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Wednesday, May 1, 2019

 

It's a new month!  Everything was new for my May list today.  I started the day by hearing American Crows before I even got out of bed.  At the back door, the pair of Mallards that come around were there, looking for some cracked corn, which I gave them.  Before I left home I added European Starling and Dark-eyed Junco at our feeder.

 

My first stop today was at the rowing club pond at Marymoor Park.  No Green Heron, as usual, but I saw four Spotted Towhees and some American Robins.  On the water was a male Hooded Merganser and three male Wood Ducks.  On my way back to my car I saw a pair of Common Yellowthroats.

 

I drove around to the west parking lot for the dog park, and I walked along the slough.  I soon had Red-winged Blackbird and Song Sparrow, and on the slough were Green-winged Teal, Canada Geese, and Gadwalls.  A Killdeer was along the edge, and I had a Barn Swallow swooping overhead.  I walked along the slough and saw some Great Blue Herons sitting on their nests at the rookery.  On my way back to my car I saw some Tree Swallows overhead.

 

I missed several species that I could have found there, but I moved on.  Next I went to the east parking lot to look for the rare Vesper Sparrow that I had seen there on the weekend, but I couldn't find it today.  I did see White-crowned Sparrows and Savannah Sparrows, but no Golden-crowned Sparrows like I saw on Sunday there.  Here's a White-crowned Sparrow.

 

Here's a Savannah Sparrow.

 

While looking for the Vesper Sparrow, I heard the Ring-necked Pheasant a couple of times, but I never saw it.  I counted it as a "heard only" bird, though.  As I drove out of the park, I saw the Osprey sitting on the new nest, and one flew overhead as well.

 

I picked up a sandwich at Subway and headed for the Snoqualmie Valley.  I drove up the old brick road and saw some Least Sandpipers at the pond before the first creek, but not the snipe I saw there on Sunday.  There were Barn Swallows sitting on the wires at the second creek crossing, and I got this picture of a Barn Swallow.

 

I stopped at the Redmond Retention Ponds on NE 95th St and saw a Northern Flicker there.  There were more Least Sandpipers there, too.  Here is one of the Least Sandpipers.

 

I couldn't find the Spotted Sandpiper I had seen there on Sunday, so I headed back toward my car.  On the way, Killdeer were flying around me, trying to lure me away from their nest, I suspect.  One of the Killdeer hunkered down in the grass, as if sitting on a nest, so I checked it out.  Here it is, sitting down in the grass.

 

I think it was decoying me, because when it got up, there was nothing under it.  While I was checking that out, though, I saw a Spotted Sandpiper, but it immediately flew off.  Another one flew out, too, and I stalked them both.  Eventually I got this picture of one of the Spotted Sandpipers.

 

Out in the Snoqualmie Valley, I didn't see anything new while crossing the valley, nor at Sikes Lake.  Most of the ducks that migrate have left now, and there aren't any coots left around, either.  Along 310th Ave NE there were three species of swallows on wires.  I added Violet-green Swallow to my May list, and here's a picture.

 

At the house with feeders in Carnation, I saw some Band-tailed Pigeons.  Here's one of them.

 

A single Mourning Dove flew in, and there were American Goldfinches at the feeders.  A Steller's Jay came around a couple of times, too, but that was about it.  I ate my sandwich there, but there weren't many birds there today.  Next I drove up to the Stillwater Unit of the Snoqualmie Valley Wildlife Area, and I walked down the trail.  Several times I saw Tree Swallows checking out potential nest holes.  They nest in natural cavities and also in old woodpecker nest holes.  Here's a female Tree Swallow checking out a hole.

 

That hole looks fresh, so maybe a woodpecker is still working on it this year.  A little brown bird was on the trail ahead of me, and I took pictures, to help me identify it.  I thought it was some kind of sparrow, but it turned out to be a female Purple Finch.

 

I walked down to the second bridge.  I was hoping to see or hear a bittern, but I didn't.  There were a lot of birds I missed today.  I couldn't call up a Marsh Wren, either.  I did manage to call in a Brown Creeper, though, in a place where I have seen them before.  Here is the Brown Creeper.

 

Here's a picture of a pair of Tree Swallows checking out a potential nest hole.

 

The male flew off, but the female stuck around, and I got this picture from another angle of the female Tree Swallow at the possible nest hole.

 

I was disappointed that I didn't see any woodpeckers there.  I did see a Yellow-rumped Warbler and a Pied-billed Grebe, at least.  There was also a female Brown-headed Cowbird on the trail.

 

After that, I stopped at the Fay Road access point, but didn't see anything there.  I went on up to W. Snoqualmie River NE and saw a Red-tailed Hawk as I turned in to that road.  I never saw a Bald Eagle or a Turkey Vulture today, though, or a Northern Harrier.  There were House Sparrows along that road, and I stopped and got out my scope to see some Northern Shovelers on a pond.  At the dairy near the end of the road I saw Feral Pigeons and a pair of Brewer's Blackbirds.  I turned around at the end of the road, and on the way back I saw a Western Kingbird on a wire.  They are pretty rare here, so that was probably the "best" bird of the day for me.  Here's the almost-rare Western Kingbird.

 

On my way back to the highway, I stopped at the burgeoning Great Blue Heron rookery, and I was surprised to find that there were nestlings in at least one nest.  Here are some pictures of one the Great Blue Heron nests.

 

Those little guys have long necks.

 

 

I saw a Eurasian Collared-Dove along that stretch, too.  I then drove up to the Crescent Lake area, but I didn't see anything new except a Common Raven.  I drove home after that, stopping to gas up my car for tomorrow.  I knew I was close to the total number of species I saw on May 1 last year, so I made myself a drink and sat on the front porch and watched our feeder for a half hour or so.  I heard one of our yard Bewick's Wrens, so that one went on my list.  Then some House Finches came in.  I hadn't seen any chickadees today, and a Chestnut-backed Chickadee came in to the feeder, and I got this picture.

 

With that one, I matched last year's May first total, so I went in.  On my way downstairs, though, I looked out at the feeder and saw a couple of Pine Siskins.  I looked all of April for a Pine Siskin and never found one, but I got it today.  Here is a Pine Siskin.

 

So, with the Pine Siskin, I beat last year's May 1st total and got 47 species today, despite missing a lot of expected species.  The Western Kingbird was new for King county for me this year, and now I have 125 species in King county this year.  It was a long day of birding, and I went a lot of places.  May, which was my biggest month in Washington by far last year, is underway.  I can't imagine that I will match last year's Washington total of 150 species in May, but we will see.

 

 

Thursday, May 2, 2019

 

After yesterday's long day of birding, I decided to take it easy today.  I went up to Wallace Swamp Creek Park and walked around slowly, stopping frequently.  It was overcast, and there wasn’t much action.  I saw Black-capped Chickadees a number of times, and that was one for my May list.  Later I got some pictures.  At one point I was sitting and watching the tree tops, and I spotted a Wilson's Warbler, a migrant that is just now returning.  That was my best bird today, by far.

 

I saw many Song Sparrows, as usual, but I noticed that one was acting strangely.  I decided that it was approaching its nest, wary of me.  I saw it had a grub or something in its beak, so I suspect there were young ones at home waiting to be fed.  Here's the Song Sparrow with its grub.

 

It finally flew into some brambles, and I found out later that Song Sparrows nest on the ground, in grass or brush.

 

I went to the spot where Linda had shown me the Hairy Woodpecker nest, a chickadee nest, and a Brown Creeper nest.  I didn't see a creeper or a woodpecker, but a chickadee was going repeatedly to the nest hole which the Hairy Woodpecker had been working on when I was there on Tuesday.  Later I saw Linda, and she had observed the same thing.  We don't know what happened to the woodpecker, but the chickadees seem to have taken over the nest hole.  Either that or they are helping the Hairy Woodpecker build his nest.  Here are three pictures of a Black-capped Chickadee at the Hairy Woodpecker hole.  It seemed to be carrying moss, which would be used to line the nest.

 

 

 

The pictures aren't very good, but there wasn't much light under the canopy, and they do show the moss that the chickadee is taking to the nest.

