Aftermath: 68 plus 10

Good Morning, Shelton!

 

Next day birds

I hate to be a broken record on this point, but I will be adding other posts to talk about my evening watching the Seahawks play Carolina with the Shelton locals, about my stay at the Shelton Inn, and my breakfast at Blondie’s Restaurant. The “other stuff” really is going to be a big part of this blog, but to do it right, I’m going to focus on the birding in this post.

1.  Do scrub-jay families use blue eye filters?
2.  Am I really going to take pictures of people's houses?
(I won't make it a habit.)

After sleeping in (I rarely do this on birding trips), I walked the Mountainview area of Shelton.  Ebird has a lot of pins dropped for Western Scrub-Jay, Eurasian Collared-Dove, and Anna’s Hummingbird in this neighborhood between I and M streets, so I parked at Jefferson and J, and walked a block.  Western Scrub-Jay (69) popped up for me right away, and I eventually found a hummingbird feeder with an Anna’s happily feeding.  With those birds in the bag, and with a neighborhood dog barking fairly incessantly, I decided to head out.  I had planned to go right to the Skokomish Valley for missed birds, but as I headed up 101, I saw the Fairgrounds/Sanderson Field and had to make a stop. 

Sanderson Field

Sanderson Field is interesting habitat.  I was hoping for a good hawk or harrier cruising the open fields, but they were pretty quiet.  I walked in to find a trail through the fields and Scot’s broom south of the field.  Pacific Wren, Bewick’s Wren (70), Fox and Song Sparrows, and Spotted Towhee were found in the dense brush, and a Steller’s Jay was found in the more wooded area as I continued down the path.  There are reports on Tweeters of California Quail from this area, and it was very tempting to continue down the path, but I resisted the temptation for now!

I really do plan on walking a long ways into that stuff some time.

Skokomish Valley

Falls emptying into S.Fork Skoke.

Side trip - High Steel Bridge

I returned to the grange, wanting a better look at the swans I had seen the previous day, but they made no appearance.  A second attempt at the Green Heron also failed.  This time around, however, I was able to find a gull that finally left me feeling good about Herring Gull (71) for an ID, and an easier ID on a Ring-billed Gull (72).  I also found sparrows I had missed the previous day, with great looks at Golden-crowned (73) and a large flock of White-crowned (74).  I swear I heard a Lincoln’s Sparrow call.  It made me stop the car, and I heard a few intermittent calls – kind of a smack…but not as hard as a Fox Sparrow, or even (I thought) a Junco.  I couldn’t trace the calls to the source, though, so I had to let that one go.

Purdy Cutoff Road

Here I was again, looking over this little slough, and I stopped the car very early for some swans!  I have the picture here, and once people get a good look at them, I may decide to call one of these a Tundra Swan.  There is no yellow in the bill, which would have been helpful, but the dark of the bill meets at a smaller point at the eye for the middle bird (and maybe one or two of the other birds, but I like the middle one!).  If I do get an ID on this, I’ll add it numerically after the others on my list.  Nothing else new here.

Swan number three has a nice head shape, and narrow black lores, but... If I'm calling it a tundra, it's hard to figure out why it wouldn't be as white as the Trumpeter Swans in front of it?  Also, I just didn't realize that swans even this far into the
year would be that short of full size.  This was a tough one for me to let go, but for now, I'm ready to, unless someone adds new information. 

 

Skokomish Delta

Red-breasted Merganser - Hood Canal

Mark had suggested that there might be a lot of American Coots at the mouth of “The Skoke”, so I was pretty excited, as that species (a Code 1???) seems to be a headache for most county birders.  This day was no different than any other for me in Mason County in that regard – no coots!

At the mouth, I did have a lot of waterfowl, including my first Western Gull (75 – finally one with a dark mantle and a nice clean white head), Red-throated Loon (76), and several Gadwall (77) further into the estuary.

Goldeneyes, White-winged and Surf Scoters, Common Loons, American Wigeon, Horned Grebes –all were hanging around the mouth of the Skokomish in high numbers.  I went farther up the Canal for one last stop at a view point in Union, where I added the last bird on my list for the weekend – a Western Grebe (78).

Birds I didn’t get:

I feel like I left a lot of good birds out there on the saltwater:  Black Scoter, Long-tailed, Harlequin and Ruddy Duck, Northern Shoveler, Eurasian Wigeon, Cackling Goose, American Coot, Pacific Loon, Pied-billed and Eared Grebe, Clark’s Grebe, Brandt’s Cormorant, and all of the Alcids.   Thayer’s Gull may show up in some of my pics with a little time, coffee and help.

