Kicking off the 2018 Year List

It's hard to believe we're already nearly three weeks into 2018! I've been busy birding - at least when the weather allows - and so far am up to 84 species on the "traditional" year list and 70 species on my photo year list. First bird of the year was an Anna's hummingbird at our feeder. They've been overwintering for about a decade now but this is the first time I've had them in the winter.

Anna's hummingbird - I don't know how they do it this time of year

Second bird of the year, a red-breasted nuthatch, is also still in the lead for cutest photo of 2018:

A little puff ball of a red-breasted nuthatch

It's been a treat having three woodpecker species regularly come to the feeders (downy, hairy, and northern flicker). I'm still waiting for a red-breasted sapsucker to show up, but no complaints about getting to watch these guys up close on a daily basis.

Female hairy woodpecker

Thankfully on January 1st, for my traditional day of birding, we even got some sunshine! One of the best birds of the day was this snow goose in with the Canada geese near Roche Harbor.

On January 3rd the birding was briefly interrupted for my first orcas of 2018. I've only seen killer whales once in the month of January before, so this was a pretty special treat! While J-Pod is still occasionally coming through the area, this was actually transients: the T100s, T124As, and T124C.

T124C off the west side of San Juan Island on January 3

As great as the birding is in the San Juans this time of year, especially with sea birds, there are a lot of species on the nearby mainland that just don't frequently visit. During the first weekend of the year, we headed for a day trip off island. First up was a quick pass through Skagit Flats. Sadly we heard but did not see the rare blue jay that is still hanging out near Bow, but we did quickly locate the also-unusual prairie falcon nearby.

Prairie falcon in Skagit Flats

The main goal of the day was to visit Semiahmoo, a spit near Blaine, Washington that I've never visited before. We had recently seen some amazing photos from there, including one a day or two before we visited where literally thousands of dunlin covered the whole spit. It was a pretty gray day and there were no dunlin in sight, but we still added lots of new species including sanderling.

I also got an unexpected photo op of a Pacific wren. I heard something in a bush and "pished" at it, and he or she immediately jumped out into the open to investigate me as the source of the sound. This is probably the best photo I've ever taken of a Pacific wren, as they are usually fast-moving and buried behind branches.

While we didn't see a huge abundance of birds at Semiahmoo (although there were a lot of white-winged scoters, more than I've ever seen in once place before), we did get a good variety. A couple of the best looks were at this female long-tailed duck, and while watching her, a common loon popped up very close.

Female long-tailed duck

Common loon

Last weekend remained gray, but that didn't stop us from trying to add a few more. The best add for me was this Hutton's vireo, an uncommon year-round resident, but one I didn't manage to photograph in all of 2017.

Hutton's vireo! A 2017 nemesis bird checked off early in 2018

Then we were treated to a much-needed couple days of beautiful winter sunshine. Even though our couple of hikes didn't turn up much in the way of birds, it felt great to soak up some light.

Beautiful afternoon at Granny's Cove

Thanks to a tip from a friend, we were able to locate one short-eared owl at American Camp, on the opposite side of the prairie where I used to see them in years past. For whatever reason it doesn't seem like there are as many of them down there as there used to be. This one was being harassed by a northern harrier. That's the harrier up top and the short-eared owl beneath. The owl had been perched, and after doing this barrel roll fell about halfway down the tree before catching another branch to perch on.

Harrier harasses short-eared owl at American Camp

There's been a lot of aerial acrobatics lately - today I caught this pair of bald eagles in what I presume was courtship behavior.

Bald eagle barrel rolls

There was supposed to be a break in the weather today; maybe it was, since it didn't rain and the wind wasn't blowing gale force. It was still pretty dark but with a major storm system coming we took the opportunity to make a quick jaunt over to Orcas Island. While waiting for the ferry we spotted this very cooperative juvenile Cooper's hawk at the Port of Friday Harbor.

This is not a bird that would come to mind when I think of beautiful birds, but seeing it up close, the detailing on the feathers was just remarkable, particularly those little teardrop streaks on the breast.

While birding from the ferry I was shocked to spot a turkey vulture flying over Shaw Island. This species is common here in the summer, and while I've heard about a couple of birds that regularly overwinter on Lopez, I've never seen one here off-season. This was a hastily shot proof of presence photo through the window of the ferry, but enough to document this surprising find.

Turkey vulture in the San Juans in January!

There's been a lot of reports of early arrivals such as barn swallows all throughout the region so I wonder if it will prove to be an early spring or if climate shifts are to blame for more individuals turning up at unexpected times of year. We shall see!

The most hoped-for species on Orcas was an American dipper, a bird I've searched for many times over there. We don't have the right habitat for them on San Juan, but a new Land Bank property called Coho Preserve recently opened up a public access along a creek where they've been reported. I had a good feeling about today and it paid off, as we found not one but two of them at the preserve! It was so dark in the forest it was impossible to get sharp photos, but I was pleased just to see them as it was a new county life bird for me and this photo is plenty good enough for the photo year list.

