January 2019 Part 2

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Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Today was our sixth dry day in a row, an unusual thing hereabouts, and I took advantage of it by birding at Marymoor Park this morning. The rowing club pond was frozen over, as it had been on Monday, so no Green Heron there. I went over to the model airplane field and walked a bit, hoping to flush a Western Meadowlark, but I didn't see one or hear one. Those had been my two best chances to get a year-bird today, but there were other longshot possibilities. There were hundreds of Cackling Geese on one of the sports fields, and I scanned through them for a Greater White-fronted Goose. I didn't need that species for the year, but at least it would have been a 2019 King county list bird. I had no luck and drove around some more.

There was another group of only about fifteen geese near the rock climbing wall, so I took a look. Wonder of wonders, this small group did have a Greater White Fronted Goose in it! Here are a couple of pictures of it.

I walked a little at the viewing mound, but I didn't see anything there. Next I drove along the edge of the community garden and saw a group of sparrows feeding on the ground. Here is an immature White-crowned Sparrow.

The interesting thing about that bird is that it is just starting to get its adult plumage, which can be seen from the white eyebrow and the little touch of black behind the eye. Here are two pictures of an adult White-crowned Sparrow.

Here's a Golden-crowned Sparrow.

After that I parked in the west dog park parking lot and walked along the slough. Here are some American Coots.

Great Blue Herons nest in that area every year, returning to the old nests year after year. It's still just a little early for nesting season to start, but there were at least 18 Great Blue Herons perched in the trees near the rookery.

The actual nests are about 100 yards farther along, but no birds were perched near the nests, which kind of surprised me.

Soon the birds will pair up and start claiming nests for this year, I think. I don't understand why they were all gathered 100 yards away today, though. Maybe those trees are the heron equivalent of a pick-up bar. Here's one of the Great Blue Herons in a tree, maybe looking for a little action?.

I saw some sparrows, and while I was checking them out, I spotted a Ruby-crowned Kinglet flitting around in the blackberry brambles. It wouldn't sit still for a picture, so I played its song, and it responded by raising its ruby-colored crest and checking me out. Here's the Ruby-crowned Kinglet eyeballing me, while I played its song.

I think it's looking at me kind of skeptically.

Farther along the slough, at one of the dog beaches, there was a male Common Goldeneye diving for food.

On one of his dives, he caught something.

I can't tell what it was, but here's a close up of it.

Maybe a worm, all wrapped up in a ball?

I continued to walk, and at one I point saw a couple of Fox Sparrows. Here's a picture of a Fox Sparrow in the nice winter sunlight.

Check out how long its toenails are.

I headed back to my car, and on the way I took some pictures of crows. Crows are difficult to take pictures of because they are all black. The challenge is to get a good view of the eye and also to be able to see some feather definition. Here are two American Crows.

Finally, a Song Sparrow posed so nicely for me that I had to take its picture.

That was it for today. I got skunked on year-birds, but I like some of the pictures I got. It also turned into a beautiful winter morning to be out walking. The only bird I added to any list was Greater White-fronted Goose, for my 2019 King county list, which gives me 83 species in King county so far this year. My year list still stands at 106.

Now the rain returns and I'll have to do my birding in between showers and storms. It does look like there will be some breaks in the rain, but it is supposed to be windy, too, and that doesn’t help birding.

Thursday, January 17, 2019

I had a lunch appointment today, but I decided to try to do some birding between the rain showers, before lunch. I went over to Magnuson Park, and it was raining lightly when I got there. I drove to the off-leash dog area and spotted a hawk in a tree. The light was poor and it was raining lightly, but I took some pictures anyway, of course. Based on the size, I was pretty sure it was a juvenile COOPER'S HAWK, and my pictures confirmed it for me. At first the bird had its tail spread out.

When it gathered its tail together again, you could see the rounded corners of the tail, one of the signs that it was a Cooper's Hawk, and not its smaller cousin, Sharp-shinned Hawk. The head shape and the location of the eye were two other signs.

That was an excellent year-bird, and one I was particularly looking for there, since a pair of Cooper's Hawks had nested in the park last year and raised two young ones. Presumably this was one of the youngsters.

I drove on into the park, swinging by the boat launch area to get a look at Lake Washington. I saw a bird pretty far out on the water that looked interesting, and it turned out to be a male Red-breasted Merganser. Here's a distant lousy picture.

The reason I even mention it and show the picture is that Red-breasted Merganser is usually a saltwater bird, and they are uncommon on Lake Washington. Magnuson Park is within my 5 mile radius circle, so this one went on my 5MR list. I hadn't even had that species in my 5MR spreadsheet, since I don’t recall ever seeing one on Lake Washington before, so it was a pleasant surprise to see one today.

It was still sprinkling a little, but I parked my car and went walking. I was looking for a species that has been reported there recently. I walked for a quarter of a mile or so, and was about to loop around back to my car when I saw some birds fly into a tree ahead of me. The size looked good, so I hustled up closer, and they turned out to be CEDAR WAXWINGS, the very species I was looking for. The light was still terrible, and it was sprinkling a little, but I took some pictures anyway (of course). Here is one of the Cedar Waxwings in the terrible light.

I hung around, trying for pictures, and eventually some of the waxwings came down to the path to drink from a puddle there. Here are some Cedar Waxwings at the puddle, with one of them taking a drink.

Here are two Cedar Waxwings swallowing the water they had just slurped up.

At about that time, three women came along and spooked the birds back up into the trees. I got one more Cedar Waxwing picture after that.

