March 9 ~ Birding Semiahmoo

Last weekend we headed off island to run some errands. I thought it would be a ferry ride like any other, but it turned into a very memorable one: after 18 years of riding these ferries regularly, I finally saw orcas from the ferry! And not once, but twice on the same trip!

T124As outside of Friday Harbor

T123s near Blakely Island

While I'm glad that drought is finally broken, I have to say it's actually not so great to see whales from the ferry, because of course the ferry keeps going while I would rather stay and watch!

After getting our errands done, we had enough time to make a visit to one of my favorite regional birding spots at Semiahmoo. As hoped for, we saw a lot of birds, some of them new to the year list, and the icing on the cake was the beautiful evening light.

Common loon

We got a scoter hat trick, seeing all three species there (surf, white-winged, and black).

Black scoters - far away, but awesome because they are uncommon to see. Cameo appearance by a few brant!

White-winged scoter

On our drive we saw multiple pairs of bald eagles at nests - it's that time of year! This one perched on top of the tower at the end of Semiahmoo Spit and was calling to another bird (presumably its mate) flying above it.

It took a little longer than expected to add black-capped chickadee to the photo year list, but I finally got a photo of one. We've only got chestnut-sided chickadees on San Juan Island, and while I've seen several other black-cappeds, there was never a chance to photograph one without the "hand of man" for this year's challenge.

Two of my hoped-for species for the trip to Semiahmoo did not disappoint: greater scaup and brant.

As the light was fading it was getting time to head back for the ferry, but it was hard to leave with scenes like this:

Semiahmoo Spit

Just a couple more photographs before warming up in the car, for good measure:

Killdeer

Northern pintail in flight

Driving Across the American West From North to South

A few months ago we decided to plan a road trip south to get a much needed dose of sunshine during the long, gray months of the Pacific Northwest winter. Since then we've been keeping an eager eye on bird sightings along our route with the potential for lots of life birds as we traversed a climate very different from our home base. Saturday, February 3 was departure day and we found our change in weather as soon as we crossed east over the Cascades. Surprisingly, it was sunny and 60+ degrees and we went birding in T-shirts, adding our first new species of the trip:

Mountain chickadee in Union Gap, WA

This is my second year doing a photo year list, trying not only to see or hear but also photograph as many bird species as possible in 2018. Unlike last year, where I would post the first identifiable photo I got of a species only to later go back and upload a better replacement, this year I decided to wait until I got shots I was happy with for common species I knew I would get photo ops for. The sunshine gave me just the right sort of opportunity to get some better shots of common species like these American wigeon.

American wigeon in Kennewick, WA

As daylight descended on the first day of our road trip, we crossed the Columbia River into Oregon with a beautiful sunset.

The next day we crossed northeastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho, beginning the part of the drive that was new territory for me. Sadly the Idaho landscape was not very compelling and on our few stops we found hardly any birds. The day was salvaged by a late unplanned stop at Shoshone Falls which were an impressive sight.

Shoshone Falls near Twin Falls, Idaho

While it had been overcast all day, as we left Twin Falls, Idaho we were treated to another spectacular sunset, with the colors getting better and better in all directions after the sun went down. They call Montana the Big Sky State but we got a taste of it in southern Idaho, with colors surrounding us on all sides in a wide open sky.

We spent our second night just across the Nevada border, and the next morning it was amazing to see how much the landscape had changed from nearby Idaho. I had never really thought of the Great Basin as being surrounded on all sides by mountains, which made for compelling scenery.

We had to stop several times for some unexpected wildlife sightings. I'm lucky enough to see bald eagles regularly and have had opportunities to get some amazing photographs of them, but this was my first time photographing a golden eagle at close range.

Golden eagle

Not far from the golden eagle, we came across a coyote.

And later on we also saw several herds of pronghorn, North America's closest equivalent to the antelope of Africa.

We made a slight detour to check out Cathedral Gorge State Park, which turned out to be a great decision. The geology was beautiful, with red rock slot canyons and other amazing formations. Luckily the skies cleared and the sun came out, too, making for even better photo ops.

