Birding From Portland to San Juan Island

With a stretch of warm, summer-like weather I took advantage of some great days for birding. Before leaving Portland, I stopped by Vanport Wetlands where I added yellow-headed blackbird (143) to the year list. This was just a stop on our way to Smith and Bybee Lakes, a beautiful wetlands area nestled right near the Oregon-Washington border. It's a very green place in spring time, and the first part of the trail was just humming with yellow-rumped warblers - there were probably hundreds of them there!

There was lots of osprey (144) activity around - we saw three different pairs at or near the wetlands. There were numerous adult and immature bald eagles, too. Nothing outnumbered the turtles sunning themselves on logs, however. There were easily more than 100 visible from one overlook!

We saw a nice variety of waterfowl here, and some more uncommon sightings included a pair of bushtits and a calling pileated woodpecker.

The next day, Wednesday, it was time to start heading back north to the San Juan Islands, but we got an early enough start to make sure we had ample time to enjoy Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge on the way. We spent two hours there, and it was pretty amazing to see that the parking lot was full on a weekday morning!

The number of people present didn't seem to put a damper on the bird sightings as I saw or heard nearly 40 species while we were there. The cliff swallows were in abundance, and were busy building their nests on the visitors center and on the Twin Barns. Tree swallows were also busy coming and going from nesting cavities in the deciduous trees along the first part of the walk. Pretty much all the expected duck species were present in pretty good numbers, too: northern shoveler, northern pintail, mallards, American wigeon, green-winged teal, bufflehead, ring-necked ducks, gadwall, and Canada and cackling geese. A pair of pied-billed grebes chased each other around the marsh and more savannah sparrows were singing around every corner. On the first stretch of the trail I also saw my first brown-headed cowbird (145) of the year, and I also heard a sora (146) call once.

In addition to all the waterfowl, the marshy areas were noisy with singing marsh wrens and common yellowthroat. The yellowthroat are often secretive, but one pair of males seemed to be in the middle of a territorial dispute and were chasing each other back and forth in plain sight. It was still tough to get a photograph of them, as whenever they landed they were obscured by grasses. This is the best picture I got - you can see the second male behind and to the right of the one in the foreground.

Out on the boardwalk part of the trail the bird activity quieted down substantially, but the landscape and the colors were still impressive to take in:

It was low tide, and only a few green-winged teal and a pair of greater yellowlegs seemed to be foraging in the mudflats. In the distance some glaucous-winged and mew gulls could be seen too. 

Time went quickly and all too soon it was time to get back on the road to catch our ferry. We made it home in the evening, but it wasn't straight back to work for me - I took a few extra days off to make sure I could enjoy a few days of spring time here on the island, too. Thursday was another awesome day with temperatures nearing 70 degrees, and I spent several hours out in some of my favorite birding spots. Inspired by the sora I heard at Nisqually, I wanted to see if I could turn up the species on San Juan Island as well, and indeed I heard a couple of birds at both Swan Valley Marsh and False Bay Creek. Also at False Bay Creek, the swallows seemed to be selecting nesting boxes and four turkey vultures soared overhead. Just like at Nisqually, I heard some more marsh wrens, common yellowthroat, and savannah sparrows, but also saw a hunting northern harrier and heard a single Virginia rail.

Down at the south end of the island, common camas is starting to bloom in the prairies:

We haven't quite hit our wildflower peak here yet, but the careful observer can still find lots of species in bloom right now:

While walking the prairies in search of wildflowers, a pair of American goldfinches (147) flew overhead, my first of the season. Large flocks of surf scoters and red-breasted mergansers could still be seen off of South Beach, and another northern harrier cruised over the grasslands. Savannah sparrows, seeming especially abundant this year, were also everywhere. The biggest surprises of the week were still in store for me, however.

As I drove along the Redoubt Road, I saw a bird fly up from near the ground to perch on a tree. At first I assumed it was another savannah sparrow, as nearly every bird I lifted the binoculars to throughout my walk had turned out to be one of these streaky sparrows with yellow by the eye and a buzzy call. Something about this one struck me as different, however, and am I ever glad I stopped! It turned out to be a female mountain bluebird (148). This species is usually only seen east of the Cascades, but a few always migrate west of the Cascades while heading to more northern climates and sometimes stop over on the San Juan Islands. This is only the second time I've seen the species in the county and my first time seeing one on San Juan Island. The bird flew further along the road and I was able to get this photo of it before she took off and flew out of the sight to the north:

From here I scanned the American Camp prairies with my binoculars and saw a beautiful red fox still in its lush winter coat, surprisingly my first fox of the day. Usually this time of year the prairies are active with foxes - to my surprise I saw lots and lots of rabbits (the national park has attempted and is to eradicate these guys from the historic grasslands) but only this one fox! With further scanning I saw something perched in a stand of fir trees, and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it was a short-eared owl. I thought all these owls had taken off by now, as they're usually only seen here in winter and I hadn't heard of any sightings since the last week of March. But, there it was! I was thrilled when after watching it for a few minutes it took flight, giving me the opportunity to get what I think is probably my best shot of the week:

Next up, the weather has turned cloudy again, but I've still got a few days off and plenty of places to explore. I'll report back with what I find!

