Fall in the San Juan Islands

With all the education and advocacy efforts that I'm involved in year round now, there no longer seems to be a "slow season" to my year. Even as the days start to get shorter in the late autumn and fall and the whales around a bit less, there's plenty to do with writing articles and public comments and giving presentations, plus continuing to do book talks and other work with the Orca Behavior Institute. Regardless of the time of year, however, it's so important to me to regularly make some time to get out into nature with my camera, whether it be on the water or on land. And regardless of the time of year, there is so much to see and observe in the Salish Sea. Here are some highlights from the last six weeks or so.

Bald eagle in Spieden Channel

Ollie the sea otter at Race Rocks in the Strait of Juan de Fuca

Looking UP at the T46Bs in big swells in the Strait of Juan de Fuca

Laplong longspur - a life bird! - at American Camp

Close visit from a great blue heron at Land Bank's Westside Preserve

K33 Tika off the west side of San Juan Island

K34 Cali off Eagle Point with the Olympic Mountains in the background

One of the many hairy woodpeckers that visits our feeders year-round

Trumpet lichen, Cladonia spp.

Tiny mushrooms in the yard

Harbor seal pup at Roche Harbor

Gorgeous fall colors everywhere this year!

Bonaparte's gull in Mosquito Pass

Winthrop Trip: Part 1

Last weekend a bunch of co-workers and their families headed over to Winthrop in north-central Washington, and I was excited to go as well and get the chance to explore a new part of the state. It was my first time taking Highway 20 east of I5 and through the North Cascades, and it was well worth it just for the drive alone. The stunning scenery reminded me at times of Alaska, especially at this overlook near Diablo Lake where you're looking down on the water but surrounded by towering mountains.

In a nearby rockslide I also saw several pica, the first time in quite a while I've seen this small mammal.

The next time I had to pull over to take in the landscapes and snap some photos was at Washington Pass, the 5000+ foot high point on this stretch of the highway. I was very impressed while talking to a young French-Canadian biker who had just climbed a 30 kilometer (18 mile) hill to reach the pass and had gone 90 kilometers (nearly 60 miles) on the day. He wanted his picture taken in front of the elevation sign and I was glad to oblige. Here's some of the craggy mountain peaks that were nearby, and though the road was dry there was still a couple feet of snow on the ground:

We camped at Pearrygin Lake State Park just a little bit north of Winthrop. While the campground was a little bigger and busier than I would have liked, the scenery here was absolutely beautiful as well. The lake was surrounded by rolling green hills that had an almost high-desert feel to them, and then the still snow-capped mountain peaks could be seen here and there in the distance.

A group of female mallards and their ducklings occasionally visited us at our campsite, showing little to no fear of all the people around:

 

 Seeing a spotted sandpiper (198) at Jackson Beach on San Juan Island had me poised to break through 200 bird species on the year list during this trip, and it didn't take long on Saturday to start adding to the list. While walking around the campground in the morning I saw a pair of vesper sparrows (199). Then, while driving with a friend towards a trailhead for a hike, I spotted a pair of mountain bluebirds (200) as well as a couple of western bluebirds. What a nice species to be #200!

Male mountain bluebird

The hike I had scoped up was a bit more remote than I had anticipated, being several miles up bumpy, rocky roads with no signs, but we found it: Pipestone Canyon.

Pipestone Canyon trailhead

All I had time to do was step out of the car before the birding started in earnest. Right away I heard some sooty grouse (201) calling from up in the hills. A moment later, I heard my first canyon wren (202) of the day. Way up in the interesting rock formations above us was a (presumably) nesting colony of white-throated swifts.

A prairie falcon (203) flew by, causing quite a stir among the swifts. Later, at the end of the hike, I spoke to another birder who had located the prairie falcon aerie (nest) high up in the cliffs. I was able to spot it, too, by the white wash on the rocks below the little ledge, and sure enough the falcon was perched there, not far from the swift colony.

The Pipestone Canyon trail gently descended through a wooded forest habitat, where I heard a mountain chickadee (204). Eventually the landscape opened up into a meadow valley between the canyon walls.

Here, the calls of western meadowlarks echoed across the open space at amazing volumes. Black-billed magpies also chattered away in the trees at the edge of the meadow. Lazuli buntings could be heard here and there, too. Another highlight was seeing three golden eagles - two adults in one spot and an immature further down the canyon.

Lazuli bunting

Slowly, the day started heating up, and the bird life quieted down. After having a snack we turned around and started heading back, and this part of the hike was dominated instead by butterfly sightings - we saw at least six different species. They seemed particularly interested in the dried horse droppings.