Several times as we traversed the landscape of the American West we noticed the sudden appearance and disappearance of certain plant species. I know certain trees, shrubs, and cacti are adapted for particular climates, but it was amazing how abruptly they would start and stop - related to elevation, or...? I have no idea. The Joshua tree was one of those plants, that went from non-existant to present by the thousand to absent again.

While this trip is nature-focused, we inevitably have to pass through some cities, and as Jason had never seen Las Vegas before we decided to make it a one-night stopping point. When we checked in the hotel clerks couldn't believe we were only staying one night, but it felt like more than enough! We walked the Strip at night and it was sensory overload. But, worth seeing at least once in your life.

All throughout our trip we've found ourselves coming up with questions about the places we're traveling through, things we have to look up every night. We were wondering how a place like Las Vegas ended up in the middle of the desert, and I never would have guessed that the initial beginnings of Sin City were due to its proximity to the construction site for the Hoover Dam. While workers were eventually banned from going there, it started getting its reputation during that time when dam workers would go there to drink, gamble, and find prostitutes.

Anyway, the next day, it was thankfully back to birding. Incredibly, not far from Las Vegas, is an amazing little area called the Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve. Run by the local parks and rec department, you have to check in upon arrival but access is free and then you can walk freely around the nine ponds which create an oasis for a wide variety of species in the middle of the desert. I would have loved it anyway, but perhaps especially in comparison to walking the Strip the night before, it felt like an oasis to me, too! And, the very first bird we saw there was my first lifer of the trip.

Common gallinule

It's fascinating to realize that the further we get from home, the more our common species become unexpected and vice versa. The people at Henderson don't bat an eye at the common gallinule, which was one of the reasons I wanted to go there. Meanwhile, they are very excited about the dozen snow geese that have stopped there, which up in Skagit Flats we have by the thousand. But, somewhat ironically, while scanning those thousands of geese in Washington has yet to turn up a Ross' goose for me, there was one among the dozen snow geese here at Henderson.

Small, cute Ross' goose front right with larger, less cute snow geese for comparison

The Henderson Preserve also turned up Jason's target species for the trip: a greater roadrunner. This species can prove elusive so we felt lucky to find one so early on!

That afternoon we continued on down into Arizona, where we would have our first multi-night stop in the Phoenix area. I don't like flying to begin with, but another benefit to driving is you really get to comprehend the landscape you're traversing. It was pretty darn awesome to drive the American West from nearly the Canadian border to nearly the Mexican border in a matter of days. But now that we had reached so far south, the birding would really pick up, and that's where I'll continue on my next blog post.

Signs of Spring Everywhere

Earlier in the week, J-Pod departed the inland waters of the Salish Sea again, but not before making one more pass by Lime Kiln Point State Park. Many of them were way too far offshore to ID or even see, but a few of them, like J17 Princess Angeline with her youngest J53 Kiki, were fairly close to shore:

It absolutely doesn't feel right for the residents to still be scarce as June arrives, but there's nothing we can do about it but hope they're finding enough to eat wherever they are spending their time. In the meantime, there are plenty of other amazing natural sights to enjoy on San Juan Island, including just in our yard, where the birding has been quite amazing! This week one species after another has started to show up with their first brood of chicks, and none of have been more amusing that the trio of fledgling red-breasted nuthatches. When they first arrived in our yard, they could only perch on top of things, but as the days have progressed they've learned to perch upside down and sideways like their parents, and have apparently enjoyed doing so even when there's no food to be had as a result!

They look so much like their parents, but their colors are just a little fainter and something about them still gives them that baby cuteness:

The nuthatches were the first to arrive, but there have been others, some of which have taken a moment to identify like this fledgling spotted towhee!

There's also been one or a couple of young dark-eyed juncos:

And as of this morning, the first fledgling chestnut-backed chickadees have arrived, although it took a lot of patience to get a shot of one!