The Year List Ticks On

By late morning on the third I was ready to get out and do some more birding. Our first stop was an unusual one: one of my dad's bars in North Portland where an Anna's hummingbird (69) has been reliably spending her winter:

Being so close, we cruised by Vanport Wetlands, where the lighting was poor, but we were still able to turn up some ruddy ducks (70). At nearby Force Lake we weren't able to locate the recently reported palm warbler, but I did see a downy woodpecker (71). The great horned owl nest we've seen the last few years there appeared to be unused this year. The other notable sighting was four red tailed hawks soaring overhead.

From there it was onto Broughton Beach, where very cold and windy conditions kept us in the car. There were some California gulls (72) in the parking lot along with the glaucous-winged and ring-billed gulls, and we also found one common merganser (73) in the lee side of a houseboat taking shelter from the wind.

Our main destination for the day was Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, where we drove the S-River Unit. For the first half of the loop bird life was actually pretty sparse. Much of the refuge's water was still frozen over, meaning a lot of the waterfowl had moved elsewhere. One exception was the coot, who were mostly foraging in the marshy grasses, and would occasionally cross the ice to get from one foraging area to the next:

There were a lot of raptors around, too - we probably saw about 20 red-tailed hawks and half a dozen eagles, plus another half dozen or so northern harriers, like this one:

There were lots of nutria around, too. They would be more interesting to watch if they weren't so invasive:

On the far side of Rest Lake the bird life started picking up. We found a huge flock of song sparrows - probably 25 of them altogether. I don't think I've ever seen song sparrows flocking like that before. In among them was one savannah sparrow:

Behind the sparrows, hopping around on the grasses sticking up above the frozen waters, were about fifteen yellow-rumped warblers (74), the first year bird for the refuge coming about three-quarters of the way through the loop. While watching them a single tree swallow (75) also flew over. We started seeing more waterfowl over here, too, including huge flocks of cackling and Canada geese:

I was even able to snap this photo showing the two recently split species right beside each other:

I have actually never seen so many swans on the refuge. Some of them were congregating on the thawed middle part of the lake, and hundreds more were huddled together on the ice. We estimated they were probably about 1500 (!!) of them.

One of the red-tailed hawks we saw was a very pale Kreider's morph, and this one was unique too in that he seemed content to be sitting on the ground. He flew a couple of times and always landed on the ground again instead of one of the nearby trees or snags:

As we were trying to leave the refuge we got stuck behind a stopped train blocking the tracks we had to cross. The bright side of being stuck for a while meant we got to look closely at the river as we crossed the one-way bridge, having no where to go on the other side and no cross traffic to compete with. We added some double-crested cormorants and a belted kingfisher to our sightings list, as well as a pair of hooded mergansers (76).

Back at my parents' house on January 4th I finally saw a pine siskin (77) come to the feeder, and driving home from a dinner out with friends I got a huge surprise when I saw a tiny owl sitting in the road a few miles from my parents' house. Luckily it hadn't gone far when I turned around - it was sitting on the bank by the side of the road and let me shine my headlights on it. It looked right at me before taking flight a moment later, allowing me to identify it as a northern saw-whet owl (78)! This is a species I definitely did not expect to get on the year list. It's also the first time I've ever seen this bird; last year it was a life bird when I heard a couple of them calling while camping near Astoria.

Today, after an amazingly quick two weeks, it was time to start heading north back towards the San Juan Islands. On the way, I had to stop again at the Nisqually Reach Nature Center near Olympia where I had some good sightings on my way south. It was well worth the slight side trip as while standing in a single spot on the shoreline I quickly added five more year birds: a western gull (79), the same very distant snowy owl (80) across the river delta, one horned grebe (81), a flock of common goldeneye (82), and a couple of red-breasted mergansers (83).

Perhaps spoiled by last year's amazing snowy owl sightings at Boundary Bay, I wasn't quite content with the speck of a view of one through a scope at Nisqually. Being in no rush, we made another side trip near Ballard to look for the snowy owls that have somewhat oddly been hanging out right in an urban neighborhood not far from downtown Seattle. Luckily the neighbors and local dog walkers are very friendly to the "owl people" and they pointed us in the right direction. We spotted one of the two that have been hanging out in the same few block area since before Thanksgiving. I wonder what they're eating?