Cedar Waxwings are pretty uncommon around here in the winter, so it was great to find a little flock of them today.

There were quite a few birds in that area. Here is one of the many Golden-crowned Sparrows, pecking at some berries.

A couple of House Finches flew in and were eating dried up blackberries. Here is a male House Finch at the blackberries.

There were at least 10 Spotted Towhees around, too, foraging on the ground. Here is a male Spotted Towhee.

There were two Fox Sparrows also scratching around in the leaf litter. Here are two pictures of a Fox Sparrow.

I hadn't seen any birds at all, other than robins, on the first part of my walk, and all of a sudden I had a bonanza of birds. I finally dragged myself away, and I was only a few minutes late for my lunch appointment. It figures that just as I was heading for home, the rain finally stopped.

It was quite a successful day, considering where I am in the month. I added 2 more species to my year/January list, which is great at this point. I now have 108 species for January and the year. Even better, I added 3 more species to my 5MR list, to give me 65 species found within 5 miles of home. The two year-birds were new for King county this year, of course, by definition, and now I have 85 species in King county this year. For comparison, I have 73 species in Snohomish county and 54 in Skagit county this year. The differences are mainly due to how much time I have spent in each of those counties in the first 17 days of this year. King county is where I live, Snohomish county is the next county to the north and is less than 5 miles from my house, and Skagit county is an hour's drive to the north, on the other side of Snohomish county. Those numbers will even up somewhat as the year progresses, but I expect I'll always have more in King county and the fewest species in Skagit county. I'm finding it interesting to be trying to see each species in each of the 3 counties this year.

Friday, January 18, 2019

This morning I went down to Juanita Bay Park, although there weren't many species I needed for the year and month. I was hoping to pick up a couple of 5 Mile Radius birds, though. I checked out the fire station road, where I have seen a lot of good birds, but there were workmen there, and they apparently are working on restoring the wetlands behind the fire station. They had some heavy equipment in there, and they seemed to be tearing out the blackberries and non-native grass and brush, while leaving the trees. There was a sign out on the main road saying that Wetland Restoration would be going on from January to June, so I guess they plan to do a lot. I hope they don’t totally ruin the birding.

Over in the main part of the park, I went out onto the east boardwalk. I played Pacific Wren songs because I mistakenly thought I needed Pacific Wren in my 5 mile radius circle. I did attract a cute little wren, and I lured it over the brighter side of the boardwalk and got some pictures. Here's the cute little Pacific Wren.

Later I discovered that I already had Pacific Wren in my 5 mile radius, but I still like the pictures I got. Usually Pacific Wrens are deep in the dark woods where there isn't enough light for pictures, and they don't usually stay in the same place for long, like this one did. I discovered that if I stopped playing its songs, it then stayed in one place and quit flitting around. I was fortunate that it chose to stop in a spot that was exposed.

I played Marsh Wren songs and also Virginia Rail. No responses, so I went out to the end of the boardwalk. On the way I saw a small group of Bushtits, and that was one for my 5 mile radius list. There was also a Ruby-crowned Kinglet with them, but I couldn't get picture of that one.

Out at the end of the boardwalk, I looked across the little bay and spotted a couple of Wilson's Snipe. Here's a rather distant picture of one of the Wilson's Snipe.

There was a photographer there with a fancier camera than mine, with a fairly long lens. His rig must have cost several times what my camera did, and it weighed several times as much as mine, but he didn't even bother trying to get a shot of the snipe because of the distance. His camera no doubt takes much better quality images than mine does, but that isn't as important to me as being able to get pictures at a distance. You couldn't blow my pictures up and put them on a wall, but they look fine to me, for the most part, for my purposes. I'd rather be able to get shots like the snipe above and give up the better quality of image. I like the much lower cost and weight of my camera, too. He had a nice photographer's camera and I have what I consider to be a superior birder's camera.

On my way back to my car, I again played Marsh Wren and Virginia Rail calls, and this time I heard a Virginia Rail respond, quite close by. I never saw it, but I counted it for my 5MR list and also my 2019 King county list.

That was it for my actual birding today, but I went to lunch with my friend, Chris, and after lunch we went down to Juanita Bay Park again. We walked out onto the west boardwalk, and although I didn't get any more birds for my lists, I did take some more pictures.

There were four Wilson's Snipe there then, and I took this picture that shows how well they blend into their surroundings. Can you see parts of all four snipe in this picture?

Here's a distant picture of a female Belted Kingfisher on a dock at an adjacent property.

There were two Bald Eagles in trees, and one of them flew across the little bay and landed on a rock or stump in the water.

I guess it was thirsty because it proceeded to take several drinks of water.

There was a Great Blue Heron posing at the end of the boardwalk, so I took its picture. I know I show lots of pictures of Great Blue Herons, but they seem like very attractive birds to me, and they pose so nicely.

There were several Green-winged Teal off the end of the boardwalk, and one of the males was preening. Here's a picture of a male Green-winged Teal preening its feathers and showing off the color patches on its wings.

Here's the same bird swimming away, with his feathers still ruffled from the preening.

On the way back to the car, we saw five Northern Flickers in the grass. They had been high in some trees when we got there, and now they were feeding in the grass. I think they catch bugs in the grass, especially ants. Here is a male Northern Flicker, looking up from his digging around in the grass.

Here's a picture of a different male Northern Flicker.