 

There is another chickadee nest on the other side of the trail, in a broken off snag.  Here's a Black-capped Chickadee sitting on the edge of that hole.

 

I was only about 15 feet away, and the chickadee was quite aware of me.

 

I walked back to the south side of the park and heard a Belted Kingfisher fly up the creek, making its rattling call, so that one went on my list.  I also saw a Downy Woodpecker, but it was too deep in the woods for pictures.  That was another new May bird.  I also saw Anna's Hummingbirds a few times, for my May list.

 

I hadn't been able to relocate the robin's nest that Linda had shown me on Tuesday, but I ran into her again, and she showed me again.  The American Robin was still sitting on her nest.  I hope she succeeds in hatching some babies, because it would be easy to photograph them.

 

As I walked back toward my car, I noticed a crow swooping around a tree and calling loudly.  As I suspected, there was a hawk in the tree, and it flew out as I watched.  The crow chased the hawk around for a while, and I got this picture of an American Crow harassing a Red-tailed Hawk.

 

Soon the hawk moved away, and the crow stopped chasing it.

 

I heard a loud bird song, and it took me a while to realize it was a Bewick's Wren.  They have several different kinds of songs.  I was able to follow it as it moved around, and eventually I got these pictures of the Bewick's Wren.

 

 

As I watched, it started up singing again, loud and clear.

 

That was it for today.  I spent two and a half hours slowly walking around the park, and that was enough for me today.  I only added 5 more species to my May list, and now I have 52 species in May.  We'll see if I feel like making a bigger effort tomorrow.  Oh yes, the Wilson's Warbler was new for my 2019 King county list and my 5MR list.  Now I have126 species in King county this year, and I have 88 within a 5 mile radius of home.

 

 

Friday, May 3, 2019

 

I felt like making an all day trek today, so I headed up to Skagit county, which is about an hour north of home.  I picked up a sandwich at Subway and my first birding stop was Wylie Slough.  The tide was fairly far out, so there were some shorebirds there.  My first species of the day was Rufous Hummingbird, though.  Then I started on the shorebirds.  I added Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs to my list.  Greater Yellowlegs is pretty common in spring migration, but this might have been the first time I've seen Lesser Yellowlegs in the spring.  Here are a couple of pictures of Lesser Yellowlegs.

 

 

There were a lot of dowitchers, and I ended up counting both Long-billed Dowitcher and Short-billed Dowitcher.  They are very similar, and everyone struggles to tell them apart.  Here is a dowitcher that I'm not sure about.  It seems to have characteristics of both Long-billed and Short-billed.

 

Here is one that I think is a Long-billed Dowitcher, which is the much more common one in spring migration there.

 

Here are a couple of dowitchers that I think are both Short-billed Dowitchers.

 

 

I'm not 100% sure of either of those, but I'm counting Short-billed Dowitcher for my various lists.

 

I parked in the west parking lot and quickly found the two rare (for this area) Black Phoebes.  There has been at least one Black Phoebe hanging out at Wylie Slough for over a year, and some birders have claimed there were two of them.  They are pretty rare in Western Washington, but this one has been consistently there.  I have seen it in most months since the beginning of 2018.  I read a report last week that there were two of them there, and that they were nesting.  I was skeptical, but today I confirmed that.  Here is one of the two Black Phoebes I saw today, with an insect in its beak.

 

Here it is a couple of minutes later, with another insect.

 

The bird was flying repeatedly to a spot under the eaves of the covered picnic structure.  I moved in closer and got this picture of the Black Phoebe at the nest under the eaves.

 

Here is another picture of the Black Phoebe actually in the nest.

 

I never saw any chicks, but the fact that the bird kept going to the nest with insects makes me think that there were young in the nest.  It is pretty big birding news if Black Phoebes successfully nest in Western Washington.  I can't imagine how the second one ever found its way there, to meet up with the first one.  Maybe they came together, but no nesting behavior was noted last year.

 

I walked out onto the dike trail next, and saw more shorebirds.  I added Western Sandpiper and Dunlin to my May list.  There were Hairy Woodpeckers drumming all around, and I spotted one of them, for my May list.  My first Bald Eagle of May flew over, too.  I heard a Pileated Woodpecker call in the distance twice, too, another one for May.

 

I had missed a duck I had wanted to see there for May, but as I got back to my car, there were a couple of Cinnamon Teal on the little slough.  Here is the male Cinnamon Teal, showing how the species gets its name.

 

There was a pair of Wood Ducks on that slough, too, and I can't resist taking pictures of male Wood Ducks because they are so colorful.

 

I went around to the other end of that segment of slough and found the two Cinnamon Teal again.  Here is a closer shot of the male Cinnamon Teal.

 

Here is the female Cinnamon Teal with her mate.

 

She blends right into her surroundings, but the male stands out.

 

Next I drove to Hayton Reserve.  Some workers were spraying weed killer, and it was in the air, so I didn't stick around long.  I did take a couple of pictures of the two Bald Eagles near and on their nest, and then I got out of there.

 

 

After that I drove by the house with feeders on Valentine Road, but the feeders were empty, so I didn't stop.  I went to March Point next.  I was lucky and found my main target there, a pair of Black Oystercatchers, on the beach near the road.  That was an excellent May bird because they are pretty uncommon around here.

 

 

I added Glaucous-winged Gull to my May list there, and then Greater Scaup, Bufflehead, Pelagic Cormorant, and Surf Scoter.  I also started eating my tuna sandwich from Subway and continued to do so as I drove.  Out at the point I saw that someone had come too close to shore and had had a little oopsie.

 

From there I backtracked and went north through Bay View, up to the Samish Flats.  I drove around, but I didn't see any of the raptors I was hoping for, nor anything else until I saw a Cliff Swallow on a wire.  That was a May bird.  Here are a couple of pictures of the Cliff Swallow.

 

 

I headed back down I-5 toward home, but I detoured to the Everett Sewage Ponds as I went through Everett, looking for ducks.  There were a lot of Northern Shovelers on the main pond, but I didn't need that one.  I did manage to find some Ruddy Ducks, a Ring-necked Duck, and some Lesser Scaup, though, and those were all good ones for May.  The ducks that migrate, which is most of them, are leaving now for their breeding grounds, so I need to find them as soon as I can for May.

 

It was a long day of birding, and I put about 160 miles on my car.  I added 22 species to my May list, and now I have 74 species in May.  I also added 5 species to my 2019 Skagit county list, and now I have 107 in Skagit county this year.  Greater Scaup and Common Yellowthroat (seen at Wylie Slough) were county lifers for me, and now I have seen 147 species in Skagit county since I started keeping county lists in 2012.

 

 

Saturday, May 4, 2019

 

I had another long day of birding today.  I headed on up to Mukilteo and caught the 9:30 ferry to Whidbey Island.  I took this picture near the Mukilteo ferry dock while I waited for my ferry.  It's a Pigeon Guillemot in breeding plumage, one for my May list.

 

Pigeon Guillemots are quite common on saltwater around here, but the next one, which I saw from the ferry before we departed is not so common.  Here is a Marbled Murrelet in breeding plumage, an excellent May bird.

 

There was also a Brandt's Cormorant on a ferry piling, another May bird.  This is the best picture I could get, as the ferry pulled out.  The bird wouldn't stop preening.

 

Once I was on Whidbey Island, I stopped at Pickle's Deli for a tuna salad sandwich (Thanks, Barb, for the tip on Pickles.  It's great.)  With my sandwich tucked away for later, I went to Deer Lagoon.  I lugged my scope out to where I could look around, and spotted a group of about 15 American White Pelicans in the distance.  That was an excellent May bird, and one I was looking for particularly there.  Here is a very distant picture, with lots of heat haze, of the American White Pelicans.

 

I was also looking for Caspian Terns for my May list, and here's a distant picture of some Caspian Terns.

 

One of the problems with the kind of birding I was doing today is that most of my pictures are quite distant, so they aren't very sharp.  I keep them mainly to record the memories of seeing the birds, for myself.

