From Stanwood to Saint Helens

Friday afternoon we headed south from San Juan Island to Saint Helens, Oregon to spend a week with friends and family and attend an event at my alma mater. Our first stop after disembarking the ferry was Eide Road in Stanwood, Washington where there are always some great birds to be seen - it's where I saw the snowy owl in December of last year. There were several species that had been reported the weekend before I was particularly interested in seeing, the rarest of which was a bobolink. I didn't have luck turning up the bobolink, but the shrubby trees at the beginning of the road were very active with birds, including cedar waxwings, yellow warblers, and western tanagers.

A little further along the road I saw a pair of western kingbirds - always a great find. Then, I was really surprised a few hundred yards away to see a second pair! Despite their name, they're pretty uncommon in western Washington, and I've never seen so many in one place.

Northern harriers, an osprey, and a pair of turkey vultures soared overhead, and a few great blue herons were flying in the distance, but still no sign of any of the "target" birds I was looking for. From the parking area I could see a pond to the southwest with lots of birds on it. As I was walking along the path, a bald eagle flew over and flushed almost all the birds off the pond. Argh! A few birds remained, however, so I continued in that direction.

The only ducks left were a pair of cinnamon teal. There were three shorebirds left.....what were they......one was a Wilson's phalarope (182)! (Note: just realized I never mentioned cedar waxwing near home was 181.) An excellent find. When the other two flew, I was able to confirm that they were short-billed dowitchers (183), another year bird.

It was time to continue south, and the plan to take an extra ferry from Edmonds to Kingston to avoid the Memorial Day weekend traffic on I5 turned out to be a good one. There was a wait for the ferry, but there was virtually no traffic down Highway 3 on the other side. I'm no fan of scotch broom since it's so invasive and causes me horrible allergies, but my attitude towards it softened a bit on this drive. I've never seen so much of it in such peak bloom - it lined both sides of the highway for miles and miles, and was a pretty impressive sight.

On the first day of our visit in Saint Helens my dad and I went birding along the Crown-Zellerbach Trail in Scappoose. A gray morning turned into another beautiful afternoon, and right when we got out of the car we saw an olive-sided flycatcher and a pair of California quail - not a bad start!

Lots of flowers were in bloom, and some of the Nootka rose provided an opportunity to get a photo of another plant in in all its stages - bud, blossom, and rosehip:

Along the first part of the trail some of the birds we saw included common yellowthroat, American goldfinch, and marsh wren. At the marshy area, I was hoping to hear an American bittern, and I wasn't disappointed (184). We also heard a pair of Virginia rails there, and a couple of Vaux's swifts (185) flew overhead too.

While looking at a pied-billed grebe family with a couple of cute chicks, all of a sudden there was a flurry of bird activity. In one tree there was a cedar waxing, an olive-sided flycatcher, and a western wood-pewee (186) perched on right above the other.

Western wood-pewee

A woodpecker flying across the trail caught my eye, but when I investigated further the only thing I could find was a pair of warbling vireos (187), already the fourth year bird of the day!

Before heading home we drove to a spot further along the C-Z Trail where my dad had seen some good birds biking a few weeks ago. Right under the bridge where he had seen it was an American dipper (188). We were ready to head home when I heard a bird singing I didn't recognize. I headed in that direction and spotted something blue perched on a wire, facing away from we. What the heck? It turned out to be a lazuli bunting (189)! Another species, along with the Wilson's phalarope from the day before, that didn't make it onto my year list last year.

The birding is just as good at my parents' house, where their feeders are always bustling. The main attraction is the big flock of evening grosbeaks that comes by, with a few black-headed grosbeaks mixed in for good measure.

Two female evening grosbeaks

Male evening grosbeak

Female black-headed grosbeak

Other regular visitors include band-tailed pigeons, mourning doves, Steller's jays, dark-eyed juncos (including one with one leg), red-breasted nuthatches, both black-capped and chestnut-backed chickadees, rufous hummingbirds, and pine siskins. There's a lot to watch, and it's a treat to spend time just sitting by the window taking in all the activity.

The Trials and Tribulations of a Bird Lister

While I was in Portland over the Thanksgiving holiday I knew there would be the possibility of picking up a few more birds for the year list, but I didn't anticipate a brambling showing up just a few miles away from my parents' new house! This was only the 12th confirmed record of the species in Oregon, and as you can see, the morning after the report quite a few birders flocked to the scene:

I can only imagine what some of the neighbors thought of the sudden onslaught of bird-watchers to their small neighborhood trail! Unfortunately for all the patient onlookers, the bird only made one brief appearance early in the morning and then wasn't seen again. We only spent about an hour there (others camped out for the whole day!), but it turned out to be a very active bird spot, and one that I probably wouldn't have discovered if it weren't for the rare bird report. Some of the species I saw and heard there included a Virginia rail, sandhill cranes, a band-tailed pigeon, a great egret, and a white-throated sparrow. 

