An Abundance of Life in San Juan Channel

Recently I got a newsletter update from the SeaDoc Society that had an interesting article about a sand wave in the middle of San Juan Channel. Underwater sand waves can be created by strong tidal currents, which San Juan Channel has plenty of. Here's a graphic from a paper written by Friday Harbor Lab student Jennifer Blaine showing the location and bathymetry of the sand wave:

Living in the sand wave, they found, are an estimated 44 million immature sand lance, a forage fish that is an essential link between plankton and higher order predators like sea birds, pinnipeds, and cetaceans. That explains why you often see a lot of seabirds in the middle of San Juan Channel! This rhinoceros auklet has a beak full of sand lance - it's a photo I took in San Juan Channel is July:

These thoughts were in my mind as I headed out yesterday to volunteer for a San Juan Channel bird survey. These transect surveys are part of a citizen science effort to get more data on the birds of San Juan Channel and create a year-round dataset to supplement the fall data that has been collected by the Friday Harbor Labs for the last bunch of years. I went on the inaugural volunteer survey in April, and this was my first one since then.

On yesterday's survey I saw 11 different bird species, but hundreds and hundreds of actual birds. The most abundant were the common murres, of which I saw more than 500. Also abundant were rhinoceros auklets and lots of gulls, including glaucous-winged, mew, California, and Heermann's. We also turned up about ten marbled murrelets (an impressive number), a few red-necked phalaropes, and a single Pacific loon still in stunning breeding plumage. Double-crested and pelagic cormorants rounded out my list. Compared to April, we had a lot more marine mammals in our survey zone - both harbor seals and harbor porpoise.

On our way out to do the survey, however, we had another task: an invertebrate release! One of the other volunteers had been doing a marine invertebrate educational unit in local classrooms and was returning some of the collected specimens back into the channel. We were all fascinated to see all the invertebrates up close before we released them! Here's the underside of a sunflower star (Pycnopodia helianthoides), a sea star that usually has between 15 and 25 legs:

I should have taken more pictures, because there were lots of other cool sea stars to look at too. Two that impressed me were the leather star (Dermasterias imbricata), with its intricate red color pattern on olive green skin, and the slime star (Pteraster tesselatus), a fat little sea star that produces a snot-like clear mucous. (Guess who got to release that one? Me!)

I did, however, take some pictures of this umbrella crab (Cryptolithodes sitchensis). This was a female, and was comparatively drab in coloration compared to some others of her species, which can come in brilliant reds and oranges. She was still a marvel to look at though - her carapace is so wide it covers her legs entirely. They really blend into the rocks and can be very hard to see:

Fish, birds, invertebrates - even when the whales aren't around much, there's still a lot to look at and learn about here in the Salish Sea!

A Bunch of Flowers

A co-worker picked flowers she saw growing along the road yesterday, and brought the bouquet into work today. She was wondering about the identities of some of the flowers, and soon a small crowd had gathered to discuss which flowers we knew and which ones we didn't.

There were a few I didn't know, and of course I can't leave those sorts of questions unanswered - those are the types of challenges I thrive on! So over lunch I poured over my flower books and figured them out. Here's a photo labeling all the different species in case there's one you wanted to know, too! (Click to see a larger view.)

The one I was especially intrigued by isn't featured very well in the photo - purpleleaf sand cherry. It's a hybrid ornamental shrub rather than a wildflower, but it's so pretty! I can't really find a picture that does it justice for the way it looked today, with little buds like little pink ornaments on stalks surrounding the clusters of flowers. Click here to see a photo that gets pretty close.

Jellyfish Invasion

There have been thousands and thousands of tiny jellyfish in the marina this week. They seem to come in waves - sometimes the ocean is full of them and other times you can only see a few individuals. Yesterday and today I spent some time on my hands and knees at the edge of the dock (with camera in hand, of course) to take a closer look, and I was surprised to see no fewer than six different species. My cnidaria ID skills are very amateur, so I'm definitely looking for input if anyone knows more than I do about my tentative species identifications.

The most abundant species is the aggregating jelly (Eutonia indicans), shown here against both a dark and a light background:

The next most abundant species, that really seems to come in waves, is the thimble jellyfish (Sarsia spp.):

The only one of these species I have seen before is the cross jelly (Mitrocoma cellularia), which has been abundant in recent summers though completely absent in years prior to that:

Now come the three I'm not so sure of, and which I only saw in very small numbers. I think this might be a water jelly species (Aequorea spp.). It doesn't seem to quite have enough "spokes", but it's the closest I can come with my Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest: A Photographic Encyclopedia of Invertebrates, Seaweeds And Selected Fishes field guide:

This one might be a hanging stomach jelly (Stomotoca atra). If it is, as the name suggests that would be the stomach hanging out of the bell, surrounded by the lips.

Finally, and this is another tentative ID but also another great example of why jellyfish common names are awesome, the closest I can come on this one is the blob-top jelly (Neoturris breviconis):

As with most wildlife viewing efforts, you end up seeing more than your "target" species. While taking such a close look at the water I also found this coonstripe shrimp (Pandalus danae) sitting on this giant plumose anemone (Metridium farcimen):

Spring Birding on San Juan

On Friday a friend came over to the island and we spent three hours birding around the southern and central portions of San Juan. Our first stop was at Jackson Beach just outside of town, where in addition to the regular species we saw our only pigeon guillemots and belted kingfisher of the day. Then it was on to Fourth of July Beach, where we found one of the bigger flocks of shorebirds I have ever seen there. It was made up of about 20 black-bellied plovers (now in their breeding plumage) and a dozen sanderlings. There were also about 150 bufflehead out in Griffin Bay.