 

There were still some ducks around at Deer Lagoon, which I had been hoping for.  I picked up both Northern Pintail and American Wigeon there, for my May list.  There were also a number of Whimbrels on the saltwater side of the lagoon, so that one went on my May list.  I missed Black-bellied Plover, and I never found any today anywhere.  As I headed back toward my car, I heard a California Quail call, so that one went on my list as a "heard only" bird, although late in the day I actually saw a California Quail (pictures later), so the "heard only" label was removed.  I also heard Marsh Wren, and although I never saw one, it went on my list as a "heard only".  I noticed that two American White Pelicans were snoozing on a tiny island, much closer than the bigger group, so I took this picture.

 

My next stop was Crockett Lake.  I had already been planning to go over to Whidbey Island today, but last night there was a report of a major rarity at Crockett Lake.  I doubted I would find it, but it wouldn't hurt to look.  Just before I got to Crockett Lake, though, I checked out the overlook of the Sound, and I saw a pair of Rhinoceros Auklets, another excellent May bird that is hard for me to find.  Here is a Rhinoceros Auklet in breeding plumage.

 

Here's a shot of both of the Rhino Auklets.

 

If you are looking for it, you can just barely see the "horn" they grow on the top of their upper bill in breeding season.  That horn gives them their species name.  Here's one of the Rhinoceros Auklets with a fish.

 

There were a lot of little shorebirds, which birders call "peeps" feeding in the shallow end of Crockett Lake.  I looked through them and I found one Semipalmated Plover, another excellent shorebird for my May list.  Almost all the shorebirds I'm seeing this month are only migrating through here, and they won't be around for long.  I moved up the road and set up my scope again, and this time I hit the jackpot.  I spotted the mega rarity, feeding in the shallows.  It was a RUFF, a shorebird I had only seen before 2 or 3 times - once in Texas, once in Australia, and maybe once in Britain.  Ruff is fairly common in Britain, but is quite rare in the US and in Australia.  The Ruff was fairly distant, and the heat haze was terrible, but I took some pictures, anyway.  One of the characteristics of Ruffs is that the feathers on their backs (called scapulars) tend to blow around in the breeze.  Another feature is the bright orange legs.  These next pictures suffer from the distance and the heat haze, but here is the rare Ruff I spotted today.

 

 

 

It was only a little breezy, and it was interesting how the scapulars flapped around as the bird fed.  It never stopped, but rushed around looking for food constantly.  Just after I found it, another birder showed up, and I was able to put him onto it.  He walked out into the field and got closer pictures, but I didn't feel like doing that, and I needed to move on, since I had a lot of ground to cover today.

 

Farther up the lake, I saw that Purple Martins were well established in the bird boxes that people put there for them.  That was a May bird, and here's a distant picture.

 

As I drove on north toward my next destination, I saw three Turkey Vultures overhead, another May bird.  At Libbey Beach I didn't find anything I needed, so I moved on to the Hastie Lake Road access.  I did well there.  There were two or three Horned Grebes and three or four Red-necked Grebes, all in breeding plumage.  They will be flying off north very soon.  These are among the last of them to leave.  I was glad to get them for May.  I also saw four Red-throated Loons.  One was still in winter plumage, and the other three were in various stages of transition to summer colors.  One even had the beginning of a red patch on its throat.  I also saw a Common Loon in breeding plumage.  Both loon species were good May birds.

 

I ate my excellent tuna salad sandwich in the car, and then I looked around with my scope some more.  This time I spotted five birds that stumped me at first, but they were Long-tailed Ducks in summer plumage - one male and four females.  It was the females that were giving me a hard time, but then I saw the male, and the penny dropped.  Long-tailed Duck is a winter bird around here, so I'm very pleased to add the species to my May list.  Soon these birds I saw today will be in the far Arctic north, breeding.

 

My next stop was just up the road at West Beach county park.  There wasn't much left for me to find that I needed, but that is my go-to place for White-winged Scoter, and just as I set up my scope, a pair of them flew in and landed not too far out.  I had excellent scope views, and then I tried for pictures.  Here's a distant shot of a male White-winged Scoter.

 

To my pleased surprise, I also saw a pair of Harlequin Ducks, still another good May bird.  Usually I see them at the Hastie Lake Road Access, and I figured I would miss them today, when I didn't see any there.  There was a huge feeding frenzy of dozens of gulls, way offshore, and there were a couple of dozen Marbled Murrelets on the fringes of it, along with other species like cormorants.  I had already gotten Marbled Murrelet at the Mukilteo ferry terminal this morning, but I saw a couple of Western Grebes near the feeding frenzy, so that one went on my May list.  I really cleaned up on the saltwater birds today, only missing a very few species.

 

I went on from there to the lagoon at Dugualla Bay.  I had seen a late-staying Trumpeter Swan there a couple of weeks ago, and it was still around today.  Almost all of its brethren are up in Alaska or Northwestern Canada by now, so it was another excellent May bird.  I had read a report of a Greater White-fronted Goose there, so I used my scope to look at the geese, on the water and in the adjacent fields.  I didn't find the Great White-fronted Goose, but I did see a small group of 5 or 6 Cackling Geese, another one I hadn't expected to be able to find in May, since they should all be in Alaska by now.  I stopped at one point to try to see the Cackling Geese closer, but they were behind an island.  While I was looking for them, a birder who had been there when I got there got out of his car and we talked.  He said there was a possible Baird's Sandpiper there, and he showed it to me.  I took a lot of pictures, but I think after reviewing them that it was just an especially thin and long Western Sandpiper.  It was feeding with a couple of Least Sandpipers, and here are some pictures.  Here is what I think was only a Western Sandpiper, not a Baird's Sandpiper, which would be extremely rare in Washington in the spring.

 

Here it is with a couple of Least Sandpipers, for a size comparison.

 

It does seem big for a Western Sandpiper, but a Baird's wouldn't have so much red on its back and head, I don't think, and the wings would extend out beyond its tail.  Here is one more picture of the large Western Sandpiper with a Least Sandpiper.

 

There were also some Greater Yellowlegs there, and here's one of them, although I didn't need it.

 

The other birder pointed out a Lesser Yellowlegs, a good species that I had seen yesterday in Skagit county, but this was my first one ever in Island county.  The Ruff was my first in Island county, too, of course, as were the Cackling Geese.  I now have 96 species on my Island county list that I started in 2012.

 

After that I left Whidbey Island and headed toward home through Skagit county, retracing some of my route of yesterday.  I drove in to Hayton Reserve, and as I tuned into the entrance road, there was a male California Quail coming down the road right at me.  I pulled across the road so I could shoot out of the passenger window, but the bird was coming at me so fast that it was hard to get pictures.  Here are a couple of pictures of the male California Quail.

 

 

That was the first time I had ever seen (or heard) California Quail in Skagit county, and now I have 108 species on my 2019 Skagit county list, and 148 on my lifetime Skagit county list.

 

I stopped once more, at Wylie Slough, to check on the Black Phoebe nest I had seen yesterday.  I saw one of the Black Phoebes, but it didn't go to the nest while I was there, and I couldn't see anything in the nest.  The other parent might have been sitting down in the nest, though.  Here are a couple of pictures of the Black Phoebe I did see today.

 

 

Whew!  It was a long day.  I was out there about 8 hours (long for this old man), and I put another 155 miles on my car.  I added another 26 species to my May list, and now I have a nice even 100 species in May.  That's a big start for four days.  The Ruff was new for 2019, and now I have 242 species this year.  The Ruff was also new for Washington State for me, and now I have 286 species in Washington State since 2012 when I started keeping track of Washington species by county.

 

After two long days in a row, I plan to take it easier tomorrow.

 

 

Sunday, May 5, 2019

 

As I had planned, I took it easier today.  I went up to the Edmonds waterfront, with the main goal of seeing Brant, a small goose that will be leaving very soon for its breeding grounds in the arctic circle.  I went straight to Sunset Avenue, and although I didn't see any Brant at first, I did see a small group of about 8 or 10 of them eventually.  Yesterday there had been reports of hundreds of them, but I suspect most of them left town overnight.  Anyway, Brant is now on my May list.  I also picked up Double-crested Cormorant for my May list.