American dipper! A San Juan County life bird for me

Since this is a 365 day challenge, I decided to do less "post a photo of everything" and more "wait until I get a good shot of common species". This has me at a current mark of having photographed 83% of the species on my total year list to date, but I know that number will rise. I had seen and heard some distant oystercatchers before today but finally got a decent shot of one at Buck Bay on Orcas Island today.

Nearly-silhouetted black oystercatcher

It will definitely be a hunker-down day tomorrow with gale-force winds and more than an inch of rain in the forecast, but we'll see what the rest of the month brings. Then in the beginning of February it's time for a two-week road trip south where the bird reports from our destinations have me eagerly anticipating some life birds and many others I haven't seen in years. Oh, and hopefully some warmth and sunshine, too!

Week One Rolls On

I've been out birding for at least a couple hours every day so far in 2014, and as a result the year list has progressed slowly but steadily. January 2nd it rained all day, which made for very few birds during my walk at English Camp. I had more luck driving along White Point Road where I found a Cooper's hawk (62), my only year bird of the day. I did, however, also find a Eurasian form of the green-winged teal - a common teal. Not a separate species according to the ABA, but still the first time I've seen this race in the county and a cool find.

Eurasian green-winged teal with a horizontal white stripe on its back instead of a vertical white stripe at the shoulder

The weather was nicer on January 3rd, so I walked around Three Meadows Marsh and turned up a red-breasted sapsucker (63), downy woodpecker (64), brown creeper (65), a couple of Bewick's wrens (66), and a small flock of golden-crowned kinglets (67). At Jackson Beach I found one of the greater yellowlegs (68) that eluded us on New Year's Day:

I also returned to American Camp, where it was warm enough that I decided to thoroughly enjoy the first sunshine of 2014 by sitting on this hillside for a while:

On my way down to the water, a trio of deer where determined to cross the path in front of me - they did so pretty close and at a run!

I also had a western meadowlark (69) fly along in front of me, and on my way back up the hill, I located the northern shrike (70) that was also a miss on the first of the year:

I also had to stop and photograph this guy in his beautiful winter coat before heading home:

Yesterday, the 4th, I picked up a short leg of our local Christmas Bird Count circle that still needed covering. In the process, I found a hermit thrush (71), a small group of bushtits (72), and a Hutton's vireo (73) in with a mixed flock of woodland species. I also found seven killdeer (74) in a field with several hundred European starlings and over 50 American robins.

Today my original hope was to go over and bird Skagit County, where a bunch of "gimmes" await. When that wasn't going to work out, I settled for a morning hike over on Orcas Island. Surprisingly, I didn't add any species on the ferry ride over or during our hike on Turtleback Mountain. There was a chilly breeze blowing and the ground was icy in places, but the scenery was sure stunning!

It was the Orcas ferry landing while waiting for the return boat that turned up the bird I was most hoping for - a Steller's jay (75). One of the few species I can get on Orcas but not San Juan Island! As an added bonus, I also found a pair of fox sparrows (76) and a ruby-crowned kinglet (77). While looking at the kinglet and associated chickadees, creepers, and nuthatches, I heard a strange call I couldn't place. The closest thing I could come to was a western tanager - I even played the call and it seemed like a match - but surely there wouldn't be one of those here now?! They did find one in Skagit county recently, but I couldn't ever get a view of the bird hidden in the canopy so there's no way I'll let myself count it. The mystery will have to remain!

There was a group of crows hanging out near the parking area, and there were a couple of crows that were different enough that I'm going to call them American crows (78). Usually the only crows we see in the county are northwestern crows. Supposedly their range doesn't overlap with American crows, but of course that's a fuzzy line, with many regional birders thinking the northwestern is just a race of the American crow. They do remain separate species for now, however, so I usually count crows on the island as northwesterns and crows seen further south as Americans. The major difference between them is size and voice, and today I had two sitting right next to each other, both calling. The voices and sizes clearly matched accordingly, so I decided to count my American crow now. I wish I had my camera on me at the time, because I would have loved to get a video clip and see what others think! But by the time I got my camera and returned, I was left with just one crow. Which kind are you?

While I saw more birds on the way over, the ferry ride back actually proved more productive for the year list turning up some Brandt's cormorants (79) and a single rhinoceros auklet (80). (For those keeping score, Dave sits at 72 and my dad at 84, but there will be a lot of moving and shaking in this early going!) The most photogenic birds, however, were the pelagic cormorants on the dock pilings at Orcas - look at those colors!

I also had to get the camera out to capture the scene looking towards Mt. Baker as we rounded Shaw Island heading for Lopez on the way home:

It's back to work tomorrow, so I'm sure the birding will slow down, but I'll still of course be looking!