In the farmland, and interesting goose (cackling, greater white-fronted, snow), or sparrow (Lincoln’s, white-throated, Harris’s), or blackbird (Rusty, yellow-headed, or maybe a Western Meadowlark), or raptor (Northern Harrier, Cooper’s, Sharp-shinned, Rough-legged Hawks, or a Merlin) would have been nice finds.  A Northern Shoveler could just as well have shown up out there.

Lil’ birdies:  Brown Creeper, Red Crossbill, Bushtit, American Goldfinch, Yellow-rumped Warbler (or any other more interesting wintering warbler – most of which would show up in the summer). 

Theler birds:  Hutton’s Vireo, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Wilson’s Snipe, Hairy Woodpecker, Virginia Rail and Barred Owl are all regular visitors to the park and could have been found on this trip.

Green Heron.   Gotta get that guy.  I will.

Band-tailed Pigeon.  They’re around.  I’ll see some.

And notably:   I got not a single owl, nor a single gamebird.  That’s got to change!

February will have another Big Day, although I may change up the path and locations to target some of the birds I’m missing.  I’m going to miss some birds anyway!  May as well change up the ones I get, and still try to mix up the settings.  Saltwater can be found in other places besides Hood Canal – It might be nice to get to Hartsene Island, or Kennedy Creek.  Farmland out by Matlock might be good to check, as it’s not birded as often, and could bring me past Lake Nawhatzel where American Coots are sometimes found.  Some of the wooded parks in the west end of the county might be better for Band-tailed Pigeon or (if I got to slightly higher elevations), Sooty Grouse and Gray Jay.

It will be interesting to see how things start shaping up – I’m sure that sightings between now and then will affect my path, and I may change plans a little during the day anyway!

Until that next post, happy birding, y’all!

January 10th - A Big Day to start the year.

 



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

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.

 

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.   



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.

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).  

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.

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

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!

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...

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.

 

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!

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

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.

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). 

Belted Kingfisher - Theler Wetlands

 

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

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.

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

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

 



Happy New Year!

I had a lovely weekend in Mason County on January 10-11, and came out with 78 species to start the year!   There will be posts to come with more pictures, but I am waiting for a USB cord for my camera.  Those posts will include a bit more of the narrative of the day, but I thought I could sum up the numbers of it with a post here.  The picture above was from my second owling stop.  By my best reckoning, I made 7 stops for owls with the lightest of drizzles, and came out empty-handed. 



Skokomish River Road farmland

I had my first birds in the Skokomish Valley, birded from there up to Belfair State Park and Theler, then straight down to Still Water Farm on Webb Hill Road before finishing the day birding Hood Canal up to Hama Hama.   That brought me 68 species, with the last ten coming Sunday morning with a few birds in and around Shelton, a return trip to the Skokomish Valley Road, and some longer stops on Hood Canal for some salty birds.  The lists below have the birds as they were added, all tallied up on eBird.  Birdlog is the app I used to add most of the data - very easy!

I found 57 of the 93 code 1 birds in the county, 11 of the 51 slightly harder code 2 birds, 8 of the 30 code three birds, along with the code 4 and 5 birds that I knew would be easy this year (Western Scrub-Jay and Eurasian Collared-Dove).

It was a good start with the birds, and I'll be able to add more about all of that other Mason County stuff (people, maps, weather, food), once I can actually get pictures off of my camera!

Hood Canal from a pull-off between Union and Twanoh State Park. 
There's a better picture on my camera!

After those posts, It's a little wait until my next trip out.  My birthday is February 1st, which should ideally be the date of the Seahawks last game of the season.  I'm aiming for a Jan 31st day trip to Mason County with my family.  I'll keep my eyes open for some birds while I'm there, but it won't be anything like Saturday!

Waterfall from the High Steel Bridge

Plans are afoot

Looking over the weekends coming up with Bre, and I think this weekend coming up will be my first trip out to Mason County, with a Big Day on Saturday.  "Why don't you go this weekend?" was the question.  I was still feeling like I'd been gone a bit much after a couple Christmas Bird Counts, but it just might be the best time to go.  I haven't worked out lodging but here's the general plan:

Owls:  I'll make efforts for nearly all of them, although I think I'm leaving the Spotties alone for now.  One can't be inside the ABA code of ethics while running around calling for Spotted Owls, so I will be endeavoring to hit the right areas when those dudes are calling actively. 

Owls are tough in Mason County, but I have a few leads, ideas, hunches and gambles:

Mary Theler Wetlands at Belfair has a resident Barred Owl - that'll be my first stop, and maybe my first bird of the year for the county if it cooperates, and if I don't head over on Friday.