There weren't any more shorebirds at Cattle Point like there were earlier in the week, but the red-breasted mergansers, harlequin ducks, and horned grebes were all there, as were a flock of surf scoters. We heard a Eurasian collared-dove and saw the resident flock of red-winged blackbirds. Apparently about the same time we were there a fishing boat reported about 15 transient killer whales right in Cattle Pass, but we somehow didn't see them while looking at all the birds - too bad!

At South Beach we saw the first of many savannah sparrows for the day and also a northern harrier to join the red-tailed hawk we saw at Cattle Point. Next stop was the American Camp visitor center where we walked around hoping to see some woodland birds. We didn't see much, but we did hear a Bewick's wren, northern flicker, golden-crowned sparrow and California quail.

Panorama Marsh is becoming a new favorite stop for me. It's a wetland on private land and there's no real place to park there, but it's on a quiet road so you can pull over and take a scan. A pair of marsh wrens was the highlight of the wetlands, but the deciduous trees bordering the pond were more active. We saw a male ruby-crowned kinglet displaying for a female, a chestnut-backed chickadee gathering nesting material, and a brown creeper creeping up and down the trees. 

At False Bay the over-wintering flock of mew gulls was still present, as were a small flock of green-winged teal and a half-dozen northern pintail. Two great blue herons were feeding in the mudflats, and two immature bald eagles were scavenging something on the far shore of the bay. 

Next we headed further inland, and saw our first turkey vulture for the day. At the pond on Beaverton Valley Road we found that the pair of Eurasian wigeon I found the other day were still present along with about 20 American wigeon. At Egg Lake a few ring-necked ducks joined a single lesser scaup and a pair of bufflehead on the lake, and I heard my first common yellowthroats on San Juan Island this year. Our last stop was at Sportsman's Lake where in addition to some violet-green and tree swallows, the very last species added to the day list was a single northern rough-winged swallow (year bird 148).

We ended the morning with an even 60 species seen by the two of us, though by comparing notes later in the day we collectively closed in on 70. He saw an osprey that afternoon, which is a newly returned species I haven't come across yet!

I did, however, hear and then see my first orange-crowned warblers (149) of the year on Saturday. I know other birders have been detecting this species since the beginning of April, and while it took me a little longer I've now seen them in multiple locations over the weekend!

Next up, as Warren predicted in his comment on my last post....butterflies!

Crossing Admiralty Inlet

As we headed back to Friday Harbor after a great trip to Sequim last weekend, the winds continue to blow as we took the Port Townsend --> Keystone Ferry across Admiralty Inlet. I thought that might hamper the bird sightings a bit, but I was surprised by how species many I saw during the 30 minute crossing. Here's my count:

Surf scoter - 1

Common goldeneye - 2

Red-breasted merganser - 3

Pacific loon - 1

Common loon - 1

Red-necked grebe - 1

Double-crested cormorant - 3

Pelagic cormorant - 2

Mew gull - 2

Western x Glaucous-winged hybrid - 2

Glaucous-winged gull - 3

Gull sp. - 5

Common murre - 1

Pigeon guillemot - 20

Marbled murrelet - 2

Rhinoceros auklet - 65

The highlights were definitely the pair of marbled murrelets (135), a year bird, a well as the number of rhinoceros auklets. While we see auklets in inland waters all year, most of then tend to head offshore to feed for the winter. All the ones I saw in Admiralty Inlet, the first ones back for the summer, were decked out in their breeding plumage.

I've had a couple of neat bird sightings since returning home. The other night, no fewer than 30 double-crested cormorants gathered together outside the marina, then took flight and swirled through the sky before settling to roost in the trees just down the shoreline from us. Then, this morning, I heard a European starling mimicking a Swainson's thrush....maybe I'm not the only one who is ready for summer?

From Skagit to Sequim

Before the meeting I had to go to today in Everett, we had a little bit of extra time which we spent in Skagit County. My new favorite birding stop here is West 90, where we spent about 20 minutes watching northern harriers, short-eared owls, and a pair of rough-legged hawks flying around in the heavy winds. This is the same spot where I added the owl and hawk to my year list last month, so it's a great place to see these species with regularity.

After Everett we caught another ferry over to the Olympic Peninsula and made our way to Sequim. It was mostly traveling today, but it still turned out to be a pretty respectable day list. Here are the species we saw:

Mallard

Northern pintail

Gadwall

American wigeon

Green-winged teal

Northern shoveler

Surf scoter

Common goldeneye

Barrow's goldeneye

Bufflehead

Red-breasted merganser

Hooded merganser

Canada goose

Trumpeter swan

Red-necked grebe

Horned grebe

Rhinoceros auklet

Pigeon guillemot

Common loon

Double-crested cormorant

Pelagic cormorant

Glaucous-winged gull

Mew gull

Red-tailed hawk

Rough-legged hawk

Northern harrier

Bald eagle

Short-eared owl

Ring-necked pheasant

Great blue heron

Rock pigeon

Eurasian collared-dove

American robin

American crow

Common raven

Pacific wren

European starling

Brewer's blackbird

Dark-eyed junco

39 species....not bad! That could be tough to beat tomorrow, but that's my goal!