No house wrens yet, although it the pair is still active around the nest box after having gone into stealth mode, likely for the egg laying an incubation period. I think maybe their nestlings have hatched at this point as the trips have become more frequent, perhaps to feed the babies. I hope we get to spot the fledglings some point soon!

We also have a pair of both hairy and downy woodpeckers that visit every day, and while we don't know for sure, I hope that they too are nesting nearby and will bring their chicks to visit!

Down at American Camp yesterday, we paused to watch all the fox activity in the rabbit field. There are several dens of foxes down there and the kits, who have gotten pretty big, all seemed to be active. They were keeping a wide berth from the bald eagle that had landed in the prairie, however, but when one of the parents returned, it bolted and then jumped at the eagle to chase it off! Only a sequence of photos really captures what happened; after the eagle flew off, the kits came in to feed on a kill the eagle had been on. I wonder if the foxes stole the eagle's kill, or if the eagle was trying to mooch off the foxes? Something tells me it was the latter.

While the major bloom of spring wildflowers like camas and lily have passed, there are still other flowers and interesting plants to see on the prairie, like this chocolate lily seed pod:

There are several small species of lupine in bloom; I think this one is two-colored lupine:

Lupinus bicolor

And also both yellow and purple salsify:

Tragopogon porrifolius

Then today, a walk on Mitchell Hill turned up my first deer fawn of the season:

And also a close-up photo op of this blue-eyed darner:

Aeshna multicolor

The weather has been just perfect - the only thing missing is more whales!

February 19: Finches Steal the Show

On Day 2 of our birding weekend we headed across the border into Oregon near Pendleton in search of some other new species. On a snowy back road we made several stops among the beautiful scenery and turned up a couple of mountain species, including a small group of Cassin's finches which was another life bird:

Cassin's finch - life bird (but no new life list number as it was mistakenly already included on my life list - listing is hard somteimes :) ) and photo year bird #114

Still a decent amount of snow on the ground at higher elevations

Mountain chickadee - photo year bird #116

In many of these fairly remote areas, I think people are pretty used to seeing birders. To the uninitiated, though, some might wonder just what the heck these crazy people are up to!

Again as we hit mid-day the birding slowed down for a couple hours, but the scenery more than made up for it. The terrain is just so different east of the Cascades, and it's enjoyable to see!

Herd of elk in the rolling hills near Pendleton, OR

We did spot a fair number of birds of prey, though most were too far away to photograph. Along one back road we saw American kestrels, red-tailed hawks, rough-legged hawks, and prairie falcons! Heading up another road, we found this yellow-bellied marmot, which along with coyotes, raccoons, and a couple of squirrel species helped fill out our mammal list for the weekend:

It's so interesting to me how some areas can be just bird dead zones, and then you come across another area that has birds of various species all over the place. Such was the case along this back road near Pilot Rock, Oregon, where suddenly we added several more year birds.

Early migrants: mountain bluebirds, photo year bird #118. A western bluebird was in with them as well.

Say's phoebe, photo year bird #119

Then, as with the great gray owl the day before, a grand finale awaited us in the form of about 100 gray-crowned rosy-finches coming in to roost in the seasonally abandoned cliff swallow nests. Looking at their range, you'd expect a life long Pacific Northwest birder like myself might have seen gray-crowned rosy-finches before, but in fact they were a life bird not only for me but both my parents and my husband as well! They can tend to hang out at pretty remote high elevation places, but thankfully our birding guide from KTBirding knew just where to find them. 

Gray-crowned rosy-finches - North American life bird #371 and photo year bird #120

Their aerial acrobatics were amazing as they swooped into nesting holes, then bickered over who got which hole, then flew out and looped around to start the whole thing over again. We were treated to watching them for about half an hour at close range until they finally started settling down for the night.

Gray-crowned rosy-finches peeking out of their roosting holes, aka commandeered cliff swallow nests

While the photo opportunities were great, it took a video clip to capture the real essence of the experiences.