That bird is interesting. There are two subspecies of Northern Flicker. Yellow-shafted Northern Flickers live east of the Rockies, and Red-shafted Northern Flickers live west of the Rockies. On the east slopes of the Rockies, the two species interbreed freely, and the results are called intergrade Northern Flickers. Almost all of the flickers here in Western Washington are Red-shafted Northern Flickers, but a few of the intergrades are around. Male Red-shafted Northern Flickers have a red moustache stripe (females don’t have any moustache stripe). Male Yellow-shafted Flickers have a black moustache stripe and they also have a red crescent on the back of their heads. Red-shafted ones have orange color on their wings and tail, and Yellow-shafted have yellow in those places, rather than orange. Intergrades have various combinations of characteristics of both subspecies. The bird above has a lot of black and a little red in its moustache stripe, and it also has a red crescent on the back of its head, so it is an intergrade. I've seen intergrades before, but not often. This one has more of the Yellow-shafted characteristics than most of the intergrades on the west coast have. That's a much too long explanation for most people, but I was pleased to get a picture of an obvious intergrade male Northern Flicker.

I didn't get any new species for the year today, and I still have 108 on my January/2019 list. I added 2 to my 5MR list, and now I have seen (or heard) 67 species within 5 miles of home. I added one more to my 2019 King county list (Virginia Rail) and now I have 86 species in King county this year.

Saturday, January 19, 2019

Today I went over to Marymoor again, looking for Green Heron and Western Meadowlark. There weren't any birds at all at the rowing club pond, so I drove through the main part of the park. I didn't find any meadowlarks, but the Northern Shrike was there today. I didn't need it for any lists, but I like shrikes very much, so I parked and walked toward the shrike to try for pictures. As I side benefit, it was through an area where I have seen Western Meadowlarks, so I was killing two birds with one stone, so to speak.

Here's a distant picture of the Northern Shrike, taken as I approached.

The bird was flying from perch to perch, in the same area. I stalked it and waited for it to return to perches, sometimes. Here's a closer shot of the Northern Shrike.

By being patient and walking slowly, I got even closer.

I was kind of surprised that the shrike didn't just leave the whole area, but it kept flying back to the same perches, as I got still closer.

That was close enough to see the eye clearly and also the light-colored pattern on the breast. The closely related Loggerhead Shrike doesn’t have the pattern on the breast. Here is another close shot.

I show this next picture because it was the only one I got with a background other than the sky behind the bird.

Here's one last shot of the Northern Shrike at Marymoor today.

I enjoyed chasing the shrike around the field, and I like the pictures I got. As I mentioned, I particularly like shrikes.

After all that fun, I drove out to the Snoqualmie Valley to Sikes Lake. I parked on the north side of the bridge, and soon heard several shotgun blasts nearby. I looked around and spotted these decoys in a field on the west side of the road.

I took this next picture of the area just to the right of that last shot, and I call this one Decoys, Dogs, and Hunters.

Meanwhile, across the road, several hundred yards away, there was a flock of many hundreds of Cackling Geese, and they would fly around from time to time, but not near the hunters.

I played various sparrow songs, including Swamp Sparrow, at both ends of the bridge, but I never got any response. I didn't even manage to attract any Song Sparrows, and Song Sparrows are the most common and most responsive of all the sparrows. I took this picture of a male Common Merganser as I walked across the bridge.

Here's a picture of a Trumpeter Swan family.

Swans breed in the far north, and the young ones migrate south and stay with the parents all winter. I don't know if they migrate back north together, or if they finally separate on the wintering grounds. The darker one is the youngster. Trumpeter Swans usually have one or two young ones each year. Here's a different family of four Trumpeter Swans.

That was it for me today. I headed for home without having seen anything for any of my lists. But, wait. As I got close to home, I drove into the parking lot of a company that overlooks the sod farm in the Sammamish Valley, mainly hoping to see Killdeer for my 5 mile radius list. I've never seen Killdeer there, but I don't recall seeing them anywhere within my 5 mile radius, so I'm looking for them in new places. I didn't see any Killdeer, but I was quite surprised to see 3 or 4 Northern Pintails, a duck I didn't have within my 5 mile radius yet. So, I didn't get completely skunked after all. I added one to my 5MR list, giving me 68 species on that list now.

Sunday, January 20, 2019

Today I went up to Skagit county to see what I could add to my lists. I went to the north end of the county first, going through Bow and Edison on the way to Samish Island. Just outside of Edison I went down Smith Road, a short dead-end. I saw some sparrows in a scraggly tree, and I was pleased to see that one was a SAVANNAH SPARROW, my first of the year. Savannah Sparrows are common in the summer, but quite uncommon in the winter around here, and I hadn't expected to see one this month. Here's today's Savannah Sparrow.

There were a couple of White-crowned Sparrows in the same tree, and that was a new one for Skagit county for me this year. After going through Edison and heading west on Bayview-Edison Road, I spotted a male RING-NECKED PHEASANT, another surprise. It's kind of dodgy to count it, since the state releases pheasants in the area for the hunters to shoot, but it could theoretically have been a wild bird, and I'm going to count it. As I said, it was kind of dodgy, and I wouldn't have counted it in any kind of competition. Unfortunately, it flew off before I could get a picture, and I lost track of it. I saw a Rough-legged Hawk after that, and that was another one for my 2019 Skagit county list.

On Samish Island, I saw an American Crow, so that one went on to my 2019 Skagit list, too. At the lookout point on Samish Island, I was disappointed to discover how windy it was. People had been reporting many great birds this last week, but the wind and cold really kept them away, I guess. It was also difficult to see them in the waves that the wind kicked up. As I got out of the car I did see a Common Loon, though, for my 2019 Skagit county list. There was also a group of Red-breasted Mergansers, another Skagit bird. Here are some Red-breasted Mergansers in the choppy water.