 

There was almost nothing out on the water.  Yesterday's reports had a lot of saltwater birds listed, but this morning there were almost none.  I did see a couple of distant Pacific Loons in full breeding plumage, at least, and that was an excellent May bird.  I was about ready to give it up when I noticed some little shorebirds on the beach below the bluff I was standing on.  I thought they were Western Sandpipers at first (because they had black legs, so they weren't Least Sandpipers, which have yellow legs), but as I watched them, I realized they weren't feeding like Western Sandpipers and they didn't really look like them, either.  They were Sanderlings, a little shorebird I didn't even have on my radar for May.  It's late for them to be only this far north; they have to get to the arctic circle, too, to breed.  These probably started on the coast of Mexico, so they have a very long trip to the breeding grounds.  Then they will return in the late summer, to spend another winter somewhere on the west coast, as far south as Mexico.  The ones today were in various stages of changing from their winter plumage to their summer finery.  Here are some Sanderling pictures.

 

 

In the winter they are very light-colored, with shades of gray and white.  In the summer they get reddish and brownish colorations.  Here are two of them, and the one on the right is more in winter clothes and the one on the left is more in summer clothes.

 

From there I went up to Ocean Avenue, but there was very little around there, either.  I saw the two Pacific Loons again, but nothing else of interest, until I noticed a gull on the beach.  It was an immature gull, and I don't usually pay attention to immature gulls, but this one was a small gull.  Gulls take three or four years to reach their adult plumage, and each year they look different until then.  I think this next picture is an immature Ring-billed Gull, and it goes on my list as such.

 

I next went to the Edmonds Marsh, but there was nothing in the actual marsh except some Green-winged Teal, which I already had this month.  I walked along the edge, though, and found a Golden-crowned Sparrow feeding on the grass.  I was glad to get that one for May because they are winter visitors here, and soon will be gone for the summer.  Early May is an interesting time because winter species are leaving (or already gone, in some cases) and summer species are arriving.  It is also the middle of the nesting season, so there is lots going on.  Here is the late-staying Golden-crowned Sparrow.

 

It was time to head for home, but on the way I stopped at the Edmonds fish hatchery and walked around.  I saw a robin fly into a tree, and I realized it was going to a nest.  Unfortunately, there were branches all around the nest, and I couldn't get a clear view of it.  I did get this peek-a-boo shot that shows parts of three baby robins, though.  Can you see three beaks?

 

Here's a shot that shows one of the nestlings a bit better.

 

I spotted an Orange-crowned Warbler high in a tree, and that was a good one for my May list.  I also saw a Wilson's Warbler, which I already had this month, but it was a good one for my 2019 Snohomish county list (as was the Orange-crowned Warbler).  On my way back to my car, I noticed the parent American Robin sitting near the nest with food in its bill, presumably waiting for me to clear the area before it went to the nest.

 

I'm not sure what all was in that pile of stuff, but some of it was wriggling.

 

I'm enjoying nesting season.  I added 7 more species to my May list today, a good number at this point.  Now I have 107 species in May.  I also added 4 species to my 2019 Snohomish county list, and now I have 103 in Snohomish county this year.  It was also my first ever Orange-crowned Warbler in Snohomish county, and now I have 168 species in that county since I started keeping track in 2012.  It was nice to have a shorter day today, after two long ones in a row.  I was out there less then three hours, and an hour of that time was spent on the drive to and from Edmonds.

 

 

Monday, May 6, 2019

 

I had a couple of appointments today, so I didn't do much birding.  I went to Log Boom Park in Kenmore first, and I saw a pair of American Coots, which was one of the species I was looking for there.  Coots are winter birds around here, and they go north and inland to breed, on lakes, I suppose.  Almost all of them are gone from here now, but I had seen a report of one at Log Boom Park, and I was pleased to find two of them there today.  I was afraid I wouldn't get American Coot for my May list.  I missed on the other species I was hoping for there, Common Merganser, but some stay here all summer and even breed locally, so I should be able to find that one later in the month.

 

After that, I had a little time, so I stopped by Wallace Swamp Creek Park to check on the robin's nest there.  I found that the parent (presumably female) was still sitting on the nest, so I guess her eggs haven't hatched yet.  Here are pictures of her on the nest, from two different angles.

 

I walked through the park, looking and listening for anything I needed for my May list, and I played the song of Golden-crowned Kinglet in an area where I had seen that species before.  Sure enough, one flew in right away and buzzed back and forth, right past me, from one side of the path to the other.  It was a good one for my May list, but getting pictures was a real challenge because the bird never stayed still for long enough.  The light was low, too, which didn't help.  I did manage to get three pictures that at least show the Golden-crowned Kinglet.

 

 

 

There was a juvenile Golden-crowned Kinglet that showed up, too.  It was fluttering its wings and acting like it wanted to get fed.  It didn't stick around long, though, and I didn't get a picture of it.

 

On the way out of the park, I took this picture of a Bushtit nest.  I still need Bushtit this month, but I watched for a few minutes and I didn't see any Bushtits.  It looks like a new nest, and I suspect the female is still sitting on eggs.  You can't see into the nest, but when they are feeding the young ones, they will be flying back and forth to the nest, and I should be able to see them then.  Here's the elaborate hanging Bushtit nest.

 

I added 2 more species to my May list today, which now stands at 109 species.  I have a couple of appointments tomorrow again, but maybe I can squeeze in a little birding.

 

 

Tuesday, May 7, 2019

 

I had a lunch appointment in Everett today, so I started the day by going up to Snohomish county near the town of Snohomish.  I had read of some shorebirds in a puddle in a field on Home Acres Road.  I figured the shorebirds would have moved on by now, but I have been wanting to visit Home Acres Road, a place I had never been, so I went anyway.  I found the puddle, but there weren't any shorebirds around it.  I did manage to hear and see a Common Yellowthroat, not one I needed for May, but I did need it for my 2019 Snohomish county list.  Likewise, one of the swallows swooping around was a Northern Rough-winged Swallow - I needed it for Snohomish county this year.  I also saw a bird flying away, and although I didn't get a great look, I thought it was an American Kestrel.  I probably would have counted it, but fortunately, I saw another kestrel later, so I didn't have to decide on the first one.  Pictures of the second one later in this report.

 

I had some time when I finished on Home Acres Road, so I drove over to Fobes Road.  I've birded there before, and there were several possible species I might see there.  I drove past the parking area and turned around at the end of the road.  As I came back, with my windows open so I could hear bird sounds, I heard what sounded like a Black-headed Grosbeak to me.  The song is similar to American Robin (to me, anyway), so I wasn't sure, but I went back to check it out.  It was indeed my first Black-headed Grosbeak in Washington this year.  I had seen one in California last month, so it wasn't a year-bird.  Here are a couple of pictures of the male Black-headed Grosbeak.

 

 

Even better than getting the grosbeak, while I was out of the car looking for it I spotted a yellow bird in a tree.  It turned out to be my first WESTERN TANAGER of the year.  I got a couple of marginal pictures, but then it flew and couldn't get a good one.  Here is the male Western Tanager.

 

 

Both the Black-headed Grosbeak and the Western Tanager were new for Snohomish county for me this year, and the Western Tanager was the first one I have recorded in Snohomish county since I started keeping county records in 2012.

 

I parked and walked out on the dike trail, hoping I could get a Virginia Rail to respond to playback of its call, but that didn't happen.  I didn't see anything I needed, so I went back to my car and headed over toward Everett.  While driving along Skipley Road, I saw the American Kestrel I mentioned earlier.  I needed that one for both my May list and also my 2019 Snohomish county list.  Here is the male American Kestrel.

 

 

I had a little extra time, so I swung by the Everett waterfront.  The tide was out, and I looked for shorebirds on the mud, but I never saw any.  I did pick up Osprey for my 2019 Snohomish county list, though.  There were two or three Osprey nests on pilings, and one was close enough for distant pictures.  Here are two Ospreys at one of the nests.

 

One of them flew off, and the other settled down like it might be sitting on eggs, although it also could have been very young chicks.

 

After that I had my lunch appointment, and this afternoon I took my car in for its 15,000 mile service.  I got the car last July, so I'm piling on the miles.