Amazing February Day on the Water

I've never had the chance to take a wildlife cruise around the San Juan Islands in February, so I was excited when I got the chance to go out with Jim Maya at Maya's Westside Charters today. The weather was perfect - blue skies, chilly but sunny, and the wind had finally subsided. What marine life would we find out there?

The bird-watching started in Snug Harbor itself, as while we were departing I saw a pair of hooded mergansers, a bald eagle, a gaggle of bufflehead, and a mixture of glaucous-winged and mew gulls. We headed out and crossed Haro Strait, and made our first stop at Kelp Reef where we got a stunning look at a pair of bald eagles on the Kelp Reef marker:

A couple of Steller sea lions were lounging in the kelp beds, but they were just a preview of things to come. Next we cruised over to Lime Kiln Lighthouse and birded along the shoreline there where we found some red-breasted mergansers and harlequin ducks. We also saw lots of double-crested cormorants:

And we also found a pair of pigeon guillemots. Interestingly enough, one was in its black summer plumage, while the other one was still in winter plumage:

 Since the waters were calm we jetted down to South Beach where, just as I had hoped, we found some long-tailed ducks (126). I thought we might see one or two, but I was thrilled to find there were approximately 20 of them scattered around!

The view looking over towards Mt. Baker was gorgeous on this clear day, especially with the Cattle Point Lighthouse in the foreground:

Over on Whale Rocks were loads of hauled out Steller sea lions, and in and among them were bunch of cormorants:

Most of them were pelagic cormorants, and it wasn't until I came home and took a closer look at my photos that I realized some of them were Brandt's comorants (127)!! In addition to the funny face made by the sea lion on the right, note the tan throat feathers on the cormorants in front of him:

I just couldn't get enough of the sea lions today. They looked especially regal with the Cattle Point Lighthouse in the background:

On the way back north along the west side of San Juan Island we pulled in at Eagle Point where, appropriately, an eagle was perched. While we enjoyed this eagle, a second eagle flew by with something clutched in its talons. It turned out it had caught a male hooded merganser!! I couldn't believe it - I've never seen anything like it. In this view you can see one of the merganser's feet hanging down. It's head is on the left under the eagle's tail, where you can see the distinct white patch on the crest as well as the open beak of the merganser. Unreal....

As if that weren't grand enough of a finale, we found some Dall's porpoise out in the middle of Haro on our way back to Snug Harbor. We only got a few brief views before one decided it wanted to play with us, and it rode the bow and stern wake for a good 10 minutes or so. Here's a photo of it, though I also took a video clip that I'll post in the future.

What an amazing day on the water!!

Since it's still GBCC weekend I couldn't neglect conducting a bird count while we were out there. It was a three cormorant species day today, to match the three merganser day yesterday! Here are the 20 species I saw:

• Harlequin duck
• Surf scoter
• Long-tailed duck
• Bufflehead
• Hooded merganser
• Red-breasted merganser
• Common loon
• Pacific loon
• Double-crested cormorant
• Pelagic cormorant
• Brandt's cormorant
• Great blue heron
• Bald eagle
• Black oystercatcher
• Mew gull
• Glaucous-winged gull
• Common murre
• Pigeon guillemot
• Rhinoceros auklet
• American crow

Great Backyard Bird Count: Day 2

I got out for two and a half hours of birding this afternoon in the sunshine, out to see how many species I could find in my bigger backyard of San Juan Island. It was chilly and unfortunately with the wind a lot of the passerine birds were either hunkered down or difficult to detect in the waving branches. As a result I wasn't able to top the 44 species I saw during the GBBC two years ago the island, but finished the day with a respectable 38 species.

My first stop was Jackson Beach where the highlight was my only western gull of the day. The yellowlegs was no where in sight, but I did also see my only three green-winged teal in the lagoon. American Camp and South Beach were pretty quiet, but there was good birding to be had at Cattle Point where I found a flock of 17 black turnstones. Out in the turbulent waters of Cattle Pass were a lot of sea birds, including a red-necked grebes, horned grebes, pigeon guillemots, harlequin ducks, surf scoters, double-crested and pelagic cormorants, and my first Pacific loon (126) of the year.

I stopped by False Bay, and though it was high tide there wasn't much bird activity. The large flock of mew gulls was mixed in with the large flock of pintail, both of which seemed to be foraging on the sandbar that was still out of the water. I spent the rest of my birding time driving around some of the inland roads of the island, mostly looking at some of the freshwater lakes and ponds. I turned up many of the expected ducks, and had to pull out my camera for a close encounter with some trumpeter swans:

Adult trumpeter swan in the sun

Pair of immature trumpeter swans in the shade

Toward the end of the day, I also found a single common merganser, which made for a three merganser species day, which is always cool.