The males are the two birds with dark heads and red bills. I added Surf Scoter to my Skagit list, and then Double-crested Cormorant. I also spotted two Black Scoters, either juveniles or females. As I was leaving, another birder came along, and he asked if I had seen the Black Scoters. He was much more experienced than I am, and after talking to him, I looked it up when I got home. I hadn't realized how uncommon Black Scoter is in Skagit county. It was my first one in Skagit county since I started keeping county records in 2012, so it was a great one to add to my Skagit county list for this year. I hope the other guy saw the scoters, because he had never seen one in Skagit county either, and as I said, he was much more experienced than I am. I had been hoping and expecting to see Long-tailed Duck and White-winged Scoter there, but not in today's conditions. If I get over to Fort Flagler this month, I could see those two species on that trip.

I headed off the island and drove across the Skagit Flats. I picked up American Kestrel and Glaucous-winged Gull for my 2019 Skagit county list, but I missed seeing Western Meadowlark at the West 90. There was a Rough-legged Hawk on a wire, and I managed to get this picture of it before it flew.

It only flew down one or two poles, and I stopped again and got this picture of it.

In that second picture, you can clearly see the metal band on its right ankle. On Sullivan Road, I took this picture of an immature White-crowned Sparrow.

It seems to be all fluffed up, probably because of the cold. It was about 50 degrees, but it was windy.

I drove to the house on Valentine Road with the feeders and ate my lunch in the car. There were birds around, and I was very pleased when a HAIRY WOODPECKER came to the suet. Here's the male Hairy Woodpecker.

Here he is in a nearby tree.

I left there and drove on to Fir Island. On the way I got this picture of a Red-tailed Hawk with interesting coloration.

Red-tailed Hawks have great variation in their plumages. There were swans all over the place, and I saw several large flocks of Snow Geese, too. There are two species of swans in this area. The common one is Trumpeter Swan, but I got this picture of a less common Tundra Swan.

The Tundra Swan is the one with the yellow spot on its bill, in front of the eye. The swan on the left is a Trumpeter Swan, and the shape of the head and bill are a little different from Tundra Swan, and it doesn't have the yellow patch either.

From the junction of Maupin Road and Fir Island Road, I saw a couple of eagles in a distant tree, but there was another fairly large bird a couple of trees down. I drove up Fir Island Road, hoping to get a better view, but I couldn't get closer and the road was busier. Back at the junction, I parked and got out my scope to check it out. By golly, I was right to check it out because it was my first PEREGRINE FALCON of the year. I took some very distant pictures, and here's the best of them.

When I got home I looked it up on Google Maps and scaled the distance. The bird was about 900 feet away, or 300 yards. That's three times the length of a football field. I was quite pleased to be able to get any picture at all from that far away, and Peregrine Falcon was a great addition to my lists.

I stopped at Hayton Reserve, but the tide was very high, and I didn't see anything except these two Bald Eagles sitting in a tree near their nest.

Just for the heck of it, I had counted the Bald Eagles I saw today, and I saw 43 of them. They used to be threatened or endangered or something, but they have made a heck of a comeback.

I stopped at Wylie Slough, but the tide was in and it was windy, so I didn't walk much. I did spot the rare (for this area) Black Phoebe that has been hanging out there for almost a year now. I had already seen it this month, so it wasn't new for any lists, but I got a couple of pictures of the Black Phoebe.

I stopped at Eide Road, west of Stanwood, on the way home. I missed several possible species, but did see 5 or 6 GREATER YELLOWLEGS for my year list and 2019 Snohomish county list.

That was it for my birding today. I have one more picture, taken this evening, on a break from writing this report.

It was supposed to be cloudy here tonight, but we got a break in the clouds and the lunar eclipse showed itself nicely. When the moon got more completely in the earth's shadow, there wasn't enough light for a picture without using a tripod, and I didn't bother with that. There will be lots of pictures on TV, I'm sure.

I added 5 more species to my 2019 list today, to give me 113 species now for the year. This morning when I set out, I had set some goals, and I had 3 new species listed as "good", 4 new species as "very good", and 5 as "excellent", so it was an excellent birding day in terms of numbers. It was kind of strange, though, because I missed 2 or 3 species that I had expected to see and saw others that I hadn't expected. Overall it was indeed an excellent day of birding, though.

I added 14 species to my 2019 Skagit county list, and it stands at 68 now. I added one more to my 2019 Snohomish county list, and now I have 74 in Snohomish county this year. Black Scoter was new for my Washington county list (since 2012,when I started keeping county lists), and now I have 139 species in Skagit county since 2012.

Monday, January 21, 2019

Today I went up to Edmonds. My first stop was Sunset Avenue, where I set up my scope and looked around. The wind had finally died down, and the water was fairly flat. There were three potential species I might see for my year list, and I finally did see one of them, way out there. It was a COMMON MURRE, way too far out for a picture. After that I stopped at the Edmonds Wastewater Treatment Plant and looked for the Harris's Sparrow that had been seen there a week or two ago. No luck with that one.

I stopped briefly at Marina Beach, looking out on the water from the car. Nothing interesting. Next I drove to the Edmonds fishing pier and walked out there without my scope. My main hope was Rhinoceros Auklet, but I was willing to settle for some pictures. Out on the pier, I ran into a birding acquaintance, and he pointed out a kingfisher perched on a sculpture of a salmon. Here's a female Belted Kingfisher.

