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Wednesday, November 1, 2017

 

I know I've said it a lot, but today I really thought it would be the end of my streak.  I was ready for it to end; I want to try doing as little driving as possible for a week or two, to see what effect that has on my Achilles tendon problem.  I don't want to just give up, though, and I don't even want to retire undefeated.  I want to play it out, to see how long I can go.

 

So, I headed over to the Snoqualmie River Valley, out towards Carnation.  I had three possible species I could see to extend my streak - Ring-necked Pheasant, American Pipit, or Varied Thrush.  None seemed very likely.  Oh yes, there was one more, a year bird - White-throated Sparrow, a quite uncommon winter visitor in this area.

 

I saw some sparrows, so I pulled over and played the White-throated Sparrow song, just to see if one might pop up.  It didn't, but there were Golden-crowned Sparrows and then this Bewick's Wren showed itself briefly.

 

I moved on and crossed Sikes Lake, stopping from time to time to look for sparrows.  On the south side of Sikes Lake, I went west and pulled into a spot where I have seen sparrows in the past.  I played White-throated Sparrow songs, and various sparrows flew in and checked me out.  Some of them landed on a chain link fence, and I liked the various ways they grabbed the fence with their feet.  Here's a Golden-crowned Sparrow in winter plumage.

 

It had to kind of do the splits to perch on the fence.  Here is a Golden-crowned Sparrow that still has more of its summer plumage, with much more yellow and black on its head still.

 

It was raining lightly as I was taking these pictures from the car, and in this next picture of a White-crowned Sparrow, you can see the streaks of rain falling.

 

There were Dark-eyed Juncos in with the sparrows.

 

 

As I mentioned, they grabbed the fence in various ways.  At one point I thought I saw a tan morph White-throated Sparrow, but I just missed a picture.  Later I decided it was probably only a female House Sparrow, like this one.

 

That was fun, but I still wanted to try for a Wednesday bird.  If I struck out today, I wanted to go down swinging.  I headed toward Carnation, intending to stop at two or three places where Varied Thrushes have been reported in the past.  I took a shortcut, just across the bridge over the river, because it was a less traveled road, and I wanted to go slowly, looking for birds.  At one point I saw a couple of birds fly up from the side of the road into a tree.  Something about the way they looked and behaved made me pull over and get out of the car.  The rain had let up about then, and I stood out there and played the song of Varied Thrush on my phone.  I have never previously ever gotten any response to playing the Varied Thrush song, but it cost nothing to try.  The birds in the tree flew around a little, acting kind of interested in my playback, and I managed to see that there were at least two Varied Thrushes in the trees.  They stayed up high, but I got one half-decent picture of a female Varied Thrush, blending into the fall colors.

 

I could scarcely believe it.  I had my Wednesday bird, and my streak was alive.  I stuck around and kept playing Varied Thrush songs and calls, and the birds answered back, but I couldn't ever get one to come down low enough to get a good picture.

 

I went back to the sparrow spot near Sikes Lake, to try more for a White-throated Sparrow.  Someone had seen one there a couple of days ago, and I still wasn’t sure if I had gotten a quick look at one earlier or not.  Here is a picture of a male House Sparrow.

 

Here is a female House Sparrow.

 

There were a couple of House Finches feeding on the withered blackberries.  Here is a male House Finch eating dried up blackberries.

 

Here is another view of him.

 

I like this picture of a White-crowned Sparrow, with the fall colors behind it.

 

I saw an eagle fly over at one point, and later a Northern Harrier.  There were geese flying around quite a bit, either Canada Geese or Cackling Geese.  Then a group of 13 swans flew by, across the valley.

 

Here's a little closer look at some of the swans.

 

It was getting on for lunch time by then, so I headed for home.  On the way I saw the American Kestrel that has been hanging out on the north side of Sikes Lake, and I got this picture of it on a fence.

 

So, I thought it was going to be the end of my DOTW streak today, but it goes on for at least one more day.  I added one species to my Wednesday list, to bring it to 240 species.  Tomorrow should be pretty easy, but Friday will be a challenge again.  The weather promises to add to the challenge on both days.

 

 

Thursday, November 2, 2017

 

Today was easy, as expected.  I still needed Glaucous-winged Gull for Thursday (to complete that species for the year), and gulls hang out around Totem Lake West, one of the little local shopping centers nearby.  I went over there, and there were at least a half dozen gulls around.  I saw two or three that I was willing to count as Glaucous-winged Gulls.  One problem with that species is that they hybridize with Western Gulls, and there are all kinds of mixed blood hybrids around.  The only way I know to tell the difference is by looking at their wing tips.  Glaucous-winged Gulls have gray wing tips, much the same color as their back.  Western Gulls have black wing tips.  The hybrids can have any shade of gray from full black to almost the same light gray as the pure Glaucous-winged Gulls.  My answer to the identification problem is to go by the wing tips.  Today I saw 2 or 3 gulls with light enough colored wing tips that I'm willing to call them Glaucous-winged Gulls. 

 

That completed Glaucous-winged Gull for me, which makes 147 species completed (seen on all seven days of the week) this year.  Thursday now stands at 243 species. 

 

I could have gone looking for other species for my list, but I'm trying to drive as little as possible, to see if that helps my Achilles tendon.  I've been wearing a boot most of the time for four weeks now, but I take it off to drive, and driving seems to make my heel hurt, so I want to try not driving for a while.  As soon as this silly DOTW streak ends, I want to try to drive as little as possible for a week or two, to see what effect that has.  I also plan to start tapering off the usage of the boot, to see what happens.  After having pain in my heel for two years, every single day, I have now gone four weeks with almost no pain at all, presumably due to the use of the boot.

 

Tomorrow is another challenge.  My only reasonable hope is American Dipper, so I'll do the driving to try to find one in a couple of places out past Carnation.  I'd say I have a fairly good chance, but it isn't any guarantee, by any means.

 

 

Friday, November 3, 2017

 

This morning I headed east, in search of American Dipper, my best chance for a Friday bird.  I also could have used Ring-necked Pheasant or Greater White-fronted Goose, but those weren't very likely.  I took the scenic route, across the Snoqualmie River Valley, through Carnation.  As I was approaching Sikes Lake on a back road, I saw a raptor on a pole.  I backed my car into position, and it stayed long enough for a picture.

 

I believe it was a rather large Cooper's Hawk, probably a female, since they are larger than males.  The eye is forward of the center of the head, and the crown is flat, which indicates Cooper's Hawk, as opposed to Sharp-shinned Hawk.  I would have preferred Sharp-shinned Hawk, since I need that one on Friday still, but Cooper's Hawk is still a good bird, even if I didn't actually need it for my Friday list.  I'm disappointed in the picture.  The lighting was poor and I think my camera was cold from sitting in my car overnight, which caused some condensation on the lenses.

 

I stopped a couple of places and played the song of White-throated Sparrow, but all I saw were other sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos.  Just before Sikes Lake there was another raptor on a pole, a much larger one.  Here's a picture of an immature Bald Eagle.

 

The photo suffers from the same problem of poor light and probably condensation on the lenses of my camera.  Here is a side shot of the same eagle.

 

I went by the house with feeders in Carnation, but there was little around.  I stopped at the Tolt River crossing just south of Carnation and looked for dippers in the river, but didn't see any.  Next I drove across the Tolt River bridge and down West Snoqualmie River Road NE, looking for pheasants or geese.  I saw neither.  In Fall City I detoured out to a bridge over the Raging River to look for dippers there, but again saw none.

 

I backtracked and went up to the bridge over Tokul Creek at the end of Fish Hatchery Road and got out to look for a dipper.  I had seen one there about 3 times this year, but I had also missed seeing one there about 3 times.  Today I looked upstream first, and saw nothing.  But, then, just as I was about to give up on upstream, a dipper flew across the stream and landed on a rock.  Here is an American Dipper with some kind of food.

 

It worked at it for a while, and eventually swallowed it down.  Here is another picture of it with its food.

 

After that it went back into the water and hunted some more.  I got one more decent picture before it flew off.

 

It had only been in sight for three or four minutes, and I happened to be looking for it at just that time.  My luck has been amazing this year, it seems to me.

 

I headed back through Carnation toward home, and I stopped again at the house with feeders.  Here is a distant female Northern Flicker at the top of a tree, in the terrible light.

