nailed down the ID on the Semipalm, and had looked over a dowitcher, deciding it was a long-billed.  Before I left, Marv Breece arrived.  Marv at one point set the Washington State Big Year Record, although greater and greater levels of obsession have led to more birds from others since!

"Oh man, that's a Short-billed!"  Marv said, with little doubt in his voice.  He started to explain why, and said the word "tertial".   I tried to keep listening, but the rest sounded like the teacher from Charlie Brown.  Marv saw my face and laughed.  "Tim.  Hold on.  Do not leave!  Just breathe!"  He helped others through the ID, then went and pulled out his field guide.  He went to the dowitchers and pointed at Long-billed.  "Tertials."  he said... waiting for me to digest the word and the feathers.  His finger moved to the Short-billed and pointed again.  "Now on the Short-billed.  See?"  

I looked at the bright orange patterning on the feathers, and smirked a little, "Well, yeah, I mean... "  He cut me off and guided me back to the scope.  "OH!"  I looked back up, nodded, and then promptly passed out from the mental effort.  I exaggerate, of course, but this is one of the areas of expertise that most birders work hard on.  I've... tried?  I just feel like things haven't stuck.  But...

Dowitchers in fall

Short-billed (top) and Long-billed (bottom) Dowitchers - Theler Wetlands

I could see the birds pretty well.  They weren't far from me, and looking in the same area that Marv had previously pointed out, it was easy to pick out the orange.  I watched them for a bit, and enjoyed looking at the differences.  Thankfully I also got a few pictures!  People mess up this identification all the time, and no ebird reviewer worth his salt should simply trust any unusual sighting coming from me with the word "tertials".

Brad Waggoner, despite his disdain for The Mason, is definitely worth his salt.  We've birded before on WOS field trips, and his energy and knowledge are extensive.  He had the (unfortunate? entertaining?  both?) responsibility of following up with me on the ridiculous report I had submitted for these birds (they are a bit on the late side, and I had said something like "The tertials were just screaming "Short-billed"").

After stalling him with an equally crappy description of what I remembered seeing on the tertials, I dug out one of the pictures, and opened up a treatise on Dowitcher ID from Surfbird.com:

surfbirds.com - identification of dowitchers  

In the end, I sent this:

Hey Brad!

Theler in fall

I thought I had failed to catch an of the short-billed in pictures, but I think I have one.

Front bird looks like a Long-billed.  It does have what looks like a steep loral angle, but the tail appears to have wider black on it, the coverts are fringed in brown with a dark center, the chin appears dark, and the bill appears pretty straight.  There is no orange patterning within the tertials, and  no barring is apparent, but that may be due to the posture of the bird.  The back bird has a paler chin, white fringes on the coverts and orange tiger striping in the tertials.  It also appears to have a high loral angle and a slightly decurved appearance in the last third of the bill.  There’s no barring apparent, and the posture should show some if there was any. 

-Tim

Short-billed Dowitcher (174)

Now... not all of those field marks (as you can see from reading the article carefully!) are definitive, but still... it was nice to have a picture that showed so many of those differences apparent with birds in the same picture. 

One of many of these caterpillars seen on the walk

Chanterelles!

Exhausted, I made my way back to the car and through Belfair.  I had two bits of yumminess waiting for me in Belfair.  I first found a farm-stand that was selling chanterelles.  Unfortunately, the hot dry summer has meant that not many of these mushrooms were making their way into the market, so it was kind of slim pickings! 

Just down the road from there, I stopped in at Seabeck Pizza and ordered a slice of Hawaiian.  Holy Canoli!  They cook slices of pizza to order, and they come out with this crispy flaky crust that's just f;ldkfjeoiejejrelkjd, and the toppings are done up pretty deeply.  I'll be back.

Twanoh to Hunter Farms

From several stops on Hood Canal, I ended up finding a few interesting birds - Bonaparte's Gull, Red-necked Grebe and Western Grebes.  As I stopped at Twanoh, then Union, the number of Surf Scoters rose and rose.  It was nice to see them back!  The mouth of the Skokomish, however, was just not great.  It wasn't that there was any lack of birds, but they were so far out.  It made me more resolved to get out there in a kayak!

Hunter Farms was all ready for October.  People were working on finding pumpkins in the patch which will be open all of October.  I stopped in for ice cream, and saw licorice waiting for me in the display case, but... Pumpkin Praline?? Yes please. 

Hunter Farms - October is here!

I was directed to a gentleman in a black cowboy hat to ask for permission to walk the back fields.  I got a yep, and asked out of curiosity if he was the owner "...the family" he said after searching for the word to qualify it properly. 

The very first vegetable gardens on the way out from the parking lot were teeming with sparrows!  All I could find were Savannah, Golden-crowned, White-crowned and Song, but the numbers of them to pick through were pretty darn substantial. 

From Hunter Farms, I went across Purdy Cutoff Road, spying a Ring-necked Duck along the way.  From there, I decided to hit Sanderson Field.

 
Sanderson Field

I've had a handful of pretty good birds at Sanderson, but two were on my mind as I pulled in:  Lapland Longspur and California Quail.  I pulled in and listened again to the calls for longspurs, finishing with one of their flight calls.  I stepped out of the car, and less than five minutes later, flying over head, "Kityoo... kityoo... kityoo..."  and done.  Or... at least I'm pretty sure that was the sound?  The thing is, longspurs are almost always found on the ground, hopping around from spot to spot in the grass, and making a distinctive rattle call. 

It's not that they never make other calls, and it's not that they never fly overhead.  It's just that for  a life bird, I couldn't find a good reason to trust something that odd.  Purple Finches made a similar sound, although I really don't think their call was a good fit for what I heard.  The time of year was great for it, and the habitat seemed good, but after a half hour of waiting, I didn't get a chance to hear the calls again. 

Cue the Frozen soundtrack.... let it go!  let it go!!!

Kamilche

It took a little bit of work, but I found that there is a place to access Little Skookum Inlet pretty easily.  Port Blakely Tree Farm has a little gate off of Kamilche Point Drive, and an easy walk down to the water.  As long as you don't block the gate, it's fine to park and walk, and the view at the bottom was pretty.  I do wish I had come when the tide was a bit lower, but I had time, so I sat and waited for some interesting birds to float by.

As I waited, I shot emails back and forth with Matt Bartels and Cara Borre as we planned out a crazy idea for a field trip in Mason County in October (details to come!).  I also peeked across the inlet and realized that I had birded from the other side at David Ness's home - clearly visible from the picnic table by the water.

No new birds, and just a handful of gulls, and I decided to pack it up.  My last stop was Kennedy Creek - similarly I had a stop that was free of shorebirds, although this last stop of the day did at least have a lot of ducks and gulls - just nothing that stood out.  The day ended with a list of 71 species for the day - not bad!

Kennedy Creek Estuary

So

Five new birds for the year, and a few of them were pretty rare!  It made up for my last trip, which had yielded no new birds.  I only need six new birds for the year to break the yearlist record (and as an update... there are coots in Mason County now!).  It will be interesting to see how the year wraps up!