 

I added 3 more species to May, and now I have 112 in May.  Western Tanager was a new one for the year, and now I have 243 species in 2019.  I'm keeping track of how many species I see in each of three counties this year (King, Snohomish, and Skagit), and today I added 6 species to my 2019 Snohomish county list, which gives me 110.  It was also the first Western Tanager I have recorded in Snohomish county since I started keeping county lists in 2012, and now I have 169 "lifer" species in Snohomish county.

 

 

Wednesday, May 8, 2019

 

Before I get into today's report, I want to make a correction to yesterday's.  I overlooked the fact that Northern Rough-winged Swallow was new for May.  With that addition, I had 113 species in May, as of last night.

 

Today I first went to Carillon Woods Park, in south Kirkland.  I heard a lot of bird sounds, but I wasn't able to identify most of them.  I did see a couple of Wilson's Warblers and a couple of birds I wasn't able to identify, but the only one I saw that I needed was a Red-breasted Nuthatch.  That was a May bird.

 

Next I drove over to Marymoor Park, and I stopped at the rowing club first.  I didn't get anything there, so I moved over to the main park and parked in the west dog park parking lot.  I walked along the slough, and I soon saw a bird in a willow tree halfway across the slough.  It turned out to be a WARBLING VIREO, my first of the year.  It was a distant photo, and the bird never stayed still, but I got this picture that illustrates what can happen when the bird moves a few inches just as I take the picture.

 

I guess that's better than an empty frame, with no bird at all, which happens plenty of times.  Here is the only other picture I could get of the Warbling Vireo.

 

Warbling Vireo is a migrant that has just returned this week, so it was great to see one today.  I walked upstream and saw some shorebirds down by the water.  Nothing I needed, but I got pictures.  Here is a Greater Yellowlegs.

 

There were two Spotted Sandpipers there today, that I saw.  Here is one of them.

 

 

Spotted Sandpiper is quite a bit smaller than Greater Yellowlegs, and Least Sandpiper is smaller than Spotted Sandpiper.  There were at least three Least Sandpipers there today, and here are a couple of pictures of one of them.

 

 

When I got there, there were a couple of immature Bald Eagles in a tree across the slough.  One of them flew off, but the other one was still there when I left.  A female Red-winged Blackbird was harassing the eagle, and I got some amusing pictures.  Here is the immature Bald Eagle, and check out the little blackbird on the far left.

 

The blackbird would fly at the eagle from time to time, but the eagle didn't seem to mind, although it did seem to keep an eye on the blackbird.

 

Eventually the blackbird flew off, and the immature Bald Eagle just sat there looking regal.

 

I found another species I needed for May then, Common Merganser.  Here is the male (the white and black one with the dark green head) and the female (with a reddish-brown head) Common Merganser.

 

I went over to the viewing mound and played the song of Lazuli Bunting, another migrant that is just now starting to return, but I didn't attract one.

 

I added 3 more species to my May list, and now I have 116.  Warbling Vireo was new for the year, and now I have 244 species this year.

 

 

Thursday, May 9, 2019

 

My brother, Rick, is in town, and today he came over and we went out looking for birds.  We drove out to the Snoqualmie Valley, near Carnation.  We didn't see much going across the valley, but there aren't a lot of species left that I still need for May.  On the south side of Sikes Lake, I pulled over to a spot overlooking the southwest corner of the valley.  I scanned the fields with my binoculars, looking for a Northern Harrier.  I hadn't really expected to find one, because eBird indicates that there are a lot fewer reports in May through June in King county than the rest of the year, but I spotted one sitting on a fence post.  I got out my scope to confirm that was what it was (and not a Red-tailed Hawk).  That was an excellent May bird that I wasn't at all sure I would get in May.

 

We went on to the Stillwater Access to the Snoqualmie Valley Wildlife Area and walked down the valley trail along the old railroad right-of-way.  I was hoping to see or hear an American Bittern, but not today, as it turned out.  It's also a good spot for some of the returning migrants, but the only one I saw was a male Black-headed Grosbeak.  I already had that one in May.  No Bullock's Orioles, no Yellow Warblers, no flycatchers of any species, no Vaux's Swifts, and no Swainson's Thrushes.  It's still a little early for some of those species, but I was hoping.  Other people we ran into said they had seen and/or heard orioles, but I don't know the calls, and I didn't see one.

 

There was a female Tree Swallow that was going in and out of a nest hole right by the trail.  Here she is, sitting in the opening of the hole, looking at us.

 

At one point we were startled by the loud drumming of a woodpecker on a metal sign, quite close behind us.  It was a Red-breasted Sapsucker, one I needed for May and was hoping to see there today.  Here's a picture.  The bird periodically pecked at the orange metal sign and made quite a racket.

 

There were a couple of photographers there, and they were taking pictures of a European Starling nest at the first bridge.  The nest is in a hole that was made by Hairy Woodpeckers two years ago.  I had watched the Hairy Woodpeckers make that nest hole and then raise their young.  Here are two baby starlings looking out of the hole, waiting for a parent to bring food.

 

When one of the parents flew into the tree next to the nest, the chicks noticed and opened their mouths for food.

 

I would have liked to get a picture of the parent giving them food, but the parent would fly in for an instant and transfer the food, then it would be gone.  I don't think it even landed.  We left the two photographers trying for pictures there and walked farther down the trail.  There was another Red-breasted Sapsucker preening on a tree branch, so I shot this picture of it.

 

As we made our way back toward the car, we found out that there was a Red-breasted Sapsucker nest hole on the far side of the tree with the starling nest in it.  You couldn't see the hole, though, so getting pictures was impossible.  I did see one of the sapsuckers on a tree nearby, though, and shot this picture, in the deep shade.

 

It was a beautiful sunny day today, with record temperatures for this date, supposedly into the mid-80's.  Here's an American Robin sitting in the sun with its back to us.

 

There were a number of American Goldfinches around today.  Here's a shot of a male American Goldfinch sitting in the sun.

 

It flew down and perched briefly by the trail in the shade, and I got this side shot of it.

 

Back near the parking lot there was a pair of Wood Ducks in a pond.  I can't resist taking pictures of Wood Ducks, so here is the colorful male Wood Duck.

 

Here is his attractive, but less gaudy, mate.

 

As I mentioned above, I missed a number of possibilities, but we had a nice walk in the sunshine on a beautiful spring day.

 

After that we stopped at the Carnation IGA supermarket and got sandwiches.  We took the sandwiches to a park and had a nice lunch at a table in the shade.  I had some chips I shared, and Rick had brought some homemade chocolate chip cookies that a cousin of ours had made this morning.  Yum.

 

After lunch we went down to the Tolt River to look for American Dipper, which I needed for May.  I had seen and photographed a dipper nest under the bridge last month, and I figured the young ones would have fledged by now, but I was hoping they might still be hanging around.  We had seen the woman who had told me about the nest on our trail walk earlier, and she told me that the dippers had been seen cleaning out the nest, and now they seemed to be working on a second brood.  Sure enough, when we got there, we spotted a dipper across the river, and as we watched it, it approached the nest, in stages.  Here's a picture of the American Dipper at its nest on a girder under the bridge.

 

We were able to get much closer to the nest than I got last month because the river was much lower and we could walk out onto rocks that had been underwater last month.  The dipper stuck its head into the nest as we watched, but it never went all the way in.  I suspect that its mate was sitting inside on eggs.  The bird then flew down to our side of the river and proceeded to pose for pictures for several minutes, in 3 or 4 places, all quite close.  I shot a lot of pictures, although the light was kind of tough, with bright sunlit water behind the dark bird for most of them  Here's a shot of the American Dipper from the front, looking right at me.

 

Here's a shot with its back to me, looking over its shoulder.

 

Here's a side shot that I like, of the American Dipper.

 

Was this bird being cooperative, or what?  I was pretty close to the bird on all those shots, but then it flew in even closer.  Here's probably the best shot I've ever gotten of an American Dipper.  I really like how you can see so much feather detail.

 

It looks lighter-colored in that picture because of the lighting.  It tucked one foot up from time to time and stood on one leg, as it was doing in that last picture.