 

It had been raining lightly off and on all morning.  Some goldfinches came in to the feeders, and here's a picture of an American Goldfinch.

 

It was almost lunch time by then, so I went home.  After lunch the light rain turned to wet snow for a while, and I got this picture from our back porch.

 

So, my DOTW streak continues.  I added one more species to my Friday list, and now I've seen 243 species on Fridays this year.  I completed American Dipper, which makes 148 species seen on all seven days of the week this year.  The next couple of days are relatively easy, although the weather might present some issues, and nothing in birding is every guaranteed.

 

 

Saturday, November 4, 2017

 

Today it was supposed to be pretty easy to get a Sunday bird, since I needed Cackling Goose, and they have been at Marymoor the last couple of times I was there.  I went there this morning, though, and none were in evidence.  I finally saw one small group of Canada Geese, but that was it for geese today at Marymoor Park.  While driving around looking for a shrike, I saw a Red-tailed Hawk at the top of a medium sized tree.  I pulled into position and took some pictures, but for some reason, they are all blurry. It must have been from the cold.  It was in the low 30's, and maybe the camera lenses were slightly fogged.

 

I had another possibility at Marymoor, Northern Shrike.  I haven't seen one there this fall, but one has been reported.  I parked at the east end of the dog park and walked a little.  I scanned the trees around the East Meadow, but didn't see a shrike.  I was actually on my way back to the car when I spotted something with the naked eye that looked like a bird on a post.  I got my binoculars on it, and it was indeed a Northern Shrike.  Score!  I wanted to get a picture, so I hobbled over that way (I wasn't wearing my boot, and my heel didn't hurt, but I try to take it easy on the Achilles tendon when I'm not wearing my boot.).  When I got back in view of the post where the shrike had been, it was gone.  I walked some more, looking for the bird, but I never saw it again.

 

As I was getting back to my car, a small raptor flew past me and landed at the top of an evergreen tree nearby.  I thought it might be a Sharp-shinned Hawk, due to its size.  I got some pictures, though, and it turned out to be a Merlin, a species I completed in July at a nest site in northern Seattle.  Merlin is still a great bird, though.  I don't see them very often.  Here are a couple pictures of the Merlin this morning.

 

 

That was it for today.  I saw a couple of Western Meadowlarks, but they were too far away for pictures.  There are a lot of soccer players at Marymoor on a Saturday morning, and I suspect that helps keep the geese away.  I'll have to keep looking for Cackling Goose on Saturdays, so I can complete the species.

 

Adding Northern Shrike to my Saturday list brings it to 235 species.  Tomorrow my best chance to extend the streak is going to be Lincoln's Sparrow, and I guess I'll go back over to Marymoor and try to call one up where I have seen them a couple of times already this fall.  I imagine there will be lots of Cackling Geese around, since I don't need them for Sunday.  I also could use Varied Thrush tomorrow, but they are tough to find.  I need American Pipit, too, but it is quite late for that species; they are all well south of here by now, probably.  Alternatively, I could go up to Edmonds to look for White-winged
Scoter, but that would take more time and isn't real likely either.  It would be nice if I had a place up near Edmonds to look for Lincoln's Sparrow, but I don't know of one, offhand.

 

 

Sunday, November 5, 2017

 

I figured my best shot for a Sunday bird today was Lincoln's Sparrow, and I headed over to Marymoor Park to try to call one up, near the compost piles.  It was snowing some of the time and raining some of the time, and the temperature was about 33.  I parked and went out in the rain/snow mix and played the Lincoln's Sparrow song for quite a while, but all I could call up were a couple of Song Sparrows.  I think that birds might not like snow very much.

 

I gave that up and headed out to the Snoqualmie River Valley, via the Evans Creek Natural Area and Union Hill Road.  Along the way I was watching for Varied Thrushes, since that was my second best chance for a new Sunday bird.  Out near Sikes Lake I saw a lovely male Northern Harrier, but nothing I could use for a Sunday bird.  I tried playing Lincoln's Sparrow and also White-throated Sparrow songs at several points, but never got much response.  I saw Song, White-crowned, Golden-crowned, and Fox Sparrows, but nothing I needed.

 

At the house with feeders in Carnation, I did get some pictures, anyway.  Here is a Mourning Dove.

 

Here are a couple of Mourning Doves.

 

There were also Eurasian Collared-Doves around.  You can see the rain in this picture.  It was coming in my open window.

 

Some European Starlings flew in and hit the feeders.

 

As usual, there were Steller's Jays around, and I got a couple of pictures I like.

 

 

A male Northern Flicker came to a feeder at one point.

 

Here's the Northern Flicker eating some seed.

 

There were also Black-capped Chickadees, Chestnut-backed Chickadees, and American Goldfinches there.  I had been hoping for Varied Thrush, which does show up there sometimes, but not today while I was there.

 

By that time I was about ready to give up.  I had two more places to go to try for Varied Thrush, though, so I moved on.  At Tolt-MacDonald Park, I finally got lucky and spotted a couple of Varied Thrushes on the road into the park.  I took a couple of record pictures from a distance, and then drove closer and pulled across the road so I could shoot out of my window from a reasonable distance.  For some reason, though, all my pictures are pretty blurry.  I wonder if the lens was fogging up from the cold air outside.  Here is a blurry picture of three Varied Thrushes.

 

The two in the background are simply out of focus, but the one in front should be much sharper.  Here is another picture of the three Varied Thrushes, also pretty blurry.

 

I hope the lens was fogged, because otherwise I have a camera problem.  The camera had worked fine at the feeder house, though, so I don't know.  I had my Sunday bird, so I headed for home.  I tried again for sparrows as I went across the valley, but again got nothing interesting.  There were five Trumpeter Swans on a pond along the west side of the valley, but my pictures from there are somewhat blurry, too.

 

Maybe my camera just doesn't like 33 degree air.  It was warm in the car, though, but when was taking pictures, I was holding the camera in the open window, so maybe it was indeed only a fogged lens.

 

Varied Thrush brought Sunday to 226 species, and my Day Of The Week streak continued for more day.  I know I keep saying this, but this time I really mean it - tomorrow the streak is almost certain to end.  I don't even have anything reasonable to go looking for.  I might as well just stay home, but I can't just give up.  I'll go somewhere and hope for a miracle bird to show up.  At least the rain and snow is supposed to be over for now.

 

 

Monday, November 6, 2017

 

Without much hope, I went over to Marymoor Park this morning, to look for a Monday bird.  I actually had 7 possible species that I needed, any one of which could be there.  Three of those would have been year birds (meaning I hadn't seen one this year yet), and the others were all ones I had seen no more than twice this year locally.  As I result, I wasn't too optimistic.

 

It was a beautiful day, though - sunny and upper 30's by the time I got there.  I stopped first at the headquarters, near the mansion, to look for a year bird, Townsend's Warbler, that had been reported there last week.  I walked around without my boot for a while, but the only thing I saw was a cute little Bewick's Wren.

 

 

Next I drove around looking for a gull, Herring Gull, that would have been a year bird, also reported there last week.  No gulls at all today.

 

I parked at the west end of the dog park and strapped on my boot.  At the slough I heard a kingfisher, and I got this picture of a female Belted Kingfisher.

 

I was mainly looking for a year-bird sparrow, so I paid attention to the sparrow flocks I ran across.  Here is a Fox Sparrow bathing in a puddle.

 

While the Fox Sparrow was taking its bath, an American Robin flew in and took a drink or two of water.

 

There were a number of Golden-crowned Sparrows, as well as more Fox Sparrows and a couple of Spotted Towhees, but no sign of the sparrow I was looking for, which is pretty uncommon in this area.  It's uncommon enough that I hadn't seen one this year or last year, so I wasn't expecting to see one today, but there had been a report of one in that area last week, and I had to at least give it a try.

 

I moved on and saw a couple more groups of sparrows.  Here is a Fox Sparrow in a tree with some pretty berries.

 

Here is one of the Spotted Towhees I saw this morning.

 

Most of the sparrows were Golden-crowned Sparrows, and I got pictures of them, of course.

 

 

 

At one point I saw a pair of Purple Finches.  I didn't need that one for Monday, but I don't see them often, and I got what might be the best picture I've ever gotten of a male Purple Finch.