Northern Saw-whet Owl:  I'll try for these at a spot with an eBird report, a little bit south of Mason Lake on Krabbenhoft Road.  They like deeply wooded areas, so I may run into them just about anywhere this year when I'm trying for other owls.

My first three owling stops - taking me from Belfair to Shelton.



Western Screech-owl:  These guys are having a hard time in King County.  Two kinds of areas seem to have them holding on:  1) Steep canyons near Puget Sound (so I'm looking for similar habitat near Hood Canal - Jorsted Creek seems to have some good slopes, and might lead to some stops if I have time.  2) Smaller patches of forest that are big enough for Western Screech-owls without being big enough to interest a Barred Owl.  We've got a little lake down in Kent where they have nested recently, so I tried to find habitat that looked similar enough using google maps:  I'm going with Island Lake near Shelton. 

Great Horned and Barn:  Skokomish Valley - there are some farms, roads and powerline trails that have at least historically had some owl reports.  I hope to be sitting in the right spot at Barn Owl O'clock when they hunt the fields in the morning.  If not, I'll try them again in the evening!

Sunrise - Sunset:

Skokomish Valley:  Gulls, sparrows, raptors, geese, maybe some ducks.  There are a few other little birds like American Dipper and Green Heron that I'll try for here as well.

Hoodsport:  Up the road a little for some forest birds, and maybe a Gray Jay, or a Northern Pygmy Owl, then back to the water for saltwater birds, and more gulls.  Potlatch State Park for more of the same.



Union:  From the other side of the Great Bend, I'll try again for more saltwater birds.  A Clark's Grebe (code 5) was seen here last week!

Theler Wetlands:  This should be the birdiest spot in the county on most days.  There's a nice mix of habitat, and it is birded each Thursday by folks who are kind enough to post sightings on eBird!

Belfair State Park:  As if I'll have time to get here!  But assuming I do have time, I'll want to come and pick up some more ducks and shorebirds like Dunlin.

Stillwater Farms:  Again, time permitting.  I will probably be hoping to pick up a Wood Duck here.  This is an active tree farm, and the owners contacted me when they heard of the blog.  There are possibilities for some game birds in here that I may not be able to make a good attempt for on this trip.

Shelton:  Western Scrub-Jay and Eurasian Collared-Dove.

This is a long day!  As with any Big Day plans, there will have to be sacrifices and/or speed. 

I wish I had time for:  Nahwatzel Lake for American Coot - devilishly hard to find in the county;  Hartsene Island for alcids, and Kennedy Creek for more shorebird/gull possibilities (although that may be a repetitive stop if I can get to Belfair).

All that said...   I make plans and adjust all the time.  Something will slow me down!  I also want to get some good pictures along the way (I'll tell you now, however, to set the bar very low for wildlife photography!  Zee lens is not zoh beeg!).  70 birds would be a darn good day.

It would be nice to finish the day in Shelton!  Finishing the day with a good meal in Shelton while adding things up would be just peachy.

Mason County birds - by the numbers

The year I spend in Mason County should be rewarding in a lot of different ways, but the year will be driven to some extent by numbers.  The reachable goal here is to see 150 species in a year.  Is that a lot?  It helps to have a Mason County checklist to look at while trying to answer that question.  This is the most up to date version from Washington Birder.

 http://www.wabirder.com/docs/Mason_list.pdf

269 birds have been seen in the county;  There are a handful of people who have seen over 200 species in the county, and the record for a year is 179 species.  The checklist above lists the birds with a numbered code next to it (explained at the bottom of the checklist).

Code 1 birds:  93

Red-winged blackbird - Code 1 bird. 

Well… I may just call this 92.  The thing is, American and Northwestern Crows may not both be in the county as distinct species.  Supposedly, the small crows hanging out in salt water with high pitched calls are more likely to have mostly or entirely Northwestern Crow DNA.  The larger ones hanging out in town with the lower pitched calls are more likely to have American Crow genetics.  I don’t know how this argument will end, so I’m just going to be calling my crows American Crows this year in the county!  Still, 92 birds gets me over half way to the goal, and even half way to a county record!    These should be birds that I won’t have to work hard to track down – we shall see!

 

 

 

Code 2 birds:  53

Wood Duck - Code 2 bird (photo courtesy of John Riegsecker

These birds are not as easy as code 1 birds, but perhaps not as hard as code 3 birds.  This is always an interesting category, because some of these birds can be quite tough!  Ruffed Grouse, Eurasian Wigeon, and four species of owls are in this group, and I know that these are some birds that have eluded some of the top county birders in the state!  I really want to make some runs for owls this year, and I hope to end the year with all four of those owls on the list!    If I find all of these suckers, and if I don’t count Northwestern Crows above, I’d be at 145 for the year.  Almost enough to reach 150, but still 35 birds or so short of the county record.