Dotted blue (Euphilote enoptes)

Northern checkerspot (Chlosyne palla)

Lorquin's admiral (Limenitis lorquini)

Once back in the woods, there was one more notable bird sighting: a red-naped sapsucker (year bird 205, NA life bird 348). I was pretty sure I had a glimpse of one on the drive in, but this time I got a good enough view to be sure. It's a very pretty bird, with especially striking facial markings.

The birding continued to be good on the drive back to the campground, including a western tanager and a western kingbird. The whole drive was just beautiful, too.

Saturday evening, while at the company picnic, a couple of common nighthawks (206) flew way overhead. With all my talk about birds, several people wanted to go on another bird walk the next morning, and it didn't take much convincing on my part! We went to the Beaver Pond trails near Sun Mountain, a place some birders I had talked to at Pipestone Canyon had recommended.

One of the first things I saw at Beaver Pond was an osprey nest:

We saw and heard lots of cool birds, including western wood-pewees, yellow warblers, house wrens, and a Bullock's oriole. I saw several more red-naped sapsuckers, and was especially thrilled to find one Williamson's sapsucker (207), another life bird (NA #349).

It was a bit of whirlwind weekend trip, and after this hike it was time to start heading back west to catch the ferry from Anacortes home. This post covered all the bird sightings, but there were also lots of amazing wildflowers to be seen...stay tuned for the next post!

The First 60

When I woke up on New Year's Day, I expected to come downstairs and see a chickadee or junco at the feeder to start out the year list, but I got species #1 without even getting out of bed when I heard a Steller's jay (1). Over breakfast, watching the feeders provided another nine species, including the varied thrush (9) and fox sparrow (10), species it took me quite a bit longer to get last year.

We spent the next hour driving through Columbia County and Scappoose Bottoms, enjoying the kind of year list pace that only comes once a year. There's something liberating about slowing down to look at every single bird - is that a robin? Yes! - after the end of last year and the inability to find even one additional species to add to the list. We added many of the expected ducks, raptors, and passerines, but a rough-legged hawk and Wilson's snipe were especially nice finds. Once we got on the highway and started heading towards Portland the list stood at 37.

Vanport Wetlands turned up a few of the missing waterfowl species and nearby we found the great horned owl sitting on it usual nest, looking at us nonchalantly from its swaying tree branch. The wind picked up considerable as we headed over to Broughton Beach, but we saw several other birders there. We couldn't find the snow bunting, so walked up on the levy where we were pleased by a couple of American pipits. The huge flock of both greater and lesser scaup was close for a change, but we still couldn't locate the tufted duck that was seen mixed in a few weeks ago (but thanks Dave for the tip of looking at the black back - I totally forgot about that field mark last time). Among the choppy waves of the Columbia River we also found a common goldeneye, a horned grebe, and, somewhat unusual for this location, three surf scoters. Then, walking back to the car, another birder pulled over and told us she had just found the snow bunting. Yay! It was right where she described, and was #50 on the list.

Next up was Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. Surprisingly this was the first place we saw a northern flicker all day. I was also thrilled to find a single greater white-fronted goose among a big flock of cackling geese. Here's one flock of cacklers coming in for a landing:

Right across from the field of geese were hundreds of tundra swans on the main lake:

On the mammal front, there were nutria all over the place, but it was cool to see a coyote looking around before disappearing into the grasses (click to see a larger view):

(As an aside, I forgot to mention it, but a week or so ago I saw a skunk near my parent's house! Only the second time I've ever seen one.)

It was busy at Ridgefield, but there were still lots of great photo opportunities, like of this great blue heron in a tree:

All to quickly, the sun was starting to lower in the sky - but we still wanted to bird Lower River Road in Vancouver so off we went.

We got to the end of the road with just enough light to set up the scope and look at the very bird-active lake across the way. In a flurry we added canvasback, hooded merganser, and redhead to reach 60 species for the day. As we wrote down our final additions, I was still disappointed not to have found any sandhill cranes, a species it would be extremely unlikely to see on San Juan Island but that we could have found at any of our stops throughout the day. I looked up then and spotted a line of birds in flight above the distant tree line. Up came the binoculars, and sure enough, there were my sandhill cranes (61).

On the dark drive back along the road, we went slowly hoping to find a barn owl, a species that eluded me throughout all of 2010 despite my best efforts. Surely it would be poetic justice to see it on January 1 of the new year? It didn't happen, but we did find a great horned owl sitting on a post. It's cat-like silhouette against the purple western horizon was an awesome end to a great day of birding.