 

I kept checking out the little flocks of sparrows, and finally I saw the one I was looking for, a WHITE-THROATED SPARROW, which was a year bird for me.  The sun was totally in the wrong place, but I got this picture of it, to at least prove to myself that I had really seen it.

 

I had my Monday bird, against all the odds.  It flew off soon, but I stuck around, trying to find it again, in the hopes of getting a better picture.  I found the flock of sparrows again, beyond the next bunch of blackberry brambles, but the White-throated Sparrow wasn't with them.  I kept taking pictures, though, because the light was good and the birds were perching up for me.  Here is a Fox Sparrow from the front.

 

Here's the same Fox Sparrow from the back.

 

The Golden-crowned Sparrows kept posing for me.

 

Then I saw a different sparrow, a juvenile White-crowned Sparrow.

 

There was a mature White-crowned Sparrow, too.

 

That was encouraging because I hadn't seen those two birds before, so maybe another flock had joined up with the one I was watching.  I kept looking and my patience was finally rewarded with some great looks at the White-throated Sparrow again.  This time it posed for me and I got these next three pictures of it.

 

 

 

That was it for me today.  I had been walking around in my boot, in the nice sunshine, for about an hour and a half, and I was ready to head home for lunch.  One thing I might mention is that when you are looking for birds that feed on the ground, an off-leash dog park isn't the best place to do it.  Time and time again a dog and/or its owner would come along and spook the birds, just as they were getting settled.

 

White-throated Sparrow brought my Monday list to 224 species, and kept my DOTW streak alive for one more day, to my great surprise.  It was a new year-bird, and that makes 330 species I've seen this year.

 

Tomorrow is another very tough day, but maybe the White-throated Sparrow will still be there tomorrow, and maybe I can find it again.  We shall see.

 

 

Tuesday, November 7, 2017

 

Today I had a two part plan.  In the morning I was planning to go up to Edmonds and try for one of five species, including Pacific Loon, which was much more likely than any of the other four.  If I missed there, then I planned to go to Marymoor after lunch and try to find the White-throated Sparrow again.

 

When I got to Edmonds I went to Sunset Avenue and set up my scope.  It was overcast there, but the sun was sort of shining on the Olympic Mountains across Puget Sound.  Here's a picture of the Edmonds ferry with the Olympics in the background.

 

I scanned around and found one Pacific Loon in the distance, so I had my Tuesday bird and my streak was alive.  There were some gulls down on the beach, and one bird that I don't have yet this year is Herring Gull.  They are supposedly back here now for the winter.  I don’t really know how to distinguish a Herring Gull from the very common Glaucous-winged Gulls and the numerous hybrid gulls in this area, but I went down to Brackett's Landing to take a closer look at them.  One characteristic of Herring Gull is a light yellow-colored eye.  Glaucous-winged gulls almost always have dark eyes.  I looked at the gulls on the beach, and some had dark eyes, but a couple of them had light-colored eyes.  Were they Herring Gulls?  I didn't know, but I took some pictures and looked them up later here at home when I could see the pictures enlarged.

 

To illustrate the difference, here is a light-colored eye gull up close and personal.

 

Here is a dark-eyed gull up close.

 

Okay, I could see that the eye color was definitely different, and the dark-eyed one has a pink orbital eye-ring as well (a characteristic of Glaucous-winged Gull).  If you look closely, I think you can see that the bill shape is a bit different, too.  The light-eyed gull has a shape to its bill tip that makes it look kind of bulbous.  All of that would tend to indicate that the light-eyed gull might be a Herring Gull, which would be a year bird for me.

 

Here is a comparison of the entire birds.  First, here is the light-eyed gull standing up.

 

Here is the dark-eyed gull standing.

 

The dark-eyed one has more dark streaking on its head, which also would indicate Herring Gull, compared to Glaucous-winged Gull.  I debated back and forth, and eventually I decided that the wing tips (which look like the tail in the standing pictures) would be blacker in a pure Herring Gull.  Glaucous-winged Gulls hybridize with Western Gulls in this area, and maybe with Herring Gulls as well.  I decided I can't tell what either one of the gulls is, although if I needed Glaucous-winged Gull today, I would have accepted the dark-eyed gull as a Glaucous-winged Gull.  I'm not going to count Herring Gull.  I would have to see one with blacker wing tips and a lighter yellow eye, in order to feel good about putting Herring Gull on my list.  I'm sure glad that I saw the Pacific Loon this morning, so I don't have to have my streak end on such a close call.

 

I went out to lunch with my friend, Chris, and afterwards we went over to Phantom Lake in Bellevue, as usual.  There were very few little birds around, but we did see 7 different duck species on the lake.  I got some pictures of a male Gadwall that I like.  The feather patterns on a male Gadwall are very delicate and intricate, and I managed to capture them today.  I have two pictures that I can't decide between, in terms of how much I like them  I like this first one because I think the reeds add interest, rather than interfere with the image of the duck.  Male Gadwall.

 

Here is the same bird out on the lake, without the distracting vegetation.

 

Aren't those patterns delicate and interesting?

 

There were a number of Ring-necked Ducks in the distance today, and I thought at the time that this next picture was another one of them, but it turned out to be a male Lesser Scaup, when I looked at my pictures.

 

So, the silly streak continues for another day.  I'm totally amazed that it has lasted this long.  Tuesday is now at 223 species.  The Pacific Loon this morning completed that species, to make it 149 species that I have now completed, meaning I have seen those 149 on all seven days of the week this year.

 

Tomorrow my only real chance to extend the streak again is to find a White-throated Sparrow.  I guess I'll be walking through the dog park at Marymoor Park again tomorrow morning, and if I can't find it there, then I'll go out to the Snoqualmie River Valley near Sikes Lake, where they have also been reported, although I haven't been successful in finding one out there.  At least the rain isn't supposed to start until the afternoon.

 

 

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

 

I said last night that my only real chance for a Wednesday bird would be to find the White-throated Sparrow again, over at Marymoor Park.  As it turned out, my heel was hurting, maybe from walking so much yesterday, or maybe because I wore regular walking shoes for the first time in months.  I've been wearing clogs or sandals, with no back to them, because regular shoes press on a sensitive spot on my heel.  Yesterday, as an experiment, I tried wearing my old walking shoes, and while it felt fine while I was walking in them, later in the day my heel hurt.  It hurt some during the night and this morning, too.  Anyway, I wasn't looking forward to doing the amount of walking I would need to do at Marymoor to find the White-throated Sparrow today, even if I wore my boot.

 

As it turned out, I read about a rarity that had been seen down in north Tacoma the last couple of days, Snow Bunting.  It seemed worth chasing, since it was only about a 45 or 50 minute drive to get there, once the rush hour was over.  I had a back-up, too, as another year-bird has been reported near there recently.

 

I made the drive, and when I got there, there were two birders there already.  They had been there a couple of hours and had seen no sign of the Snow Bunting.  Bummer.  The good news, though, was that one of the birders mentioned he had seen a couple of my back-up species a little while ago.  He was able to relocate the pair of ANCIENT MURRELETS, which was a year bird for me.  My streak was still alive!  I had very distant views of them, barely good enough to identify them, with no chance at all of any kind of pictures.  I also saw a Marbled Murrelet, which was a new bird for Pierce county for me.

 

I hung around a while, but soon decided that the Snow Bunting wasn't going to show itself today, and I moved on.  I went up the coast a couple of miles to Dash Point pier.  There were a couple more birders there, and when I got out on the pier and asked what they were seeing, they pointed out three Ancient Murrelets.  I had great scope views of them, and I even got some very distant pictures.  The pictures aren't good, of course, but they are good enough to ID the species.  Here are three Ancient Murrelets, my year bird for the day.

 

 

The difference in color tone of the two pictures is due to how I processed them.  I like the second one better, but I didn't take the time to go back and re-process the first one.

 

As I hobbled back to my car (I wasn't wearing my boot), I saw a female Greater Scaup feeding.

 

Here she is, just as she dove, showing only her tail and some splashing water.

 

Here is one more picture of the female Greater Scaup.

 

Greater Scaup was a new species for me for Pierce county, and along with the Marbled Murrelet I had seen earlier, it brought my Pierce county list to 44 species.