Here's my species count for the day:

• Canada goose - 18
• Trumpeter swan - 22
• Mallard - 2
• American wigeon - 50
• Northern pintail - 100
• Green-winged teal - 3
• Ring-necked duck - 30
• Lesser scaup - 10
• Harlequin duck - 8
• Surf scoter - 6
• Bufflehead - 115
• Hooded merganser - 2
• Common merganser -1
• Red-breasted merganser - 12
• Pacific loon - 3
• Common loon - 2
• Horned grebe - 10
• Double-crested cormorant - 20
• Pelagic cormorant - 30
• Bald eagle - 10
• Red-tailed hawk - 1
• Black turnstone - 17
• Mew gull - 100
• Western gull - 1
• Glaucous-winged gull - 120
• Pigeon guillemot - 4
• Belted kingfisher - 2
• American crow - 25
• Chestnut-backed chickadee - 6
• Red-breasted nuthatch - 1
• American robin - 6
• European starling - 120
• Song sparrow - 1
• Golden-crowned sparrow - 2
• Dark-eyed junco - 6
• Red-winged blackbird - 10
• House finch - 2

Great Backyard Bird Count: Day 1

Today is the first day of the Great Backyard Bird Count, and it was a beautiful day for it. After a gray, windy week today was partly cloudy and calm. The view from our marina over towards Mt. Baker was a beautiful one:

Over the course of the afternoon I saw a respectable 16 species (plus one hybrid). That already tops the 13 species I saw at my parent's house in Portland during last year's GBBC weekend. Here's the results of my count today:

• Surf scoter - 2
• Bufflehead - 18
• Hooded merganser - 1
• Red-breasted merganser - 4
• Red-necked grebe - 1
• Double-crested cormorant - 8
• Mew gull - 2
• Western x glaucous-winged gull hybrid - 1
• Glaucous-winged gull - 10
• Rock pigeon - 5
• Belted kingfisher - 1
• American crow - 30
• Chestnut-backed chickadee - 6
• Red-breasted nuthatch - 2
• Song sparrow - 1
• Dark-eyed junco - 7
• House sparrow - 1

So far it looks like I'm the only person to submit any checklists from anywhere in San Juan County! Looking at the past couple of years, only about 5-10 lists get submitted for San Juan Island, during the GBBC, so I want to make sure to contribute. Despite the name, you don't just have to count birds in your literal backyard, so since I got a good count at the marina today I'll probably go out tomorrow and do a good search around the island to see how many species I can turn up. Two years ago when I did a mini big day on GBBC weekend I found 44 species, including a new life bird! We'll see what tomorrow brings....

San Juan Island Beached Birds: Then and Now

I went down to Fourth of July Beach to do a COASST survey this afternoon. I've been conducting these surveys for almost two years here in the San Juan Islands, but have yet to find a beached bird on my beach. In general, beached bird numbers for the San Juan Islands are very low, probably the lowest of anywhere COASST surveys along the west coast of North America.

The other day I came across an article that mentioned beached bird surveys that were conducted on San Juan Island in 1989 through the Department of Fish and Wildlife's Adopt-A-Beach Program. They reported finding a whopping 69 birds on San Juan beaches over the course of 10 surveys, which was the highest number reported in the state. The second highest was 32 birds found in Grays Harbor. Curious, I e-mailed COASST to see if they had any insight into what was going on and/or what has changed.

It turns out they have the old Adopt-A-Beach data in their office and they took a look at the San Juan 1989 surveys, and they were kind enough to share some of what they found with me. A single survey on Jackson Beach in August of that year had 11 common murres, 7 rhinoceros auklets, a California gull, and a tufted puffin. Another survey around that time noted that many of the birds were very decomposed and that the gill net fishery was open at that time. The COASST folks concluded that the  use of gill nets probably had something to do with the spike in beached bird numbers.

Fishing is more restricted now than it was in the 80s, but it still goes on. Last year during August I found a dead common murre on South Beach, which also coincided with a fishery opening, though it was mostly purse seiners on the water at that time. I recall others reporting murre carcasses out on the water and requesting reports to try an monitor affects of the fishery on bird populations. It's a stark reminder of one of the many ways human activity influences marine bird populations.

But today, there were no dead birds on my beach, so I paid attention to the live ones. In the brambles near the trail to the beach I saw a fox sparrow, as well as several song sparrows. The trees in the field across from the parking area held a trio of American robins and a northern flicker. Out in Griffin Bay were about 40 bufflehead, 20 surf scoters, 7 double-crested cormorants, 6 horned grebes, and 5 common loons. In the lagoon were 11 mallards, a pair of American wigeon, and a single male gadwall.

It's hard for me to be at the south end of the island and not head over to South Beach and Cattle Point to see what's going on bird-wise, especially with potential for the white-winged scoters, long-tailed ducks, and Pacific loons that have still eluded me for a tally on the year list. South Beach was quiet, but there was a bit more activity at Cattle Point today.

A flock of about 35 red-winged blackbirds provided a constant soundtrack for my visit there. There were about 8 red-breasted mergansers patrolling the shoreline, and a single horned grebe, a single pelagic cormorant, and a few more surf scoters out in the channel. I could see about a dozen or more Steller sea lions hauled out over on Whale Rocks. Goose Island was empty compared to the summer, but there were  a couple pairs of Canada geese, a few immature double-crested cormorants, and a black oystercatcher hanging out, along with the seemingly resident harbor seals that were hauled out on the north end of the island. A few other harbor seals were fishing in the currents. 

I walked down to the cove near Cape San Juan and was rewarded with finding a single black turnstone (125) to add to the year list. In the cove itself were half a dozen harlequin ducks and about ten more bufflehead. 

