2015 / 2016 Year List Update

Okay, I've fallen way behind the times here, but I still want to post my annual update about my 2015 bird year list, and better late than never, right? Since 2010 I've had a challenge going with Dave over in England, and starting in 2011 my dad joined in as well. I've never beat my dad (who tends to travel more than I do), and I've only beat Dave once (in 2014, though we miraculously tied in 2013!), but it's still fun to play. I'm afraid my lack of blogging over the last couple months has coincided with a lack of birding, so not only did I lose this year but I lost to both of them pretty badly! Here are the numbers:

	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Total # Bird Species	233	203	222	192	201	176
Dave's Total	237	206	275/205*	192	179	200
Dad's Total		230	204	222	250	245
# States/ Provinces	6	4	5	4	5	6
# Life Birds	23	3	6	3	11	2
# SJ County Species	133?	157	145	149	142	128
# Species by Month
January	87	114	105	110	86	84
February	19	13	52	6	57	7
March	25	12	3	14	8	49
April	21	25	12	20	13	13
May	37	17	24	10	9	8
June	24	2	14	5	6	5
July	1	4	0	1	1	1
August	2	4	3	2	0	2
September	3	5	0	1	5	0
October	2	1	6	0	11	1
November	4	4	0	22	5	3
December	8	2	3	0	0	3

Of course the listing is just for fun, and it's really all about getting out there and enjoying nature and seeing the birds. Here are some highlights of my bird-watching in the last month or so, also demonstrating all the regional travel I've been doing!

Bald Eagle in Cowichan Bay, BC

Great egret in Scappoose, Oregon

Chestnut-backed chickadee in St. Helens, OR

Barrow's goldeneye in Duncan, BC - species #171 in 2015, and #4 in 2016)

Golden-crowned kinglet in Duncan, BC (2016 year bird #33)

Trumpeter swans in Duncan, BC (2016 year bird #20)

Trumpeter swans in Cowichan Bay, BC

Trumpeter swans in Skagit County, WA

Rough-legged hawk in Skagit County, WA (2016 year bird #56)

Red-tailed hawk (dark morph) in Friday Harbor, WA

Immature bald eagle in Surrey, BC

As of now, January 13, my 2016 year list sits at 67 species. My first bird of the year was an American robin, and it was awesome to have Barrow's goldeneye in the first five species of the year. Some other early highlights include pileated woodpecker (#13), Virginia rail (#37), rough-legged hawk (#56), and short-eared owl (#59). 67 puts me just ahead of my dad at 66 as of today, but meanwhile Dave's pulled ahead to a big early lead, with 91 species through January 12, but there's plenty of time to close that gap! Stay tuned for another year of friendly birding competition!

Weekend Birding

For the last few weeks its been nice and sunny during the work week and gray and drizzly on the weekends. It's been the source of much grumbling on the island, but of course it's not enough to keep me from getting out and doing some birding - not this time of year!

The first year bird I have to report I actually saw on the drive home for work - an American kestrel (144) along Beaverton Valley Road. I had also been out trying to find a rufous hummingbird that so many others had been reporting, without much luck. If you can't go to the birds, I thought, why not try to bring the birds to you? I don't know why I hadn't done it earlier, but I put up our hummingbird feeder at home. It took just three hours for a pair of rufous hummingbirds (145) to stake it out! This male spent the better part of the next three days chasing away all other male hummingbirds. He's either moved on or given up since then, but I've still been seeing females visiting regularly.

My friend Katie also reported that the barred owl nest near her house is occupied again this year, after it was empty last spring. I got to go take a quick peak, adding another year bird (146) in the process:

Peek-a-boo! See the owl?

I also went to Three Meadows Marsh where as hoped I found lots of swallows - both violet-green (147) and tree (148). There were a couple hundred of them! I was also surprised to already see the first wood ducks (149) had arrived.

I thought I might find more swallows at False Bay Creek, but I only saw one - about a half a mile away! The after work stop (in the sunshine, being a work day) wasn't fruitless for the year list, however, as I did see one Wilson's snipe (150). I also heard a Virginia rail. I realized most people who drive by on Bailer Hill Road probably have no idea that rails are lurking in the reeds just a few yards away! I like things like that.