 

Eventually it flew across the river, and we moved on.  We drove up the valley to Duvall and went up W. Snoqualmie River Rd NE.  I didn't really expect to see anything I needed, although you never know, but I wanted to see how the Great Blue Heron nests there were doing.  When I was there on May 1st, there were three chicks in one nest, but no sign of young ones in the other two nests in the main tree.  Today when we got there, there were chicks visible in all three nests, with parents feeding them in each nest.  I should have stopped then and gotten pictures, but I figured they would still be there when we came back by there (it's a dead end road).  When we came back, though, only one nest had a parent in it, and you could only see chicks in one nest - the same nest I had photographed last week (see my May 1 report for the pictures).  I was surprised that the parent birds had left two of the nests unguarded.  I thought they would still be hanging around to protect the youngsters, but either the young ones are now big enough to look after themselves, or the parent on the top nest was guarding all three nests.  Here's the nest with two of the three chicks in that nest showing themselves.

 

Here's the parent on the top nest, maybe guarding all three nests while the other parents were off looking for food for the young ones.

 

I only added 3 more species to my May list today, but at this point, that is fine.  I have 119 species in May now.  I'd like to have 130 when I leave for Malheur, in Eastern Oregon, on May 26.  That's plenty of time to get 11 more species, but there are a dwindling number of species left that are possible.  I think I can do it, but it isn't a slam dunk.

 

 

Friday, May 10, 2019

 

I stayed close to home today.  I first went to Carillon Woods Park, in south Kirkland.  I didn't hear or see much, and nothing that I needed.  It's a heavily wooded park, and I don't usually do well in forests.  It's a nice park, though, so I keep trying.

 

Next I tried to go to Juanita Bay Park, but the parking lot was completely full, not something I remember seeing before.  I went across the main road to the fire station road instead, and I walked there.  It was quiet there, too, but then I saw a couple of Bushtits, a bird I needed still for May.  It turned out that they were building a nest.  I took a picture or two, and then went back to my car and got my camp chair.  I set it up where I could watch the nest, and I took pictures of the pair of Bushtits working on their elaborate nest.  There wasn't much light under the trees, but I did the best I could.  Here's a picture of one of the Bushtits at their partially completed hanging nest.

 

They would fly off and come back with nest material and go into the nest.  Most of the work they were doing was inside the nest.  I could see the nest moving around as they worked the interior.  Here's another picture of one of the Bushtits at the nest.

 

In that picture, the bird seemed to be working on the exterior of the nest.  Here's another one showing work on the exterior.

 

Usually they would go into the nest, and here's a picture of one of them coming out again.

 

Here's one of the Bushtits as it came to the nest.

 

Here's one of them approaching the nest with some nesting material in its bill.

 

Here's one last picture of one of the Bushtits coming back out of the nest.

 

Sometimes it would be several minutes between trips to the nest, so I was looking around.  A male Spotted Towhee was perched on the top of a snag, calling from time to time, and it looked so good in the sun I took pictures, although it was fairly distant.

 

Here he is calling.

 

A few minutes later he moved to another snag, a little closer.

 

Eventually I figured I had enough pictures of the Bushtits and their nest building, so I moved on.  I tried the main parking lot at the park again, but it was still full, so I drove to the northeast corner of the park, at the end of NE 108th St.  I walked down the trail there, but all I got that I needed for any list was a couple of Black-headed Grosbeaks calling loudly.  I never saw one, but it went on my 2019 King county list as a "heard only" bird.  It was also a 5MR bird.  That was it for today.  I added one more to my May total, to give me 120 species now in May.  I have 127 species in King county this year now, and 89 within a five mile radius of home.  It's getting harder and harder to add species to my May list, but I'm still trying to get it to 130 before I leave for Oregon on the 26th..

 

 

Sunday, May 11, 2019

 

This morning I went over to Seattle, to my California Scrub-Jay spot.  Last time I didn't find one there, so I wasn't confident.  I parked and walked around, playing the calls.  I had nothing, and was almost back to my car, ready to give up, when I spotted a California Scrub-Jay in a tree ahead of me.  I don't know if it had responded to my playback or not, but I shot some pictures of it, looking up into the tree.  There actually were two of them in the tree, as it turned out.  Here are some odd angle shots, looking up at California Scrub-Jay.

 

 

 

I had just about given up on finding one today, so I felt good as I moved on from there.  My next stop was Magnuson Park, in north Seattle.  I was hoping to see Cooper's Hawk at the nest I saw last month, and if not, then maybe I would see one around the park.  I walked to the nest viewing spot, but nothing was showing at all in the nest.  I don't know if the young ones had already fledged, or if they were just sleeping, but I saw nothing.  I hung around a while, but eventually gave it up.

 

I drove through the park, but it was crowded on a sunny May Saturday, there weren't any good parking places, and it was hot in the sun, so I gave it up without really walking around, other than the walk to the nest.

 

I stopped at Wallace Swamp Creek Park in Kenmore on the way home, but I not only didn't see anything I needed, the robin's nest there that I had gone there to see was empty, seemingly.  I guess it must have failed for some reason.  It was pretty much out in the open, and maybe crows found it.

 

I stopped one more time, at St. Edwards State Park.  I walked into the woods and played the song of Pacific Wren.  Most Pacific Wrens have migrated up into the mountains now, to breed, but a few hang around for the summer, I guess.  Anyway, it took quite a while, but eventually I did get a good binocular look at a Pacific Wren.  It was much too dark in the deep woods for pictures, but I was happy just to see it.  It didn't show itself very much, but it was there, and I saw it.

 

So, I added 2 more species to my May list today, and now I have 122 species in May.  I'm inching closer to my goal of having 130 by the time I leave for Oregon on May 26.  There are enough species left to get there, but it will mean getting just about everything possible, or else seeing a rarity or some difficult ones.

 

 

Sunday, May 12, 2019

 

Today I headed up to Skagit county to visit a place I had never heard of before, let alone birded.  I found my way to Fox Road, which is a short rural road that runs between Clear Lake and Beaver Lake, neither one of which I had ever heard of before.  It turns out that there is even a little community called Clear Lake.  It is located northeast of Mount Vernon, a bit over an hour north of home.  I found the place by searching for sightings of Blue-winged Teal, an uncommon bird I needed still for May.  In addition to the  teal, there were four other excellent species I needed that had been reported there more than once in the last week.

 

Fox Road had wet marshy fields on one side and shallow patches of water on the other side.  I pulled over and soon heard Wilson's Snipe winnowing in the distance.  Winnowing is a spooky sound produced by the air rushing past the tail feathers of a male snipe while it is doing a courtship display.  Google it.  It's a very interesting sound.  Anyway, I was ready to count Wilson's Snipe for May, based on the distinctive winnowing sound, when I saw one fly in and land in tall grass.  I was quite pleased to get it, because the ones that live around here are just about gone for the summer now.  I guess they must breed in Skagit county, in the foothills of the mountains, which is where I was this morning.

 

While I was out of the car, looking for Blue-winged Teal, I played Virginia Rail and Sora calls, because those two species had also been reported there.  I heard replies from both of those species, so both went onto my lists.  At one point, I had both of those species responding at one time.  To top it all off, I heard American Bitterns doing their distinctive "pumping" call several times, so that one went on my lists, too.  Ironically, I never did see a Blue-winged Teal there, and that was the species that led me to discover this place.  I added four excellent species to various lists, and three of them were "heard only" birds.  Maybe I'm finally learning to "bird by ear", which is what all the good birders do all the time.  While all this was going on, I heard Marsh Wrens, which I needed for my 2019 Skagit county list, and also Common Yellowthroats, which I didn't need.  I was hearing birds like mad.  I played Common Yellowthroat songs, and attracted a male, and he posed for pictures.  Here is the male Common Yellowthroat.

 

 

 

 

After that I drove back down to the freeway and back to Hayton Reserve, which is also in Skagit county.  I was looking for gulls, but I found nothing I needed, and I didn't get any pictures there.

 

I drove to Wylie Slough to try to find a Blue-winged Teal there, as well as other ones I needed.  I saw a couple of Black-headed Grosbeaks, and that was new for me for Skagit county since I started keeping county lists in 2012.  I had it already for May, though.  As I pulled in to the parking area, I saw a group of four birders returning from the dike walk, and I asked if they had seen any Blue-winged Teal.  They said they had, so I headed out onto the dike.  There were three Long-billed Dowitchers hanging around still, and I got this picture of two of them.