After looking for the brambling we headed into the city to do some errands, and while there made another stop off at Westmoreland Park where I hoped to see the eared grebe that had been hanging out there. I was disappointed not to find it. No vermilion flycatcher (see previous post), no brambling, no eared grebe. What a streak of luck! But I was even more disappointed when I heard that later the same day the eared grebe was found dead, perhaps attacked by a dog in the park! What a sad ending for that wayward bird.

Again, though, even without the grebe there was lots of bird activity at Westmoreland. There was a big flock of cackling geese on the lake along with American wigeon, mallards, bufflehead, a couple of lesser scaup, and some ring-billed and glaucous-winged gulls. Within the flock of wigeon grazing on the grass I also found a female Eurasian wigeon, which is always a fun species to find. It was thanks to my close up looks of a Eurasian wigeon at this very park about two years ago that I finally got confident enough to pick female Eurasians out of a flock, even without the presence of a male.

The weather stayed pretty nice for the rest of the weekend and I got out to see some more of St. Helens. At the marina I found a group of half a dozen Steller's jays, a species that I still need to find on Orcas Island for my San Juan County list this year:

Back at my parents' house, I was hopeful to see of the feeder visitors that my dad had reported from earlier this fall season. I struck out on the gray jays, but I did get to witness one of the brief sporadic visits of an evening grosbeak (year bird 201) flock. About 20 birds descended to the feeders and were only there about five minutes before moving on. All that effort of traveling around to look for birds, and I ended up seeing a year bird right from my parents' kitchen!

On the trip back north to San Juan Island I made another stop off at Stanwood, hoping that in the nicer weather and with better daylight I could get a better look at the snowy owls and maybe even get some photos. Unfortunately the owls weren't in sight during my half hour stop there, though again I saw lots of other good bird species including a rough-legged hawk, a ring-necked pheasant, a Wilson's snipe, and a short-eared owl. 

My year list has now reached my goal of 200 species, but I still want to add some birds to my San Juan County list. With only a month left, I've got some of my naturalist friends on alert for a few of the species I'm still keen to see. It paid off when I got a message last Sunday from Phil on Yellow Island, along with a photo of a pair of Barrow's goldeneye he had seen that morning. Being a great birding pal, he picked me up and we made a quick jaunt out to Yellow where we were able to relocate the female Barrow's goldeneye (SJ county bird 151). Not only that, but I also found a western grebe (SJ county bird 152) out in the channel! After all that trying and failing for owls in November I thought the county year list goal would remain out of reach, but the two birds in one day rekindled by hope....

Another report rekindled my hope, too: that of a snowy owl seen at South Beach! I figured with all the snowy owls showing up all over western Washington there was a decent chance of one being seen on San Juan Island this season - we've got some nice prairie habitat down around the American Camp and Cattle Point area. I've made several trips to that part of the island in recent weeks hoping for an owl sighting - on one outing I pulled over along the way to look at a bald eagle who was feeding on a deer carcass. He took flight and circled around my car before landing again, providing this photo op:

Surely a good omen for the bird-watching day? But alas, the snowy owl report was two days old, and despite my searching high and low around South Beach no owls could be found. Perhaps it just stopped over here before moving on? Too bad.

South Beach, in fact, was incredibly quiet bird-wise. Not even the regular gulls and scoters were hanging out. And it was such a good day for birding, too:

It wasn't until I scanned well offshore and found a flock of about 20 long-tailed ducks that I saw anything worth mentioning.

So, in conclusion, there have been some disappointments over the last couple of weeks in my efforts to locate some new birds for the year. There were lots of "just misses", even on the same day when the species had been seen by others. Some listers will sympathize with my frustration, while some other naturalists may question the logic of "chasing" certain species. I'm certainly not one of the most extreme when it comes to listing - I'm only willing to chase after birds that are fairly close to where I live or happen to be traveling - but upon reflection finding the new species for my county list, year list, or life list, is only half of the reason I like to head out in search of more unusual species. The other reason is that it motivates me to get out, often to new places that I haven't seen before, where I'll end up finding other cool things to look at whether or not I find the target species. Without searching for the brambling, I wouldn't have found the cool little marsh with the calling Virginia rail so close to my parents' new house. If I hadn't made efforts to find the snowy owls, I wouldn't have found the rural road in Stanwood that's home to cool species like rough-legged hawks and short-eared owls, nor would I have had the close encounter with the bald eagle on my home island. Every time I go out looking for something in particular, I see something cool, whether or not it's what I was looking for.

So, as the year winds to an end, I'm going to continue to chase down the species I don't yet have on my lists. Because who knows what I'm going to find. Stay tuned....