Tomorrow, it's time to head home and get ready to get back to work and the regular routine on the island. First, we've got one more overnight away and hopefully a little more birding to do tomorrow before catching our ferry....

Finally, Some Birding!

The last month has been consumed by moving facilities at work. That, along with the pretty dismal (wet and windy) weather, has left little time for birding. Our new work facility has more windows, however, so I've started a bird list there. It didn't take long to see some pretty awesome species there. The very first species on the list was trumpter swan, as I saw a pair flying over the parking lot illuminated by the golden sunrise. Later that same day, I watched a bald eagle perch on a tree top outside from our conference room. Every evening about a half hour before sunset a couple hundred red-winged blackbirds fly around in a huge flock before settling down to roost for the night. A couple days ago I saw a red-tailed hawk fly by at eye level out our second story windows, another impressive sight. A few co-workers have also started to contribute sightings and altogether we have nine species on the work list during our first two weeks of occupancy there. Not bad!

Yesterday I headed down to Portland for the holidays, making a stop at Nisqually Widlife Refuge along the way. Amazingly, despite pouring rain both before and after my stop there, the sun actually came out for a bit of a walk. My parents met me there and our first stop was the Nisqually Reach Nature Center near the river delta, where through my dad's scope we were able to spot one very distant snowy owl. There have been a lot of snowy owl sightings throughout the region again over the last month, and I'm hopeful Boundary Bay turns out to be a great spot again near Vancouver, BC sometime in the next month, because I would definitely be up for another trip there. We also spotted four brant (220), which will perhaps be my last year bird in 2012, making for a nice even number. There were also some western gulls, surf scoters, and common goldeneye on the water.

We also walked the Twin Barn Loop over at the main part of the refuge:

We mostly saw lots of waterfowl here, including hundreds of cackling geese, plus American wigeon, northern shoveler, Canada geese, gadwall, ring-necked ducks, mallards, American coot, and northern pintail. The most impressive sight, however, was probably the clouds:

Which also made for some pretty neat reflections:

There were quite a few raptors about, too. We saw two red-tailed hawks, one or two harriers, and six bald eagles. Five of the eagles were all perched together in the same tree overlooking the river. It reminded me of all the bald eagles that congregate in January and February also the Skagit River closer to home, something I'm going to be sure to check out early next year. First up, though, it's time to review the 2012 year list and kick of the 2013 year list in Oregon on New Year's Day. Look for those posts in the near future!

Spring at Nisqually NWR

Yesterday on my way back north to San Juan Island I made another stop at Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge near Olympia, Washington. Unlike on my drive south, the weather was beautiful, so it made this visit a little more pleasant. Somewhat surprisingly, there weren't nearly as many swallows around as in the pouring rain. I did see barn, tree, and violet-green swallows as well as a decent-sized flock of Vaux's swifts. The most abundant swallow yesterday was, however, the cliff swallow. The cliff swallows were hard at work collecting mud....

Building nests....

And then presumably incubating eggs as they peeked out from finished nests....

The marsh was pretty active, with gadwall, mallards, wigeon, a single coot, and lots of northern shoveler in addition to singing marsh wrens and common yellowthroats. On a mud spit there were several species of shorebirds, including about a dozen dowitchers, a few dunlin, and about 50 peeps that were too far away to be identified. I also heard a single sora calling. Northern shoveler were the most numerous of the lot and the only duck I got close enough to photograph:

Prints of this photo available here

Despite the "no jogging" signs, since it's a wildlife refuge, this child was running around chasing birds. I wasn't thrilled about that, but it result in kind of a neat looking photograph:

One of the marsh wrens was singing out in the open, too, allowing for a photo op:

Since the weather was nice I decided to walk further than last time, including out on the estuary boardwalk that extends will out into the tidelands. It's a neat walk:

There wasn't a whole lot of bird activity out there, however. On the way back to the car I did see a single lesser yellowlegs (168). The total for the afternoon was 37 species at the refuge.

At the Anacortes ferry landing I had a little bit of time to bird watch before getting on the ferry. The highlight there was two purple martins (169) checking out the nesting boxes on the old dock pilings. Usually this is a pretty active nesting colony so I hope some more birds show up there soon. Then, in Rosario Strait on the ferry, I saw a flock of approximately 750 Bonaparte's gulls - always a cool find!

End of April: Year List Update

I'm in the middle of spending a week down in Portland, where my parents have just sold their house to move outside of the city. In addition to packing, sorting, and doing a little bit of work for my dad, I've had the chance to go on a few different birding excursions. Sorry for the lack of pictures today - the conditions just didn't quite align very often either due to distance or weather or both!