 

It was noon by then, and it was also starting to rain, so I headed for home.  Ancient Murrelet brought Wednesday to 241 species.  Since that was a new year-bird for me, it brought my year total to 331 species.  To give you an idea how amazing it was that I got Ancient Murrelet today, it was only the third time I had ever seen the species, and the last time was three years ago.  Incredible.

 

I don't know how much longer this streak can go on.  I keep finding new year-birds or ones that are very difficult to see, and it just keeps going and going.  Tomorrow should be fairly easy for a change, although the weather might hinder me and nothing is ever guaranteed in birding.

 

 

Thursday, November 9, 2017

 

This morning I went down to Juanita Bay Park to the Fire Station Road, on the east side of the park.  I figured I could call up a Pacific Wren or a Golden-crowned Sparrow, both of which I needed for Thursday.  I walked the road and played the calls of both species, but neither one responded.  I was a bit surprised because both of those species are usually quite responsive to playback.  There wasn't much at all around for a long time, but I kept at it.  A Song Sparrow responded, as did a couple of Spotted Towhees, but nothing I needed.

 

There were some Golden-crowned Sparrows around, and I got this picture of one.

 

I also got this picture of a Golden-crowned Sparrow calling.

 

I still needed a Thursday bird, though, and I didn't give up.  Because I had seen a White-throated Sparrow associating with Golden-crowned Sparrows earlier this week, I played the White-throated Sparrow song, along with the others I was continuing to play.  I didn't see any response, but a short while later while I was watching the Golden-crowned Sparrows feeding on berries,  I suddenly saw a White-throated Sparrow, to my amazement.  This was the species that I hadn't seen in the last two years, and I saw one at Marymoor on Monday this week.  None in two years, and then two in the same week.  Incredible.  The one on Monday was a white morph, and this one was a tan morph.  Here is a mediocre picture of the tan morph White-throated Sparrow today.

 

I had my Thursday bird, and it was starting to sprinkle a bit, too.  I stuck around, though, trying for pictures and still trying to see Pacific Wren or Golden-crowned Kinglet.  Eventually, three Golden-crowned Kinglets flew in and flitted around in a little tree right in front of me.  They never would sit still long enough for me to get a picture, though.

 

A couple of Spotted Towhees were eating the berries, too, and I got a couple of pictures.  I couldn't decide which one I liked better, so here are both of them.

 

 

I had been walking up and down the 100 yards of the Fire Station Road for over an hour, and the rain was starting to get heavier, so I packed it in and went home.  My two Thursday species brought my Thursday total to 245 species and kept my streak going for still another day.  I completed Golden-crowned Sparrow, which now gives me 150 species completed this year.

 

 

Friday, November 10, 2017

 

Today I had to decide whether to try to find one of the White-throated Sparrows I had seen earlier this week, or whether to go back down to Dash Point, in north Tacoma, to try for Ancient Murrelet again.  I did some research on eBird, and I found that there is a site on the way to Dash Point that has had four Greater White-fronted Geese reported there this past week, three times.  That's a difficult species in Western Washington, and I only needed it on Friday to complete the species.  In addition to that, I might also see Marbled Murrelet, in addition to Ancient Murrelet, at Dash Point Pier.  I had three shots at a Friday bird, so I headed south.

 

My first stop was what eBird calls the M Street Marsh, which is located just west of Emerald Downs, the old race track.  I found it easily enough and there were some ducks on the ponds, and then at the north end, right where they had been reported, I found four Greater White-fronted Geese, which completed that species for me and kept my streak alive.  Here's a picture of one of the Greater White-fronted Geese.

 

I had never even heard of the M Street Marsh before, let alone visited it, but finding the geese today really demonstrates the power of the online data base of eBird.  This was the only place in two counties where Greater White-fronted Geese have been reported more than once this fall, and I went straight to where they were and got them immediately.  I hadn't expected to complete that species this year, but now it was done.

 

I could have gone home, but I was two-thirds of the way to Dash Point Pier, and I had plenty of time, so I went on.  I no longer feel any need at all to "save" species for later because there is no way my streak will still be going on next Friday.  Well, almost no way.  It's theoretically possible, but extremely unlikely.

 

As I left the M Street Marsh, I noticed a fairly large flock of American Wigeons, so I stopped and scanned through them to look for a Eurasian Wigeon, a vagrant that shows up here regularly in the winter.  They ought to be in Asia at this point, but some of them always join up with American Wigeons after breeding in the Arctic each year, and they spend the winter hanging out with their American cousins.  I found a male Eurasian Wigeon, which was pleasing but not astounding.  They say that about 1% of the wigeons in the northwest each winter are Eurasian Wigeons, and I see them regularly, but not always by any means.  Here is a sort of blurry picture of a male Eurasian Wigeon.

 

Here's the Eurasian Wigeon with one of his American cousins, an American Wigeon.

 

I don't know why those last two pictures aren't sharper.  I worry about my camera, though.  Maybe I wasn't holding it steady enough.

 

After that I went on to Dash Point.  Here is a picture of Dash Point Pier.  It is a fishing pier and there were at least a dozen fisher-people out there today.

 

I strapped on my boot and walked out onto the pier with my scope, and as I went out, there was another birder just leaving.  I asked what he had seen, and he told me he hadn't seen any Ancient Murrelets, but maybe had seen one very distant Marbled Murrelet.  He was going north a couple of miles next, to Dash Point State Park, to try his luck there.  Here also told me about a relative rarity nearby, Harris's Sparrow.  I had read about it, but I hadn't researched the exact location, and I didn't know if it was still being seen or not.  He insisted that it was very easy to find the location and it was only three miles away.  I didn't feel like I would be able to find the location, but I filed the information away, including his rather vague directions.

 

More importantly, I didn't take his word for the lack of murrelets, and since I had come this far, I went out onto the pier and looked around.  It took a few minutes, but fairly soon I saw a pair of Ancient Murrelets off to the north, much too far away for pictures, but close enough for a certain identification with my scope.  I had my second Friday bird of the day.  Looking for diving sea birds is always a challenge because when they are feeding, they spend more time underwater than on the surface.  You have to just keep scanning, in the hope of finding them on the surface.  These two birds were a long distance away, too, and I have as good a scope as anyone does, and better than most, so that helps, too.

 

I kept looking and trying to get a picture of the Bonaparte's Gulls that were diving into the water off the end of the pier.  I never got a shot of a gull, but fairly soon I saw a couple of diving water birds, and they turned out to be Marbled Murrelets, my third Friday species of the day.  I got some fairly distant pictures of them, good enough to ID them.  Here's a Marbled Murrelet in winter plumage.

 

Here's another shot of both Marbled Murrelets.

 

I was feeling pretty good about getting all three of my target species for Friday, but I had plenty of time, so I decided to try to find the location for Harris's Sparrow that the guy had told me about.  I drove around a bit, but I couldn't find the place he described.  I checked it tonight on eBird, and it turned out his directions had a major flaw or else I misunderstood them, because I went right past the turn off that I should have taken.  I see that it was reported as recently as two days ago, so it would have been worth looking for, but it wasn't to be today.  I do have Harris's Sparrow this year, on a Sunday, but if I'm back down there on any other day, I'll give it a go.

 

My three Friday birds brings Friday to 246 species, the highest day of the week.  Completing Greater White-fronted Goose makes it 151 species that I've completed now this year.

 

Tomorrow has some reasonably easy species for me to go for, but as always, there are no guarantees.

 

 

Saturday, November 11, 2017

 

I had a plan today, and it started with a visit to the Fire Station Road at Juanita Bay Park.  I walked up and down the road, playing the songs of Pacific Wren and White-throated Sparrow, but neither one ever showed itself.  The best I did was one small group of at least one Black-capped Chickadee, at least one Chestnut-backed Chickadee, and a Bewick's Wren.

 

I moved on Marymoor Park, looking for Cackling Goose mainly.  I saw one small group of Canada Geese, but no Cacklers.  Next I drove through the Evans Creek Natural Area, where I have seen Cackling Geese before, but not today.  Going on out to the Snoqualmie River Valley, I tried again for Pacific Wren and White-throated Sparrow.  No luck there, either.  There were a number of Trumpeter Swans on Sikes Lake, and I got this picture of one of them.

 

It was raining lightly off and on, but I mostly stayed in the car.  Here's a picture of Sikes Lake from the bridge.