 

Most of the dowitchers have migrated on through by now, but I already had that species this month, anyway.  I couldn't find any Blue-winged Teal, but I kept looking because I had been told they were there today.  Persistence paid off, and eventually, I spotted a single male Blue-winged Teal across the wide slough.  That was an excellent May bird, and here's a distant picture.

 

There were some Northern Shovelers there, and although I didn't need the species, here is a picture of a male Northern Shoveler.

 

I ate my tuna sandwich and chips from Subway, and then walked around the west parking area.  I checked out the Black Phoebe nest, and although I saw two Black Phoebes actively chasing flying insects, I didn't see either one of them go to the nest I had seen 9 days ago.  I also couldn't see anything in the nest.  Here are a couple of pictures of one of the Black Phoebes.

 

 

While I was observing the Black Phoebes, a female House Sparrow was hanging around, and I shot her picture.

 

I didn't see any of the migrants I was hoping to see at Wylie Slough, but that might have been because it was overcast and windy.  Two days ago the temperature was in the mid-80's, and today it was in the high 50's.  I was quite satisfied that I had found the Blue-winged Teal, though, and I headed for home.

 

I detoured on my way home, to Tulalip Bay.  I was hoping for Black-bellied Plover, although it is getting pretty late for them to still be passing through here.  They ought to be on their breeding grounds in the arctic by now.  I scanned the spit from the marina, and saw nothing on the first pass.  Before I left, I scanned it again, and this time I found a group of several Dunlin, a shorebird I didn't need.  They must have flown in after I scanned the first time.  With the Dunlin were three Black-bellied Plovers, one in breeding plumage and two that hadn't transitioned yet.  They were much to distant for pictures, but I was pleased to get the species for May.  As I watched them, they all took off and disappeared.  My timing was perfect; they must have been on that beach for only a couple of minutes.

 

I drove around the bay to the west side, hoping to see Purple Martins for my 2019 Snohomish county list, but I didn't find any.  I did see a Steller's Jay, though, and I needed that one for my 2019 Snohomish county list, too.  I didn't need Belted Kingfisher, but I got this picture of one.

 

This male House Finch was singing loudly, close to my car, so I shot him, too.

 

To finish off my day, here's a picture of a mature Bald Eagle sitting on the beach.

 

It was an extremely productive day, for this stage of the month.  I added an amazing 6 species to my May list.  I have been striving to get to 130 species in May before I leave for Oregon on the 26th, and now I have 128 in May.  There are 4 or 5 migrant species that I still have a good chance to see before I go, so it seems safe to say I'll make my 130.  I also added 7 species to my 2019 Skagit county list, to give me 115 in Skagit this year.  Three of those were county "lifers" for me, and now I have 151 species in Skagit county since 2012.  The Steller's Jay gives me 111 species in Snohomish county in 2019.

 

I guess that now I can spend the next 13 days trying for migrants that are just starting to return, as well as continuing to look for various uncommon birds that could show up anywhere at any time.  I could also work on my 2019 county lists and my 5 mile radius list.

 

 

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

 

Before I get into today's report, I want to mention that I overlooked the fact that the Black-bellied Plovers I saw on Sunday at Tulalip Bay were not only May birds, they also were the first ones I had seen in Snohomish county in 2019.  That increased my 2019 Snohomish county list to 112 species.

 

On Monday I had things to do in the morning and had a lunch appointment in Everett, but on the way home I stopped off at Sprague Pond Mini Park in Lynnwood, hoping to see the Green Heron that had been reported there over the weekend.  I didn't find the Green Heron, but I did see a single male Wood Duck, which was another one for my 2019 Snohomish county list.  That gave me 113 species in Snohomish county this year.  I also went across the street to Scriber Creek Park and walked a little.  I didn't get anything I needed, but I did see a couple of Barn Swallows collecting mud for their nest.  Here is a Barn Swallow with a little mud in its bill.

 

It didn't settle for that, though, and scooped up more mud.

 

Not satisfied with that, it picked up still more mud before it flew off.

 

I find it interesting that different species have such different nesting habits.  Barn Swallows build open-top nests out of mud.

 

Today, Monday, it rained in the morning and I had a doctor's appointment in the afternoon.  After that appointment, though, I stopped at the fire station road at Juanita Bay park to check out the Bushtit nest that I had found there on Friday last week.  There wasn’t any activity around the nest at first, and I figured that probably the Bushtits had finished the nest and the female might be inside, sitting on eggs.  I kept watching, though, and after a while both Bushtits started to come into the nest.  I was sitting in my camp chair, and I took pictures.  Here is the nest as it looked today.

 

Here is what it says about Bushtit nests on the Audubon website:

 

"Nest (built by both sexes) is firmly attached to twigs and branches, a tightly woven hanging pocket, up to a foot long; small entrance hole near top leads to narrow passage which opens into nest chamber. Nest is made of spiderwebs, moss, grass, lichens, leaves, rootlets, twigs; inside lined with plant down, animal hair, feathers."

 

I was kind of surprised that they were still working on it, four days after I first saw it.  They were still working on the inside of the nest.  Both birds would fly in, carrying material and would go inside the nest, usually one at a time.  Then I would see the nest bulging and moving as the one inside worked the material into the nest walls.  Here is the female Bushtit with some nest lining material.

 

Male Bushtits have dark eyes, and females have light-colored eyes, like this one.  Here's one of the Bushtits going into the entrance hole near the top of the nest.

 

Here's another shot of the female Bushtit carrying nesting material.

 

Two birds were coming to the nest, but the only pictures I got were of the female.  Here she is with another load of material.

 

I would have stayed longer, taking pictures, but it started to sprinkle more heavily, and I decided to head for home, rather than sit there and get soaked.  I didn't get anything for any list today, but it was fun getting more Bushtit pictures.  Nesting season has really been fun this year.  I'm still at 128 species in May, and I still have 244 species for 2019 so far.

 

 

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

 

I had a yard work helper coming over today at 9:00, so I didn't get out birding until about 11:00.  I went down to Juanita Bay Park, hoping to maybe see some swallows, which I need for my 5 mile radius list.  I knew I had a chance to see returning migrants as well, but I wasn't counting on it.  I carried my camp chair out to the end of the east boardwalk and sat there for a while and enjoyed the nice day.  I did see a few swallows, but none ever stuck around long enough for me to identify them.  To entertain myself, I took some pictures of a male Red-winged Blackbird who seemed to be claiming that territory.

 

He would perch on the railing and from time to time he would call loudly.

 

Here's a picture of him from the rear, as he was calling.  I like the feather detail.

 

From time to time I would stand up and look around.  At one of those times, I saw my first Cedar Waxwing of May.  It was distant, but I got one picture of it in some bushes.

 

As it turned out, I saw more Cedar Waxwings later, but this was the first one, and it was only a brief look.

 

Eventually I headed back toward my car.  On the way I saw a bird at the top of a snag, and I could see it was some kind of flycatcher.  It flew out and back a couple of times, catching bugs, and I got these two pictures of it, partially obscured by branches.

 

 

My impression at the time was confirmed for me when I saw the pictures, and I'm counting it as my first WESTERN WOOD-PEWEE of the year.  They are just now starting to come back from their southern migration for the winter.

 

The pewee flew off, out of sight, and I saw more Cedar Waxwings.  I ended up seeing about 5 or 6 of them, I think.  Two of them exhibited some interesting behavior.  Here is part of a paragraph about the courtship habits of Cedar Waxwings, from the Cornell All About Birds website:

 

"During courtship, males and females hop towards each other, alternating back and forth and sometimes touching their bills together. Males often pass a small item like a fruit, insect, or flower petal, to the female. After taking the fruit, the female usually hops away and then returns giving back the item to the male. They repeat this a few times until, typically, the female eats the gift."

 

That's exactly what these next two birds were doing.  It looked like they were kissing or one was feeding the other.  When I saw my pictures, I realized that the one on the right had a bug in its bill in the first picture I got of them.

 

The one on the right, the male (presumably), then seemed to pass the bug to the (presumably) female on the left.

 

Then they each kind of hopped apart for a few seconds.

