Click here to return to 2019 Birding Reports:  http://www.barry15.com/2019_Birding_Reports

 

 

 

Friday, March 1, 2019

 

I started my day in Sequim, WA.  My first stop was Railroad Bridge Park in Sequim.  I was hoping for California Quail, since they are difficult for me to find here at home.  I didn't see or hear any quail today, but I saw birds, of course, and everything went on to my March list, since this was the first day of March.  I saw lots of American Robins today, and when I got to the park, I saw several Spotted Towhees.  Here is one of them.

 

I got House Sparrows, an Anna's Hummingbird, Golden-crowned Sparrow, Downy Woodpecker, and a single Pine Siskin.  I also saw this Fox Sparrow.

 

I walked out onto the old railroad bridge that gives the park its name, and saw a Common Merganser fly up the river and land, and then I spotted an American Dipper downstream.  I guess I won't have to go up to Tokul Creek this month for my dipper, like I usually do.

 

After that I picked up a sandwich at Subway and checked out of my motel.  I went to Dungeness Landing county park, but it was completely different from yesterday.  Yesterday the tide was out and there were thousands of birds to see, including tons of shorebirds.  Today the tide was high and I saw very little, and no shorebirds at all.  The seabirds I saw included Bufflehead, Red-breasted Merganser, Mallard, American Wigeon, Surf Scoter, Common Goldeneye, Harlequin Duck, and Brant.  While driving I saw a Great Blue Heron and some European Starlings.  There was a Dark-eyed Junco at one house, near a feeder, and a Common Raven on an irrigation sprinkler.  A Northern Flicker flew up as I drove by, and I got a good look at it as it flew away.

 

I stopped at Marlyn Nelson county park, and I saw a distant Pacific Loon.  I also saw about 6 Long-tailed Ducks, which was my main target there today.  While driving away from there, I spotted a male American Kestrel on a wire and got this picture.

 

There were Trumpeter Swans in a field, and then I saw this Red-tailed Hawk on a pole.

 

At John Wayne Marina I saw some Pigeon Guillemots and a Pelagic Cormorant.  At the mouth of the creek on the south side of the marina I saw the usual Northwestern Crows.  There were gulls there, too, and I got Mew Gull, Glaucous-winged Gull, and Iceland Gull there.  There were Canada Geese also, and as I drove out, there were some Hooded Mergansers at a pond.

 

I was heading toward home after that, but I detoured to stop at Fort Flagler.  On the way there, I picked up Green-winged Teal, Northern Pintail, and Killdeer at the isthmus between Indian Island and Marrowstone Island.  In Nordland, I saw this Greater Yellowlegs.

 

When I got to Fort Flagler, I sat in my car at the boat launch and ate my lunch.  There were Black-bellied Plovers and Dunlin on the grass.  Here's a picture of three Dunlin, scurrying along.

 

I watched some Black-bellied Plovers and Dunlin along the water's edge, and a Sanderling joined them.  Later there were more Sanderlings, a species I was pleased to get.  After I ate, I went over to the north end of the campground and scoped the water.  It was windy today, and there was very little out there.  I did manage to add Red-necked Grebe and Horned Grebe, and there were a couple of Double-crested Cormorants on a piling, but there was nothing else I needed.

 

Back at the boat launch, I was watching the Black-bellied Plovers, Dunlin, and Sanderlings along the edge of the water, and I noticed a smaller shorebird with them.  It turned out to be a WESTERN SANDPIPER, my first of the year.  Here's the Western Sandpiper on its own.

 

Before I could get a better picture of it, something spooked all the birds and they flew off.

 

I headed for home and saw a couple of Northern Shovelers on a farm pond along the road.  I stopped at Indian Island county park and was fortunate to find two Black Oystercatchers there.  I drove to the ferry in Kingston, and once on board the ferry, I added Feral Pigeon to my list.  I hastened to the back of the boat and managed to see a little group of Barrow's Goldeneyes as we pulled out.  That was it for my day, except I added American Crow on the drive home from Edmonds.

 

I ended up with 53 species today, so that is my March total now.  Western Sandpiper was new for the year, and now I have 140 species in 2019.  As of the end of February, I have 99 species in King county this year, 91 in Snohomish county, and 86 in Skagit county.  I have 75 species on my 5MR list, recorded within 5 miles of home, as the crow flies.

 

It was a successful trip to the Olympic Peninsula, especially yesterday.  I got most of what I wanted to see today, but missed California Quail and White-winged Scoter.  The Western Sandpiper was a pleasant surprise.

 

 

Saturday, March 2, 2019

 

Before I even had my breakfast this morning, I added Black-capped Chickadee and House Finch to my March list.  They were feeding on the seed Christina had thrown out on the walkway.

 

When I was ready to go, I went over to Marymoor Park.  The place was really jumping on a beautiful Saturday morning.  There must have been well over 200 cars in the two dog park parking lots, and many more in other parking lots near the athletic fields.  There was a steady stream of cars going in and out of the park.  My first stop was the rowing club pond.  The parking lot there was quite full, too, and lots of people going to and from the rowing club.  I checked the pond for Green Heron, but had no luck.  At least the pond had finally thawed.  I saw three Buffleheads and a pair of Green-winged Teal there.  Here is the male Bufflehead, showing off the iridescence on his head.

 

Here is one of the two female Buffleheads.

 

I went around to the west parking lot for the dog park and walked along the slough.  The place was overrun with dog walkers, and some of them let their dogs run loose in an area that is closed off, and the dogs chased all the birds away.  I did see Gadwall (a duck species) and Red-winged Blackbirds, but nothing good.  I met a guy from West Seattle and we talked for a while.  I ended up spending maybe 45 minutes with him, and I didn't see anything else of interest or get any more pictures.  He had seen some Western Meadowlarks on the other side of the dog park, earlier, and we went over there, but saw nothing but tons of people walking their dogs and generally clogging up the park.  I guess that Marymoor has to be a weekday thing now for me, with the better weather coming on.  It got up to 50 degrees today, the warmest it has been for a month.

 

That's it for today's report.  I decided to just go home.  I added 4 more species to my March list, and now I have 57 species in March.  I need to check the weather forecast, but tomorrow I hope to go up to Skagit county and add some real numbers to March.  I have  list of winter birds that are already leaving or will soon be leaving, and I want to concentrate on those at the beginning of the month.

 

 

Sunday, March 3, 2019

 

I headed up to Skagit county this morning.  On the way I stopped at a place I hadn't heard of before yesterday, Sunday Lake, east of Stanwood (north Snohomish county).  It was only a small detour for me, and I added Ring-necked Duck, Pied-billed Grebe, and Ruddy Duck to my March list there.  Ruddy Duck was new for Snohomish county this year, too.

 

I continued on and, after picking up a sandwich at Subway, I went to Eide Road, west of Stanwood.  I was hoping for Short-eared Owl, although it is getting pretty late for them.  I also wanted Rough-legged Hawk there.  I didn't get either one of those; only a Northern Harrier.  From there I went north toward Skagit county.  There were a couple of large flocks of Snow Geese near the place that birders call The Big Ditch.  Here is a juvenile Snow Goose.

 

There were two Cackling Geese at the edge of the Snow Goose flock, and I needed that one for March, in addition to Snow Goose.  Here is a mature Snow Goose.

 

Continuing north, I stopped a couple of times to check out swans.  I needed to find Tundra Swan, but all I saw were Trumpeter Swans, which I had seen over in Sequim.  I saw a lot of American Wigeons today, and in one flock I saw my first March Eurasian Wigeon.  As I approached Wiley Slough, there was another flock of Snow Geese, and I took this picture of part of the flock, with Mount Baker partially in the clouds, in the background.

 

At Wiley Slough, I soon spotted the rare (for this area) Black Phoebe that has been hanging out there for over a year now.

 

I got that one picture, and it flew off, and I didn't see it again.  I know I show a lot of pictures of Spotted Towhees, but I think they are very photogenic birds, and one posed for me again today, so here it is.

 

There were some Yellow-rumped Warblers catching bugs there, too, so that one went on my March list, too.  I parked and walked out onto the dike, hoping to find Long-billed Dowitchers, but I didn't see any.  There were a few Greater Yellowlegs, which was one for my 2019 Skagit county list, but I had seen one over in Jefferson county on Friday, so it wasn't new for March.  Here is a Greater Yellowlegs.

 

I already had Dunlin, too, but there was a small flock that kept flying around, and I got this picture of some of the Dunlin.

 

That's all I got at Wiley Slough, and I moved on to Hayton Reserve.  I didn't get out of the car and walk there, because it was getting late, and I had a lot more places I wanted to go.  There is an eagle's nest there, though, and this magnificent Bald Eagle was sitting near the nest.  This was my first Bald Eagle of March.

 

I drove along Maupin Road, and then Rawlings Road.  I checked out swans a couple of times, and finally I found a small group of Tundra Swans, which I wanted to get for March because they will be leaving this area soon to go to their breeding grounds.  Here is a mediocre picture of a Tundra Swan, with the light coming from the wrong direction.

 

The main way to tell a Tundra Swan from a Trumpeter Swan is the little yellow mark on the bill, in front of the eye.  There are other differences in the heads, but the yellow mark is the easiest way to tell a Tundra Swan.

 

It was time for lunch, and I went to the house on Valentine Road that has bird feeders.  I can sit in my car on the wrong side of the road, partially blocking the road, and watch the birds at the various feeders and around the yard.  Today the owner came out and we chatted a little.  We have talked before.  He is quite friendly and is interested in birds, so we talked about the birds he gets in his yard.  I was hoping for Hairy Woodpecker there, or even Red-breasted Sapsucker or Pileated Woodpecker, but the only woodpeckers I saw today were a Northern Flicker and Downy Woodpeckers, both of which I already had this month.  Here is a male Downy Woodpecker.

 

In the back part of the yard that I could see, there were birds feeding on the ground.  I picked up Mourning Dove and Varied Thrush there, but they were too distant and too quickly gone for pictures.  Both were excellent March birds, though.  Another excellent March bird was Purple Finch.  A pair of them came to one of the feeders that had black sunflower seeds in it.  It was new for Skagit county for me in 2019, too.

 

 

There were a lot of other birds around, but nothing else I needed.  I moved on north, up to the Samish Flats.  I went down Sullivan Road, and then to the West Ninety.  At the West Ninety, there were a lot of people with cameras, but I guess they were just taking pictures of a couple of eagles that had been flying around.  I looked around and managed to find a distant Rough-legged Hawk, which was my main target there, other than Short-eared Owl, which wasn't likely.  I drove through Edison and a couple of other places, but I didn't find anything.  On Smith Road I saw an eagle standing in some water in a field.  I don't know what it was doing, but I took its picture.

 

Maybe it had been taking a bath.  It looks kind of grumpy, but that's probably just its natural expression.

 

After that, I decided to head for home, and went down Farm-to-Market Road, which turns into Best Road.  Along Farm-to-Market Road, there were some Black-bellied Plovers in a flooded field.  I had seen that one on Friday at Fort Flagler, but it was a first for Skagit county this year.  I detoured at Valentine Road and stopped for about ten minutes at the feeder house, still hoping for a good woodpecker.  No woodpeckers, but I did catch a brief look at my first Steller's Jay of March.  It was my first Steller's Jay in Skagit county this year, too.  I had picked up Pine Siskin in Sequim, but I got this picture of a Pine Siskin there.

 

Here's a female Red-winged Blackbird at one of the feeders.  That was a species I had seen at Marymoor yesterday, but here is a picture.

 

I was almost ready to leave when an interesting sized bird flew into a tree.  I could barely see it through all the branches, but I managed to get a picture of this Varied Thrush, despite the branches in the way.

 

I had to back the car up a couple of feet to get that shot through a little opening, but the bird sat there and waited for me.

 

Back on the road to home, I saw a Cooper's Hawk in a small tree along the road, but there was too much traffic to stop or go back to try for a picture.  It was a good March bird, though.  I only had a quick look, as I drove by, but I feel confident of the identification.  It was too big to be a Sharp-shinned Hawk, I believe.

 

I got 17 more species for my March list today, to bring me to 74 species now.  I also got 1 more for my 2019 Snohomish county list, to give me 92 there this year, and 4 more for Skagit county in 2019, to give me 90 species in Skagit this year.  We have more good weather forecasted, but I have several appointments this week, so my birding will be limited to half day trips.

 

 

Monday, March 4, 2019

 

I started today in Edmonds.  I looked for the Greater White-fronted Goose that has been hanging out at Civic Field, but it wasn't there today.  It might be gone for the season now.  Next I went to the Edmonds Marsh.  I played Marsh Wren songs, but couldn't attract one today.  A flock of Bushtits came through a couple of times, so that one went on my March list.  Next I had a Ruby-crowned Kinglet for my March list.  I was able to attract it with playback, but I never got a picture because it wouldn't stay still long enough.  A couple of Bewick's Wrens were more cooperative, and I got a couple of pictures of that March bird.