No photos today - too dreary and no close encounters. They're forecasting potential snow showers from tonight through the weekend, so we'll see if any of that accumulates. Next up will most likely be reports from the Great Backyard Bird Count this weekend. If you're in North America, you too can participate in this citizen science project!

The "I'm On Hold" Bird Count

I was dreading the phone call I had to make today to dispute my internet/phone bill, which was incorrect for the third month in a row. From past experience, I knew I would probably be put on hold for a while as the appropriate supervisors were consulted with. I realized instead of letting my anger rise as the minutes of the hold ticked by, I would take advantage of the time to conduct an informal bird count out my window, in preparation for next weekend's Great Backyard Bird Count. Here's the decent list I generated during my 30 minutes (!!!) on hold:

9 dark-eyed juncos

1 belted kingfisher

5 glaucous-winged gulls

2 rock doves

1 Pacific wren

3 chestnut-backed chickadees

1 song sparrow

1 red-breasted nuthatch

And I even got the billing issue resolved!

Starting Off the Year List in the East

Temperatures soared into the upper 40s to start the new year, so we woke up on January 1st to a total lack of snow in Buffalo. It was raining all day, which seemed to keep most of the bird activity down in the neighborhood, and then we had a Buffalo Sabres hockey game in the late afternoon so there wasn't much time for birding. Still, I did tick twelve species to start 2011:

1. Black-capped chickadee
2. Northern cardinal
3. Mourning dove
4. Downy woodpecker
5. Blue jay
6. Tufted titmouse
7. White-breasted nuthatch
8. Dark-eyed junco
9. American crow
10. European starling
11. Rock pigeon
12. House sparrow

Opening face-off: Buffalo Sabres vs. Boston Bruins on January 1, 2011

 The Sabres' game was one of the best hockey games I have ever seen live. There were seven goals in the first period. The Sabres came back from a two goal deficit to lead 5-4, then ended up trailing 6-5 late. Drew Stafford scored an extra attacker goal in the last minute of play to tie the game and get the hat trick, then Miller stopped Zdeno Chara in the shootout to get the 7-6 win. My throat is sore this morning from all the yelling!!

18,000+ fans on hand to watch the Sabres beat Boston 7-6 in HSBC Arena

The snow is coming down again as of today so I hope to get some wintery backyard bird pictures in the near future, particularly of the eastern species I don't get a chance to photograph back home. Birding will have to take a back seat until the end of the World Junior hockey tournament on the 5th, and then I'll see how many species I can turn up here in New York!

Year List in Review

It's December 31st, 2010 and I've seen 233 bird species since January 1st. Going in to the year, I hoped to see 175 species, but I beat that goal by a whopping 58 species thanks to the trip to Alaska and a few bonus species on the east coast to close the year out. I added 23 life birds this year, 16 of which were on the Alaska trip. I really didn't expect to see so many species....233 is actually 69% of my entire North American life list.

Downy woodpecker at suet feeder in Eden, New York in December

I also had a goal of seeing a year bird during every month of the year, which I succeeded in doing. Here's the year bird total by month:

January ~ 87 species

February ~ 19 species

March ~ 25 species

April ~ 21 species

May ~ 37 species

June ~ 24 species

July ~ 1 species

August ~ 2 species

September ~ 3 species

October ~ 2 species

November ~ 4 species

December ~ 8 species

I was in an unofficial competition with Dave over in England, who also started the year with a target of 175 species. He ended with 192 species seen in the British Isles, but 237 species including his trip to Florida which edges me by four!!

I think 2010 is going to be a tough year to beat, but my goal for 2011 is 200 species. I hope to reach 100 species by the end of January, which may just be possible since I'll be birding on both coasts. Another lofty goal I may not be able to attain is to add 11 more life birds to bring my North American life list to 350. Stay tuned....we'll see how I do!!

A Five Marine Mammal Day - From Shore!

 On Wednesday we had another beautiful, calm, sunny day - a rarity this month! I knew the orcas were still in the area so I decided to head out to the west side and see if I could see them, and maybe some other wildlife. As I pulled up to Lime Kiln I saw a big group of racing Dall's porpoise (species #1) heading up Haro Strait. Just like last year, Dall's porpoise were very scarce in the area during the summer months, but seemed to have returned in pretty good numbers this September.

I found a comfortable rock (yes, there is such a thing!) to sit on, when someone coming by pointed out there was a harbor seal (species #2) sitting right behind me! Funny how I didn't even see him at first, but he didn't seem to mind my presence.

 

I saw some boats in the distance and, sure enough, I could see they were with the killer whales (species #3) coming east across Haro Strait. Unfortunately for me they decided to go south instead of north towards me, but through binoculars I watched them breach up a storm, which was awesome to see even from a distance.

Another whale-watching boat was heading out towards the whales when all of a sudden it stopped and did a 180 degree turn - a sure sign they spotted something. I looked through binoculars and saw they were with about 15 Pacific white-sided dolphins (species #4)!!!!!!!! This species is normally pretty rare here, but has been seen quite a bit in the last couple of weeks, including groups of them at times seemingly harassing the orcas. I'm not on the water as much anymore, so I hadn't had a chance to see them yet, but they're one marine mammal I've always wanted to see, and this was a very exciting "life mammal" for me. They were making their way closer to where I was sitting when they all dove down, never to be seen again by me, the other shore-based observers watching them, or several boats that searched the strait for them!