 

Still looking for a Saturday bird, I moved on.  As I left the Sikes Lake area, I saw a flock of geese out in a field at some distance.  I pulled over and decided that most of them were Canada Geese, but that there were some Cackling Geese in with them.  That completed Cackling Goose for me and kept my streak alive for another day.

 

I stopped to play Pacific Wren at a place I had seen one last week, but had no luck again.  I also played Varied Thrush there because that's where I had seen two or three of them last week, but Varied Thrush doesn't really respond to playback, as far as I can tell, and I saw none.  It was raining pretty good by then.

 

I stopped by the house in Carnation with all the feeders, but there was very little action there.  I went on to Tolt-MacDonald Park, hoping to see Varied Thrush there, as I had last week, but there was a soccer game going on and a lot of people coming and going.  No Varied Thrushes.

 

My final stop was at the parking area just north of the Tolt River bridge.  I drove slowly through the parking lot, looking for Varied Thrushes, but again saw none.  At the far end of the lot the habitat looked so perfect for Pacific Wren that I played the song out of the window, and I was finally rewarded with a tiny Pacific Wren calling back to me.  That was another Saturday bird.  Here are a couple of pictures of the cute little Pacific Wren.

 

 

I headed back toward home, but I stopped at Sikes Lake again.  Here is a female Rind-necked Duck on Sikes Lake.

 

Here are a couple more Trumpeter Swans on the lake.

 

This time I saw a couple of large flocks of Cackling Geese, but they were too far away for decent pictures.

 

On the north side of Sikes Lake the usual kestrel was on a wire and then on a fence at the horse farm.  It was too far away for a good picture, but here is the female American Kestrel anyway.

 

I added two more species to my Saturday list, to bring it to 237 species.  Completing Cackling Goose makes 152 species completed this year.  My DOTW streak goes on.  Tomorrow I'm going to have to get Lincoln's Sparrow over at Marymoor or White-winged Scoter up at Edmonds.  I'll be doing it in the rain, too.  Odds are against me, but I'm no longer calling Wolf.  This streak seems to have a life of its own, but one of these days it is going to end.  Soon.  Oops - was I calling Wolf again?

 

 

Sunday, November 12, 2017

 

My original plan this morning was to go looking for Lincoln's Sparrow, first at Marymoor and then over in the Snoqualmie Valley.  I noticed that they haven't been reported in the last couple of weeks, though, and I did some research.  It turns out that many or even most of the Lincoln's Sparrows that show up here in October are only moving on through to places farther south.  Some spend the winter here, but not all of them.  When the weather turned out better than had been forecasted this morning, I changed my plan.  Plan B was to go over to Magnuson Park in northeast Seattle and try for Herring Gull, which had been reported there yesterday.  That would be a year bird for me, and yesterday there had been two of them on the swimming raft, which would be easy to access without much walking.  If I missed Herring Gull there, then I planned to make the 50 minute drive through Seattle down to Dash Point Pier to try for Ancient Murrelet, which I had seen there twice this last week.

 

So, my first stop was Magnuson Park, and there were some gulls on the swimming raft.  I was looking at them when another birder came along, and I asked him about Herring Gulls.  I suspect he was the guy who had reported two of them yesterday, based on what he told me.  He said there weren't any there today yet, and he gave me some tips on identifying them, which I needed.  I decided it was time to make the long drive down to Dash Point Pier to try for Ancient Murrelet, which certainly wasn't guaranteed, based on reports I have seen.

 

I actually got in my car and was heading out when I noticed that the edges of the parking lot looked like perfect habitat for Lincoln's Sparrow.  I pulled forward fifty feet and got out and played the song of Lincoln's Sparrow.  I walked around a little, but saw no sparrows.  I was getting back into the car, and I had already taken off my coat when I saw some movement in the brambles.  I looked again and it seemed to be a bird.  I played the Lincoln's Sparrow song some more and a bird perched up where I could see it.  Darned if it wasn't a Lincoln's Sparrow!  I couldn't believe it.  It went back down in to the blackberry vines, but I was patient and it came back up and gave me a photo op.  Here's my lovely Lincoln's Sparrow that kept my streak alive today.

 

 

That was sparrow species number one for the day.

 

I decided not to make the 50 minute (each way) drive down to Tacoma and headed for home.  On the way out of the park there was a small flock of geese.  I couldn't really tell if they were Canada Geese or Cackling Geese, but here's a picture of one of them that looked most like a Cackling Goose.

 

Both species have several subspecies, and the largest of the Cackling Goose subspecies looks very much like the smallest of the Canada Goose subspecies, and I suspect this bird was one or the other.  Based on the other geese in the flock, I think probably it was a small Canada Goose.

 

So, I was done for the day if I wanted to be, but as I was driving home I decided it was early still and maybe I could get some more pictures.  The weather was clearing up (there had been sprinkles and drizzle up until then), and I ended up going to the Fire Station Road at Juanita Bay Park.  It turned out to be a good decision as there were lots of birds around.  There was a feeding flock of mostly juncos, but there were at least a couple of House Finches and a Bewick's Wren in with them.  Farther along the road, the usual sparrows were feeding on the red berries, in the same place they had been last week.  I watched and fairly soon I saw the tan morph White-throated Sparrow I had seen there a few days ago.  I got this somewhat distant picture of sparrow species number two for the day, White-throated Sparrow.

 

That was another Sunday bird for me.  As I mentioned before, I hadn't seen a White-throated Sparrow for two years, and now I have seen them three times in a week.

 

There were a couple of Fox Sparrows around, too.  Here is a somewhat distant picture of one contemplating one of the red berries.

 

I watched as it repeatedly took small bites out of the berry.  In this next picture, the berry has a chunk out of it.

 

Here's one more picture of the Fox Sparrow and his berry meal.

 

That was sparrow species number three for the day.  A few minutes later a Fox Sparrow flew in and checked me out, and I got these next two close-up pictures.

 

 

There were some very strange bird calls coming from in front of me, and I couldn't figure out what bird was making them.  Eventually I spotted a Downy Woodpecker, and I realized that they had been woodpecker sounds.  I think there was a pair of them, interacting with each other.  I played some calls on my phone, and a female flew into a tree across the road from me, and I was able to get some pictures.  Here's a female Downy Woodpecker in an unusual posture.

 

Here's a more conventional view of the female Downy Woodpecker.

 

Just for good measure, here's one more picture of the Downy Woodpecker.

 

There were Golden-crowned Sparrows feeding on the berries, too.  One of them was very dark colored.  Here's the dark Golden-crowned Sparrow.

 

Here's a more normal looking lighter colored Golden-crowned Sparrow.

 

That was sparrow species number four for the day.  There were the usual Song Sparrows around, too, which was sparrow species number five.  Here's one of the Song Sparrows.

 

The usual Spotted Towhees were around, too.  Here's one of them looking at me, in an unusual shot.

 

Here's a normal side view of that same Spotted Towhee.

 

I had stuck around in the hopes of seeing and getting better pictures of the White-throated Sparrow, and it obliged me by flying in and posing for me, about ten feet away.  At first I couldn't get my camera to focus on it, and I had some choice words to say, but eventually I got these next two pictures of the tan morph White-throated Sparrow.

 

 

That was a great way to end a fun morning of birding.  I had been there at the Fire Station Road for about 45 minutes, and I'd had a good time and added one more species to my Sunday list.  My impulsive attempt to call up a Lincoln's Sparrow as I was leaving Magnuson Park not only saved me almost two hours of driving time, it also got me another Sunday bird (the White-throated Sparrow) and some pictures I like, in addition to the Lincoln's Sparrow itself.

 

My two new Sunday species brought my Sunday list to 228 species.  I completed Lincoln's Sparrow, and that makes 153 species that I have completed this year (that is, I've seen them on all seven days of the week).

 

I don't know what I'm going to do tomorrow.  It's supposed to be rainy and also quite windy.  I could go over to Magnuson Park again to look for Herring Gull, and I'll probably do that.  I can set up my scope under cover and get a good look at the swimming raft, where the gulls roost.  If I miss Herring Gull there, I could go on down to Dash Point Pier to look for Ancient Murrelet, but with winds of 20 mph as forecasted, and rain as well, that doesn't sound too good to me.  Using my scope in the rain and wind is a problem.  The other thing I could do would be to go out to Sikes Lake to look for the American Bittern that was seen there this past week.  That seems like a long shot, but there really isn't anything else I can think of to go looking for.  Maybe there will be a Herring Gull at Magnuson.  If not, my streak is most likely over.  Mind you, Herring Gull is a species I not only haven't seen this year, I never saw one last year, either.  What are my chances tomorrow?