At one point the bird opened her bill wide, maybe yawning, I don’t know.

As usual, there were a lot of Horned Grebes around, in their winter plumage. Here's a Horned Grebe.

I was watching the rocks of the breakwater for a couple of species that have been reported there. I saw a Surfbird there last week, and I spotted one again today.

Near the Surfbird there was a Black Turnstone.

A little later I saw another Black Turnstone, a little closer.

There were Red-necked Grebes around, too, and I got this picture of one that had just caught a little fish.

It fooled around with the fish until it could get it in position to swallow it whole, head first.

As I left the pier, I took this picture of a juvenile Double-crested Cormorant.

The kingfisher had moved to a perch near the land end of the pier, and she posed for me for these close shots. Female Belted Kingfisher.

I like the feather detail in these close shots.

I had a little time left, so I drove up to Ocean Avenue, but there wasn’t much there. I had seen several small groups of Pacific Loons from Sunset Avenue, and from Ocean Avenue, I saw a larger group of nine of them. I don't know why Pacific Loons seem to hang out in groups, but they do. Here are nine distant Pacific Loons.

They would dive from time to time, all together. They would all be gone, and then they would all surface and form up again, only to dive again in a couple of minutes.

That was it for my birding today. It's getting harder and harder to get anything new for my year list. The only bird I got today that I needed for any list was the Common Murre. I now have 114 species for the year, and I have 75 species in Snohomish county this year. We are supposed to have a couple of rainy days coming up, and then a stretch of 4 or 5 dry days. I'm thinking I might actually take an overnight trip over to the north end of the Olympic Peninsula and stay in Sequim overnight on Thursday, but we'll see how I feel on Thursday.

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Yesterday there was a little window in the weather, without rain, and I drove up to the lower Snoqualmie Valley, north and west of Duvall. There were some birds around, but nothing I needed. Still, it was good to get out and about. There isn't much I still need for January, but I gave it a shot.

Today the overnight rain was tapering off by 9:30, so I went over to Marymoor Park. It had stopped by the time I got there. I went first to the rowing club pond, for the 4th or 5th time this month, and today when I played its call, a GREEN HERON loudly responded. I never saw it because it was deep in the brush on the pond to the south of the gravel road to the rowing club, but I counted it as a "heard only" bird for my lists.

Next I drove through the main part of the park, looking for Western Meadowlarks. I saw the Northern Shrike, right where I have seen it a couple of times before, but no meadowlarks.

I then drove out to Sikes Lake, in the Snoqualmie Valley, to look for the rare sparrow that has been reported there. I had seen it in December, but not in January. On the way I saw some sparrows in the brambles along the road, so I stopped to see if maybe a White-throated Sparrow might be among them. No luck with that, but I got this picture of a White-crowned Sparrow.

There were a number of birds around, so I walked up and down the road, playing the White-throated Sparrow song. A sparrow perched up for me, and it turned out to be a Savannah Sparrow, a quite uncommon sparrow for January in that valley. Here are a couple of pictures of the out-of-season Savannah Sparrow.

I had gotten Savannah Sparrow on Sunday up in Skagit county, where it is also uncommon in winter, but this was my first one for King county this year. Later in the year they will be pretty common in that valley and at Marymoor and other places.

At Sikes Lake, I got this picture of a male Common Merganser.

Here's the female Common Merganser that was following him.

I've tried for the rare sparrow at Sikes Lake several times this month, usually playing its song in the hopes of attracting it. That hadn't worked, so today I played its call, which is a simple "chip" note, instead of its rather musical song. Two sparrows soon flew up from the dry grass and went into the blackberry brambles. They stayed in the foliage, but I got peek-a-boo views of them through the vines, and I was able to see that at least one of them was the SWAMP SPARROW I was looking for. As I said, it stayed in the brambles, but I got this slightly out of focus picture of it in the vines.

Here's a picture with a better focus, but the bird had its head turned away, unfortunately. I like the color pattern on its wings, though.

That was it for today, and I was quite pleased to get 2 more species for January and the year. Now I have 116 species this month and year. In addition to the Swamp Sparrow and the Green Heron, I also added Savannah Sparrow to my 2019 King county list, and now I have 89 species in King county this year.

I plan to go over to Fort Flagler and the Sequim area tomorrow. I hope to get at least 5 more species for the month and year on the trip, maybe as many as 8 if I'm very lucky. I plan to stay overnight in Sequim and come home on Friday.

Thursday, January 24, 2019

This is really annoying. I started this report twice before, and my clumsy typing somehow hit some keyboard shortcut, I guess, and Word closed and didn’t save my work. That hasn’t happened before, and I wonder what changed. Windows 10 recently updated on this computer. I wonder if they “improved” Word so that it can be easily closed with a keyboard shortcut of keystrokes. I guess I’ll have to get in the habit of saving the document often. Very irritating.

So, for the third time, I got away from home this morning at 8:45, which is early for me. I caught the 9:35 ferry to Kingston from Edmonds. As the ferry pulled out, I spotted a RHINOCEROS AUKLET off the bow, a new bird for 2019 for me. It was the only one I saw today, too. In Kingston, I stopped at Subway and picked up a sandwich, then drove on to Port Gamble. I saw some birds there, but the only one I needed at all was Greater Scaup, which I needed only for my Kitsap county list.

My next stop was Shine Tidelands, just across the Hood Canal bridge into Jefferson county. I didn’t get anything there for any lists, but I got this picture of a Common Loon.

