Veteran's Day Quail Run

Sanderson Field

 

I kept putting off this walk.  On my second day of birding in the county, I walked a tiny bit of the trail on the south side of the Shelton Airport, and vowed to return.  Since then I got word from Tom Mansfield that this is where he had found California Quail - a very tough bird in the county!   I had seen another report from years back, so I figured today, having no other birds to chase or hunt down, I would jump in and make the walk!

Mushrooms all day!

Arriving around 8:30, I put on the new pair of boots I had finally gotten to replace my five year old pair, and started down one of the Scot's Broom lined trails. I decided to take the paths that would keep me close to the field on the way out, and then make it a loop by heading away from the field and aiming for Goose Lake. 

Early on, I ran into a nice bird!  Hermit Thrush is a bird that I've had up in the mountains singing, and I realized upon seeing the little guy hop up on the branch that this had been a heard-only bird before today.  I stopped and thought harder on it, and realized the total number of heard-only birds at this point was only five:  Northern Saw-whet Owl, Northern Pygmy Owl, Western Screech-Owl, Pileated Woodpecker, and Ring-necked Pheasant*.

I enjoyed the view of the bird before it flitted off, and continued up the trail.  It looked so much like the habitat where I would find California Quail around my home, but also when I thought about it, a lot like the places where I would find Mountain Quail in Mason County.  What was the difference?  What kind of habitat suited one over the other?  Or did it have to do with predators?  I puzzled over this as I walked the trail, finding a good number of different mushrooms, and birds, including Pacific and Bewick's Wren (I had my first one of the year here), Red-breasted Sapsucker, both kinglets, and a lot of Fox Sparrows.

The trail took me past the gated off fairgrounds.  I was confused, as the Mason County Forest Festival had not happened here.  I got to wondering what events actually did happen there anymore.  The ankle high dry grass looked just as good for Horned Larks as it did closer to the freeway, although it sounds like they didn't favor this end of the airport/fairgrounds.  I also saw exactly why Chipping Sparrows seemed to hang out here regularly - lots of pine, and open space below.  I had never had to come this far back during breeding season, having seen my Chipping Sparrow closer to the freeway as well.

Stand of pine just after the trail moves away from the fence

I eventually made it to the end of the fields, and realized that the Scot's Broom here went nearly forever!  In places, it seemed like there had been a modicum of maintenance done on the trails, and I again got to wondering, "Why?  Who are these trails for?"   An hour and a half in, I figured it would be about time to start turning around.  I played for California Quail, bringing the Chi ca go!  call to Shelton.  Nothing came back in return.  I frowned, turned, and made my way down the trail southward. 

A sea of Scot's Broom

Someone overused the panorama feature on their camera this time around... Goose Lake from the South Shore.

A few oak trees were found here and there

It was pretty easy to find another major east-west "arterial" that paralleled the one I had taken.  I kept finding more and more habitat that seemed perfect, but as the day got later, I figured any quail in the area might be quiet.  Eventually, I found myself on the south shore of Goose Lake.  Not having really needed the boots before, I was happy to walk the squishy shoreline, finding Hooded Mergansers, Double-crested Cormorants, Buffleheads and other ducks in the little lake, but no Ruddy Ducks as I'd hoped for. 

I tried to simply circle back along the shoreline of the lake and pick up a trail, but there wasn't really a trail to be picked up, and the shoreline closed off with tree branches, so I bushwhacked it back up to the main trail.  No more than five minutes after making it back to the trail, two quail flushed from the side of the trail.  Mountain!  They lacked the black on the face, and made a cluck cluck instead of a pit pit as they went up the trail a ways.  I tiptoed forward, and eventually the two birds flushed from an unseen spot, disappearing for good to the south of the trail. 


Skokomish Valley Road

Having shaken the disappointment of finding Mountain Quail (that sounds weird, especially because the crappy view I got still counted as a life look), I hopped into the car and made my way to Skokomish Valley Road.  It had been closed the last time I was on it, due to flooding.  Oddly the same Road Closed signs were there, but traffic continued as usual.  Early on, I stopped at a sparrow patch that had been really good earlier in the year.  Today I found mobs of Golden-crowned Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos, with a few Fox Sparrows, Song Sparrows and Spotted Towhees in the mix.  No Harris's Sparrow! 


Behind the grange, a pair of Red-tailed Hawks circled, and farther up the road I found a small family of Common Mergansers sitting on a gravel bar in the middle of the Skoke.  This was such a familiar sight this year - it's been pretty easy to find Commons in the rivers of the county.  The rest of the road was pretty quiet, and I turned back towards 101 again.  My last stop on the road was right before the freeway - the George Adams Hatchery.  I hoped for a Swamp Sparrow, Great Egret, or something weird like a Sora in the marsh.  I missed them all, but did have Virginia Rail and Marsh Wrens.


Hunter Farms/Skokomish Mouth

I don't know how many cones of Olympic Mountain Ice Cream I've had this year, but it went up by one.  Pumpkin Praline... mmmm.  I checked the sparrow patch and found more of the same, with the addition of White-crowned Sparrow, and I also found a Merlin perched over the patch.  The Merlins had been hard for me to find earlier in the year, and this was the first one for me at that location.  Above the hills to the south, five Bald Eagles circled.


My next stop was at the mouth of the Skokomish.  There were hordes of Surf Scoters, Bonaparte's Gulls (and a mix of other gulls... I scanned them for dark mantles or dark heads, but otherwise wasn't picking through them with much care at all), and American Wigeons.  The big surprise was a pair of Marbled Godwits feeding in the delta.  There has been one seen at Belfair State Park for several winters in a row now, but this was new, at least for me, at this location.


Hood Canal to Belfair


I stopped when I could all the way up Hood Canal, scanning for Yellow-billed Loon, Long-tailed Duck, Ruddy Duck, or Common Murre.  None of them obliged me, and I decided in the end to do a rare skip of Theler and just go right to Belfair State Park.  The state parks are free on Veteran's Day. Who knew?

Hood Canal

Awfully blurry pic...gotta look over the camera, but there's Bonies and Dunlin in here!

Belfair S.P. was interesting!  Dunlin were back for the first time in a while, and there were good numbers of Bonaparte's Gulls - clearly something for double-digit months, as I never found more than one or two of them at once before June.  Further out, I scanned and found a lot of wigeon, some Buffleheads and scoters.  My hopes for a Ruddy Duck are beginning to fade, as it sounds like they are best found early in the year (which is actually when some were around), but I'll keep my eyes open.


I got a call from my daughter, wondering if I could pick her up early from school, and decided to cut Theler out for sure, packing everything up and heading back to the fair land of Renton