 

 

Monday, November 13, 2017

 

After checking the weather forecast this morning, I decided to give up on the idea of going down to Dash Point to look for Ancient Murrelets.  It was going to be much too windy and maybe rainy as well.  I started out by going over to Magnuson Park, to try to find and identify a Herring Gull.  If I missed that one, then I would take one last long-shot at finding an American Bittern out at Sikes Lake, and if that missed, then I was done for my DOTW streak.

 

One reason I didn't have Herring Gull on my list this year or last year is that I wasn't clear on how to identify the species.  They are only around here in the winter, and they are relatively uncommon, which was another part of the reason.  There had been a couple of reports of Herring Gull over at Magnuson Park this past week, and yesterday I ran into a birder over there who gave me some tips on identifying Herring Gull.  He said to look for a large gull with pink legs and black wing tips.  I knew from my field guide that Herring Gulls have light-colored eyes, too, so that was another distinguishing mark to look for.

 

There were a number of gulls on the swimming platform at Magnuson Park, but most of them were Mew Gulls, a smaller gull.  A couple of the large gulls had yellow legs, which marked them as California Gulls.  A couple of others had pink legs and were large, but their wing tips were gray, not black.  They were probably hybrid gulls, which are known locally as "Olympic Gulls".  They are a hybrid of Glaucous-winged Gull and Western Gull, and they have various shades of gray on their wing tips.  No Herring Gulls, so I headed toward home.

 

As I was leaving Magnuson Park, I decided to stop at Mathews Beach, which is a mile or two up the lake shore from Magnuson.  I had seen some gulls there the other day.  There were indeed gulls there, and a woman was feeding them bread.  I took a look and a couple of them looked interesting, so I parked my car and went and took a closer look.  Here is a large gull with pink legs, but the wing tips are gray and the eye is fairly dark.  I think it looks like a Glaucous-winged Gull, or possibly a hybrid Olympic Gull.

 

The parts I'm calling the wing tips look like the tail, but they are actually the tips of the wings, which stick out beyond the tail.

 

There were two or three large gulls with pink legs that had black wing tips, though, and they also had light-colored eyes.  I think these next two pictures show my first HERRING GULL of the year.

 

 

Here's a shot of a Ring-billed Gull, which is quite a bit smaller than a Herring Gull.

 

Finally, here is one more picture of what I believe to be a Herring Gull.

 

That took care of Monday, and my streak was alive.  I had time, though, and the weather was actually clearing, so I went on out to Sikes Lake to look for American Bittern.  I only need it on Monday, to complete the species, and this seemed like a good time to try for it.  I didn't see any bitterns, but there were swans and geese around.  Here's a picture of some swans flying in, with the Cascades in the background.

 

There were a couple of large flocks of hundreds of Cackling Geese, and from time they would fly around, too.  Here are some geese in the air.

 

So, I added one more species to my Monday list, to bring it to 225 species.  Herring Gull brings my year total to 332 species.

 

I really didn't expect to get through today, especially considering the weather.  It was windy all day and rainy part of the day.  Now I need to make some kind of attempt at finding a Tuesday bird tomorrow.  I need Herring Gull, of course, since today was my first one of the year, and I also need White-throated Sparrow, which I have seen twice now down at Juanita Bay Park.  I could also make the drive down to Dash Point (approximately 50 minutes each way, plus traffic) to try for either Marbled Murrelet or Ancient Murrelet.  I'll see what the weather looks like tomorrow and decide then. 

 

How long can this go on?  I could theoretically get Herring Gull every day of the week now, if they stick around, and that could add a full week to my silly streak.  I confess that I'll be relieved when it's finally over.  For one thing, I want to try not driving much at all for a week or two, so see if that helps my Achilles tendon.  Driving seems to make it hurt, and I drive every day when I go look for my birds.  I've been wearing a boot most of time, for five and a half weeks now, but I want to try not driving, to see what that does.  When I got the boot, five and a half weeks ago, I figured that the streak might go one for another week, or possibly even two, but I never imagined I would still be staggering along five and a half weeks later.  What a life!

 

 

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

 

Today it was still quite windy and about a 50% chance of showers.  I didn't want to make the 50 minute drive down to Dash Point if it was going to be windy, because birding with a scope is a problem in the wind, and rain makes it even worse.  The wind blows the tripod around and the waves make the birds hard to find, if they are even out there in the storm.

 

So, that left White-throated Sparrow down at Juanita Bay Park or Herring Gull over at Magnuson Park.  Since it was closer, I first headed down to Juanita Bay Park.  On the way I decided to stop at Juanita Beach Park, which is across the bay from Juanita Bay Park, to see if any Herring Gulls might be hanging out there.  I parked and walked out to where I could see the mouth of Juanita Creek, where the gulls roost.  There were gulls there, and I studied them.  I took some pictures, and I want to include them here, for my future reference, but they are totally boring, so I'll put them at the end of the report, and you can skip them if you want to.  Bottom line, I decided I couldn’t count Herring Gull today, so I moved on to the Fire Station Road of Juanita Bay Park.

 

I walked out onto the road (which is actually just a dirt path wide enough for a car or truck), and almost right away I started seeing sparrows.  Some were feeding on the road and they all seemed to be moving from east to west, across the road.  I saw a couple of Fox Sparrows, a Song Sparrow, a Spotted Towhee, and more Golden-crowned Sparrows than I had seen there before.  I was looking at them as they moved to the side of the road and then across it, and darned if the White-throated Sparrow didn't stop in the blackberry bushes on the right and give me a good look at it.  I had my Tuesday bird, and I hadn't even been there for five minutes yet.  I didn't bother even trying for pictures, since I could never get anything better than I got a couple of days ago.  I wanted to get off my feet, too, so I headed for home.

 

Here is the info on the gulls I saw at the mouth of Juanita Beach Park today - strictly for my own future reference, since I'm trying to learn to recognize Herring Gulls.

 

The guy I had seen at Magnuson a couple of days ago told me to look for a large gull with pink legs and black wing-tips.  Here is a large gull with pink legs and the wing-tips look pretty dark, although maybe not black.

 

One of my field guides says that Herring Gulls have light-colored eyes, and the ones I saw yesterday had quite light yellow-colored eyes.  Here is a close-up of the gull above.

 

That eye is definitely darker than what I saw yesterday, so I presume this is an "Olympic Gull", which is a hybrid between Western Gull and Glaucous-winged Gull.

 

Here is another large gull with pink legs.

 

I would call the wing-tips gray, not black, though.  Here is a close-up of that gull.

 

The eye is perhaps lighter colored than the one before, but the tail is not black, so I assume this is another hybrid.

 

Here is a third large gull with pink legs.

 

Those wing-tips are definitely darker than the second gull, but are they really black?  Here is a close-up of that third gull.

 

I would say the eye was somewhat light, but here a close-up of one of the gulls from yesterday at Matthew's Beach that I thought was a Herring Gull.

 

That eye seems much lighter colored than the ones from today.  Based on that, I wasn't willing to say that any of the gulls from today were Herring Gulls.  I looked at my field guides some more, and there is another characteristic of hybrid Olympic Gulls that they get from their Western Gull ancestors.  They can have what is referred to as a "skirt" along the lower edge of their wings.  Herring Gulls don't seem to have that.  Looking at my pictures from yesterday and today, I felt like that was even more evidence that today's gulls weren't Herring Gulls.  Here is the one from yesterday, without the skirt.

 

So, that was all for my future reference, as I try to learn to identify Herring Gulls.  I got a picture today of a Mew Gull, too.  Note the bill.  The bird is significantly smaller than the hybrid or Herring Gulls, too.

 

So, when all was said and done, I added one more species to my Tuesday list, White-throated Sparrow.  I've seen that same tan morph White-throated Sparrow at the Fire Station Road at Juanita Bay Park three times now, so maybe I can continue to find it for the three remaining days that I need that species still.  I have 224 species on Monday now.