I moved on and stopped next at Indian Island County Park. I saw a couple of Surfbirds and a Black Turnstone, but I didn’t need those species. There were six shorebirds feeding on a rock breakwater with the Black Turnstone, but I couldn’t identify them. Later I decided that they must have been Dunlin, which I didn’t need.

I saw other birds I didn’t need, and I stopped at the boat ramp at the camping area of Fort Flagler State Park. I saw a couple of BLACK OYSTERCATCHERS there, which was one of my main targets of the trip. Here are two Black Oystercatchers.

Here’s one of the Black Oystercatchers with what looks like a little shellfish.

There were a couple of Harlequin Ducks offshore, a species I didn’t need, but one I like to get pictures of. Here is a male Harlequin Duck.

Here’s the much plainer female Harlequin Duck.

I was very disappointed not to see the roosting flock of shorebirds on the grass, where I have always seen them before. There were two species I was counting on in that flock, and a third one I saw sometimes. As it turned out, I did see some shorebirds across the bay, and while most of them were Dunlin, which I didn’t need, there were some SANDERLINGS in with them. That was one of the species I was used to seeing on the grass.

Next I drove to the end of the parking lot to where you can look north out over the strait. There were a lot of birds out there today, and I used my scope and worked my way through them. Many were quite distant, but I took my time and ticked off some good one. First I identified a male WHITE-WINGED SCOPTER, which was another of my main targets for the trip. Among a lot of other species, I saw a large number of Marbled Murrelets, a species I had needed until last weekend. There were dozens of them. I kept looking and finally was able to identify a group of 4 or 5 ANCIENT MURRELETS, a great species that I had only seen maybe 4 or 5 times before in my life. I kept scanning, and eventually I saw 5 or 6 LONG-TAILED DUCKS, which was still another of my main targets for this trip.

I went back over to the boat ramp and ate my sandwich in the car, while watching for birds. Shorebirds kept flying around, and one time I was able to identify two BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS with the Dunlin in the flock. That was another of the species I normally have seen roosting on the grass there. While I was eating, the two Black Oystercatchers came close, so I took more pictures. Here is a Black Oystercatcher up close.

That eye looks like it was drawn into the picture, I know. Black Oystercatchers are distinctive with their bright bills and crazy eyes.

I was about ready to leave, but I saw a couple of shorebirds fly by and they appeared to land on the other side of the spit across the little bay. I went back to the north end of the parking lot and walked out on the beach a ways. I found a number of Black Turnstones, and there were some Sanderlings in with them. I wanted pictures of the Sanderlings, so I pursued them. Here is a Black Turnstone.

Here are two Black Turnstones, hustling along.

Here are a couple of pictures of Sanderlings.

I noticed a strange bird with the Black Turnstones. At first I thought it was a Surfbird, and I wanted pictures. As I took pictures, I realized that the bill wasn’t right for Surfbird, and other things didn’t match Surfbird either. I took a bunch of pictures so I could consult my field guides later, because I just couldn’t identify it. Later I realized it was a ROCK SANDPIPER, an outstanding bird for my lists. It’s no wonder I couldn’t identify it. I not only wasn’t expecting that species there, I had only seen Rock Sandpiper 2 or 3 times before in my life, years ago, and never this close. Here is the almost-rare Rock Sandpiper.

That’s a Sanderling in the background, for a size reference. Here is another shot of the Rock Sandpiper.

Finally, here is the Rock Sandpiper and a Black Turnstone together, for another size comparison.

That turned out to be a very satisfying visit to Fort Flagler, and I headed for Sequim, where I planned to spend the night. I drove through the parking lot for John Wayne Marina, and I added NORTHWESTERN CROW to my year list. I had planned to look for sea birds from there, and at several other spots along the coast near Sequim, but I had cleaned up almost all my sea bird needs at Fort Flagler, so I drove around the farming areas instead, hoping to see something. I did spot an American Kestrel, which I needed for Clallam county. This was the only picture I could get. It was an awkward angle and there wasn’t much light.

I over-processed it, in order to make the face visible, and it came out looking too bright and with low contrast.

It was getting late and it was heavily overcast, so it was getting dark fast by 4:00. I drove to the Audubon Center at Railroad Bridge Park to check out the feeders there. As I approached the feeders, I was happy to see my main target for Sequim on the ground under the feeders. Here is a male CALIFORNIA QUAIL.

As I said, the light was fading fast, so these pictures have their issues, but a quail is a quail and deserves to be shown. Here is another male California Quail, or maybe the same one.

Here’s a female California Quail.

The low contrast and subdued colors are because of the lack of light. I would have taken more pictures of them, and maybe gotten some better ones, but a large refrigerated truck that was parked nearby suddenly started its engine and scared all the birds away. It must have started based on the temperature inside because there was no one around at the time – the truck just started itself. I hung around for another 15 minutes or so, and no one showed up, and the truck just kept running. Some of the little birds came back, but the quail never did, while I was there. I did get a couple of pictures of Chestnut-backed Chickadee at that point, anyway.

A female Downy Woodpecker showed up, too.

As it kept getting darker, and the truck kept making its racket, I finally gave it up and drove to my humble motel.

As I said at the top, I ended up getting 10 species for my year and January lists today, which was outstanding. Now I have 126 species for the year, and I hadn’t expected to get to 120, even with this trip, a week or so ago. Ancient Murrelet and Rock Sandpiper were wonderful surprises, although both had been reported at Fort Flagler this month already. I just didn’t think I would see either of them, and I had completely forgotten about Rock Sandpiper.

