Malibu Lagoon State Beach and Zuma Beach

After our warm hike at Temescal Canyon on November 8th, we headed a little further north along the coast to Malibu Lagoon State Beach. Doing some research via eBird ahead of time, I had circled this beach on the map as one of the most prolific birding sites in the area in terms of the variety of birds seen. It did not disappoint!

Malibu Lagoon - nestled between Highway 1 and the Pacific Ocean

When we arrived, I immediately took my shoes off and enjoyed the warm sand between my toes. Among the first birds I saw were a trio of western grebes, four different gull species, and a flyby from an osprey. I didn't have to walk far to see my first year bird at the site - a single spotted sandpiper (182). While looking at several snowy and great egrets, Keith's sharp eyesight found my second year bird across the lagoon. It was a juvenile green heron (183).

My most hoped for species at this site was a snowy plover, a species I have only seen once before, 12 years ago, also along the California coast. The thing I remembered most about them was that I practically stepped on one before seeing one, and the exact same thing happened this time (184). These sparrow-sized shorebirds blend into the sand almost entirely when they aren't moving, and they don't flush until you're pretty close to them.

Snowy plover close-up

I would see one plover, and then while kneeling to take a photo of it, five others I didn't see would scurry out of the way. In total, there were probably about 30 of them there. Snowy plovers are listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. One major threat occurs during the breeding the season. They lay eggs on sandy beaches, where they are easily trampled by humans.

Snowy plover: officially the cutest bird I saw on my trip

I spotted one plover with bands on its legs. I sent some photos and info to a researcher at the Point Reyes  Bird Observatory that's part of a snowy plover banding project and learned and this bird a chick from this year that was banded at Oceano Dunes 150 miles north of Malibu Lagoon. The same bird was spotted at Malibu Lagoon a month ago, so it will probably spend the whole winter here.

A banded snowy plover at Malibu Lagoon - two green bands on its left leg and a blue and red band on its right

 While looking at the plovers, a great-tailed grackle (185) made himself known while rummaging through the wrack. I didn't look at him long, because a mixed flock of shorebirds a little further along caught my attention. In addition to the snowy plovers and spotted sandpiper from before, I also identified some least sandpipers, willets, a black turnstone, godwits, a couple of whimbrel (186), a killdeer, and a whole slew of black-bellied plovers. Nine shorebird species in one little stretch of beach!

From left to right: whimbrel, black turnstone, black-bellied plovers

In fact, it was pretty much the case that no matter where you looked, you were seeing multiple bird species right together. It was a real birder's paradise that way!

Great egret with a whimbrel

Brown pelicans with double-crested cormorants and black-bellied plovers

An hour there turned up about 30 species, with the cherry on top being a Say's phoebe (187) just as we were leaving. I probably could have stayed there the rest of the day, but the boys were ready to hit Zuma Beach and take a dip in the ocean. While they swam, I waded up to my knees in the cool Pacific, camera in hand. Again, the numbers of shorebirds in crowded SoCal was impressive.

Some of the hundreds of sanderlings at Zuma Beach, paying no mind to the surfers, birders, or sun bathers

I spotted two distant long-billed curlews (188) here at Zuma, but was more taken with the large flock of very photogenic marbled godwits. Just like our first day in California, the late afternoon lighting was perfect for shooting shorebirds.

Marbled godwit at Zuma Beach

Marbled godwits at Zuma Beach

Finally, as we drove back towards Venice, we saw a pair of red-shouldered hawks (189) perched along Highway 1. With one more full day ahead of us, I was hoping to pass 190 species on the year list before heading home, but birds weren't going to be my main target the next day when we headed out onto the water....

Wolf Hollow Harbor Seal Release

This morning I was lucky enough to be invited to watch a harbor seal release. Wolf Hollow Wildlife  Rehabilitation Center here on San Juan Island cares for orphaned and injured wildlife found throughout the San Juan Islands and Skagit County, and harbor seal pups are one of the main animals they care for during the summer months. Some years, the rehabilitate twenty or more seals, but this year only resulted in five seals to release. The final two seals, nicknamed Leto and Phanes, were set free today from a beach on San Juan Island.

Wolf Hollow volunteers carry the two harbor seals down to the beach

The crates are opened simultaneously (with a camera set up in front to capture their first moments of freedom)

Leto, the darker of the two seals, was found alone on a beach in Ferndale. He came to Wolf Hollow in early August dehydrated and lethargic, weighing just 15 pounds. He now weighs over 50 pounds and is tagged with both a flipper tag and a hat tag marked C5. He was the bolder of the two seals, poking his nose out almost immediately to survey his new surroundings.