I sat and read my book in the sunshine for a while, waiting to see what the orcas might decide to do. When it became clear they were definitely heading south, I decided to pack up and head towards the south end of the Island too. I decided to walk out to the Cattle Point Lighthouse for a panoramic vantage point of the straits:

 

I sat down on the cliff in front of the lighthouse looking out towards the Olympic Mountains in the distance. The water was glassy calm, and I could see the orcas spread out for miles offshore. Their blows were illuminated by the afternoon sunlight, and I could hear them breathing even from this distance. The few boats that were out with them were all stopped, just hanging out and letting the whales travel and forage where they may. It was a peaceful scene, and as I sat and soaked it all in I lost track of time for a little while. I had such an incredible close encounter with the whales the day before (see my previous post), but this moment reminded me that you don't always have to be close to appreciate the sheer beauty of nature.

I was snapped out of my reverie by a loud "kawpfff!" down below me. It was a Steller sea lion (species #5):

There were more sea lions hauled out over on Whale Rocks across the pass, and they could be heard growling and roaring across the way too.

By the time I got back home, the clouds were starting to move in again, but they created a beautiful pattern in the sky right above our marina:

A Little Bit of Everything on Mother's Day

Today was another fantastic day on the water, as over the course of four hours we saw six different marine mammal species. First off, we saw the California sea lion (1) that has been hanging out just outside of Friday Harbor. Next, up by Patos Island, we found ourselves surrounded by dozens and dozens of harbor porpoise (2). We shut off the engines and it was so peaceful that we could actually hear them breathing as they came to the surface - so cool!

On our way over towards East Point we saw a few harbor seals (3) and Steller sea lions (4) in the water, and then at the haul out there were about a dozen Stellers and a couple hundred harbor seals. Perched right on the rocks with them again was an adult bald eagle.

As we cruised down Boundary Pass we were really pleased to find a nice group of Dall's porpoise (5), a species we haven't seen too much of this spring. They were zipping through the water at top speed, sometimes surfacing two or three abreast and kicking up spray into the air. We had several of them right off the bow when all of a sudden we veered away. Why were we abuptly leaving such a cool encounter? There could only be one reason - orcas! Indeed, the captain had gotten the call we had been hoping for, that another boat had picked up some killer whales (6). It was late in our trip but we had just enough time to run at top speed over to Haro Strait and meet up with a pair of transients.

It turned out to be the same two females that were traveling together a few days ago - T124C and CA58. CA58 is actually a California transient, so it is very interesting to have her up here hanging out with these transients! (Some of you may remember the mystery whale we saw last month with male T103 that I posted about here - turns out that was CA58 as well.) I wonder what kind of relationships these two females have?

Above is T124C, who is an 18 year-old female that is known for traveling apart from her family by herself. Below is T124C on the right and CA58 on the left, with Vancouver Island the Olympic Mountains in the background.

While the marine mammal sightings were superb today, I'm never one to pass the birds by. This rhinoceros auklet in breeding plumage popped up right near the boat while we were watching the whales - probably the best auklet photo I've ever gotten:

Happy Mother's Day Mom, and to all moms!

Tillamook COASST survey and birding

Last Friday I went with my dad to Tillamook on the Oregon Coast to conduct a beached bird survey for COASST and do some birding. On his beach at Happy Camp we discovered one dead bird - a somewhat gory-looking headless brown pelican, so I'll spare you the photos today. It does represent the fact that brown pelicans are still persisting on the Oregon Coast throughout the winter and spring, an unusual time for them to be here, especially since many are not finding enough to eat and are dying off.

The weather at the coast was fantastic. We were able to walk along the shoreline wearing T-shirts and no jackets - something you aren't always able to do in the Pacific Northwest in the summertime, let alone on the last full day of winter. After doing the survey while we went birding for three hours, we were also able to do so with the windows on the car rolled down. It was so pleasant and mild out, and while it was still breezy it was a very warm wind.

First we drove around Netarts Bay, where we still saw a few bufflehead, common loons, and surf scoters, but in noticeably diminishing numbers. We also stopped by Cape Meares Lighthouse, where in addition to spotting a lone live brown pelican, a pair of black oystercatchers, and one of the resident peregrine falcons, we also saw about five gray whales heading north on their spring migration. They were quite a ways offshore, but their spouts were visible with the naked eye, and through binoculars you could see their lumpy backs and once even the flukes (unusual for a gray whale) as a whale went down on a deeper dive.

Next up was Bay Ocean Spit, which often turns up some good waterfowl and occasionally good shore birds. My dad really wanted to find a tern among the gulls, and said, "I bet there's one out there," pointing to a condensed flock of gulls on a sand bar way out in the middle of the bay. His insight was spot-on, as once he got the scope on the clump of white birds he found a lone Caspian tern (117) hanging out among the western and glaucous-winged gulls. [I guess this is a good time mention that last week I also saw my first turkey vulture (116) of the season soaring over Highway 26 in Portland!]

As we continued along the spit, we saw about a half-dozen brant as well as many northern pintail, mallards, ring-necked ducks, and lesser scaup. There were also two great egrets, four great blue herons, and a northern harrier hanging out in the same area. The biggest surprise, however, was a pair of marbled godwits (118), who were both standing one-legged in the surf and only occasionally would look up, revealing their remarkably long, up-turned bills.