 

Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment in the middle of the morning, which might put a crimp in my attempts to keep the streak alive.  When I made the appointment a week or two ago, I was sure my streak would be over by now and it wouldn't matter.  I need both White-throated Sparrow and Herring Gull again tomorrow, and the weather looks pretty iffy, but I'll see what I can do, working around my appointment.

 

 

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

 

I had a midmorning doctor's appointment to work around today, and my plan was to start at the Fire Station Road at Juanita Bay Park, to try for White-throated Sparrow, and if I didn't find it, then I would go back again after my appointment to try again.  If that failed, then I would go over to Magnuson Park and Mathew's Beach to try for Herring Gull again.  I failed on the sparrow on my first visit, when I only had about 20 minutes.  After my appointment, I went back, taking some bird seed with me.  My plan was to scatter the seed and then come back later, in the hopes that the sparrows would discover it.  I scattered my seed and played some bird songs.

 

To my surprise, the tan morph White-throated Sparrow actually seemed to pay attention to the playback and it came in and perched for me.

 

It just sat there looking at me as I moved around to get a picture from a different angle.

 

Later I saw it again and got a more distant shot of it.

 

Keep in mind that this is a species that I hadn't seen for two years, and now I've seen it four times at the same place, as well as one other time over at Marymoor Park.  I never imagined that could happen, which is one reason I kept crying Wolf.  I never imagined I would get Ancient Murrelet, Herring Gull, or White-throated Sparrow (all new year-birds in the last couple of weeks), and I've also seen Varied Thrushes much more than I had expected.  Those species have kept the streak going this long.  I guess that White-winged Scoter falls into the same category.  I seem to have been very lucky over the last few weeks.  I never would have imagined completing American Dipper, either.  How long can this go on?

 

The usual Spotted Towhees were responding to my playback of other species, and here is a picture of one of them.

 

Song Sparrows are also very responsive to most bird calls, and I got these next two pictures of a Song Sparrow.

 

 

On my first visit a flock of Bushtits flew through, and I had a brief visit from a Varied Thrush.  Having gotten the White-throated Sparrow for Wednesday, I didn't bother making the drive around the north end of the lake to Magnuson Park and Mathew's Beach for Herring Gull.  Maybe next week.

 

White-throated Sparrow brought my Wednesday list to 242 species.  How long can this go on?  I have some opportunities tomorrow, but no guarantees, as always.

 

 

Thursday, November 16, 2017

 

Today I had a lunch appointment, so I didn't have a lot of time this morning.  I started by going over to Mathews Beach and Magnuson Park to look for Herring Gull.  I stopped first at Mathews Beach, but I thought the only two large gulls were hybrid Glaucous-winged/Western Gulls.  There were only two large gulls at Magnuson, too, and they both seemed to be hybrids as well.  I headed for home, planning to stop on the way to look for Pacific Wren.  On my way out of the parking lot at Magnuson I played the Pacific Wren songs and calls, but never got any response that I saw or heard.

 

Since I had to go right by it anyway, I stopped again at Matthews Beach, in case more gulls had come in.  It was quite windy this morning, and the gulls were fairly active.  There was a woman with a child there, and the kid was chasing the gulls.  I looked the gulls over and took some pictures for later viewing.  Here is one of the large gulls.

 

The legs are pink and the wing-tips are fairly black.  They eye is sort of light-colored, but maybe not as light as the birds I saw the other day.  For me, who is still learning to tell these gulls apart, this bird seems to have the "skirt" they refer to.  That is the band of white at the lower edge of the wing, where it runs more or less parallel with the ground.  That is a feather of Western Gull, and so I think this is a Glaucous-winged/Western Gull hybrid.  The head is also not very streaked, which is another characteristic of those two species, compared to Herring Gull, which has a heavily streak head in the winter.  The back seems pretty dark, too, which would indicate the influence of the Western Gull ancestor(s).

 

Here is another gull.

 

This one also has a pretty light-colored eye, but it has heavier streaking on the head and it doesn't have the skirt.  There is also some black on the bill, and neither Glaucous-winged Gull nor Western Gull has black on the bill, according to my field guides, so I figure that a hybrid of the two species also wouldn't have black on its bill.  Herring Gulls often do have black on their lower bill, along with the red spot.  The back also seems lighter colored to me.  I have decided to call this one a Herring Gull and add it to my Thursday list.

 

Here are close-up crops of the heads of both gulls, in order.  Here is the first one, which I think is a hybrid.

 

In the close-up shot, the eye looks pretty light-colored, but I still don’t think it was a Herring Gull, because of the other factors.  Here is the second gull, which I'm calling a Herring Gull.

 

Maybe I'm kidding myself.  I'm sure they look alike to most people.  I'm trying to learn to distinguish the differences.  Right or wrong, I'm going with Herring Gull on the second one, which is actually against my best interests.  I later got another Thursday bird, so "saving" Herring Gull for a later week would be more beneficial, although I don't expect there to be any later weeks, as far as my streak is concerned.  Of course, I've felt that way for weeks now.

 

Anyway, I headed back toward home and my lunch appointment.  At the time I didn't think I had seen a Herring Gull, and I had a little time.  I was going through Kenmore, so I stopped at the Kenmore Elementary School Arboretum, which is a patch of woods adjacent to the school.  I had been told by a birding acquaintance that there were Pacific Wrens in those woods.  I hadn't ever birded there, but I driven past, and it did indeed look like prime Pacific Wren habitat.  I needed Pacific Wren for Thursday.

 

I parked and walked into the woods in the light rain.  I played the Pacific Wren songs and calls, but didn't get a response for 10 or more minutes.  Finally I did see a small bird, but it turned out to be a Bewick's Wren.  Right family, wrong species.  Then I noticed another little bird, and this one was my Pacific Wren, which completed the species for me.  There was little light in the woods and neither species would stay still for long, so pictures were almost impossible.  I did manage to get two mediocre pictures of the Pacific Wren.  Here is one of them.

 

In this second one, the Pacific Wren was calling back to me.  Check out that tongue!

 

In processing those two pictures, I used a feature of the Photoshop Elements software that I haven't used much before.  It's called Shake Reduction, and it takes some of the jitter out of pictures that comes from hand-holding the camera, which is especially a problem in low light situations.  I've tried it before and didn't like the results, but this time I tried something different and it worked much better.  There is an adjustment called Sensitivity, and I thought that moving the slider to the left would help some of the problems that using Shake Reduction seemed to introduce, but I discovered today that moving it to the extreme right was what I needed to do.  Now that I know that, I'll use it more often.  The Help stuff and the book I got on the software never described it in enough detail, so I had misunderstood the settings.  I'm sure that there are many more features of the software that I don’t know how to use.

 

So, since I'm going to call that second gull a Herring Gull, that's 2 species today for my Thursday list, to bring it to 247.  Completing Pacific Wren makes it 154 species that I've completed now.

 

Tomorrow I need White-throated Sparrow and also Herring Gull, so I'll be looking for one or both of those.  The weather has been lousy this week - very windy, somewhat rainy, and pretty cold.  Now we are supposed to have a couple of much nicer days, although it will still be below 50 degrees probably.  The streak is alive!

 

 

Friday, November 17,2017

 

Again today, my only realistic chances were Herring Gull and White-throated Sparrow.  The sparrow has been very reliable, so I started out down at the Fire Station Road at Juanita Bay Park.  I had scattered some seed in the road a couple of days ago, near where the sparrows have been hinging out, and today some of it was still there.  As I approached, a couple of birds actually went out and got some seed, then went back to the blackberry vines.  Here is a Fox Sparrow.

 

Here's a Golden-crowned Sparrow.

 

There was no sign of my White-throated Sparrow friend, so I scattered a little more seed and went on past, down the road.  A Red-tailed Hawk was calling and I saw it near the top of a dead tree, but it moved on before I could try a distant picture against the bright sky.  I didn't see anything else for a while, but when I turned back there was a woodpecker near the top of a snag.  Here's a picture of a Hairy Woodpecker, against the sky.

 

I moved a little down the road and got this next picture as it looked back over its shoulder.

 

Here's one more picture of the female Hairy Woodpecker.

 

I was back at the sparrow spot by then.  The bush with all the red berries, which the sparrows and other birds had been feeding on, was now stripped, so I wasn't sure if the birds had stuck around or had moved on.  I played the song of White-throated Sparrow, and to my pleased surprise, I saw it sitting calmly looking at me from about 15 feet away.  It just sat there as I moved around and took pictures.  It was very cooperative.  White-throated Sparrow, a bird that I find very attractive.