He spent a little bit of time exploring the beach before diving into the shallows.

Phanes, on the otherhand, did not seem interesting in leaving his carrier. After several minutes he was given a little encouragement by having his cage tilted, but he climbed right back in. Finally, he had to be somewhat unceremoniously dumped out onto the beach:

Phanes was the lighter seal tagged with the H2 hat tag. He was found near Poulsbo at the end of July. At about seven days old, he was also around 15 pounds, and in addition to being thin had numerous puncture wounds all over his body. He's been the more timid of the two seals all throughout his rehab, but eventually he too found the courage to enter the water.

After doing a little exploring on their own, the two pups met up out in the bay. Previous tracking experiments have shown they might stay together for a day or so, but will probably split up after that.

"Do you know where we are?" "No, do you?"

After the seals were off on their own, a few of us who watched the release went to get a tour of the Wolf Hollow facility. While they are never open to the public, they're busiest during the summer months with lots of baby animals, and do offer some special tours during the off-season when there are fewer animals to be disturbed. Here's a list of the animals currently in their care, not including a red-breasted sapsucker that was a recent arrival, and with the two harbor seals we saw released not yet subtracted:

The first part of tour covered the harbor seal facility where Leto and Phanes had just come from. These are the tubs under heat lamps where new animals are kept isolated from one another when they're first brought in:

Later, they're transferred to a series of outdoor pools as their rehabilitation progresses:

We saw special enclosures designed for otters, waterfowl, and deer, though their actual usage can vary a lot depending on what kinds of animals are in care. The largest enclosure is the eagle flight cage, which currently houses two young female bald eagles that will be released in a few months:

There are also numerous songbird aviaries, like the one pictured below. They're heavily meshed both to keep out racoons and minks and to protect the birds from injuring their wings or feathers on the cages. Pretty much all the enclosures are also surrounded by natural vegetation to keep the animals in the most "wild" setting possible and as much away from human activity as they can be.

In addition to being a wildlife rehab center, Wolf Hollow also provides outreach and education about local wildlife. As part of these programs, they have a few educational birds who were too injured to be returned to the wild but were suitable for lives in captivity. One of them was Mardona, a red-tailed hawk, who came into the facility at just a few months old and is now over 15 years of age:

Another of the permanent residents is Aspen, a rough-legged hawk who many years ago flew into some power lines on Lopez Island:

The third bird was an educational bird in training, a northern saw-whet owl who was still quite shy. We just got a glimpse of this small owl, but they're so amazing to see up close.

It was cool to see our local wildlife rehab center in action today. I've been familiar with their work for years but hadn't ever had the opportunity to see a release or visit their facility before. If you want to learn more about them, check out their website, follow them on Facebook (you'll see some cute animals pictures!), or see if you can help out by donating anything from their Amazon wish list.

A Slow Start To February

Seems the bird activity has really quieted down over the last week, and a few short walks to start out the month of February haven't turned up too many species. The best photo op of the week was of the pine siskins at the feeder:

There was some good waterfowl activity at Jackson Beach, with green-winged teal, mallards, gadwall, hooded and red-breasted mergansers, bufflehead, and common goldeneye. Here in the neighborhood there have been a pair of bald eagles regularly flying over Brown Island just across the way. I've also gotten a few brief glimpses of some other more uncommon species including a sharp-shinned hawk chasing a flicker, a hardy Anna's hummingbird who is spending the winter here, and a single varied thrush.

I've also gone out owling a couple of times where friends of mine have reported seeing and hearing owls, but no such luck there. It seems I'm rarely successful when I go out specifically looking for owls, at least at night - I just have to wait patiently for them to come to me!

Yesterday the sun was out for a bit and there was word whales had been seen on the west side of San Juan Island, so we went out for a late afternoon walk. Unfortunately the sun disappeared behind the clouds as we headed out there, and the chilly breeze picked up a little bit. It was very quiet out there - no whales, and very few birds - but it was still a pleasant walk. It turned into a subtle, but pretty, sunset:

I'm keen to have my first whale sighting of 2013, but in the meantime I've been following with interest the track of K25 Scoter who was satellite tagged in Puget Sound in late December. The tag is still transmitting, and he (along with the rest of K-Pod, presumably) has gone all the way to central California and back, and is now going up and down along the Washington and Oregon Coasts. You can see the series of tracking maps and get some more information about the tagging project here.