 

 

I also added White-crowned Sparrow to my March list there.  I went up to Sunset Avenue next, and I looked around.  It was a beautiful day, although the breeze was chilly.  Here's a view of the Edmonds to Kingston ferry pulling out, with the Olympic Range in the background and a passenger train passing by in the foreground.

 

I saw a Brant's Cormorant to complete the 3 local cormorants for March.  I also found the rare (for this area) Eared Grebe that I saw last week or the week before.  I hadn't seen any reports lately, so I was happy to find that it was still around.  In the distance I spotted a Red-throated Loon, always a good species to see, and one I needed for March still.  After that, I went up to Ocean Avenue, and eventually saw a distant Common Loon, to complete the 3 local loon species for March.  That made 8 species for my March list, and I was quite pleased with that.  I had a lunch appointment in Everett, but it was such a nice day that I decided to do more birding after lunch.  I stopped at Juanita Bay Park on the way home.  It had warmed up to almost 50 degrees by then, although the breeze was still chilly.  I played Golden-crowned Kinglet songs, and attracted 3 of them, for my March list.  Here are a couple of pictures of Golden-crowned Kinglet.

 

 

I walked out onto the east boardwalk and played Virginia Rail.  I got a loud response, and this time I actually saw the bird, deep in the brush.  Usually I only hear them.  That was another March bird.  At the end of the boardwalk, I soon added American Coot to my March list.  There were many hundreds of them out there, in a large, loose group.  Here are some of the American Coots.

 

Here's a shot of the inner bay at Juanita Bay Park today.

 

On the shore in the middle of that last picture there were some Wilson's Snipe, another March bird.  Here is a very distant picture of one of the Wilson's Snipe.

 

Here's a picture that has three Wilson's Snipe in it.  See if you can find all three.

 

There was also a Belted Kingfisher perched in the sun.  It was too far away for a picture, but it went on my March list.

 

There were several Wood Ducks around, with the males in their full breeding plumage.  That went onto my March list, too.  Here is a colorful male Wood Duck.

 

Female Wood Ducks aren't as gaudy, but I think they are very attractive with their more subtle colors.

 

The coots out on the lake kept moving around and at one point were consolidated into what birders refer to as a raft.

 

The local eagles catch coots regularly, and I think the coots are looking for safety in numbers when they form up like that.

 

I didn't need the species, but there were Green-winged Teal around, too.  Here is a male Green-winged Teal.

 

Here is a pair of Green-winged Teal.

 

It was difficult to stop taking pictures of the Wood Ducks because they were so close and the light was so good.  Here is another male Wood Duck.

 

Here's another female Wood Duck.

 

And, finally, here is a picture of a Wood Duck pair.

 

In my two birding sessions, morning and afternoon, I managed to add 14 more species to my March list.  Now I have 88 species in March, which a great start for the month.  March was my biggest month last year.  I had 131 species locally, and then added 67 more in California at the end of the month.  I'm planning on repeating the same California trip this year, so we'll see if I can match that total.

 

 

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

 

Today I had a lunch appointment that was going to last all afternoon, so I went out this morning to see what I could find.  Before I even had had breakfast, though, I heard a Pileated Woodpecker in our yard.  I went out to look for it, but never saw it, although I did hear it call 2 or 3 more times, off to the north.  That was an excellent March bird.

 

When I went out birding, after breakfast, I started at the parks along the Lake Washington waterfront south of Kirkland.  A week or so ago, I saw some good ducks there, as well as Western Grebes in good number.  Today was a different story.  I finally found some ducks at the third park, Houghton Beach Park.  Last week I had seen a couple of dozen Canvasbacks, but today there weren't any.  I saw a post this week that offered the opinion that Canvasbacks were on the move, migrating back north and inland for the summer.  They had certainly abandoned the beaches south of Kirkland.  I did see a group of Greater Scaup, anyway, so that one went on my list.  I looked around and found a single female Lesser Scaup, maybe the same bird I had seen last week at another of the beaches.  I was happy to get both scaup species for my March list, but I was disappointed not to see any Canvasbacks or Western Grebes.

 

I had some time, so I drove to Log Boom Park at the north end of lake Washington.  There I saw some Ring-billed Gulls, which I needed for March still.  Here is a picture of a couple of Ring-billed Gulls.

 

I know - they look like all "seagulls" look, but these guys had a black ring on their bill and yellow legs, with yellow eyes.  Ring-billed Gull, and one for my March list.

 

I didn't need it, but I also took this picture of a male Gadwall.

 

Here's a picture of another one I didn't need, a female Common Merganser.

 

I saw both Greater Scaup and Lesser Scaup there, thus "confirming" my sightings at Houghton Beach.  Here is a male Greater Scaup, the more common species today.

 

I scanned the lake from the end of the dock, and I found four Canvasbacks, all males.  That was a great one to get for March, since they will be leaving soon.  There are some old pilings at the end of the dock, and in the winter, there are always a lot of Double-crested Cormorants on the pilings.  Here is a picture of a Double-crested Cormorant, a species I already had this month, with its wings spread in the characteristic way of all cormorant species.  I guess they are drying their wings, although who can really say what they are doing.  Double-crested Cormorant, the only one of the three local cormorant species that is found on fresh water.

 

Back at the parking lot, there was an immature Bald Eagle in a tree, so I took this picture of it.

 

After that, I still had a little time left, so I drove by the house in Lake Forest Park where I see Band-tailed Pigeons regularly, but not always.  Today I didn't see any.  As I drove out of the neighborhood, though, I saw a Varied Thrush on the ground by the road.  I tried for a picture through my windshield, but I couldn’t my camera to focus, and I failed.  I had a good look at it, though, and it flew up into a tree.  I watched it some more, but it never made itself available for pictures.  I had Varied Thrush already this month, but this was my first one in King county this year, and it was inside my 5 mile radius circle as well, so it went onto my King county list and my 5MR list.

 

 

That was it for today.  I added 5 more species to my March list, to give me 93 species now.  The Varied Thrush gives me an even 100 species in King county this year, and it gives me 76 species within 5 miles of home.

 

The weather forecast is a bit iffy for the next few days, and I have appointments tomorrow and Friday, both in the afternoon, so I don't know how much more birding I can do this week.

 

 

Wednesday, March 6, 2019

 

The rain held off today until the afternoon, so I went over to Marymoor Park.  As usual, I wanted Green Heron, Western Meadowlark, and Northern Shrike.  I didn't find any of them.  I wanted to walk along the slough, but the nearest parking lot was closed today.  They were re-grading it, which I was glad to see because there had been a lot of potholes. I parked by the office instead and walked to the slough.  On the way I played Chestnut-backed Chickadee and got that one for my March list.  As a bonus, I also got Red-breasted Nuthatch, without even playing its song.

 

Along the slough I found the Belted Kingfisher, sitting close to the path.  I didn't need it, but pictures are always desired.  Here are three close shots of the Belted Kingfisher today.

 

 

 

I saw a Double-crested Cormorant that had caught a good-sized fish.  The cormorant struggled with the fish for two or three minutes before it finally got it down.  Here are some pictures of the battle.

 

 

 

 

Here's the cormorant after swallowing its fish.

 

On my way back to my car, I saw the Belted Kingfisher on another perch, and I got this picture from a different perspective.

 

I had seen several Song Sparrows, as usual, but I was looking for a different sparrow.  I saw two of them, to my delight.  Here are three pictures of Lincoln's Sparrows, an excellent March bird..

 

 

 

I drove through the park again and even got out and went up on the viewing mound by the East Meadow, but I didn't see anything else of interest.  I stopped on the way home at the storm water retention pond in Redmond to look for Green Heron, but I didn't find one there this time.

 

I added 3 more species to my March list, to give me 96 now for the month.

 

 

Thursday, March 7, 2019

 

It was snowing when I got up this morning, but the forecast said it would stop soon.  We got about half an inch here, maybe a bit more, but it wasn't sticking on the roads much, as the temperature was in the mid-30's.  I headed out about 9:30 or so, and went up to Mill Creek/North Bothell.  I visited Tambark Pond, where I had seen a pair of Cinnamon Teal in January and the female in February.  I parked and looked around from 180th St. SE.  There were some ducks on the pond, and on one edge, I spotted the telltale cinnamon color of a male Cinnamon Teal.  The bird was snoozing, so this was the best picture I could get.

 

You can see the rounded head on the right, and the black part with white stripes, on the left, is the tail.  You can also see the head of a male Green-winged Teal to the right of the Cinnamon Teal, but I didn’t need that one.  Cinnamon Teal is quite uncommon around here, especially in the winter.  I had read about this pair of them on this pond, and now I have seen one or the other, or both, in all three months this year - each time with just one visit to the pond.  It is an out of the way place, and there isn't anything else of interest there, so I don't think many birders have seen them.  I couldn't see the female today.

 

There was snow on the ground, but it had stopped snowing by then, so I went on.  I was near North Creek Park, a place I only "discovered" a couple of weeks ago.  I wasn't at all sure I would see anything there, especially with snow on the ground, but I drove over there.  There was maybe three-quarters of an inch of snow, or maybe an inch, but it wasn't icy, so I walked a little.  On my first visit there, last month, I had gone out on the boardwalk in the wetlands part of the park, looking for Marsh Wren.  I hadn't managed to call one up, but back near the parking lot, in the large evergreen trees, I had called up three "little bird" species I needed.  I didn't need any of those species today, but there had been a report of another one I did need - Northern Shrike.  I've been trying for that one at Marymoor Park, but I haven't seen one there for several weeks now.  They are pretty uncommon around here, and only here at all in the winter.

 

Anyway, I walked out on the paths a little and looked around.  Here's a picture of a small tree, and at the very tip-top is a Northern Shrike.

 

I got a little closer and got this picture of the Northern Shrike at full zoom.

 

That was a great one for March, since any shrikes that are still in this area will be leaving soon.  Here is another picture of North Creek Park, showing the wetlands covered with snow.

 

Here's a shot of the start of the boardwalk.

 

I didn't want to walk out on the boardwalk in the snow, for fear of slipping, so I went back to the parking lot area.  I already had the three species I had seen there in February (Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Golden-crowned Kinglet, and Red-breasted Nuthatch), but I thought of another bird I still needed for March, and the habitat looked good for it.  I played Pacific Wren songs, and got a response quickly.  I managed to find the bird, but it was too dark in the woods to get a decent picture.  It went onto my March list, though.

 

So, despite the snow, I managed to add 3 more species to my March list, and two of them - Cinnamon Teal and Northern Shrike - were excellent ones.  Now I have 99 species in March, after the first week of the month.  Northern Shrike was new for Snohomish county for me this year, and now I have 93 species in Snohomish county this year.  It was also the first time I have ever seen a Northern Shrike in Snohomish county, and now I have 167 species in Snohomish county since 2012, when I started keeping track by county.

 

We have good weather coming up, supposedly, but there are getting to be fewer and fewer species I need.  I should be able to add some more, though.

 

 

Friday, March 8, 2019

 

By the time I had finished breakfast this morning, it was snowing.  It wasn't supposed to last, though, so I headed out, anyway.  My first stop was the house in Lake Forest Park where I usually can see Band-tailed Pigeons.  They were indeed there today, so that one went on to my March List.  Here's a picture of four of the Band-tailed Pigeons in the falling snow.

 

It was interesting trying to get pictures of them because my camera wanted to auto-focus on the falling snow, rather than the birds.

 

I continued on up to the town of Woodway.  I stopped for about ten minutes at the place I had heard California Quail a couple of weeks ago.  I didn't hear or see any quail today, but at least the snow and rain was stopping by then.  Going back through Woodway, I stopped at the park where I have found Pacific Wren and Brown Creeper in the past.  I didn't need Pacific Wren any more this month, but I did need the creeper.  I played its calls, and one obligingly flew in and crept up a couple of tree trunks.  It was pretty dark in the woods, though, and the bird didn't say still for long.  In low light, it takes my camera a couple of seconds to focus usually, so taking pictures in low light is difficult.  Here's a blurry picture of the Brown Creeper today, taken in the inadequate light.

 

I went on into Edmonds and drove past Civic Field and another place where I had seen geese in the past couple of months.  A Greater White-fronted Goose had been hanging out with a small group of Canada Geese, and I had seen it twice at Civic Field.  Today I only saw one pair of Canada Geese.  Some Canada Geese migrate and breed in the far north, and others stay here in the summer and have their broods here.  This is the time of year when the ones who stay here pair up and the ones who leave go off.  Greater White-fronted Goose is uncommon around here, so I had been lucky to have seen the Edmonds one a couple of times.  It didn't appear I was going to be lucky today, though.