I added to my county lists, kept since 2012 in three counties today. I had one new species in Kitsap county, to give me 65 there now. I added 6 new species in Jefferson county, to give me 71 species there. And, I added 1 to Clallam county, to give me 80 in Clallam county now.

There isn’t much for me to look for over here tomorrow; maybe a couple of possible gulls and maybe something else, but I don’t know what. I’ll look at eBird next, to see what I can look for tomorrow.

Friday, January 25, 2019

I didn't have much to look for today, after my successes yesterday, but I started by driving to what birders call the 3 Crabs area. There used to be a restaurant by that name there, but that's gone now. It's on the shore, straight north of Sequim, at the edge of the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge. A Merlin had been reported there recently by a couple of people, and also a Palm Warbler. I walked to the beach looking for the Palm Warbler, but had no luck. I never saw the Merlin either. I did see this Cooper's Hawk on a pole, and that was a new species for me for Clallam county, ever.

I took this picture of a male Northern Pintail because I thought his back feathers were interesting.

There was a male Belted Kingfisher around, too, so I took his picture as well.

Down the street there was a Northern Shrike hanging out in a vacant lot. That was another new one for me in Clallam county, since I started keeping county lists, in 2012. I like shrikes, and they are fairly uncommon, so I took its picture.

I went on to Dungeness Landing county park and Cline Spit county park, but I saw nothing interesting at either place. On the way I saw both Eurasian Collared-Doves and a Mourning Dove, so those went on to my Clallam county list, too. I stopped back at 3 Crabs and saw the shrike again, and also what I assume was the same Cooper's Hawk. Here are a couple more pictures of the Cooper's Hawk, one from the back and one from the front, from the next street over.

After that, I gassed up my car, picked up a tuna sandwich at Subway, and checked out of my motel. I headed for home, but on the way I stopped at John Wayne Marina to check out gulls. I added Mew Gull to my Clallam county list, and here's a picture of a Mew Gull.

I was looking for another gull, and I finally found one that I believe was what I was looking for, an ICELAND GULL, formerly called Thayer's Gull. I've never learned to pick them out, but now I'm finally learning, I think. The bird has darker pink legs than the other pink-legged gulls around here, and the bill is smaller and shaped a little differently. Here is what I believe was an Iceland Gull.

I made my leisurely way toward the ferry at Kingston, and stopped at Port Gamble to eat my sandwich in the sun, at a table overlooking the bay. I looked out over the bay after I ate, and I was surprised to see a number of White-winged Scoters out there. I don't see them often, and I hadn't seen any yesterday when I looked from the same spot. I rarely get a picture of a White-winged Scoter, and I don't even see them very often, so I took some very distant pictures for my records.

In that picture, you can make out the distinctive bill and also the little white curlicue by the eye, but you can't see the white patch on the wing that gives the species its name. In this next picture, you can see the white wing patch as well as the bill and white spot by the eye.

Here's a shot of three male White-winged Scoters, with the one on the left diving. All you can see is his tail sticking up.

That was it for today. I caught the 2:30 ferry from Kingston and was home by 3:30. I added one more species to my January and 2019 lists, to give me 127 now this year so far. I also added 7 species to my Clallam county list, and that stands at 87 now. Two more species for my Kitsap county lists gives me 67 now in that county since 2012.

It was a very successful trip, and now my January total is much higher than I had expected it to get. I had expected to get 4 or 5 species on the trip, and hoped for maybe 8; I got 11. Last year I had 133 species in January, but there were many rarities in the area last year, and I managed to see 9 of them in January last year. I won't catch up to that total, but I should be able to add one or two more still this month, with luck.

Saturday, January 26, 2019

A week or two ago, I ran into a birding acquaintance at Wallace Swamp Creek Park, and she mentioned that she gets Purple Finches at her feeders. She invited me to come take a look. That's a challenging bird for me to get, and I hadn't seen one yet this year, so I emailed her and arranged to go over to her house this morning. She has a half dozen feeders and a covered deck to sit on and watch them. I set up in a chair at one end of the deck and watched birds. There was a lot of bird activity, and I took some pictures. The lighting was difficult, so the pictures are marginal, but there were birds. Here is an American Goldfinch, which was probably the most common bird there today.

A Song Sparrow showed up and visited the feeders a couple of times.

There were Black-capped Chickadees, but they never sat still long enough for a picture. Here's another American Goldfinch.

A big part of the challenge for pictures was the bright background. That made focusing slow and exposure difficult. There were at least two Red-breasted Nuthatches, and that was a new one for my 5 Mile Radius list. Here is the only Red-breasted Nuthatch picture that came out okay.

There were Dark-eyed Juncos around, too, and when the goldfinches weren't there, they visited the feeders sometimes.

After about a half hour a pair of House Finches flew in, and I got excited because they look a lot like Purple Finches. Here is the female House Finch with an American Goldfinch.

Here is the male House Finch with a Black-capped Chickadee and an American Goldfinch watching him..

Here's the Song Sparrow again, or another one.

Here is one more American Goldfinch.

Finally, after about 45 minutes of sitting in the low 40 degree temperatures, I saw my target species. Pictures were difficult, but here is the male PURPLE FINCH.

Here are a couple of pictures of the female Purple Finch.

Success! I had my year-bird, and since I was within 5 miles of home, I had a second 5 Mile Radius bird (the first being the Red-breasted Nuthatch). Purple Finch brought me to 128 species for the year and month so far. It was a new 2019 King county bird, too, of course, and now I have 90 species this year in King county. I've now seen 70 species within 5 miles of home.