Scope Success and Swan Update

On Sunday I took the new scope out for a spin, and was successful in adding two species that had thus far been too far away for me to confirm IDs: marbled murrelet (109) and long-tailed duck (110). Overall, it was amazing how much more activity I could observe in Cattle Pass! I spend about 45 minutes just scanning with the scope, watching numerous alcids, loons, grebes, gulls, sea ducks, and seals foraging on the ebb tide.

Also, I heard back from the USGS about the banded swan I saw on Fir Island last weekend:

This bird, a male, was banded as an adult in August of 2006, meaning he's at least eight years old. The average life span for wild swans is about 12 years. He was tagged 55 miles northwest of Galena, Alaska, a distance of over 1700 miles from Fir Island. It's pretty amazing to think of far he's flown in his lifetime! It's always so neat to take small part in such research by reporting a sighting and learning part of the life history of a particular animal I saw.

Skagit Flats

I actually added a year bird from work this week, seeing a pair of California quail (105) out the window of the lab.

With some great birding reports coming in from nearby Skagit County, I decided to get off island today to see what I could turn up on the Skagit Flats. It's known for being great this time of year for raptors, and today did not disappoint. As I drove up Bayview-Edison Road, I had to stop repeatedly to take in great looks of red-tailed hawks, bald eagles, and rough-legged hawks.

By the end of the day, I estimated I had seen close to 50 eagles. This was my best view:

With temperatures still hovering in the low 30s during the day, there's a lot of frozen standing water in the regional farmlands. These dunlin (106) were all standing on ice, many of them on one leg, mostly with their beaks tucked under a wing. It was pretty comical to see a few of them reshuffling by hopping on one foot, not even fully raising their heads. This is the biggest flock of shorebirds I've seen in a long time - a conservative estimate I made at the time was 2000 birds. If this photo shows about a quarter of the flock, I figure there may have been well more than that:

I went up to a WDFW property on Samish Island Road known as West 90, where some of the recent amazing bird reports have been coming from. About a week ago someone reported standing in one spot and scanning and seeing about 40 short-eared owls! A long-eared owl, a potential life bird for me, has also made numerous appearances. This was one of my main reasons for going off island, and when I excitedly got out of the car and scanned I saw....not a single owl! What! There were multiple northern harriers flying around as well as more red-tails, eagles, and rough-leggeds. Determined, I put on my rubber boots and tromped across the partially frozen mud, which yielded one short glimpse of a short-eared owl (107), but it really wasn't at all what I expected. Is it possible I just have absolutely no idea what a sitting short-eared owl looks like?

Not all was lost on my walk out in the marsh, as in addition to the owl I saw a lot of western meadowlarks (108). The Skagit Flats are an interesting area to bird this time of year, not just because of the wide variety of bird life, but because the best birding season coincides with hunting season. As I walked out at West 90, I was following behind a camouflaged hunter shouldering a rifle, his black lab bounding through the tall grasses and leaping back and forth over a water-filled ditch. Every so often throughout the day I would detect distant movement, raise my binoculars, and find instead of a bird a human crouched in the bushes. There are a lot of people out there looking to shoot birds - some with guns, others with cameras.

Still hankering for a better owl sighting, I took off for Fir Island. Rawlins Road didn't disappoint, where I found two more short-eared owls, one of them close enough to photograph:

While watching the owl a great blue heron flew up and landed near me:

I did another loop around Fir Island after that, in part to look for a gyrfalcon that had been found. No luck there, but there were lots of trumpeter swans and snow geese to be seen. These two trumpeter swans flew right overhead:

I noticed the one on the right was banded with both a neck band and, upon closer inspection of the photo, a silver leg band. I did a little research online when I got home, and I believe the number on the neck band indicates that this bird was banded in Alaska in the north-central or northwest Arctic region. That's at a minimum over 1500 miles away.

As I made my way back towards Anacortes, I drove the March Point loop. I did a double take when I saw all these herons in a field together. I've seen herons roosting or nesting in trees in groups, but never gathering on the ground like this. There were three or four more nearby that aren't in this shot:

Despite the frozen standing water, there were still lots of waterfowl out on the bay. I saw hundreds and hundreds of American wigeon and northern pintail, a good number of mallards, and smaller numbers of common goldeneye, green-winged teal, and bufflehead. The best sighting was not one but two Eurasian wigeon hanging out right together:

Then, on somewhat of a whim, I decided it was time for me to bird in style, and I splurged on a spotting scope from Anacortes Telescope. I tried it out on its mini tri-pod at the Anacortes ferry terminal while waiting for my ride home:

It's niiiiice. Tomorrow I may just have to try it out here on the island and see if I can pick myself up a long-tailed duck off the south end.