 

I moved on to Sunset Avenue and looked around with my scope.  I found a Rhinoceros Auklet, too far out for a picture, and that was an excellent March bird.  I never did find one in February, so it was nice to get one in March.  I moved up the street and looked around some more.  I wanted to find a Black Scoter, but I wasn't having any luck.  Finally, on about the 4th or 5th scan of the water to the northwest, I spotted one female and two male Black Scoters.  Finding sea birds is difficult because most of them dive when they feed, and they spend much more time under the water than on the surface when they're feeding.  That's why I have to scan each area several times, to catch them on the surface.  There were a lot of Brant, a small goose species, along the shore there.  I didn’t need that one, but here is a picture of a Brant.

 

I had four species for my March list at that point, and that was quite good.  I decided to try Ocean Avenue, although there was little else I might see there.  On the way, I drove past a church that has a grassy area, and there were a few Canada Geese there.  I pulled into their driveway and one of the geese was the Greater White-fronted Goose I had been looking for earlier.  I was amazed.  It quietly fed on grass while I took pictures from my car.  Here is my March Greater White-fronted Goose.

 

 

At Ocean Avenue, I was hoping for Western Grebe.  I sometimes see a large group of them far off in the distance to the northwest from there.  Today there were some birds out there, in the right place, but they were just too far away to tell what they were.  They were most likely Western Grebes, but I couldn't count them because I couldn't see them well enough for identification.  I did see a pair of Black Scoters, there, though - the same species I had just counted on Sunset Avenue.  Here is the pair of Black Scoters.  The male is the black one.

 

With the Greater White-fronted Goose, I had five species for my March list, which was great, but I had some time, so I drove to the Edmonds fishing pier and walked out there with my scope.  I was looking for the Black Turnstone that has been seen there, and I scanned the rocks of the breakwater carefully.  I found a shorebird, and I was excited for a minute, but it turned out to be a Dunlin, one I didn't need.  Here is a rather distant picture of the single Dunlin that was there today.

 

There was very little out on the water, so I headed back to my car.  I kept looking at the breakwater, though, and near the land end of the pier, I spotted a Black Turnstone on the rocks.  That was great, as I needed that one for March, but there was another bird with it, and for a minute or two I thought I had hit the jackpot with a Surfbird as well.  As it turned out, the second one was another Black Turnstone, though.  Here are a couple of pictures of the Black Turnstones.

 

 

I might have walked right past them as I went out onto the pier, but maybe they had flown in after I went by that point.  While I was taking pictures, something spooked them, and they flew off together.  One way or the other, my timing was good.

 

As I reached the end of the pier, the female Belted Kingfisher I have seen there before a couple of times flew in and perched right in front of me.  I have shown a lot of kingfisher pictures lately, but I could resist this bird, as it was posing right in front of me, maybe 20 feet away, if that.  Here are a couple of pictures of the Edmonds pier female Belted Kingfisher.

 

 

The Black Turnstones gave me 6 March species today, which was outstanding, but I had more time, and I was greedy.  I went to the Edmonds Marsh and tried to call in a Marsh Wren.  Spring is coming, and in the spring Marsh Wrens are quite responsive to playback, so I keep hoping to get lucky.  Not today, though.  I did get this picture of a White-crowned Sparrow that was kind of puffed up, maybe because the temperature was in the high 30's.

 

 

That was it for today.  It was snowing when I started and this afternoon it was sunny.  Now it's supposed to be dry for several days, so I'll see what I can find.  I added 6 more species to my March list today, and now I have 105 species in March.  I have two more weeks to find new March birds here around home, and then I plan to leave on a three week trip to California, which will span March and April.  I should be able to add to both months and I also figure to get a lot of new birds for 2019 as well.  There are some spring birds that should be showing up here soon, too, including the first swallows.

 

 

Saturday, March 9, 2019

 

Today I started at Marymoor Park, but I stopped at the stormwater retention pond in Redmond on the way, to check for Green Heron.  No luck there, so I went to the parking area for the rowing club across the slough from Marymoor, to look for Green Heron there.  The parking area was completely full of cars for people who were at the rowing club, with cars circling, looking for parking places, so I went on to the main park.  I drove around, looking for Western Meadowlarks mainly, but there were so many people at the park that I soon left.

 

I drove out to Fall City and went up Neal Road.  I saw a Varied Thrush there, a bird I didn't need any more this month, but always a good one to see.  There was a medium sized flock of Cackling Geese, too.  At the end of the road I looked across the river to the big trees at the dairy there.  I was looking for blackbirds.  There weren't many birds in the trees, but I immediately saw some Brewer's Blackbirds, which was a species I still needed this month.  Then I saw a couple of male Brown-headed Cowbirds, which was the other species I needed for March that I was hoping to see there.

 

I drove up to Carnation and went to the house with feeders.  I figured that American Goldfinch would be a gimme for my March list, but there weren't any around.  I wonder if a hawk had been through there recently, because there were very few birds around.  I waited in my car, and eventually a single Pine Siskin flew in to one of the feeders.  I didn't need it, but that's a good bird, and I got this picture of the Pine Siskin.

 

A few blackbirds and starlings came around, and then I saw a Varied Thrush fly in.  It left almost immediately, and came back again a few minutes later.  I was sitting in my car, across the street, but the window was open, and I wonder if I was scaring the bird off.  As it turned out, more Varied Thrushes showed up, and eventually, there were at least four of them, feeding in various parts of the yard.  Here are a couple of pictures of the first Varied Thrush that showed up - it was a male.

 

 

Here's a female Varied Thrush.  She has the same pattern, but her colors are more subdued, especially the chest band.

 

Here's another picture of a female Varied Thrush.

 

Here's one picture of one of the male Varied Thrushes.

 

Here's a male Red-winged Blackbird.

 

As it turned out, it was good the Varied Thrushes were there, because they caused me to stick around, and eventually a couple of American Goldfinches came in to the most distant feeder, and that one went on my March list.  Here are a couple of American Goldfinches at the feeder.

 

Usually there are at least a couple of dozen goldfinches at the feeders there, and I wonder where they were this morning.  I also usually see Eurasian Collared-Doves there, and I needed that one, but not today.

 

I drove on to the Stillwater Unit of the Snoqualmie Valley Wildlife Area.  I sat in the parking lot in my car and ate the Subway sandwich I had picked up in Redmond.  When I was through eating, I walked out on to the trail.  I was looking for Marsh Wren, and I played their songs in the two places I have seen them there this year, but I didn't get any responses today.  I walked south on the trail, enjoying the sunny day, and at the second Marsh Wren location, I had a Song Sparrow fly in to check me out.

 

A Ruby-crowned Kinglet also responded to the Marsh Wren songs, and I switched to Ruby-crowned Kinglet songs to keep it interested.  I eventually got these two pictures that I like.  I didn't need Ruby-crowned Kinglet, but pictures are always desired.

 

 

They are really tiny little birds, and they don’t stay still for long, so I was happy to get a couple of pictures.

 

I walked a little farther and played more Marsh Wren songs, and at the first bridge, I saw a little bird fly across the field to the bushes right in front of me.  It was shy and stayed in the bushes mostly, but eventually I was able to get a good look at it, and it was my Marsh Wren for March.

 

Next I drove up through Duval to W. Snoqualmie River Road NE.  I looked for Western Meadowlark and Savannah Sparrow there, but never found either one.  At the dairy near the end of the road I did find some Eurasian Collared-Doves, though, and that was another March bird.  It's a dead-end road, and on the way back, I noticed that the trees across the river with Great Blue Heron nests had herons near three of the nests.  Great Blue Herons nest communally, and this location has had nests for 2 or 3 years, each year with more nests.  There are maybe 4 or 5 nests now.  Here are two Great Blue Herons near the highest nest.

 

So, it was another successful day.  I added 5 more species to my March list, to bring me to 110 species for March now.  I hope to get 6 or 7 more before I leave for California in two weeks.  Last year I had 131 species in March locally, before I left for California, but I'm not going to come close to that this year.  I really had amazing luck last year, finding uncommon and rare species and just generally getting everything possible.

 

 

Sunday, March 10, 2019

 

Today I went over to Seattle, to my California Scrub-Jay spot near the University of Washington.  California Scrub-Jays are uncommon around here, but they have a few strongholds around Seattle.  I see one almost every time I go to my "spot" for them, but not always.  They are fairly responsive to playback, and will usually come in to check me out when I play their calls.  I played them today, and walked up and down the street looking for them.  It was looking like this would be a failed attempt, but then I spotted one on top of a street light.  It was directly between me and the sun, so I hustled down the street to get in position for a picture.  Just as I got to my position, it flew across the street, into a tree.  I got a little closer and got this picture of the California Scrub-Jay in the tree.

 

I took two pictures, and as I was taking the third one, the bird flew.  Here's the result.  It isn't very good because it's so blurred, but I think it is kind of interesting anyway.

 

At least it is good enough to identify the species.  After that I headed toward home, but I stopped at Magnuson Park, in North Seattle.  I had a couple of target species there, and I found both of them.  On the swimming raft, there were gulls, as usual.  There was one California Gull among the Mew Gulls and Ring-billed Gulls, so California Gull went on my March list.  I then looked out on Lake Washington, and found a large group of dozens of Western Grebes in the distance, my other March target for the day.

 

That was it.  I didn't really have anything else I could look for reasonably, so I went home.  I added 3 more species to my March list, and now I have 113 species for March.  The ten day weather forecast looks very good, except for Tuesday, but I don't really have much to look for.  I'd consider going over the mountains and looking for some Eastern Washington species, but there is snow on the ground over there, and I'm not sure about the roads.  I guess I can keep going back to Marymoor and looking for Green Heron and Western Meadowlark, but neither one is very likely.

 

 

Monday, March 11, 2019

 

This morning I went down to Juanita Bay Park, which is my local "patch".  I didn't really expect to get anything new, but there was a chance, and I figured I would walk around and take pictures.  On my way to the east boardwalk, I saw a female Northern Flicker fly down to the ground.  I couldn't decide which of these next two pictures I liked better, so here are both pictures of the female Northern Flicker.

 

 

I played Marsh Wren songs on the boardwalk.  Even though I got one yesterday, I need it for my 5 mile radius list.  Soon, they will start to respond more, but not today.  In the spring the males sing all the time, and they are very responsive to playback.  Out at the end of the boardwalk, I spotted two immature Bald Eagles across the little bay.  Here's one of them.

 

I went back toward the parking lot and walked to the west boardwalk.  On the way I saw a male Anna's Hummingbird, and I got this picture.

 

As I approached the west boardwalk, I saw a guy with a camera, and he was obviously taking pictures of something.  It turned out to be a Hairy Woodpecker, one of the few species I still needed this month.  It was within my 5 mile radius, so it went on my 5MR list.  In addition to all that, it was my first Hairy Woodpecker in King county this year.  It flew off before I could get a picture, but I got a good look at it.

 

Out at the end of that boardwalk, I got this picture of another immature Bald Eagle, or maybe it was the same one.  There were three of them there at one point, and they flew around a bit.

 

There were a lot of male Red-winged Blackbirds around and they were constantly calling, proclaiming their territory and looking for mates.  Here's a male Red-winged Blackbird, calling loudly and showing off his red wing patches.

 

Here's the same bird, calling again.

 

There were a couple of pairs of Wood Ducks around, and they were very close.  I can't resist taking pictures of Wood Ducks when they are close and in decent light.  Here's a male Wood Duck, in all his glory.

 

There was a tuber or piece of root in the water, and a pair of Wood Ducks were picking at it.

 

 

That was it for me today.  I was pleased to see a Hairy Woodpecker, and now I have 114 species in March.  I have 77 in my 5 mile radius circle now, and 101 in King county this year.  It's supposed to rain a lot overnight and there are showers forecasted for tomorrow, so I don't know if I'll get out birding tomorrow or not.  Two species of swallow should be back very soon, so I should be able to add them to my lists this week or next.

 

 

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

 

It rained almost an inch overnight, but it had stopped when I headed out this morning.  On my way to Wallace Swamp Creek Park in Kenmore, the rain started up again..  It was supposed to only be a 30% chance of showers this morning, so I kept going.  At the park, it was raining lightly, so I sat in the car and waited.  After about 15 minutes, I decided to walk around in the rain.  I used my golf umbrella, and I discovered a trick.  I tucked the handle into the partially zipped front of my coat and rested the ribs of the umbrella on my head.  It stayed in place nicely, kept me dry, and left my hands free for my binoculars and my camera.