On the drive down south I stopped at Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge where unfortunately it was pouring rain. I still managed to find 18 species on the one mile Twin Barn loop trail. The highlight of the visit were the hundreds and hundreds of swallows buzzing around over the marsh near the visitor center. While the majority of them were violet-green swallows, there were also tree swallows, barn swallows, and a few cliff swallows (156) mixed in.

Yesterday my dad and I made a brief stop at Vanport Wetlands in north Portland, where a vermillion flycatcher had been spotted a couple of days before. While it remained elusive for us as it had for many other birders who tried to follow up on this report of a normally more southern species, there was still a lot of activity on the marsh. Dozens of red-winged blackbirds were singing away, with a few yellow-headed blackbirds (157) mixed in for good measure. The most plentiful bird on the water was the American coot, though there were also Canada geese, mallards, gadwall, northern shoveler, pied-billed grebes, and lesser scaup. The waterfowl highlights were several male ruddy ducks, a pair of redhead, and a pair of cinnamon teal (158). Again several swallow species were catching insects over the water, but there were also about a half dozen Vaux's swifts (159), another first for the year.

We went to check on the nearby great horned owl nest, but it appeared to be empty. On the walk over there we did have a close encounter with a surprisingly tame mourning dove, however. At Force Lake I got several close looks at a male common yellowthroat who became camera shy as soon as I pulled out my bigger lens. The only cooperative bird turned out to be this charming song sparrow:

Today we took a day off from "work" to go to Tillamook and do a COASST survey on my dad's beach. On the way out we stopped at Killin Wetlands in Forest Grove, which didn't turn up any bitterns or soras as we had hoped. The highlight of this stop for me was the chorus of about five marsh wrens singing simultaneously, with the red-winged blackbirds providing back-up. There were also some northern rough-winged swallows mixed in with the swallow crowd, and we saw a pair of Eurasian collared-doves nearby. Closer to Tillamook along the river we found a flock of about 30 greater scaup.

We didn't find any dead birds during our survey, which meant we had extra time to spend looking for live birds. At the Happy Camp beach most of the activity was near the end of the Netarts spit where we saw a few surf scoters, pigeon guillemots, and western gulls in addition to a single common loon. A group of 16 Brandt's cormorants flew by, as did a single Caspian tern (160). Everything was too far away for photos, so the only thing I took a picture of was this scene on the beach:

Next up we swung by Bay Ocean Spit as we always do, but got delayed longer than usual by the bird activity. First we came across a small flock of mallards and northern pintail, as well as a nearby group of bufflehead. Then a larger flock of ducks including northern shoveler, green-winged teal, American wigeon, and two Eurasian wigeion. Through my dad's scope we also found about 50 brant greese out in the bay, as well as our only red-breasted merganser for the day. On the mud spit were several dozen more Caspian terns, though one of the tern-like birds flying around turned out to be a lone Bonaparte's gull in breeding plumage.

The highlight of this stop for us was the shorebirds. We saw four marbled godwits, a dozen western sandpipers (161), and a group of about 45 dowitchers. My dad thinks they were long-billed, which would make them another year bird for me, but they were just too far away for me to be certain, especially with all the heat distortion looking through the scope! Still cool to see, even without knowing for sure what they were.

Our last birding stop for the day was Fenk Road, a little agricultural side road that seems to turn up more than its fair share of "good" birds. Today was no exception, as just after turning onto the road we were surprised to find a flock of about 20 least sandpipers (162) along the river bank! I don't think I've ever seen peeps along a river before. While we were watching them, a flock of about a hundred greater white-fronted geese flew in - another great find! Several ravens were also in the field nearby. The sightings didn't end there. As we pulled up to the cow barns in addition to the red-winged blackbirds, European starlings, crows, and house sparrows, I saw a single male American goldfinch (163). A little further on along the river we could see mallards, green-winged teal, gadwall, shoveler, and a couple bufflehead. Here's one of the tree swallows that was perched nearby:

The brambles between the road and the river were bustling with activity as they always seem to be, with lots of yellow-rumped warblers (both myrtle and Audubon's) as well as both white-crowned and golden-crowned sparrow. The best find of the day turned out to be the very last species we added to the day list - a single palm warbler (164). This species was reported here a couple weeks ago, and in fact this is the exact same spot I saw it for the first time in January 2010.

With the five birds added to the year list today that makes a total of 25 species added for the month of April. That's better than the 21 added during April last year, when by the end of the 30th I was sitting at 152 species on the year. I'm sure those eastern species added in January have helped boost me ahead of last year's total, but it's a good thing because during May last year is when I started my trip to Alaska! It will be tough to match the 2010 year listing efforts of May and June in Alaska during this year, but I'll be out there birding regardless! :)