The ferry ride back to Friday Harbor was beautiful. In addition to seeing more bald eagles, all three merganser species, a nice group of common goldeneye, and some various alcids, the lighting was stunning as the evening neared sunset. The sun was behind an island, but the bright golden light made the clouds above it look like they were on fire, complete with a dark trail of smoky gray clouds above.  Much of the rest of the sky was a deep lavender, with a few misty low-hanging clouds looking like they were illuminated bright pink from within. I was just sitting and taking it all in rather than taking any photos, so you're going to have to picture this one for yourselves!

Banding Baby Bluebirds

Last week I got to go out with someone from the San Juan Preservation Trust to help tag baby western bluebirds. Last year they completed their five-year reintroduction program of the species to the San Juan Islands, but they still plan to closely monitor the population. There are thirteen active nest sites right now, and this one had six chicks in their first brood!

Here's the open nest box.  I didn't know this, but bluebirds make their nest only of grass. By looking inside a nest box, you can tell what species used it by what the nest was made of. This nestbox was pretty wet, probably because it was facing into the wind. We added some dry grass before we left. Three of the chicks were out for banding when I took this photo:

These chicks were an estimated 14 days old - it's amazing how fast little things grow! There were four males and two females in the brood; you could tell which gender a chick was by the shade of blue on the wings, with the males having a more brilliant color. The chicks were amazingly docile about being held. This was one of the little males:

Part of my job was to hold the chicks while the bands were put onto them. I was amazed at how warm they were, and you could really feel their heart beating. It was especially cute when they would chirp. It was less cute when one pooped on my hand! Here's one of the chicks with bands on:

The parents were both nearby during the whole process. While they seemed nervous, they weren't dive-bombing us or anything like that - more just watching the whole thing very carefully. I don't usually get to see adult bluebirds so up close, so that part was pretty neat too. Once we had the chicks back in the nest box, we left the adults a treat of mealworms on the roof to thank them for letting us intrude. The female is on the roof collecting some here, and the male is feeding some to the hungry chicks inside:

It was a pretty cool experience! Next up: finally, some whales!

A Great Day's Birding in Skagit County

First a note: yesterday while walking to town to watch the Superbowl at the local watering hole I saw my first fox sparrow (116) of the season!

Last week a couple of great birding reports came through on Tweeters, the Washington birding listserv, about sightings in Skagit County, which is just over on the mainland from here. I was inspired to get over there and see if I could find some of the great species they had been seeing, and the first day I had a change to do so was today. Last night I drew out a map of the target places I wanted to visit, and I was ready.

I get a bit made fun of for my not-to-scale hand-drawn birding maps, but they help familiarize me ahead of time with places I'm not used to birding and are a simple reference throughout the day....so they work for me! :)

I woke up in the morning to the sound of a Pacific wren singing in the pre-dawn light, which I took to be a good omen for the day. On the ferry ride over I spotted all the expected species including mew and glaucous-winged gulls, common murres, pigeon guillemots, pelagic cormorants, two rhinoceros auklets, and a single common loon.

I was especially keen to look for the rock wren that had been reported near Burlington, so we (my boyfriend came with me) headed straight there. While looking for it, we saw a displaying male Anna's hummingbird, a flock of bushtits, and three bald eagles soaring above. Then, after about 5-10 minutes, there it was, perched right on top of a boulder!

The rock wren (117) is a rare species to get west of the Cascades as it tends to prefer more arid habitat. I've only seen this species once before, in 2002 at Malheur in southeast Oregon, so it was a real treat to see it again.

Just a block away from the rock wren was a cattail marsh, and I got a Virginia rail (118) to respond almost immediately to the call I played. This was based off another great tip from a birder who had seen the rock wren, and because of his report I recorded the Virginia rail call on my cell phone last night. I don't have a very fancy recorder/playback ability, but it was good enough to get the rail to call back! I couldn't believe it!

What was also neat about the rock wren/Virginia rail area was that it was a really industrial part of town. It's not the ideal place to go birding in terms of beauty, but it's pretty cool to see so many great species living there right among all the industry.

Next up we went north on Old Highway 99 to Pomona Grange County Park where I quickly found one of the American dippers (119) that had been reported. The old mixed forest was pretty quiet besides, but it was amazing to see the variety of deciduous and coniferous trees that grew all together there.