 

I walked through the park, seeing the usual common birds - chickadees, Song Sparrows, Spotted Towhees, and Dark-eyed Juncos.  I was looking mainly for Red-breasted Sapsucker, and I didn't really expect to find one, but you have to look.  It was certainly more likely I would see one there than in my room at home. 

 

Near the west end of the park, I spotted a bird on the ground, and it turned out to be a Hermit Thrush, a wonderful March bird.  To illustrate how unlikely it was that I saw this bird, last year I never saw a Hermit Thrush, all year long, and I only saw them twice in 2017.  I had seen two of them at Wallace Swamp Creek Park this January, so I knew it was possible, but I certainly didn't expect it.  Here is the Hermit Thrush, near where I first saw it.

 

It flew up and perched on a fence, then stayed there and looked at me, waiting for me to take pictures.  You can see the rain in the following shots.  There was little light, so the shutter speed was slow, and therefore the falling rain showed up as streaks.  You can see some small drops on the bird.

 

 

You can see that it kept moving around, posing in different positions for me.

 

As long as it sat there, I kept shooting.  When you see a bird as infrequently as I see Hermit Thrush, you take advantage of every opportunity.

 

So, that turned out to be the excitement of the day.  I walked through the park twice, hoping for Red-breasted Sapsucker, but I never found one.  I did see a couple of Varied Thrushes, high in a tree, and a Downy Woodpecker, but nothing I needed for any list.  Here is Wallace Swamp Creek Park in the rain.

 

With all the rain overnight, the creek was running high.  Here's a picture of Swamp Creek (or, Wallace Swamp Creek maybe) from the bridge.

 

The rain actually stopped for my second walk through the park.  I got this picture of a Spotted Towhee at that time.

 

Finally, here's a picture of a Fox Sparrow.

 

The unexpected Hermit Thrush today brings me to 115 species for March.

 

 

Thursday, March 14, 2019

 

I have very little to report and only two mediocre pictures to show, so I thought about not bothering with a report today.  I decided to send out a brief one, though, because I did add a species to some lists today.

 

Yesterday I went over to Marymoor and looked for Green Heron and Western Meadowlark.  On the way I stopped at the stormwater pond on the north edge of Redmond, but I didn't see a Green Heron there.  I also didn't find the heron at the rowing club pond, but I did see a pair of Downy Woodpeckers, not a species I needed for any lists.  Here's a picture of the male Downy Woodpecker.

 

After that I drove around to the east side of the slough and walked a little.  I ran into a birding couple, and they told me they had seen Western Meadowlarks a couple of hours earlier, on the east side of the park, so I went over there.  I couldn't find any meadowlarks.  That was it for Wednesday.

 

Today I again went to Marymoor, and I again stopped at the stormwater pond and went to the rowing club.  Again, no Green Heron.  I drove into the park and I saw the large group of birders on the Thursday morning bird walk, so I stopped and asked about meadowlarks.  They had seen 5 of them, and they pointed me in the right direction.  I also asked about Red-breasted Sapsucker, and they told me where they had seen a couple of them, too.  I looked, and I walked almost to the lake, but I didn't find any meadowlarks or sapsuckers.  I did see a Northern Shrike, which is an excellent bird, and later in the year than usual, too.  Here is a distant picture of the Northern Shrike.

 

The reason I'm writing this report is that I also saw a single TREE SWALLOW flying over the East Meadow.  It even landed on one of the swallow bird houses, but it flew off before I could get a picture.  Anyway, that was a new year-bird for me, so it follows that it was also new for March and for King county this year.  Now I have 141 species in 2019, 116 species in March, and 102 species in King county this year.  By next week, there will be lots of Tree Swallows around, and hopefully some Violet-green Swallows as well.

 

That's it.  As I said at the top, I had little to report today.

 

 

Friday, March 15, 2019

 

Today I didn't see anything new for any lists, but I do have a few pictures to show.  I went to Marymoor Park again, and again didn't see the Green Heron at the rowing club pond.  I drove through the park and again didn't see any meadowlarks.  I parked and walked along the slough through the dog park, and I got a few pictures.  Here's a Pied-billed Grebe, as seen from the 5th dog beach.

 

I headed back to the car after that, and I noted that the Great Blue Herons are at the nests in the rookery.  Here's one of the Great Blue Herons standing on or near a nest.

 

There were Song Sparrows singing, as usual, but there was also a Fox Sparrow at one point.  Here are a couple of pictures of the Fox Sparrow.

 

 

Another Fox Sparrow also posed for me, and I couldn't resist taking its picture, too.

 

Along the slough downriver of the weir, I spotted a shorebird.  I thought it was a Killdeer at first, but it seemed too dark.  It turned out to be a Wilson's Snipe, and I took a couple of pictures as it just stood there.

 

 

I watched th snipe for about ten minutes, waiting for it to do something.  Usually they are very skittish and would immediately fly off if approached.  Eventually, it got tired of standing immobile, and it flew off, up the slough.  While I was waiting for the snipe to do something, I took this picture of a male Gadwall on the slough.

 

That was it for today.  I've gone looking for Green Heron and Western Meadowlark five or six times this month, but I haven't been lucky.  There are several other species that will be returning from their wintering grounds soon, but I didn't see any of those today, either.  I remain stuck on 141 species for 2019 and 116 for March.  I still plan to leave for California a week from tomorrow, on the 23rd.  I hope to pick up 2 or 3 more species before then, but we will see.  At least the weather is supposed to be good, with temperatures maybe getting into the low 70's.  Spring is right around the corner.

 

 

Saturday, March 16, 2019

 

Here's a long report with lots of pictures.  On Saturday I went out to the Snoqualmie River Valley.  I stopped at a place where I saw a Savannah Sparrow a few weeks ago, and I walked up and down the road, playing Savannah Sparrow songs.  I didn't see a Savannah Sparrow, but while I was doing that, I did see a couple of swallows over the river, flying away from me.  At least one of them was a VIOLET-GREEN SWALOW, my first of the year, so that one went onto my lists.  I stopped at Sikes Lake, but I didn't get anything except this picture of a Trumpeter Swan family.

 

The swans will be heading north to their breeding grounds soon.  I drove in to Carnation and stopped at the house with feeders.  I didn't get anything I needed there, but I got a lot of pictures.  There were a couple of Bushtits at the suet feeder.  Here's one of them.

 

Seeing a pair of Bushtits was a sign of spring.  All winter they go around in flocks, but when breeding season gets here, they break up into pairs.  I saw a flock this week, but there was only a pair at the suet feeder on Saturday.

 

There were at least two Varied Thrushes around, so I took pictures.  I like that species, and I don't see them very often.  Here is a female Varied Thrush.

 

Here are a couple of pictures of a more strongly-marked male Varied Thrush.

 

 

A couple of Eurasian Collared-Doves were around.

 

The most common bird there on this day was European Starling.

 

Here's a male Varied Thrush in a small tree.

 

Rufous Hummingbirds should be returning from their migration soon, but all I spotted on this day was a male Anna's Hummingbird.  There were a few goldfinches around.  Here's a picture of a male American Goldfinch who is just coming into breeding plumage.

 

I got all those pictures while sitting in my car across the street from the house with the feeders.  That is true "car birding".

 

Next I picked up a sandwich at the Carnation Market and drove up to the Stillwater Access to the Snoqualmie Valley Wildlife Area.  I walked out on the dike trail with the hopes of seeing a Red-breasted Sapsucker, or a handful of other unlikely species.  Right away I saw a Vicki, a birder I run into out in that valley fairly often.  She was watching one of those unlikely species I was hoping for.  It was pretty close and out in the open, so I took some pictures.  Here is my first AMERICAN BITTERN of the year.

 

It was difficult to spot it with the naked eye, because of how well it blended in to its surroundings.  It mostly stood perfectly still, but then it crept along very slowly, and I got this picture of it on the move. Note the raised foot.

 

Vicki said she had seen three bitterns that morning, and she walked with me to where the second one was, which was very close to the path, right at the bottom of the dike, more or less.  I took pictures of it, looking down on it, as it slowly moved away.

 

At one point, it stretched its wings, and I thought it was going to fly.

 

It didn't fly, though, and it just kept creeping along.

 

It moved across a shallow patch of water next.  It looked like it was swimming, but I think it was just walking in the shallow water.

 

It did some hunting and came up with a tadpole at one point.  Here is my last picture of that bittern, before I moved on down the trail, looking for Red-breasted Sapsucker..

 

I walked as far as the second bridge to the south, but I didn't see any sapsuckers.  I did see a Golden-crowned Kinglet that wouldn't sit still for pictures.  I managed to get this one that has its bill blocked by vegetation, but it shows the bird, anyway.  Golden-crowned Kinglet.

 

There was also a Brown Creeper working its way up a tree.

 

At the second bridge, a Belted Kingfisher was fishing.  I have shown a lot of kingfisher pictures lately, many of them from very short distances.  This next picture was more distant, but I liked the pose of the bird, as it watched the creek below.

 

I headed back toward the car, and when I got to where the second bittern had been, two more birders/photographers had joined Vicki.  Here are the three of them shooting pictures of the bittern.

 

American Bitterns show up at two or three other sites in the county regularly, but Stillwater is by far the most reliable place to see them, but mostly only in the spring.  It is a very desirable bird to see.  Here is one more picture of that American Bittern.

 

It was quite a bit farther away than when Vicki first showed it to me.  Here is a shot of that pond, with the American bittern right in the middle of the picture.

 

The bittern isn't quite as far away as it seems in that picture, because the lens is set to a somewhat wide-angle aspect when you don't use any zoom.  When I first saw it, it was practically right at the foot of the dike, though.

 

Next I drove to the Fay Road Access point and parked so I could eat my lunch.  There is a tree there where I have seen Red-breasted Sapsuckers in the past, and I figured I could keep watch while I ate.  I parked in position to watch the tree, but before I could do anything else, I saw a bird on the tree.  It turned out to be my Red-breasted Sapsucker, which I needed for March.  I actually got out of the car to take pictures this time, although I never went more than maybe 20 feet from the car.  Here are a couple of close up shots of the Red-breasted Sapsucker.

 

 

At one point a second one flew in, so there were two of them there, presumably a pair.  I like this last shot of a Red-breasted Sapsucker because it shows some of the sap wells it was digging in the tree.

 

Sapsuckers get their name from their practice of pecking out holes in trees, then coming back after the holes fill with sap from the tree.  The birds then "suck" up the sap in the sap "wells".  In the picture above, you can see some freshly dug wells.  They have been using that tree for at least a few years, based on the old wells it has at various places on it.  I had thought it might be too early in the year still for the well digging to be going on, but it has started.  Spring is here.

 

After I ate I went up through Duvall to W. Snoqualmie River Rd NE and drove its length.  I didn’t find anything I needed, and the only picture I took is this rather distant picture of a hawk.

 

I suppose it is a Red-tailed Hawk, but it seems very slender and small for a Red-tail.  It's shape and size make it look more like a Cooper's Hawk to me but the coloration says Red-tail.  That method of looking of looking for prey is much more like a Red-tailed Hawk than a Cooper's Hawk, too.  I would have tried to see it from other angles, but it was on a wire along a bridge that was a busy road, so it wouldn't have been easy to see it closer.

 

It ended up being a very successful day.  Not only did I get some birds for lists, I saw a lot of birds everywhere.  It was sunny and the temperature got up to about 60.  I added 2 birds to my 2019 list, and now I have 143 species for the year.  I got 3 more for March, and now I have 119 species in March.  The two year-birds were obviously new for King county this year, too, and now I have 104 species in King county this year.  I have lunch appointments on three of the days in the upcoming week, and I plan to leave for California on Saturday morning.  The weather forecast looks great (temps in the low 70's!), and maybe I can add one or two more to my March list before I leave town.  Migrants are starting to return, and maybe I'll see some early returnees.

 

 

Monday, March 18, 2019

 

On Monday I went to Marymoor Park, looking for Green Heron and Western Meadowlark, as usual  I didn't find either one, or any of the other possibilities, and I didn't get any pictures.  I went out to lunch, and after lunch when I came home, a Sharp-shinned Hawk flew up from under our feeder, and I got a good look at it.  That was a great one for March, and it was also my first Sharp-shinned Hawk in King county this year.  It was obviously within my 5 mile radius circle, too, since it was in our yard.  That gave me 120 species for March, 93 species for King county this year, and 78 species for my 5MR list.

 

 

Tuesday, March 19, 2019

 

Today I went back to Marymoor Park again, still hoping for Green Heron or Western Meadowlark, and there were other possibilities, too.  I didn't find a Green Heron at the stormwater pond on the north edge of Redmond, but I did get pictures of a pair of Green-winged Teal.  Here is the female Green-winged Teal.