Three Snowy Mountains and a Snow Bunting

We made it down to Portland for the upcoming holidays, and yesterday we got out to Sauvie Island to go birding. In addition to the thousands and thousands of Canada and cackling geese, another thousand snow geese, and lots of mallards and coot, some other highlights included four redheads, three canvasback, more than a hundred sandhill cranes, and a flock of about 50 western meadowlarks. In the crisp, cool weather, the views were also awesome, with all three nearby mountains visible.

Mt. Adams with some sandhill cranes in the foreground (click to see a larger view)

Mt. Hood with a flock of cackling geese in the foreground

Mt. Saint Helens, famous for its eruption in May 1980

Then, after visiting with my niece and nephew for a while today, I had time to check out nearby Broughton Beach where a snow bunting has been hanging out. Sure enough, there he was! It didn't seem like a very nice place to be hanging out - essentially a gravel parking lot right by the airport runway - but then again I don't know much about what pleases a snow bunting (year bird 203).

I had borrowed my dad's scope and also hoped to relocate the tufted duck in the Columbia River just across the street from where the snow bunting was hanging out. 204 would put me in a tie with Dave in our year list competition, but the big flock of hundreds of scaup was on the other side of the river with their head's tucked in, leaving no chance of picking out a tuft on the back of one's head. There's still a week left to go in 2011 - surely that will be enough time for me to pick up one or two more species? Only time will tell!

Snow!.....Bunting!

While the San Juan Islands have been dwelling in sub-freezing temperatures for the last several days, we were surprised here in Portland with a dusting of snow late last night. After the snow fell, the clouds cleared and the temperatures dropped so this morning we woke up to blue skies, sunshine, and snow on the ground. Along with an e-mail report of a snow bunting sighted at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, it didn't take much convincing to get me out the door and in search of birds!

When we arrived at the start of the auto tour route the first thing we saw was a great blue heron. There were lots of them throughout the refuge, but this one was in hunting mode. While we looked on it caught and swallowed what looked to me like a decent sized rat! Never seen a heron eat a rodent before. In a nearby field were a couple of great egrets, and the first ponds had a mix of mallards, northern shovelers, bufflehead, and pied-billed grebes. Here is another of the herons (not the one that got the rat):

More waterfowl species were seen in the next few marshy areas, hanging out in the middle since the edges were icy and frozen over. I saw just a single gadwall, scaup, and ring-necked duck, and large groups of American coot and northern pintail. There were also a couple sandhill cranes, and lots of tundra swans. Here are some of the first swans I saw flying overhead, before we saw the large flock hanging out on Rest Lake:

The next sighting was not avian but mammalian - a coyote right in the middle of the road as we rounded a bend! I've seen nutria and river otters at the refuge but never any of the larger terrestrial mammals that are occasionally seen there so this was an exciting find. I've read coyotes are on the increase in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area, and that seems to be true as I've heard about more sightings from friends and family lately. We saw a second coyote a little later on way off in the distance, but we had a great view of this one as it trotted by:

Near the coyote we saw several red-tailed hawks and northern harriers, the two raptor species that we saw quite a few of throughout the refuge. The only other bird of prey we saw was an American kestrel. As we entered the wooded area past the entrance to the Kiwa Trail we came across a mixed flock of birds that included golden-crowned kinglets and a white-breasted nuthatch, which is a species I'm always excited to see.

The road opens up into marshlands again as you curve around to the other side of Rest Lake and we spotted an American bittern sticking its head up among the grasses. It stayed in view just long enough to capture a couple of photos before it hunkered down and disappeared from sight:

On one side of the road a flock of Canada geese caught my eye. I scanned them and at the far end of the flock I finally spotted a couple greater white-fronted geese (year bird 222)!!! I don't know how this species has eluded me all year, but I'm glad to add it to the list as the first year bird of November. On the other side of the road a flock of cackling geese grazed on the dike, and with the sun shining it was a picturesque view with the swans in the background:

While scanning the lake, another great blue heron flew right by my driver's side window:

By now we were in the region where the snow bunting had been sighted both yesterday and this morning. I was a little dismayed as I started to look across the fields, which were dotted with hundreds of small piles of snow that would surely camouflage a little white snow bunting. My fear of missing the bird didn't last long, though, because a couple of cars were already stopped in front of us with windows open and cameras ready, and sure enough they had already found the bird for us. It still took me a moment to spot it because amazingly enough it was right in the road just a couple of yards from the cars! As soon as I saw it was unmistakably a snow bunting (NA life bird 339, year bird 223). I patiently waited for the other cars to move on and then pulled forward. By this time the bunting had moved to the grassy edge of the road, and with the snow on the ground and the sun still just peaking through the clouds it made for ideal conditions to get this photo of the bird:

It was the perfect way to cap off what had already been an amazing trip through Ridgefield, one of my all-time favorite places to go birding. I was all smiles all the way home!!