Shaw Island

We've gotten in the habit of going on a weekend camping trip near Keith's birthday, and this year the plan was to visit nearby Shaw Island. Amazingly, despite spending at least parts of every summer in the San Juans for the last 13 years and despite the fact that it's served by the Washington State Ferry, it's an island I've never been to. It was time to remedy that! Unfortunately, our plans got cut short due to Keith coming down with a bad cough and we had to bail early, but we still had time to enjoy the island a little bit.

Sign at the Shaw Island ferry terminal. Shaw became the 10th island I've set foot on in the San Juan Islands.

The campground, part of a county park and the only public lands on Shaw, is perched on a wooded cliff above the beach. Indian Beach is a rare sandy beach - most of our shorelines are rocky.

As we walked the beach, I saw something I've never seen before: a hummingbird taking a bath in a tiny waterfall!

Afterwards, it stuck its tongue out at me, perhaps for photographing such a private moment:

There were actually three hummingbirds flying about, as well as a recently fledged group of house wrens, olive-sided and Pacific-slope flycatchers, orange-crowned warblers, white-crowned sparrows, and spotted towhees.

It was amazing to see dozens and dozens of tent caterpillars crawling around on the driftwood. This year has seen an explosion of tent caterpillars, and many local gardeners are happy that their season is coming to an end. We actually found some cocoons that I've assuming are from the tent caterpillars.

We had a peek-a-boo view of the water from our campsite, where we could watch the ferries going by:

In the morning we knew we were going to pack up and catch a ferry back home, but we still had a couple hours to explore the island a little bit. We walked to Reef Net Point, where I heard a Hutton's vireo (163) to add to my year list. (I erroneously stated in an earlier blog post that I had added Hutton's vireo, but it was a typo on my part, as it was Cassin's vireo I added at that point!) In the campground I also heard a Steller's jay to add to my county list - not a species I'm likely to see or hear while on San Juan Island.

There were lots of foxglove in bloom everywhere:

Driving around the island, it really reminded me of Waldron Island, but with paved roads. The population on Shaw is about double that of Waldron (165 to 80 or so), but they both have limited public facilities (no lodging or restaurants - though Shaw does have a general store and public campground). Both islands have small schools, post offices, and grassy airstrips.

I also don't remember seeing a fire station on Waldron, but it doesn't look like this one on Shaw sees too much activity:

At least the weather was beautiful for our ferry ride back to Friday Harbor. We had a stop at Orcas Island and I took this photo that I love of the Orcas ferry landing:

Here's the scene as we pulled back into Friday Harbor:

After a fairly sleepless night, we both has to spend part of the sunny afternoon taking a nap, but I wasn't about to let the entire day go to waste. After dinner I headed down to American Camp, where I was amazed at how much I saw in one hour before sunset - the next post will feature photos of that excursion!

Orcas Island Birthday Weekend ~ Part 2

We stayed at The Cabin on Spring Bay, and spent the afternoon Saturday hiking the trails on the property or enjoying the views out the front windows. Here's a picture I took from the water's edge looking back towards the cabin:

The property sits between two ridges, and the trail we took started by climbing up one of the ridges and looking over towards Obstruction Island:

There seems to be more deer on Orcas Island than on San Juan. On Saturday we counted more than 30 for the day! Many of those were at Spring Bay.

Not all the mule deer on Orcas Island look like our San Juan deer, either - numerous animals are speckled with varying amounts of white. I assumed that maybe this was from in-breeding, although I questioned my own theory since I know deer do swim between the islands, which should help diversify the gene pool. After doing a little research, it sounds like the story is that at some point there were one or several pure white deer introduced or otherwise brought to the island. These cross-bred with the native mule deer, creating these variable color morphs. Doesn't this deer also look a little small (young) for this time of year?

There were so many deer around, it seemed like anywhere you looked, you could find one if you looked hard enough.

Back to our hike around Spring Bay.....it was one of those great walks where there's lots of everything to look at. Mushrooms:

Mammals - this is a native Douglas squirrel, much nicer than the large non-native fox squirrels that are most common around Portland. We don't have squirrels on San Juan Island! (Okay, there is a small population of flying squirrels on San Juan, but I've never seen one.)

And birds - the highlight was this barred owl:

We talked to the owner and he said he's only seen maybe three barred owls in the 20 years he's lived there. Nice find! Some other highlights included a pileated woodpecker, and the horned grebes and hooded mergansers that spent a lot of time in the bay itself. Overall, we saw close to 30 species from or around the cabin.

The Saturday evening sunset was pretty stunning:

Right before we left to have a delicious celebratory birthday dinner at the New Leaf Cafe in Eastsound, the moon became visible, too.

Overall it was a fantastic weekend!