 

Here's the male Green-winged Teal, doing a little preening.

 

I tried the rowing club pond at Marymoor for Green Heron, but I struck out there, too.  I went over to the main part of the park and drove through the community garden, as I had several times before, looking for the pheasant that people report there, but I didn't get that one, either.  No meadowlarks at the model plane airfield, so I went to the parking lot near the viewing mound and the East Meadow.  I walked along the East Meadow, hoping to see a Savannah Sparrow.  They are common there in the summer, but they migrate in the winter.  One was reported yesterday, so I was hoping.  No luck today.  I did see a flock of about a dozen Bushtits, though.  They are difficult to get pictures of, but the light was good, so I tried.  None of my pictures came out great, but here are four pictures that kind of capture the character of the tiny, acrobatic Bushtits, I think.

 

 

 

 

I walked toward the lake, but turned around soon.  Back at the south end of the East Meadow, I sat on the bench there to rest.  A birder from the south end of the county came along, and he sat down.  We talked bird stuff for maybe an hour, sitting in the warm sun and watching the birds that came by.  A pair of Downy Woodpeckers were flying from tree to tree, and I got this picture of the male Downy Woodpecker.

 

A female Purple Finch flew in but I wasn’t quick enough to get a picture of her.  A hawk flew around nearby, and we decided it was a Cooper's Hawk.  Then a hummingbird landed at the very top of a tree nearby.  It was the first RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD of the year for both of us.  We both had been looking for that species there today.  Here is the handsome male Rufous Hummingbird in the sun.

 

That was a great one to get.  Rufous Hummingbirds are just now starting to migrate back here, for the breeding season, and I wanted to get one before I left for California on Saturday.

 

My new acquaintance and I walked back to the parking lot along the east side of the East Meadow, and along the way we saw a group of about 5 Western Meadowlarks.  I had been looking for meadowlarks at Marymoor for weeks, and finally I got them today.  Here's a picture of one of the Western Meadowlarks, an excellent March bird for me.

 

I saw my first Tree Swallow of the year less than a week ago, and today there were quite a few around.  They were checking out the nest boxes around the meadow.  Here are a couple of pictures of a male Tree Swallow on one of the nest box posts.

 

 

In that last shot, the wind was blowing the downy feathers on the bird's breast, making those markings.

 

So, I still need Green Heron for March, but I finally got Western Meadowlark.  I added 2 more species to my March list today, and now I have 122 species for March.  Rufous Hummingbird added one to my 2019 list and my 2019 King county list.  Now I have 144 species in 2019 and 93 in King county.  Temperatures were in the high 70's here today, setting a new March record.  Tomorrow is supposed to be mid-70's, then mid-60's on Thursday and low 60's on Friday.  Spring appears to be here.

 

 

Thursday, March 21, 2019

 

Yesterday I didn't go out birding at all, but today found me heading for Marymoor Park again.  I had gotten Western Meadowlark, but I still hadn't gotten Green Heron.  Some migrants were showing up, too, and there will soon be more.  Today I didn't take the time to go to the rowing club first, for Green Heron.  I drove through the community garden, looking again for the pheasant that has been seen there, but again I didn't see it.  I didn't see anything at the model airplane field, and I parked at the East Meadow.  The Thursday morning birding tour was there, and I asked a guy I have seen before about what they had seen.  He told me they had seen a Say's Phoebe, a migrant that I would have liked to get.  They went on their way, and I walked out along the north side of the East Meadow, looking for the Say's Phoebe.  I didn't see it, but I did see three Golden-crowned Sparrows, not one I needed, and I got this picture.

 

I drove back to the airfield, to try for the Say's Phoebe from a different angle.  I got out my scope and looked where they had seen it.  I never found it, but I did get an excellent look at a Northern Shrike, not a bird I needed, but always a good one to see.  I was scanning the bushes across the airfield when a bird came flying right at me.  It turned out to be a Savannah Sparrow, another migrant that is just now coming back.  It was an excellent March bird to get locally.  Here are a couple of pictures of the Savannah Sparrow.

 

 

I tired to get closer, but the bird flew to some bushes nearby, and I got a couple more pictures from closer.  Savannah Sparrow.

 

 

With that one under my belt, I went to the west end of the dog park and walked along the slough, hoping still for Green Heron.  I didn't see that heron, but there were a lot of Great Blue Herons hanging around the rookery.  Here's a picture of the 35 or 40 nests in the Great Blue Heron rookery.

 

One of the people on the Thursday morning tour reported 65 Great Blue Herons in and around the rookery.  Here is one of them on a nest.

 

Some of the Canada Geese around here migrate north to breed, and some stay local and have their broods here.  The migrant ones are heading north now, and the local breeding ones are pairing up.  Here is a pair of Canada Geese, presumably local breeders looking for a nest site.

 

It was getting time to be heading for home, but I decided to try once more for Green Heron at the rowing club pond.  I figured this would be my last chance this month, after trying at least a half dozen times already.  I knew that the last place the Thursday morning birding group went was the rowing club, and when I got there, the last couple of them were leaving.  I asked the guy I knew if they had seen Green Heron.  He said yes, one had flown in just as they were about to leave!  It was only about ten minutes earlier.  He told me where it was, and I hustled down the path to look for it.  No joy.  I couldn't find it.  I figured it must have flown off again.  It was the classic birding thing - "if you had only been here five minutes earlier".  I was disappointed, but I also thought it was very funny.  I decided to walk down to the slough, in case it had gone back there.  Nothing at the slough, so I walked back to my car.  As I walked past the pond again, I took another look, but still couldn't find the Green Heron.  I decided to play its call, figuring that if it was still around, it might respond.  By golly, it did!  I got a loud response, and right from the area I had been looking in.  That was good enough to count it, but I wanted to see the bird.  I looked more closely into the brush, and I found it eventually.  Here is a partially obscured view of the Green Heron, skulking in the brush.

 

It turned around, and I got a picture of the front of the Green Heron, still deep in the brush.

 

The heron then flew out of the brush and across the pond. It landed in the open, but it was behind some branches from where I was standing, and by the time I got clear of the branches, it flew into more brush, out of sight.  I would have liked to get a picture of it in the open, but at least I had finally seen Green Heron this month, and I even got a couple of peek-a-boo pictures.

 

I headed for home then, with 2 more species for March, to bring me to 124 species in March.  That is higher than I expected to get a week ago, and is respectable, considering my birding style (late start, early stop, don't walk very far, and can't remember bird calls worth a darn).  I had seen a Yellow-rumped Warbler at the rowing club pond, and was a first for me in King county this year, which now gives me 106 for the county.  I don't think I'll do any birding tomorrow, and on Saturday I plan to head out on a three week California trip.

 

 

Saturday, March 23, 2019

 

I’m on the road again!  This is the first time I’ve been out of Washington State since I got my new Toyota Highlander.  It turns out to be a great road car, and I’m very pleased with the 26.5 mpg I got today.  It was over 30 mpg to Olympia, when I was only going 65 to 67 mph.  The mileage falls off at higher speeds, as with any car.  For a large 6 cylinder SUV, 26.5 mpg at 72 to 75 mph is good, as far as I’m concerned.  The car is very comfortable and rides well.  Adaptive cruise control is great.

 

I stopped in southern Washington at Woodland and drove around Woodland Bottoms, in a loop off the freeway.  I found the nest I saw last year and added GREAT HORNED OWL to my year list.  Here’s a picture of the owl on its nest.

 

There were some swallows on a wire, and although I had gotten Violet-green Swallow earlier this week at Marymoor, I got a couple of pictures today.  I especially like this first one because it shows the bird’s colors and also a lot of feather detail.

 

Here’s a more typical picture of another Violet-green Swallow, with a terrible bright background.

 

 

I drove around the whole Woodland Bottoms area, which took me about half an hour, counting time to take pictures.  I was looking for a bird that winters there.  I thought I had missed it, but just as I was coming to the end of the loop, I saw three SANDHILL CRANES fairly close to the road.  I pulled over and took some pictures.

 

 

 

 

That was two year-birds, and I needed to make time, so I hit the freeway again.  But, wait.  As I got on the freeway, I spotted a TURKEY VULTURE overhead.  I’ll see lots of Turkey Vultures in the next three weeks, but now it is on my year list.

 

I drove for about 8 ½ hours today, including my half hour detour at Woodland. About 460 miles.  Tomorrow I plan to go on to Sacramento, where I plan to stay with Fred, my old friend from high school and college days, for three nights, before continuing on to San Diego to visit my sister, Kathy.  I had rain today, off and on, once I got to Oregon.  Tomorrow should be dry, but Monday looks to be rainy, which will inhibit any Sacramento birding that day.  After that, Tuesday and Wednesday are likely to be showery as well.  I should be okay for at least a week once I get to Southern California.

 

I added 3 more species to both March and 2019 today.  I have 127 species in March now (all in Washington State), and 147 in 2019.  I expected that I would be adding a lot more species to my lists from here, but the weather after tomorrow will interfere with that to some extent for a couple to three days.

 

 

Sunday, March 24, 2019

 

Today I drove the last five and a half hours into Sacramento.  There were some WHITE-FACED IBIS in a flooded field along the freeway, so that one went on my lists.  Later I saw a GREAT EGRET for my lists, and soon after I came off the freeway in Sacramento I saw a single, young WILD TURKEY.  (Remember, a species in all caps indicates it is the first time I’ve seen that species this year.)  I went to Ancil Hoffman Park to try for some Sacramento specialties.  I wanted to get what I could today because the weather forecast I saw last night looked bad for the next couple of days – lots of rain coming,  they said.

 

There were a lot of WESTERN BLUEBIRDS on the grass on the way into the park.  At the main parking area for the park there were the usual YELLOW-BILLED MAGPIES, which was a local specialty I needed to get.  Here are a couple of Yellow-billed Magpie pictures.

 

 

Normally I walk around in that area, and I usually find several desirable species there, but today (a sunny spring Sunday after a period of rainy days) it was incredibly busy with picnics and people.  I gave that up and went to the Effie Yeaw Nature Center, which is located in one corner of the park.  Effie Yeaw has trails through the trees and undergrowth, and I walked around.  There were lots of people there, too, but not so many that it ruined it.  I added OAK TITMOUSE to my lists, but couldn’t ever get a picture of that cute little bird.  Another California specialty was there, as it often is – RED-SHOULDERED HAWK.  Here is the only picture I got of the only Red-shouldered Hawk I saw today.

 

At one point I briefly played the song of a wren that I knew lived there, and was rewarded with a cute little HOUSE WREN that hung around and kept singing back to me.  I took advantage and took a lot of pictures of the House Wren.

 

 

 

Here’s the House Wren singing away.

 

There were a number of ACORN WOODPECKERS around, as usual.  Here’s a rather distant shot of one of the Acorn Woodpeckers.

 

Another species that you can count on there is Wild Turkey, which I had counted earlier, and there were many of them around.  Here’s a male Wild Turkey strutting his stuff.

 

I walked the trails more than I ever have before, mainly because this is the first time I’ve visited there when my torn Achilles tendon wasn’t hampering me.  I heard a lot of birds and saw a lot, too.  A female LESSER GOLDFINCH came to a puddle for a drink.

 

It was time for me to leave, and on the way back to my car, I took this picture of a Black Phoebe.

 

That is a California bird, but there has been one at Wylie Slough in Skagit county in Washington for the last year, and I had seen it this month, so the ones today didn’t go onto my lists.  Another California bird that is uncommon around Seattle is California Scrub-Jay, but I had seen one in Seattle this month already.  Here’s a California Scrub-Jay taking a drink of water.

 

As I was leaving, just before I got to the parking lot, I spotted a WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH, another one I had been looking for.  I got just one picture of that little cutie.

 

There was a White-crowned Sparrow feeding on the ground, and it was interesting.  Juvenile White-crowned Sparrows have reddish stripes on their heads, and when they mature, they have black and white stripes.  This one today was in the midst of changing from juvenile plumage to adult plumage.  I don’t recall ever seeing one in transition before.  Here is the almost-mature White-crowned Sparrow.

 

I had missed one of the California birds I had been hoping to see, and on my way out of the park, I drove through a little parking area where I had seen the species before.  By golly, there one was – a CALIFORNIA TOWHEE.  It was in perfect position for a picture, but it flew off just a second too soon, and I missed the picture.  It was good to get it, anyway.

 

So, when all was said and done today, I had added 12 more species to both my year list and my March list.  That gives me 139 species in March and 159 for 2019.  I had about given up on birding for the next couple of days, because of the weather forecast, but the forecast changed and now it appears I might be able to do some birding on both Monday and Tuesday around here.  It could change again, so I’m not counting on it, but I’ll give it a try.  I plan to head for San Diego on Wednesday, taking two days to get there.