While driving along Tillamook Bay I saw a small, black bird deftly catch an insect and alight on a wire overhanging a creek. "Stop! Stop!" I told my dad, recognizing something out of the ordinary before getting a good look at it. It turned out to be not one, but two, black phoebes (119) - occasionally reported this far north but the first time I've ever seen this species in Oregon. They were hanging out near a big red barn and looked likely to be a nesting pair, so they may be hanging out there for some time.

Our last stop before heading to the COASST social pizza dinner was a drive along Fenk Road, which goes through some farms along a creek and always seems to turn up something good. We saw a pair of American coot, some green-winged teal, four tree swallows, and our third belted kingfisher of the day along the water. On the farm side of the road were about a thousand Canada geese out in the fields, as well as mixed flock of new fewer than four different blackbird species: European starlings, red-winged blackbirds, Brewer's blackbirds, and a couple of brown-headed cowbirds (120).

No pictures of any of the 40 species we saw that afternoon - it was a great days birding but most species were too far away to pull out the camera. Next up, I'm going to try my luck at finding a pair of wrentits reported near the Sandy River delta about 25 miles east of Portland. They have been spotted regularly over the last week, but I'm a little skeptical, as locating the small brown birds admist acres of blackberry brambles will be somewhat like finding a needle in a haystack. Wish me luck!

Great Backyard Bird Count - Days 3 and 4

The second half of the Great Backyard Bird Count yielded much better results. For starter's, here's what I saw:

Sunday
American crow - 3
Black-capped chickadee - 3
Red-breasted nuthatch - 2
Spotted towhee - 1
Brown creeper - 1
House finch - 2
Song sparrow - 1
Western screech-owl - 1

Monday
American crow - 5
Black-capped chickadee - 7
Red-breasted nuthatch - 3
Brown creeper - 1
House finch - 2
Song sparrow - 1
American robin - 2
Steller's jay - 3
Varied thrush - 3
Northern flicker - 3

The single dark-eyed junco that came through the yard this morning - odd to see it by itself!

Thirteen species were seen and heard in the yard this weekend - not too bad! I definitely saw more activity by going out early this morning as opposed to counting in the afternoon.

The Great Backyard Bird Count helps give scientists a snap-shot of bird activity across the continent, but I can only imagine the monumental task of trying to pull meaningful trends out of the masses of data that are admittedly somewhat prone to error when including information from all levels of birders putting in varying levels of effort. For instance, I saw that there are eight different reports of blue jays , an eastern species, in Oregon; these are almost certainly actually sightings of Steller's jays, which are in fact blue in color so often get referred to by novices as blue jays. While I imagine pulling population trend data must be near-impossible, some of the other questions they are asking include the timing of migration movements, the status of irruptive species in a given year, and the differences in bird diversity in urban, suburban, rural, and natural areas.

All this backyard bird-watching also got me thinking about changing trends in my own back yard. There are several species that I used to see fairly regularly growing up here, but not anymore. Some examples are the pileated woodpecker, downy woodpecker, and band-tailed pigeon. Sadly, they have most likely been pushed out of this region as the surrounding city has developed further of the last two decades. Still, it's cool that I can be right in the middle of a metropolitan area and see more than a dozen species in the yard over the course of a winter weekend.

Great Backyard Bird Count - Days 1 and 2

It's been a pretty quiet start to the Great Backyard Bird Count for this backyard birder, with not many species or many birds spotted in the last two days. I've only spent about half an hour a day out in the yard, but the feeders have been very quiet which also contributes to the low counts. Here are my counts from the last two days:

Friday
American crow - 7
Red-breasted nuthatch - 2
American robin - 2
Northern flicker - 1
Steller's jay - 1

Saturday
American crow - 11
Black-capped chickadee - 2
American robin - 2
Northern flicker - 1

Only six species in these two days, so there's definitely some other possibles to be added in the next two. Unfortunately everything has been pretty far away, so no photos yet, but I'll report back at the end of the weekend and I'll try to get some pictures to share too!

Big Day: Birds, Flowers, Amphibians, Mammals, Insects....

Every year my dad and I try to do a "Big Day" of birding, where we try to visit as many habitats and see as many species as possible in a day. Our record is something like 90 species in 14 hours. Today was somewhat of a mini Big Day, with "just" 9 hours of birding, and a focus on more than just the birds.

On our drive to our first destination we picked up a respectable eight species: song sparrow, red-tailed hawk, American crow, European starling, rock pigeon, barn swallow, Brewer's blackbird, and American robin.

Our first stop was just outside of Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge in Washington. Other birders had reported Lazuli buntings in the meadow there, and sure enough, I was able to hear them. The only way they made our day list is because someone else had already reported them and we had played the Lazuli bunting call so I knew what to listen for. Otherwise, they easily would have been dismissed as a sparrow or finch call, and we never saw the bird. At this same meadow we also heard our first Swainson's thrushes of the day, a Pacific-slope flycatcher, a western scrub-jay, and we also saw a Steller's jay harassing a hawk to the point that it flew off its perch.