I drove down Bow Hill Road through Edison and had to pull over along Bayview/Edison Road when we spotted no fewer than 20 bald eagles hanging around the same small stand of trees. I've read about the eagle congregations near the Skagit River but this was the first time I've seen so many in one place. Here's ten of them, all sub-adults:

It was an active area, with several eagles, red-tailed hawks, and northern harriers flying about nearby. These three adult bald eagles perched right together were one of the most impressive sights. The eagle count for the day, by the way, ended at a whopping 73.

After I could finally turn my attention away from the eagles, I noticed a flock of golden-crowned sparrows and this ring-necked pheasant, one of two males that was hanging around in the area:

With a squall looming on the horizon, it was time to move on towards Samish Island, but we stopped along the way at the Samish Unit of the Skagit Wildlife Area where a couple of other birders had scopes set up. They were generous enough to let us take a look at the pair of short-eared owls (120) they had found acrobatically flying around in the distance. While looking through their scope we also found a rough-legged hawk (121), our only one of the day. There was a lot of raptor activity around with more bald eagles and harriers around as well.

Our time admiring the raptors was cut short by the downpour, so it was on to Samish Island. Looking up towards Samish Bay it was pretty quiet except for a few red-breasted mergansers, surf scoters, and bufflehead. Maybe everything else took refuge from the rain. Bay View State Park was similarly quiet.

There was more activity, however, at the Padilla Bay Shore Trail trailhead, where there was a flock of green-winged teal, a few northern pintail, and a singing western meadowlark. There was also a single house finch and several song sparrows in the brambles. 

As we headed south of Highway 20 we started seeing more and more trumpeter swans, with a few tundra swans mixed in. By the end of the day I wouldn't be surprised if we saw nearly a thousand swans. Here are a couple of the tundra swans, distinct here with the small yellow marking at the base of the bill, which isn't always there (and isn't always visible when it is there if they're too far away!):

We stopped in La Connor to pick up a snack, but weren't able to locate the wild turkeys that they regularly see there. (It's debatable how wild they are, anyway.) There wasn't much to see on Valentine Road, but down on Rawlins Road on Fir Island was a pair of northern shrikes and also a large flock of snow geese (122) in the distance. The snow geese were absent a couple of weeks ago, but seemed to have returned in force, perhaps because the hunting season is now over. There was another large flock in a field north of Fir Island Road. Also nearby was this American kestrel. Between rain showers, there were many raptors attempting to dry out, like this kestrel with his tail fanned:

I had stopped at the Fir Island unit of the Skagit Wildlife Area before, but just learned there is another public access to the reserve off of Wylie Road. The area down there was very muddy and flooded, but I heard and then we were able to locate the black phoebe (123) that has been seen there over the last couple of weeks. Another rare find for this area, and I was very glad to have found it!

Before heading back to run a couple errands and head for the ferry home, there was one other place I wanted to stop just east of Fir Island where snow geese had been reported. I found them a little further south than they were the other day - just south of Johnson Road this afternoon - but there were thousands of them. A few of them were close enough to the road for photographs, unlike the other two flocks we saw:

The sights and sounds of a large flock of snow geese are so impressive I decided to try and capture a short video clip of it. While I was filming, the flock all of a sudden became alert and then took flight as a bald eagle came right through them. They circled around as the eagle chased them. What an amazing wildlife spectacle. Check it out - the eagle is visible at a couple points during the clip.

It's a bit hard to see the geese when they get further away in flight due to the video compression to post on the web, but you get the idea.

The last sighting of note for the day was a tagged red-tailed hawk just south of Exit 226 on I5 while we were heading back north. It had a blue marker on at least its left wing, which appeared to be marked with an "I" or a "1". I'm going to try and figure out who I can report the sighting to, like I did with K5, the red-tailed hawk near the Portland airport earlier this year.

Overall, a fantastic day's birding. More than 50 species were seen (49 in Skagit County plus a few more from the morning ferry), and seven year birds were added to the list. I had a list of about 10 potential year birds for the day, and decided I would be very happy finding 3 of them - so 7 of them was real treat, especially because after the rock wren first thing in the morning I proclaimed the day a success and said everything else on top of it would just be a bonus!

P.S. Since it's Monday, I thought I would share a brief update about Flex the gray whale, who I posted about last week. After his tag didn't transmit for 5 days they thought it had fallen off, but then he resurfaced (pun intended) nearly 300 miles west of the north end of Vancouver Island. He has continued his trajectory south since then, passing the Washington coast and heading into Oregon, approximately 15 miles offshore. When weather permits they are going to attempt to relocate him by boat. Read this week's update and see his updated map here. Is he going to Baja??