 

 

Monday, March 25, 2019

 

The weather today turned out to be a lot better than they had forecasted.  It was cloudy all day, and we had some sprinkles this afternoon, but Fred and I were able to do some good birding.  Our first stop was a place just Northeast of Davis where Burrowing Owls are reported regularly.  We had tried there last year and we struck out.  This year turned out to be the same story – no Burrowing Owls.  Some guy found 3 of them yesterday there, and another guy found 4 of them the day before, but we had no luck at all.

 

We moved on west and stopped in the town of Winters at Subway and got sandwiches.  We went on to Lake Solano county park.  We drove through the campground first and found a group of about 6 or 8 California Quail, an excellent March bird for me.  I tried for pictures, but all I got were these two mediocre pictures of female California Quail.

 

 

A Red-shouldered Hawk was calling loudly and repeatedly, and I got a couple of pictures.

 

In the next picture the Red-shouldered Hawk is calling.

 

We saw NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRDS several places today, and here’s a picture of one of them.

 

One of the birds I was hoping to see there was INDIAN PEAFOWL.  Here is a male peacock.

 

Here’s a close-up of his head.  I like blue-colored birds.

 

Fred spotted a male PHAINOPEPLA, another bird I had especially wanted to see there today because I probably won’t see it anywhere else this year.  The Phainopepla sat in a tree for several minutes, and I tried for pictures.  The cloudy bright sky was a terrible background, and I struggled with it all day.  It was especially difficult with an all-black bird like the male Phainopepla.  Here are my best couple of pictures of it.

 

 

It was close, so I took this close-up of its head.

 

I like the feather detail and the red eye.  A female Phainopepla flew into the same tree, and I got a couple of pictures of her.  She looks like the male except she is gray, while he is black.

 

 

While I was taking those pictures, I was distracted by a California Scrub-Jay that required a picture.  I like blue-colored birds.

 

Three Acorn Woodpeckers flew into the same tree as the Phainopeplas, and I got this picture of one of them.

 

We heard another bird I wanted to see in this area, too, and eventually we saw several of them – NUTTALL’S WOODPECKER.  Later I got this picture of one of the Nuttall’s Woodpeckers we saw today.

 

Next we went across the road to the county park (as opposed to the campground, where we had been).  There were some Indian Peafowl there, too.  Here is a male peacock showing his impressive tail to a female.

 

Here’s a male Red-winged Blackbird displaying and calling.

 

There was likely looking habitat, so I played the call and got a couple of responses from a SORA, another excellent year-bird.  We walked along the lake through the park, and there were birds.  I didn’t get anything else I needed there, but I got a few pictures.  Here is a male Western Bluebird, a species I saw yesterday for the first time this year.

 

I do like blue-colored birds.

 

There were a lot of White-breasted Nuthatches around.  We heard them, and we saw them.  They never sat still for pictures, though, and the best I could do was this White-breasted Nuthatch looking right at me.

 

Likewise, we heard and saw some Oak Titmice, another bird I had seen yesterday for the first time this year.  Here is an Oak Titmouse.

 

It started to sprinkle a little, so we headed toward home.  We went by the Burrowing Owl site again, and again didn’t see one.  We then drove south on Mace Blvd., looking for a hawk species we have seen there in the past.  We found one dark morph SWAINSON’S HAWK.  Pictures were difficult with a dark bird and the bright background, but here are two pictures of the dark morph Swainson’s Hawk.

 

 

 

On our way home we stopped at the fruit and vegetable stand east of Davis, and there were hundreds of blackbirds in the trees.  There was a mix of Red-winged Blackbirds, Brewer’s Blackbirds, and my first YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRDS of the year.  Here are some male Yellow-headed Blackbirds.

 

Here are a couple more male Yellow-headed Blackbirds.

 

That was it for today.  I got some good birds and some pictures I like.  I added 8 more species to March, and now I have 147 species in March.  7 of those were new for 2019, too, and now I have 166 species for 2019.

 

We’ll see what the weather is tomorrow.  Maybe I can get some more birds and pictures..

 

 

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

 

The weather was much better today than they had been forecasting.  Two or three days ago it was supposed to rain all day on Tuesday, and in fact, there was no rain at all here today, and it was sunny for most of the day.  Fred and I first went to a local park for him to buy his annual park pass, and then we parked and walked a little at the park, William B. Pond Park.  While Fred was buying his annual pass, I got this picture of a female Western Bluebird.

 

Later I got this picture of a male Northern Flicker.

 

We didn’t stay there long because we had a plan.  Our first real birding stop was the Nimbus Fish Hatchery, on the American River.  I had read that there was a White-winged Scoter there, on the river, but I was surprised how easy it was to find.  That’s a big rarity here, but we get them in the winter at home, on salt water.  I had seen the species in January and February, but I had missed it in March.  Now I have it in March.  Here is the male White-winged Scoter, way out of its normal territory.

 

I looked for Spotted Sandpiper there, but couldn’t find one.  I did see my first NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOWS of the year, across the river.  I talked briefly with a local birder and mentioned I had hoped to see a swift species there, and he said they were around, and in fact, he could hear them right then.  We looked up and sure enough, there were some WHITE-THROATED SWIFTS soaring around up there.  I had been looking for them, and they showed up just as I asked the guy about them.

 

Next we moved on to Mather Lake Regional Park.  I immediately got MUTE SWAN there, one of the few places on the west coast that has a countable population of that native European bird.  Here is a Mute Swan.

 

We walked a bit and I got this picture of a Mourning Dove, not a species I needed for any lists.

 

I was looking for another species there, based on past visits, and eventually I saw 3 or 4 COMMON GALLINULES.  Here’s one of the Common Gallinules (formerly called Common Moorhen).

 

I spotted a Sora out in the open, but I wasn’t quick enough to get a good picture.  Here’s the Sora scurrying back into the reeds.

 

I had counted Sora for the first time this year yesterday, but I only heard it.  Now I have seen one this year.

 

I totally wasn’t expecting it, but I saw a male BULLOCK’S ORIOLE high in a tree, and I got these two pictures of it in the sun.

 

 

Another species I was counting on there was GREAT-TAILED GRACKLE, and they were all over the place.  Here’s a male Great-tailed Grackle.

 

Here’s a female Great-tailed Grackle, with a smaller tail than the male, and different colors.

 

We were about to leave, but I walked over to a bridge and found a Green Heron out in the open.  I had finally seen a Green Heron at home last week, but this one really posed for me.  Check out those feet.

 

I walked across the bridge and got this shot looking at the Green Heron from the front.

 

The bird saw something in the water and got very intent on it.

 

It caught whatever it was and swallowed it down.  Afterwards it seemed to be proud of itself, as it raised its crest, maybe in celebration.

 

Here’s one last shot of the very confiding Green Heron, with its crest settled back down.

 

There was a sparrow below the bridge, and I couldn’t figure out what species it was.  I took a lot of pictures, and eventually decided it was a slightly strange looking Savannah Sparrow in an unusual habitat.

 

It still doesn’t look much like a Savannah Sparrow to me, but I can’t think of anything else it could have been.  I just got Savannah Sparrow last week at home, for March.  Next we stopped at a little wetlands near Mather Lake, and I saw some more Savannah Sparrows.  Here are two normal looking Savannah Sparrows.

 

While we were at that little wetlands, a couple of BARN SWALLOWS, my first of the year, flew through.  After that we headed back to Fred’s house.  He wanted to rest his feet and he had some dinner prep to do.  I took my car and went back to William B. Pond Park, where we had started our day.  I drove around and walked a couple of times.  At one point I saw a couple of Cedar Waxwings, which I needed for March.  They turned out to be part of a large flock of at least a couple of dozen birds.  Here’s a Cedar Waxwing.

 

Here are several of them in a tree.

 

At another place in the park, I walked a little and as I got back to the car I saw a couple of California Quail.  I had already seen that one yesterday, but I got more and better pictures than yesterday.  Here is that first pair of California Quail.

 

I sat on a bench and watched a number of birds that showed up, including a lot more quail.  Here’s a California Towhee, a species I got on Sunday when I got here.

 

Here is a close-up of a male California Quail

 

Here’s a male California Quail with a female out of focus in the background.

 

Here’s a close-up of a female California Quail.

 

I was very surprised when a CHIPPING SPARROW showed up right in front of me.  I hadn’t expected that species, which is uncommon here and was just migrating through, evidently.  Here is the single Chipping Sparrow I saw today.

 

A male Western Bluebird was working the area, and I got this picture of him.

 

Everywhere I’ve gone these last few days, there have been Yellow-rumped Warblers.  Here is one of them.

 

It was time for me head back to Fred’s house, but I drove through the park one more time, watching for sparrows on the ground.  I was pleased to find 4 or 5 LARK SPARROWS, the very species I was hoping for.  Here are three pictures of Lark Sparrows.

 

 

 

I got those Lark Sparrow pictures without even getting out of the car.

 

It was another very successful birding day.  I added 11 more species to my March list, giving me 158 in March now.  Of those 11 species, 9 of them were new for 2019 for me, and now I have 175 species this year.

 

Tomorrow morning I head for Southern California, and I expect I’m likely to see some rain along the way, unless the weather gurus are wrong again.

 

 

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

 

It was cloudy today most of the time, but I only saw a few sprinkles.  Over the weekend, when I was driving down here to California, the forecast made it look like I was going to basically get rained out in the Sacramento area, but that just didn’t happen at all.  We did have rain overnight twice, though, so that helps explain it.  The timing was good for me.

 

Today I headed south, and my first stop was Cosumnes Preserve, north of Stockton.  I drove along Desmond Road, looking for shorebirds, and I found some in the flooded fields.  I saw my first BLACK-NECKED STILTS of the year, and here are three pictures of Black-necked Stilt.

 

 

 

I saw a group of Black-bellied Plovers, but I already had that one this month.  Here’s a picture of some Black-bellied Plovers, though.

 

Those plovers are molting into their breeding plumage (in which they will have black breasts and bellies), and they are on their way north to the arctic to breed.

 

Most of the ducks are already on their way north, but some are still around.  Here’s a pair of Cinnamon Teal, an excellent species, although I already had it this month.

 

I’ll let you guess which one is the male.

 

I saw a large group of LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERS in a flooded field, but they were too far away for pictures.  Turning the corner into Bruceville Road, I saw the other main target I had today (in addition to Black-necked Stilt), my first AMERICAN AVOCETS of the year.  Here’s an American Avocet.

 

Here’s a picture of an American Avocet and a Greater Yellowlegs, a species I already had this month.

 

There were several Greater Yellowlegs around, and here’s another picture of one of them.

 

While I was looking around at the various birds in the flooded field, I noticed one that looked like a yellowlegs, but it was clearly smaller than the others.  Here’s a picture of the surprise LESSER YELLOWLEGS I saw today.

 

The bird was significantly smaller than the nearby Greater Yellowlegs, but the relative bill length is shorter, too, and the legs are clearly shorter than those on the bird just above.  The bill of Greater Yellowlegs is not only relatively longer (compared to the length of the head), it is also slightly upcurved.  Here is another picture of the Lesser Yellowlegs.

 

Lesser Yellowlegs is much less common around here than Greater Yellowlegs, and I hadn’t expected to find one.

 

Here’s another Greater Yellowlegs, with its relatively longer and slightly upcurved bill.

 

Here’s a shot of that Greater Yellowlegs calling (or maybe yawning?).

 

I hadn’t gotten any pictures of Long-billed Dowitchers that were any good, but when I processed my pictures tonight, I noticed that there were some Long-billed Dowitchers (somewhat out of focus because I was shooting the avocet) in the foreground on this shot of an American Avocet.

 

A little farther up Bruceville Road, I got this picture of a Great Egret, a species I had counted a couple of days ago, on my drive south.

 

That was it for today.  I had about 5 ½ hours of driving, and I wanted to get in early here in Lebec, at the top of the Grapevine Grade at the south end of the Central Valley.  Tomorrow I plan to try to be patient as I navigate the horrendous L.A. traffic and make my way to my sister’s house in Rancho Santa Fe, in north San Diego county.  I plan to stop a couple of places in Orange county, making my drive even more annoying, but the birds should be good.

 

Today I added 4 more species to my March list, and all 4 of them were also new for the year for me.  Now I have 162 species in March and 179 for the year.  Last year when I was at this same motel, on my way to San Diego, I had 170 species for March and 186 for the year, so in one way I’m a little behind last year’s pace.  On the other hand, last year when I was here, it was March 28, and I only had 3 days left in the month.  This year it is March 27, and I have four more days left in the month, so maybe that will allow me to catch last year’s numbers, although I’ll still be limited by how many species there are in Southern California that I still need.  The numbers in question that I would love to catch are 198 for March and 212 for 2018 at the end of March last year.  I would guess that I’ll come up somewhat short of last year’s totals, but we will see.  Last year I had a really great start to the year, in January and February, getting a lot of rarities at home, so the year total is going to be very tough to beat.