 

Here is a full frontal shot from close in.

 

Here's one last shot, taken just before the bird got bored with me and flew away.

 

That's a species I hadn't seen for over two years, remember.  Now I've seen it five times at Juanita Bay Park and once over at Marymoor, in the last ten days.  Without it, my streak would have ended by now, for sure.

 

That was one more bird for Friday, to bring Friday to 247 species, tied with Thursday for the highest total.  Tomorrow I once again need Herring Gull and White-throated Sparrow, but I also need Marsh Wren, which I think I can call up if I go up to Edmonds.  Sunday is going to be my next big challenge, although I have to take it one day at a time.  First I need to nail down Saturday, and I'm hoping to complete White-throated Sparrow.

 

 

Saturday, November 18, 2017

 

Finally we had a day without the threat of rain, and I went down to the Fire Station Road at Juanita Bay Park to try to complete White-throated Sparrow.  I've mentioned that location a number of times lately, and here's a picture of the Fire Station Road on the east side of Juanita Bay Park.

 

It's hard to tell how long that road is from the picture, but I'd say it is maybe 150 yards long.  I've seen quite a few birds along that short stretch of road.

 

I had scattered some seed on the road a few days ago, and there was still a little left there today.  Birds were feeding on it, but they were pretty skittish and didn't seem to be comfortable being out in the open very much.  They would feed for a short time and then fly back into the blackberries.  My presence might have been inhibiting them, but it seemed like they were skittish even when I was well down the road.

 

I walked past the seed, but I didn't see my White-throated Sparrow friend.  Near the far end of the road I saw a female Hairy Woodpecker and I took this peek-a-boo picture of her.

 

Eventually she flew down the road and I got a clear shot of her.

 

I took up a position and took pictures of various birds as they went out in the road to get some seed.  A Steller's Jay came in a few times, and I got this picture.

 

There were two or three Fox Sparrows in the mix, and I got this picture of one of them.

 

Finally my target bird, White-throated Sparrow, came in and got a seed.  I was only able to get off one picture, and that was the only time I saw that bird today.  I had my Saturday bird, though - White-throated Sparrow.  My streak was alive.

 

The usual Song Sparrows were around.

 

A male Hairy Woodpecker flew through, but I wasn't able to get a picture because he was deep in the bushes most of the time.  I did get one poor picture of a Red-breasted Sapsucker that flew through, though.

 

Spotted Towhees were around, and I got this picture of a female lurking in the bushes.

 

Here is another Fox Sparrow.

 

There were three or four Golden-crowned Sparrows around, too.

 

I had my Saturday bird, but I wanted to try something different.  I went over to St. Edward State Park to try for an owl.  There are Barred Owls that live in the woods there, and I wanted to see if one would answer back if I played their call.  I tried that a few times from the parking lot, but I didn't get any responses.  As I was driving out I saw a couple of birds fly up from the ground to a tree, and I immediately thought "Varied Thrush", which was a bird I needed for Saturday.  I had been watching for them because the habitat looked perfect for them.  There turned out to be at least 5 or 6 of them, but I kept seeing them as they flew off.  I got good enough looks to make the identification, but I wanted a picture.  Finally I saw one male that landed in a tree and stayed there.  I got this first picture of the male Varied Thrush from a distance.

 

It stayed there while I approached and I got this closer picture.

 

That was it for me today.  I added two more species to my Saturday list, to bring it to 239.  I completed White-throated Sparrow to give me 155 species completed now.

 

Tomorrow it's supposed to rain all day, and the only reasonably possible species I could get to extend my streak is Herring Gull.  I'll go over to Matthews Beach and Magnuson Park, and maybe I can find one, although it doesn't seem likely.

 

 

Sunday, November 19, 2017

 

Today was supposed to be rainy, according to the forecast from Friday, but it turned out that the rain held off until the afternoon.  I got up late and finally got out on the birding trail just before 10:00.  I was going to go over to Matthews Beach and Magnuson Park to try to Herring Gull, but since it wasn't raining, I decided to go over to Richmond Beach first, since White-winged Scoters had been reported there the last couple of days.

 

I went first to Kayu Kayu Ac Park, but all I saw there were some Harlequin Ducks, some Red-breasted Mergansers, and a few cormorants.  Maybe a couple of female Buffleheads, too, but they were pretty distant.

 

I went over to Richmond Beach Saltwater Park, strapped on my boot, and lumbered down across the bridge over the train tracks.  I scoped the water, but the wind and waves didn’t make it easy.  I saw some Surf Scoters, but no White-winged Scoters among them that I could see.

 

So, having dipped on White-winged Scoter, I made my way across to Lake Washington and stopped first at Matthews Beach.  There were some gulls there, and a couple of kids were feeding them bread.  I went over and checked them out, but none of them met my criteria for Herring Gull, mainly because none of them had yellow eyes.

 

I moved on to Magnuson Park, but had the same results there.  Nothing.

 

I gave it up then, but on the way home I did stop at St. Edward State Park to try for a miracle Barred Owl.  I played the calls, but got no response.  I made one more final attempt at Juanita Beach Park, to see if any Herring Gulls were around.  No dice.

 

So, that was it.  No Sunday bird, and my Day Of The Week streak is finally over.  I went 322 days in a row, seeing a new bird for that day of the week every single day.  I ended up with between 224 species (Tuesday) and 247 species (Thursday and Friday) each day.  I've seen (or heard) 332 species this year so far, and probably won't see or hear any more.  I completed (meaning I saw or heard on all seven days of the week) 155 species so far.  I hope to complete 3 or 4 more species before the end of the year.

 

I'll be putting out fewer reports now, no doubt, but when I have some pictures to share or a new species on a day of the week, I'll send something.  Day Of The Week birding was a great game to play with myself.  I learned a lot about the annual movement of birds in our area, I visited some new places, it got me out birding every single day, and most importantly, it was a lot of fun.  To all of you who rode along with me on the journey, thanks very much, and thanks for the feedback I got along the way.

 

 

Thursday, November 23, 2017

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

My DOTW streak ended on Sunday.  I went out to lunch on Monday in Bellevue, but I didn't go birding and I didn't do any other driving.  I haven't driven since then because I wanted to rest my Achilles tendon.  Driving seems to make it hurt, so I wanted to take some time off from driving, after having driven every single day since the first of the year.

 

Today I was going to drive over to St. Edward State Park, which is only 4 or 5 miles away, in the hopes of seeing a Varied Thrush, where I had seen several of them last week.  Thursday was the only day I hadn't seen Varied Thrush this year.  It was raining this morning, so I waited for it to let up.  Before it let up, though, I was in my basement office cave when Christina called to me and said there was a Varied Thrush in the yard.  I hustled upstairs and in a minute or so I saw it, to complete that species.  I got my camera out of my car and waited, and the bird showed itself again, under the bird feeder.  Here are three pictures of a male Varied Thrush.  They aren't real sharp because there was very low light and I wasn't all that close.

 

 

 

That was the first Varied Thrush in our yard that I've seen this year, and it came on the right day of the week.  So, I completed the species and I didn't even have to drive.  That brought my Thursday total to 248 species, and my number of completed species to 156.

 

Today was not only Thanksgiving, it was our 44th wedding anniversary.  What a life!

 

 

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

 

We were without phone or internet for five days, but today our provider finally got a service tech out here, and now we are back.  As it happens, I haven't been going out birding anyway, but this morning I did go down to the fire station road at Juanita Bay Park to look for sparrows.  There wasn't anything I needed for my Wednesday list, but I met a birding acquaintance down there, and we tried for White-throated Sparrow.  I had gone down there yesterday and scattered some birdseed, and today the sparrows were feeding on it.  We never saw a White-throated Sparrow, but here are some pictures, anyway.

 

Here are a couple of pictures of Fox Sparrows.

 

 

Here's a Golden-crowned Sparrow.

 

Here are a Fox Sparrow and a Golden-crowned Sparrow feeding on the seeds.

 

Here is a Song Sparrow.

 

Towhees are related to sparrows, and here is a Spotted Towhee.

 

Finally, here is one more Golden-crowned Sparrow.

 

That was it for today.  No birds for any lists, but some pleasant birding.