Yesterday I spent the day on Whidbey Island, where I did a little birding in Langley. Here's the view from the Langley marina, with the Cascade Mountains in the background and a flock of sea ducks in the foreground:

When I realized about half the ducks were goldeneye (the other half were scoters), I was hopeful I might find a Barrow's goldeneye among them. I was surprised when I got the binoculars up that they were ALL Barrow's goldeneye (151)! I did find a few common goldeneye off on their own. Most of the scoters were surf scoters, but I found a pair of white-winged scoters in there, too.

Barrow's goldeneye

In addition to the ducks, I saw a great blue heron, a pair of kingfishers, and about ten double-crested cormorants. A few of the cormorants were drying their wings - which I had never gotten a nice photo of until now:

The next few weeks should be exciting - the spring migrants will continue to arrive, and we're all hopeful the orcas will start spending some time here, too!

Clash of the Seasons

We're at the intersection of winter and spring and signs of it are everywhere. The topsy-turvy weather has been a clear indicator of change. This morning I awoke to heavy winds and rain showers, but by this afternoon it was sunny, no trace of a breeze, and had topped out at a balmy 55 degrees. It was beautiful out! Here's the view from Jakle's Lagoon:

The bird life is starting to show subtle signs of change, too. While I'm still waiting for the spring migrants to show up (I hope to see my first swallows any day now....), the fact that red-breasted mergansers, bufflehead, and common goldeneye are still present is a reminder that it is, indeed, still winter. I saw a mixed flock of all three species diving amidst each other, which was a cool sight. They were far away so this is a heavily cropped photo, but here's a couple of goldeneye:

The common loons, however, are now sporting their very finest summer garb:

Next up, I'm taking advantage of a necessary trip to the mainland to take a side trip over to the Olympic Peninsula, and bird an area I've never had the chance to visit before: Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge. It should be good!!

Whidbey Island

I'm giving a talk tomorrow on orca vocalizations at the Way of Whales Workshop on Whidbey Island, and decided to come down a little earlier today to do some bird-watching. The weather wasn't the greatest: very windy, and drizzly off and on. Still, I had some places scoped out that I hadn't visited before and decided to see what I could find.

The first stop was Deception Pass State Park. Bird-wise it was fairly quiet other than a trio of loons and a pair of brown creepers, but looking at the Deception Pass Bridge is always impressive:

Next up was Windjammer Park in Oak Harbor, aptly named apparently because the wind was certainly jamming today. There wasn't much visible in the choppy water and walking the boardwalk would have been a very chilly endeavor, so I just spent some time surveying the large flock of gulls near the parking area. Most of them were glaucous-winged gulls, but there were some other types in there. After reading and re-reading the field guide, I didn't trust my ability to tell a western gull from a Thayer's gull from a glaucous-winged x western hybrid, so I just took some photos to look at again later with more clarity. I'm still working on the others, but as I agreed with my ID at the time that this is a western gull (114):

The mantle is fairly pale, but the further north you get on the west coast the paler western gulls become. The black primaries rule out the glaucous-winged gull, which also has pink legs and a dark eye, but I concluded it was a western gull and not a hybrid because of the thick, bright yellow bill.

As for the other gulls, maybe I'll return to them in a future post after I've spent some more time with the field guides!

Nearby at the Oak Harbor marina were some scaup, bufflehead, common goldeneye, and a single Barrow's goldeneye - here's my first-ever photograph of this species:

An unplanned stop that turned out to be a pleasant surprise was Fort Ebey State Park. The beaches there were beautiful, looking over towards Admiralty Inlet and bordered by tall eroding cliffs.  Here's the view across the sound:

 It was difficult to pick out the birds among the bobbing kelp beds just offshore, but I did find a couple of surf scoters, quite a few red-breasted mergansers, a group of four harlequin ducks, and a few more bufflehead. Plus this beach oddity, which looked to me like a bird that had been blown away and left only its feet behind:

After leaving Fort Ebey, the clouds really moved in and it got dark in a hurry. Along with the wind it was difficult to turn up much at Ebey's Landing or Fort Casey State Park, other than a couple bald eagles, red-tailed hawks, and northern harriers along the way. The day list was a little shorter than anticipated, but with another year bird added to the list I can't complain. Plus now I'm familiar with some more good birding haunts on Whidbey Island!