 

 

Thursday, March 28, 2019

 

Today I only had about 175 miles to travel, but it was through the horrendous Los Angeles traffic and I also wanted to visit a couple of birding sites in Orange County.  I ended up driving for about 5 ½ hours, and that included about a 30 minute delay because of stop and go traffic on I-405 over Sepulveda Pass.  I was patient, though, and I just plugged along.

 

My first birding stop was Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach.  It was about noon by the time I got there, and I walked out onto the paths.  As I left the parking lot, I noticed a couple who were taking pictures of something, and it turned out to be a RIDGWAY’S RAIL, formerly called Clapper Rail.  That was a really great one to start off my day.  The bird scurried away, but here are a couple of pictures I managed to snap off.

 

 

Rails are shy birds, and you don’t usually catch them out in the open like that.

 

I soon added WILLET to my list.  Here’s a picture of a Willet.

 

There were some Least Sandpipers at one place, and I needed that one for March.  None of my pictures came out any good.  There were a couple of Western Sandpipers with them, but I didn’t need that one for March.  There were many hundreds of ELEGANT TERMS around.  Here are a couple of pictures of one of the groups of Elegant Terns.

 

 

I also saw one ROYAL TERN and a handful of FORSTER’S TERNS, but no pictures of either of those species.  I was very pleased to see a REDDISH EGRET in the midst of some gulls.  That’s a bird I miss most years when I visit Southern California.  It was even close enough for a picture.

 

That might be the first picture I’ve ever gotten of a Reddish Egret.  Usually when I do see one, it is too far away for pictures, and I only get a distant scope view.  I’ve probably only seen the species fewer than 5 times, so it was exciting to find one today.  I also added Western Gull to March at that location.

 

There were 2 or 3 MARBLED GODWITS around, so that one went on my lists.  Here is a Marbled Godwit.

 

It kind of flexed its wings at one point, so I took a picture of that.

 

I saw 2 or 3 WHIMBRELS, too, and here is one of them.

 

Note the stripes on its head.  This next picture is my first LONG-BILLED CURLEW of the year, and it doesn’t have the striped head, and its bill is longer than that of a Whimbrel.

 

There were a couple of SNOWY EGRETS around, too.  Here’s one of them.

 

As I was walking back to the car, I scanned around with my scope, and I saw a large bird in the distance that was interesting.  I decided eventually that it was a TRICOLORED HERON, a fairly rare bird in California.  I don’t think I have ever seen one in California before, but I’ve seen them in Texas, and once in Arizona.  It was much too distant for any kind of picture, and even the scope view was very hazy because of heat haze.  I talked briefly to a guy later who said the Tricolored Heron had been hanging around recently, and all the birders were aware of it because of its rarity here.  There is reportedly one hanging around the mouth of the San Diego River, too, and maybe I’ll see that one in the next week.

 

There really weren’t all that many birds at Bolsa Chica today, but I did well.  Seeing Ridgway’s Rail, Reddish Egret, and Tricolored Heron is much more than I ever would have imagined.  Next I drove to the San Joaquin Sanctuary, on the edge of Irvine.  It consists of a number of ponds, in connection with the water treatment plant next door.  I picked up American White Pelican for my March list, and here’s a picture of one.

 

I parked by the one pond you can drive up to and took some pictures from the car.  I didn’t need any of the birds I saw there, but the light was good, so I took lots of pictures.  Here’s a male Ruddy Duck in his breeding plumage.  In the winter he would be gray and his bill would be very nondescript.

 

Here’s a female Mallard and her ducklings.  At home the Mallards aren’t even nesting yet.

 

Here’s a male Northern Shoveler that swam right past me.

 

There were several male Cinnamon Teal around, and one of them started to preen, right in front of me.  Here’s a picture of the male Cinnamon Teal preening, showing the various colors he has under his cinnamon-colored outer feathers.

 

Part of the preening ritual seemed to involve flapping his wings and spraying water around.

 

I parked my car and walked on the trails a little, after walking through the gardens.  I didn’t see as much as I expected I might, but I did pick up my first COMMON YELLOWTHROATS of the year.  I got these next two pictures of a pair of Western Grebes, too – a species I already had this month.

 

 

I didn’t stay long because I was running out of time and I had walked about as much as I wanted to walk today by then.  There were tons of Tree Swallows flying around and checking out the many nest boxes, and I got this picture of one that had caught a flying insect.

 

That was it for my birding today, but while working on my pictures at my sister’s house this afternoon, I spotted a male HOODED ORIOLE that was checking out the oriole feeder my sister had put out.  I got a couple of pictures of the oriole as it looked at the feeder.

 

 

It turned out to be an excellent day of birding, although my strongest memory of the day will probably be the terrible traffic of Southern California.  When the traffic finally cleared enough between Orange County and San Diego, I had to go 75 mph in a 65 zone just to keep from being run off the road.  Even at 75, people were passing me easily, and I only passed a very few cars that were idling along in the right lane.  Then we would slow down and even stop, before picking up speed again.  People change lanes constantly and rarely bother to signal.

 

Anyway, enough on that.  I added another 16 species to my March list today, and now I have 178 for March.  12 of those were new for the year, and now I have 191 species in 2019.  I haven’t had time to look at my possibilities for the rest of the month here in the San Diego area.  I guess I’ll just go out and see as many as I can and see what the numbers are at the end of the month.

 

 

Friday, March 29, 2019

 

My first birding stop this morning was the Rios Avenue access to San Elijo Lagoon.  I walked down the trail and played a couple of bird calls.  I thought I heard a response to one of them, but I wasn’t sure enough to count it.  I got this picture of a male Lesser Goldfinch, one I already had seen on this trip.

 

A little farther along the trail, I saw a kingbird in the distance.  There are two species of kingbirds around here at this time of year, and I needed both of them.  I was able to discern that this one was a CASSIN’S KINGBIRD, a local specialty.  Here’s a picture of the Cassin’s Kingbird.

 

Farther along the trail I heard a loud and continuing bird call.  I decided it was a CALIFORNIA THRASHER, and I was sure enough of the identification that I counted it.  I might have seen it up on a distant snag, but it was too far and the light wasn’t good, so I might or might not have seen it.  I heard it, though, so I counted it.  They have a loud and distinctive song.

 

I kept hearing another species I was pretty sure of, and eventually I saw a cute little WRENTIT.  I wasn’t able to get a picture, though.  I took this picture of a Western Grebe, and I’ll refer to it later in this report.

 

Note that “the eye is in the black”, meaning the eye is surrounded by black feathers.  In Western Grebe’s uncommon cousin, “the eye is in the white”.  I’ll show one of those later in this report.

 

On the second half of the loop trail, on the way back to the car, I played the song and attracted two CALIFORNIA GNATCATCHERS, an endangered bird with a very limited geographic range.  It is definitely one of the San Diego specialties.  Here are three pictures of California Gnatcatcher.

 

 

 

On my way back to my car, I got this picture of a very scruffy looking Yellow-rumped Warbler.

 

I’m not sure I would have know what species it was if I hadn’t seen its yellow rump.

 

That was it for my morning birding.  I was meeting an old friend from high school and college days, John, so I drove down the freeway to Mission Bay.  While waiting for him at the meeting point, along the San Diego River, I took this picture of a Long-billed Dowitcher in terrible light.

 

I already had gotten that species up in Sacramento, but I show the picture because it illustrates one of the differences between Long-billed and Short-billed Dowitchers.  This bird’s bill is slightly curved, and that indicates Long-billed Dowitcher.  I still need Short-billed Dowitcher, which is why I took the picture.

 

When John got there, we went over to Robb Field, which is on the south bank of the San Diego River near the river’s mouth.  The tide was low, and in my experience in the past, there are usually lots of shorebirds and other sea birds there.  Today there weren’t very many.  I did manage to see one LITTLE BLUE HERON, though, which is a San Diego specialty that I always like to see.  Here are a couple of pictures of a Little Blue Heron, which looks a lot like the Reddish Egret I saw yesterday.

 

 

The only other thing I saw there that I needed was a pair of BLUE-WINGED TEAL.  They are quite common here, but uncommon at home, and only in the summer for a couple of months.  Here is a picture of the pair of Blue-winged Teal.

 

John and I moved on across Vacation Isle to Crown Point Park.  I was hoping to find Black Skimmers there, but didn’t.  I did find another species I have seen there before, CLARK’S GREBE.  That’s the cousin of Western Grebe I mentioned earlier.  Here’s a picture of a Clark’s Grebe (with the “eye in the white”) and a Western Grebe (with the “eye in the black”).

 

Here’s a Clark’s Grebe on its own, with the eye clearly in the white.  Compare it to the Western Grebe at the top of this report.

 

From the north end of Crown Point Park, I scanned across the bay with my scope, and I saw a number of SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS in the distance.  That was another one I had hoped to see here in San Diego.  I also saw my first BROWN PELICAN of the year.

 

We drove around to the east side of Mission Bay and found a picnic table to have our lunch on.  While eating lunch, I saw a kingbird, but it turned out to be another Cassin’s Kingbird, the same kingbird species I had seen this morning.  I still need to find a Western Kingbird for March.  Here is this afternoon’s Cassin’s Kingbird.

 

A Western Kingbird wouldn’t have that white patch under the eye, and its tail would be black.  Cassin’s Kingbirds live around here all year round, but Western Kingbirds are migratory and are just coming back from their winter in Mexico and places south of there.

 

After we finished lunch, we drove slowly around Fiesta Island.  I was looking at gulls for one I need, but even more, for a little songbird that I have seen there before.  We were more than half way around when I spotted two HORNED LARKS in the dirt parking lot next to the road.  I pulled over and got in position for pictures, and I got these two pictures of Horned Lark.

 

 

In that second picture, you can see the “horns” that give the species its name.

 

We drove around some more, looking for Heermann’s Gull or Black Skimmer, but I couldn’t find either one today.  I dropped John back at his car and drove up the freeway to my sister’s house.  The traffic was absolutely horrible.  I made a mistake and took a “shortcut” at one point, and it probably cost me about 25 minutes.  It took me 35 minutes to get through three stoplights, for a distance of about a mile or maybe two at the most.  On some light cycles, no cars at all went through from our direction, because of the traffic pouring in from a side road.  I can’t imagine driving in that traffic every work day, although maybe it was worse on a Friday afternoon.  This was at 3:00, though, not what I would have expected to be the rush hour.

 

When I got back to my sister’s house, I sat out on the patio and a Yellow-rumped Warbler flew in to a tree.  Here’s a picture taken from right in front of the bird and underneath it.  It’s an odd perspective.

 

It didn’t seem like there were nearly as many birds as I expected today, but I managed to rack up 10 more for my March list.  All 10 of those were also new for 2019.  I have 188 species in March now and 201 for the year.  Last year I had 198 in March, and I didn’t think I had any chance at all of matching that this year, but now I’m within striking range, with two days to go.  I’m running out of birds I can get, though, and it will still be a challenge to catch that 198 number for the month.

 

Today at Crown Point Park, I was walking to a rest room, and I tripped on a root and fell headlong.  My right knee took the brunt of the force, and now it hurts.  It’s bruised, and I think I must have strained a muscle or two.  I suspect I’m going to be pretty stiff in the morning.  I was lucky that I didn’t have either my binoculars or my camera around my neck, because either one could have been damaged.  Driving could be a bit difficult tomorrow, so that might set me back a bit on my quest to get 198 species this month.  I want to drive down to the south end of the county, to try for some species I’ve seen down there before, but I’ll have to see how I feel in the morning.

 

 

Saturday, March 30, 2019

 

My knee was surprisingly good today, although my upper leg and hip hurt a bit.  I guess I strained some muscles in my right leg when I fell yesterday.  It didn’t interfere with my sleep last night or my birding today, though.

 

As I had planned, I drove down to the south end of the county, within a mile of the Mexican border.  My first stop was the ponds on Dairy Mart Road.  I played the song of a bird that is just now coming back from migration, and one responded immediately.  A BELL’S VIREO flew around and sang back to me non-stop.  Here are a couple of pictures of the Bell’s Vireo, one I didn’t really expect to get.

 

 

Bell’s Vireo is a very plain little bird, and I might have had a difficult time identifying it, except it continually kept singing its rather distinctive song back to me.

 

I saw another plain little bird that had a greenish-yellowish tinge to it.  I finally decided it was my first ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER of the year.  Here’s a picture of the bird from an unusual perspective.