 

 

Code 3 birds:  30

Northern Shrike - Code 3 bird, photo courtesy John Riegsecker

These are birds that are seen “annually”, although… I wonder, especially with some of the owls (Western Screech-Owl, and Spotted Owl especially), whether or not there are years where these birds aren’t present in the county.  Both of them have been on the decline, and I don’t know how they go about moving species up and down for the abundance codes.  Mountain Quail is one of the specialty birds in the county, and is probably the “easiest” life bird that I could add this year.  Some of the waterfowl may take me to the south end of the county – near Hartsene Island (which I promise to spell as many different ways as possible this year!), and I’m going to do all I can to understand the tides for finding shorebirds, and… well, I’ll really try with the gulls.  I’m still not all that great at identifying those suckers.  It will be a good project.  All of them… and all the ones and twos… would put me at 175 – still short of the year record!

 

 

Code 4 birds:  20

Sora - A code 4 bird that I found at Theler in 2011

These birds will be fun.  They have been seen 5 or more times in the county, so there is a pattern of occurrence – enough to make some educated guesses about where to look – but they aren’t seen every year, so I don’t know which I will and won’t run into this year (although scrub-jays have pretty much moved in, and shouldn’t be too hard to find!  When do they become a code 3 bird…?).   These are fun birds to research, and I will likely have my hopes way up for many of them!   How many can I count on…?  Not a clue.  If I got every single bird above, I’d need 4 to hit the record.  That seems like a high percentage, but who knows!

 

 

Code 5 birds:  65?

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper - photo courtesy John Riegsecker

I counted twice.  I think this is right.  It doesn’t matter.  Some of these are as likely to show up again as a flamingo.  Some of these are on the list as fives only because they are new to the county (Eurasian Collared-Doves are there to stay), others baffle me because they are annual birds in adjacent counties (why do Yellow-headed Blackbirds avoid Mason County?) and of course there are all of the shorebirds – the chances of finding a code 5 shorebird this year are not bad, it’s just a matter of which one it would be!   The shame of it would be if poor optics or lack of experience caused me to miss some of these.  I see birds like Arctic Loon and Tennessee Warbler on there and worry that I’ll walk right past them, mistaking them for other birds!  At any rate, who knows which will show up, but I think I can count on Eurasian Collared-Dove!   It wouldn’t be too surprising if this whole focus on the county ran me into a bird or two that were new to the county list, which I’ve only had happen once before. 

 

Strategery

 

I actually wrote a lot about this, but it's been a text heavy post already.  How am I going to approach this goal? 

 

The biggest thing I AM going to do is try to build the year with big days. 

 

Wilson Cady holds every county birding record down in Skamania County, I’m quite sure, but a few years back, following a December Big Day that he ran to help me finish my 39 counties year (www.39counties.blogspot.com.  Look in the December posts), he decided to run a similar day during each month in the following year.  Despite decades of birding in Skamania, he broke his county year record in the process.  More interestingly, a birding friend of his from another county had joined him on those big days and had also broken the previous record!  Trying to see as many birds as possible in a county on a single day means hitting a lot of different habitat, staying in motion, and filling the day.  Doing it monthly means multiple efforts to find some difficult resident birds, and it’s a strategy that is good for finding rarities as well.

 

The biggest thing I am NOT going to do is rely on chasing birds.

 

There are only so many birds coming through in a year.  If a rare bird is spotted, and leaves, the number of birds  I'd possibly see during the year will go down by one.  Mason County is as close as an hour away for me, which makes it tempting to hop in the car a lot, but...

 

December 23rd, 2014 - I'm up early, watching The Big Year, and the kids joined me.  Somehow I tricked them into watching a bird movie with me, and Maura stuck around to see how the plot would unfold.  Owen Wilson has just returned from a long trip, and is racing from the airport to meet his wife at the hospital.  As he reaches the door, a friend calls him to report a Snowy Owl, "If you get on the 4:30 flight, you can obliterate your record..."

 

"DON'T!!"

 

Maura delivered this with unwavering finality to the screen, confirming the reason I don't care to chase birds.

 

I won't say that I won't chase any birds this year.  I just know that it is a strategy that is way down near the bottom of my list.  It's a strategy that "works", but it doesn't fit well into the grand scheme of things for me.  So many birders love the thrill of the chase, and rare sightings regularly draw birders away from what they are doing to see birds that they may never see again in their lives.  This trip will be a little more planned than that.  Balance.  Balance is good.