Right next to where we parked our car to listen for Lazuli buntings was an ant colony:

The meadow was also filled with wildflowers like oxeye daisies, St. John's wort, clovers, and these purple thistles that some American goldfinches were feasting on (Cirsium sp.):

Down at the entrance to the refuge itself we heard and saw some recently fledged Bullock's orioles, heard our first savannah sparrows. As we started on the auto-tour loop that takes you through the wetlands and forested areas of the refuge, we picked up two more swallow species (violet-green and rough-winged), and saw families of mallards, pied-billed grebes, and American coot. Common yellowthroats could be heard singing, great blue herons foraged in the shallows, a turkey vulture soared overhead, and both red-winged and yellow-headed blackbirds perched in the cattail marsh. We also heard the winnowing of airborne common snipe.

Nearby we noticed this western painted turtle that was out of the water basking in this odd pose with its rear legs fully extended:

At the edge of the cattail marsh my dad noticed these plants, which thanks to paging through my field guides I immediately recognized as Arrowhead (also known as Wapato, or Sagittaria latifolia):

We stopped to get out at the blind that overlooks the largest lake along the auto tour route. The six American white pelicans - a rarity for the refuge - stood out like a sore thumb against the brown and green background of the marsh. There were also several dozen Canada geese, many gadwall, a small handful of northern shovlers, and an American kestrel perched in a nearby tree. We almost missed this barn swallow on her nest in the blind, and only noticed her just as we turned around to leave:

We drove through the rest of the refuge with the windows down despite the swarms of mosquitos that were everywhere. Amazingly, they seem to have mostly avoided me in favor of feeding on my dads arms and feet. As we drove through the woods along a stream, we saw a white-breasted nuthatch, our first tree swallows of the day, and a cinnamon teal. In one small marshy area I was lucky enough to spot the normally elusive American bittern walking across an open waterway, at one point apparently swimming through the deepest part of the water. While watching it through binoculars we also saw a nutria swimming the other direction behind the bittenr. Finally, as we crossed the bridge to leave the refuge, we spotted a few cliff swallows, making it a respectable five swallow species day.

We've often talked about birding both wetlands and the coast in the same Big Day, but today was the first time we actually did it. We drove out to Happy Camp beach on the Oregon Coast to conduct a COASST survey for beached birds on my dad's stretch of beach, while looking for live birds at the same time. While walking along the beach we heard a common raven, orange-crowned warblers, white-crowned sparrows, House sparrows, and a spotted towhee. We didn't find any beached birds, but we did see about a dozen of these huge jellyfish:

From his beach we also added the pigeon guillemot, pelagic cormorant, Western gull, glaucous-winged gull, and Caspian tern to our list, as well as 10 or so harbor seals. We then headed closer to the rocks in the photo below to scan them with his scope. Through the scope we could see tens of thousands of common murres and a few dozen brown pelicans (the first time either of us has seen two pelican species in one day). We were also surprised to see small flock of black scoters, and wondered what they are still doing in the area this time of year. The base of the rocks were also covered with a couple hundred sea lions. Just as we pulled out of the small town of Oceanside, we saw a juvenile bald eagle cruising overhead.

The next stop was Cape Meares lighthouse, where we know a pair of peregrine falcons has nested in the past. On our way down the trail we heard a singing winter wren. It didn't take my dad much time to locate the falcon nest on the nearby cliffs, and through the scope we could see both of the falcons preening and stretching their wings near the nest.

We drove along Tillamook Bay before heading inland again, and were rewarded with a few more species for the day list. We saw a few double-crested cormorants, heard a belted kingfisher, and saw a juvenile brown-headed cowbird. On our drive back through the coast range we stopped along the Wilson River in hopes of picking up an American dipper. We didn't, but I did see a spotted sandpiper and a mourning dove to add to the list.

Our last stop of the day was at Killin Wetlands near Banks, Oregon. We heard several more American bitterns here. We were hoping a sora or Virginia rail would help us break 60 species for the day; we didn't hear either of these rails but did see a wood duck family and hear some marsh wrens to bring us to 60 species. As an added bonus, on our way out of Banks we saw a pair of Eurasian collared doves, only the second time I've seen this species.

All in all, a great day's birding, and a decent day list of 61 bird species!

Point Reyes and Sacramento NWR Bird List

More to follow, including photos, in the next few days, but for now here is a great 62 species day list that covered Point Reyes National Seashore and the surrounding area as well as Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge.

Common loon
Western grebe
Pelagic cormorant
Great blue heron
Great egret
Snow egret
White-faced ibis
Turkey vulture
Greater white-fronted goose
Canada goose
Green-winged teal
Mallard
Northern pintail
Cinnamon teal
Northern shoveler
Gadwall
American wigeon
Canvasback
Lesser scaup
Surf scoter
Bufflehead
Red-breasted merganser
Ruddy duck
Northern harrier
Red-tailed hawk
American kestrel
Peregrine falcon
Ring-necked pheasant
Wild turkey
American coot
Killdeer
Black oystercatcher
Black-necked stilt
American avocet - life bird
Greater yellowlegs
Common snipe
California gull
Western gull
Pigeon guillemot
Rock dove
Mourning dove
Northern flicker
Black phoebe
Western scrub jay
American crow
Common raven
Tree swallow
Chestnut-backed chickadee
Marsh wren
Varied thrush
European starling
Yellow-rumped warbler
California towhee
Savannah sparrow
Song sparrow
Golden-crowned sparrow
White-crowned sparrow
Dark-eyed junco
Red-winged blackbird
Western meadowlark
Brewer’s blackbird
House finch