 

Here’s a shot that shows the bird more conventionally, but the photo is somewhat blurry from being slightly out of focus.

 

I played the calls of Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, but never could attract one.  I moved on to the second pond and found another one I needed, my first BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERONS of the year.  I saw 4 or 5 of them, and here’s a picture of one.

 

The bird has its neck pulled in, which is how you usually see them.  Here is the same bird with its neck extended.

 

Another Black-crowned Night-Heron flew in and landed quite close to me, so I took these next two pictures.

 

 

After that I drove to the end of the road, to Border Field State Park.  I’ve never birded there because you have to walk through the scrub to the beach, and it doesn’t look very inviting.  I backtracked and went to the Bird and Butterfly Garden, south of Imperial Beach.  Before I parked and walked through the gardens, I drove to the back of the park, and along the dirt road I got a great look at a GREATER ROADRUNNER, another bird I hadn’t expected to see, although I knew it was possible.  It ran right by my car, just outside of my open window, but it never stopped in a place where I could get a picture, unfortunately.  It was a great one for my lists, though.

 

I parked and walked through the Bird and Butterfly Garden, but it was remarkably quiet.  There were some butterflies, but only a small handful of birds, and nothing very interesting.  The closest I got to a bird I needed was this female hummingbird.

 

Female hummingbirds can be difficult to identify, and the best I can do with this one is that it is either a female Rufous Hummingbird, migrating through here, or a female Allen’s Hummingbird, which is probably resident here.  The field guides all say that you can’t really tell the difference between the females of those two species in the field because they look the same.  In the winter I would call it an Allen’s Hummingbird, which is the one I needed still for March and 2019.  At this time of year, though, it could be a migrating female Rufous Hummingbird, and it could end up in Washington State in a week or two.  Reluctantly, I decided I couldn’t count it, since I didn’t know which species it was.

 

I missed seeing 2 or 3 species I have seen at the Bird and Butterfly Gardens before, and I moved on to the sports park in Imperial Beach.  That’s the site of a nesting colony of a species that is quite uncommon around here – except at this one place, which all birders know about.  In the tree next to the rest room at the sports park, I saw 6 or 7 YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT-HERONS.  Most of them were deep in the branches, mostly hidden by leaves and branches, but here’s a picture of one of them that was out in the open.

 

Here’s a close-up shot of its head.

 

There’s supposedly another tree there that has nesting Black-crowned Night-Herons, but I didn’t bother looking for them because I had seen them at the Dairy Mart Road ponds.

 

It was time for my lunch, which I had brought from “home”, and I parked at the headquarters of the Tijuana River National Estuarine Reserve.  I chose that location because I could keep a lookout in their garden for hummingbirds.  My planning paid off when I saw a hummer, and it turned out to be a male ALLEN’S HUMMINGBIRD, the very species I had parked there to find.  It was high in a tree, but I got this picture of it.

 

It looks very much like a male Rufous Hummingbird, but a Rufous wouldn’t have any green on its back, like this bird does.  Allen’s Hummingbird is fairly common around here, but I had seen at least 8 or 10 Anna’s Hummingbirds around San Diego before I finally saw this guy.

 

After I finished my lunch, I headed back north.  I stopped at the J Street Marina in Chula Vista to look for 3 species I needed still.  OSPREY was easy – there is a nest platform across the bay, and two Ospreys were sitting at the nest.  They are common at home, too, but they hadn’t yet returned from their migration when I left town last week.  Another species I wanted to find at the J Street Marina was CASPIAN TERN, and I saw 2 or 3 of those, too.  They will also be fairly common at home soon, but they also hadn’t returned from their annual migration yet when I left town last week.  I didn’t see any Red Knots among the little shorebirds feeding actively in the mud flats.

 

There were a couple of species I had a chance to find at the mouth of the San Diego River, so I stopped at Robb Field on my way back to my sister’s house.  I didn’t find either Heermann’s Gull or Black Skimmer, though.  I went a couple of other places around Mission Bay to try to find either of those species, but I couldn’t find either one.  At the place on the San Diego River where I usually find Little Blue Heron, I thought I saw one.  I had already gotten that one yesterday, but pictures are always good, so I took some.  The light was terrible, coming from behind the bird, but I took them anyway.  As I was shooting them, I came to realize that something wasn’t quite right with this Little Blue Heron.  I ended up deciding it was actually a juvenile Reddish Egret, a less common bird that I had seen at Bolsa Chica on Thursday.  Here are some of my pictures of the juvenile Reddish Egret in poor light.

 

 

 

 

After that I headed for my sister’s house.  I made one more short detour to look for kingbirds along the road next to part of a golf course, and I actually saw a kingbird on a wire.  I jumped out of the car and took a couple of pictures, but the angle was wrong to see the tail, which is what I needed to see to know which species of kingbird it was.  Here’s a picture.

 

 

The tail doesn’t look brown to me, which would indicate a Cassin’s Kingbird (the species I already had), but it isn’t a good enough look for me to count it as a Western Kingbird, either.  I’ll just have to try to find a Western Kingbird tomorrow, if I’m going to get one in March.

 

Like yesterday, it didn’t seem like I was seeing very many birds today, but again I had a respectable total.  I added 8 more species to my March list, and all of them were also new for the year for me.  Now I have 196 species for March and 209 for 2019. 

 

Last year at the end of March, I had counted 198 species for March and 212 for 2018 to that date.  There isn’t much left for me to get tomorrow, but I’ll be trying to catch those 2018 totals.  I need 2 more species for March to match last year.  If I get three new ones for 2019, I’ll match my year total at the end of March last year.  I don’t have a lot of confidence, but I’ll give it a shot.

 

 

Sunday, March 31, 2019

 

My day today started at La Jolla Cove.  I had 4 or 5 possibilities I needed there.  I tried to get there early, because it is very crowded on weekends, and the weather was great.  The biggest problem is finding a place to park.  I got there about 9:15, which is early for me, but not especially early for the rest of the world.  I got lucky, though, and found a parking place right away, in a great location.  My first March bird was also a year-bird, HEERMANN’S GULL.  Here’s a picture of a Brown Pelican with a Heermann’s Gull next to it.

 

Here’s a picture of a Heermann’s Gull on its own.

 

I don’t understand it, but the light today seemed very harsh.  Yesterday or the day before, it was great light, and I don’t understand the difference, as both days were sunny.  The cormorants, of three species, were in breeding plumage.  Here’s a picture of a Double-crested Cormorant in full breeding plumage.

 

Those white feathers around the eyes are only there in breeding season, and the wing has a pattern, too.  Here is La Jolla Cove from where I was standing, near where I had found my lucky parking place.

 

There were lots of Brown Pelicans around, a species I had counted the other day.  Here are three of them, preening their feathers.

 

There were Black Turnstones there, too, a species I had seen at home earlier this month.  Here’s a Black Turnstone.

 

I spotted a bird on a ledge, and at first I thought it was a Surfbird, another one that I needed for March, but it turned out to be a WANDERING TATTLER, an excellent year-bird.  It was snoozing, with its head tucked under its wing, and I waited a long time to get a picture of it with its head out.  Here is the Wandering Tattler with its head under its wing.

 

Eventually, it took its head out, and I got this picture of the Wandering Tattler.

 

Here are two Brown Pelicans standing next to each other.

 

One of the Black Turnstones wandered out on the ledge next to the Wandering Tattler, so I took this size comparison picture.

 

There were Brandt’s Cormorants sitting on nests, just a little lower than the sidewalk.  Here is the cormorant nesting area, in the middle of the picture on the dirt at the top of the cliff.

 

Here is a Brandt’s Cormorant in breeding plumage (with a bright blue throat) sitting on a nest.

 

There were eggs in the nests, and it must be interesting there when the eggs hatch and the parents are feeding the chicks.

 

I walked around the point, but I didn’t see anything else I needed.  I went back to my car and moved on down the coast a little.  I wanted to look around at what used to be called the Children’s Pool area, but now is closed to people so Harbor Seals can rest there.  I got lucky again and just as I was coming along to where I wanted to park, a car pulled out, and I had another great parking place.  I walked around there, but with the crowds of people, there weren’t many birds on view.  I did manage to get a third year-bird, though, SPOTTED SANDPIPER, which was one of the species I was hoping for there today.  Here’s my first Spotted Sandpiper of the year.

 

I set up my scope and looked out over the water into the distance, hoping to see Black-vented Shearwaters, but I never found any.  I moved on down the coast again, hoping to find a Surfbird maybe, but again, there were too many people on the shore, and I saw nothing, other than one more Spotted Sandpiper.

 

After that, I gave up on La Jolla and its crowds, and I drove up the coast to the south bank of the San Dieguito River.  I drove up the road there slowly, and I saw a few birds, but nothing I needed.  I came back to the small parking area at what is called the Old Grand Avenue Bridge.  I had read about a couple of species I needed that had been seen there.  I sat in my car and ate the lunch I had brought with me from Kathy’s house, watching for birds.  I saw a couple of swallows, and one of the species that I needed was a swallow that had been reported there.  I got out of the car, and sure enough, the swallows were CLIFF SWALLOWS, the swallow species I still needed for the year.  It turned out that Cliff Swallows were building nests under the end of the old bridge, which is now a pier reaching out into the San Dieguito River.  They were gathering mud, which they use to build their nests, from the river bank.  I stood at the end of the pier and took pictures of the Cliff Swallows with their bills full of mud.  For some reason, they seemed to like to flap their wings as they gathered the mud,

 

 

 

I got this picture of a Cliff Swallow with its wings folded momentarily, as it gathered some mud.

 

Can you see what I mean when I say the light was “harsh” today?  I tried to subdue the highlights when I processed the pictures, but I couldn’t seem to do it effectively with today’s pictures.

 

While I was out of the car to take swallow pictures, I saw a couple of nondescript birds on the pier railing.  Here is one of them.

 

From that picture, I can (barely) identify the bird as my first SAY’S PHOEBE of the year, but at the time I didn’t know what it was.  Both birds flew off, and when I saw them fly I realized they were Say’s Phoebe’s, from their black tails.  One of them landed on a wire briefly, and I got this next picture.  The shape of the head is much more like a Say’s Phoebe than the previous picture.

f

 

Maybe they can raise or lower that crest at will, but normally when I see Say’s Phoebe, its head looks like the second picture.  The two faint wingbars and the cinnamon-colored lower belly are indicative of Say’s Phoebe.  That was a great one to get.  I knew it was possible, but they aren’t very common, and they are leaving now for their summer up north.

 

There was also another little bird there, and I decided it was a scruffy looking juvenile White-crowned Sparrow, not a species I needed.

 

Yesterday I had been looking for an Allen’s Hummingbird, which I finally found, and today I saw two more of them.  Here are a couple of pictures of a male Allen’s Hummingbird I saw at the Old Grand Avenue Bridge.

 

 

While I was taking pictures of the Cliff Swallows gathering mud for their nests, a Spotted Sandpiper came along.

 

There was a California Towhee making its “chip” call repeatedly, and I got a picture of it.

 

Another bird flew in to a wire, and I thought it was my Western Kingbird I had been looking for.  It wasn’t until I processed my pictures that I realized it was actually a Say’s Phoebe, not a kingbird at all.  Phoebes and kingbirds are both flycatchers, and they look a lot alike.  Here is the Say’s Phoebe that I thought was my first Western Kingbird of the year.

 

The biggest difference is that a kingbird would have a yellow lower breast and belly, rather than the cinnamon color that this bird has.  While I was eating my lunch, a Northern Mockingbird was singing repeatedly, and before I left I got this picture of it.

 

It was singing as I took that picture, which you can tell by the way its throat is puffed up.

 

That was it for today.  It was still early, but I called it quits, knowing I had beaten my 2018 totals for the end of March.  I got 5 more species for March today, to give me 201 species for March this year.  Last year I had 198, my biggest month of the year, and I never thought I had a chance to beat it this year.

 

All 5 of the March birds today were new for 2019, too, and now I have 214 species for this year.  Last year at the end of March, I had 212 species, and I certainly never imagined I would beat that this year, since I had started so strongly last year with about 10 rarities in January.

 

More numbers.  I added 75 species to my March list here in California in a week – that’s 75 NEW species I hadn’t already seen in Washington this month.  Of those, 68 were new for 2019.  It has been a very successful trip so far, with respect to numbers.

 

Tomorrow April starts.  I actually feel kind of burned out on birding, after my big push at the end of March, but tomorrow it all starts again.  I’ll have to see if I can get myself pumped up again, so I can take advantage of being in California for the next 10 days.  In this coming week, that means going back to the same places I went to in the last few days, to get the same birds again, but for April this time.  Is this crazy, or what?