I might very well not get any more species for my January and year lists this month, but we will see. The weather is supposed to be good, but there is not much left to go for, unless I decide to take a trip somewhere, like over the mountains to Cle Elum and Ellensburg.

Sunday, January 27, 2019

Well, I did some research online and came up with a couple of possibilities for new year-birds to go for today. They involved visiting two parks I hadn't ever even heard of before, let alone visited. This morning I drove over to Seattle to East Montlake Park, which is located across the Mountlake Cut from, and directly south of, the University of Washington football stadium. There is a trail that goes across bridges and boardwalks to Marsh and Foster Islands. I was looking for an uncommon duck species that had been reported there recently. At the first bridge, I got this picture of a male Hooded Merganser.

Here is a female Hooded Merganser for comparison.

Here's a female Common Merganser for further comparison of mergansers.

I continued on the trail and soon saw a large collection of ducks, just kind of milling around. Some of them appeared to be feeding, but mostly they were all just hanging out, as far as I could see, but in constant motion. I looked through them and was quite pleased to find a male REDHEAD, which was the uncommon species I was looking for. Here is a picture of the male Redhead and a few of the other ducks and coots.

The Redhead is the one in the middle with a red head (duh!). Here is another picture of the same bird, I think.

I kept looking and taking pictures and some more Redheads appeared. Here are two male Redheads.

It turned out that there were female Redheads in the group, too. Here is a pair of Redheads, with the female on the right of the male.

Finally, here is a picture of two males and two female Redheads, lined up in front of the other birds.

I thought it was very considerate of the Redheads to mostly stay in the front of the pack of ducks and coots, posing for pictures.

That was the bird I was looking for, and there wasn't likely to be anything else I needed, so I headed back toward my car. On the way there was a Pied-billed Grebe in winter plumage just sitting on the water nearby, so I took its picture, too.

It was just floating around in the still water, with its bill open a little, looking like it was grinning.

Here's a shot from the rear, showing its white rear end.

Doesn't it look like it's smiling for the camera?

I went home for lunch, and after lunch I went out again, this time to a park up in Edmonds I had never heard of before. A woman had reported seeing 7 Varied Thrushes there this morning, and that is a species that has been quite uncommon this year around here. I went to Pine Ridge Park and walked around. The park is heavily wooded, and it was dark and gloomy today, with the heavy overcast. I never saw or heard a single bird, other than 6 ducks on the pond. I walked the trails and played Varied Thrush and Golden-crowned Kinglet songs, but I got nothing. At least I got out of the house and visited two new (for me) parks today, and I had a nice little walk in the woods.

Adding Redhead to my January and 2019 lists brings me to 129 species this year so far. The Redheads were in King county, and that brought my 2019 King county list to 91 species.

I've got another new place to go tomorrow, in the hopes of seeing another uncommon duck. We'll see how that works out.

Monday, January 28, 2019

I can barely believe it, but here I am again, with still another addition to my year list. I mentioned last night that I had another new place to go, to look for another uncommon duck species. That new place is called Tambark Creek Pond, and it's in north Bothell, or maybe it's Mill Creek. It's just a small pond, visible from the street on two sides, with nothing much to suggest it was a place to look for birds. I took a look at the pond from 180th St SE, and I saw a few ducks, but not the species I was looking for. I couldn't see the entire pond, so I went around to the north side and took a look from there. Unfortunately, I was then looking south, right into the sun, which was reflecting off the water, so I couldn't see much from there. Some of the ducks were moving around, though, so I went back to 180th St SE again. This time I got out my scope, and scanned the edges of the pond better, and I found a female CINNAMON TEAL, which was the uncommon species I was looking for. It was in the brush, and too far away for a picture, but I then noticed a male Cinnamon Teal nearby, more in the open. It was snoozing, though, so I couldn't see his head. Here is a picture of the male Cinnamon Teal, although all you can really see is the distinctive cinnamon color.

I had gotten a good scope look at the female, which was enough to identify the species by itself, but the distinctive color of the male was the clincher. I headed for home, happy to add another species to my year and month lists.

When I got home, a Steller's Jay was calling loudly in our yard, maybe asking me to throw out some peanuts. I did that, and the bird posed for me in between daring to come down to get a peanut. Here is the Steller's Jay in our yard today.

It continued to call while waiting for me to back off so it could go get a peanut.

Here's one more of the Steller's Jay.

A crow heard the jay and flew in to join the fun. Here's an American Crow calling.

Here's one more shot of the crow.

Cinnamon Teal raised my January/2019 total to 130 species. I can't imagine I'll get any more this month. Now I have 77 species in Snohomish county this year. In 3 more days, February will start, and my monthly list will start over.

Thursday, January 31, 2019

I'm having computer issues, so I'm going to make today's report short and sweet. I didn't get anything new on Tuesday or Wednesday except Ring-billed Gull for Snohomish county. I did get this picture of a coyote yesterday, though.

Today I went out to the Snoqualmie Valley near Fall city, looking for a rarity (Rusty Blackbird) out there. I couldn't find it, but I did see my first BROWN-HEADED COWBIRDS of the year. I got some pictures, too. Here is a rather distant Lincoln's Sparrow.

Here is a Song Sparrow and a male House Sparrow.

Here's a White-crowned Sparrow.

Finally, here are a couple of pictures of a male House Finch in the sun.

Brown-headed Cowbird brings me to 131 species for January and 2019. It also gives me 92 species in King county this year so far. I have 78 species in Snohomish county, and 68 species in Skagit county this year. I also have 70 species in my 5MR circle; that is, within 5 miles of home.