 

It appears like the female hasn't eaten the bug, and she still has it in her bill.  Then they came together again.

 

The female then passed the bug back to the male, who then hopped away with it.

 

They repeated that little dance two or three times.  At the time I couldn't figure out what was going on, although I thought it might be some kind of courtship behavior.  It was interesting to find the description I quoted above, because that was exactly what they were doing. 

 

The other Cedar Waxwings were chasing flying bugs and landing in the tree tops, and I took more pictures of them

 

 

 

A few Cedar Waxwings hang out around here all winter, but most of them migrate, and they are just now starting to come back.  I figured I would see them this month, and today I did.  I got 2 more species for May today, and now I have 130.  One of those, Western Wood-Pewee, was new for the year, and now I have 245 species in 2019. (I had the wrong total in last night's report.)  Western Wood-Pewee was also new for my 2019 King county list and my 5MR list, of course, and now I have 129 species in King county this year, and I have 90 species within a 5 mile radius of home (my 5MR list).

 

Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy, and I have a dentist appointment besides.  It is supposed to be pretty wet for the next week, but right now it looks like we might have a break on Friday morning, and I'm hoping to get out there and see some more returning migrants and other elusive species.  I'm planning on heading down to eastern Oregon on the 25th or the 26th, for some birding with my friend, Fred, around Burns, OR, at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

 

 

Thursday, May 16, 2019

 

The rain today got delayed somewhat, and I decided to head over to Marymoor Park, despite the light sprinkles.  I stopped at the retention pond on NE 90th St, on the north edge of downtown Redmond, to check out the Northern Flicker nest hole.  I had seen a male Northern Flicker working on the hole twice in April.  On April 23, I got pictures of him making the hole, and he couldn't get into it yet, then.  On April 26, I got pictures of him in the nest hole, tossing out wood chips.  I wanted to see if the nest was still active, and what stage it was in today.

 

I saw no activity around the nest for several minutes, and I wondered if they had abandoned it, or it maybe the female was inside, sitting on eggs.  After a few minutes, I played a Northern Flicker call, to see what would happen.  A female immediately stuck her head out of the hole and looked around.

 

The incubation period is supposed to be 11 to 13 days for Northern Flicker, so there might already be youngsters in the nest, or maybe the eggs are about to hatch.  I was glad to see that the nest hasn't been abandoned, anyway.

 

I went on to Marymoor, first going to the rowing club pond.  I met the people on the regular Thursday morning bird walk as they were finishing up their day, and I picked their brains about what they had seen, and where.  Next I drove over to the main part of the park and walked toward the lake along the East Meadow.  It was sprinkling, but I went anyway.  I didn't see or hear much on the way to the lake.  I got these two pictures of a male Rufous Hummingbird, but I didn't need it for any lists.

 

 

Anna's Hummingbirds are more common around here than Rufous.  Some Anna's Hummingbirds migrate south in the winter, and some spend all year here.  All of the Rufous Hummingbirds fly off to Mexico and points south of there for the winter, but they breed here each year.

 

At the lake, Purple Martins were hanging around the artificial gourds that people have hung there for nesting.  They were very vocal, and I could hear them as I approached.  Here is a male Purple Martin.

 

Here's a female Purple Martin.  Purple Martins are members of the swallow family.

 

Here's a picture of a pair of Purple Martins interacting at the opening to one of the nest gourds.

 

I needed Purple Martin for my 2019 King county list.

 

There was a single American Coot in the water, which is unusual here in the summer.  Almost all of the coots have gone off to breed in the mountains and inland lakes now.  Here is the American Coot.

 

At one point a couple of Tree Swallows flew up to the Purple Martin nests, as if checking them out.  Tree Swallows would be happy to occupy such a nest, but the Purple Martins had them sewed up.  Here is one of the male Tree Swallows.

 

Here's one more picture of a male Purple Martin.

 

Note how wide the bill is at the base.  That makes it easier for them to catch insects in the air.

 

I walked back to the car the long way, along the rest of the boardwalk and through the south end of the dog park.  I had been watching the skies, and while walking across the dog park, I saw some swallows up high.  I looked at them and at least one of them was actually not a swallow, it was a Vaux's Swift, one I needed for May that I was hoping to see today.

 

As I approached my car, I took this picture of another male Tree Swallow, sitting near a nest box.

 

It's getting difficult to add more species to May, and I was happy today to add 1 more species, to give me 131 now in May.  Purple Martin brought my 2019 King county list to 130 species.

 

It's supposed to rain in the morning tomorrow, but maybe I'll venture out looking for birds in the afternoon.  Or, maybe not.

 

 

Friday, May 17, 2019

 

We had over a half inch of rain overnight, but it had stopped by the time I was ready to go out looking for birds, so I went over to Marymoor Park again.  I walked the same loop I had walked yesterday - from the viewing mound to the lake, then back via the south end of the dog park.  There were three or four migrant species that were possible, for my May list.  Part way down the East Meadow, I heard a bird call loudly in a tree near the path, but I didn't recognize the call (not a surprise).  I thought it might be a Bullock's Oriole, so I played that call on my phone.  It wasn't exactly the same, but maybe had the same characteristics.  As I played it, a bird flew out of the tree and off across the meadow.  It was the right size for an oriole, and I could see some color on it.  It landed in a dead tree, very far away.  It was too far for binoculars, but I took some pictures at full zoom, in the hopes I could identify it.  Looking at my pictures in the camera viewfinder, I could see a white slash on the a black wing, and what looked like an orange head and upper parts.  I thought it was a Bullock's Oriole and I counted it as such, until I got home and looked at my pictures on the computer.  Most of the pictures were not good enough to identify the bird, but one was good enough for me to realize it had been a Red-breasted Sapsucker, not a Bullock's Oriole.  Here's that extremely distant picture.

 

It was disappointing to have to take Bullock's Oriole off my May list.

 

I continued on the path and saw a male Black-headed Grosbeak singing away.  I didn't need it, but I took pictures, which was difficult with the bright background of the sky.

 

At the end of the boardwalk, the Purple Martins were as vocal as yesterday, and they sat on their nest gourds and let me take pictures.  Here are a couple of pictures of the Purple Martins at their nest gourds.  Note the birds looking out of the nests.

 

 

Purple Martins like to nest in communities, but there are only four gourds in this location.  There were more than four pairs of Purple Martins around the gourds, so I don't know if they share a gourd or if a pair of them claim a gourd for themselves.  There is a male looking out of one gourd and a female looking out of the other one, in the pictures above.  Maybe one of the pair has to stay in the nest to hold their claim on it.

 

I moved on, but there was little around.  The male Black-headed Grosbeak was still singing away, so I played his song, and he immediately flew over closer to me and resumed his singing.  Here are three more pictures of the singing male Black-headed Grosbeak.

 

 

 

I was on my way back to my car when I got a text from my friend, Chris, and I ditched the birding to drive up to Everett to have lunch with Chris.  I probably would have gotten at least 2 or 3 species for May if I had stayed at Marymoor, but lunch with Chris was better.

 

So, after taking away the "fake news" Bullock's Oriole that I thought I had gotten, I got zip today for any list.  I still have 131 species for May, but maybe I can add to that tomorrow, when the weather forecast looks good.

 

 

Saturday, May 18, 2019

 

It was a beautiful sunny day today, and I started it at Snoqualmie Point Park, in the foothills of the Cascades.  The park is adjacent to a parking area for a very popular trail, though, and it was very crowded.  I found a place to park after driving around the parking lots once, and I got out and walked a little in the woods.  It was much too crowded for me to walk on the actual trails, but I puttered around near the car.  The only birds of interest I saw were a couple of Warbling Vireos, in different places.  I had already seen that species this month, but it's a good bird, and I got pictures.  Here is the first Warbling Vireo I saw.

 

The second one was singing, and I played its song, which encouraged it and brought it closer.  Here are a couple of pictures of the singing Warbling Vireo.

 

 

With the crowds there, I didn't hang around long.  I moved on to Three Forks Park, just across the freeway.  I found a parking place at the off-leash dog park and walked through the dog park to the trail along the far side.  It was amazingly quiet.  I didn't see anything at all of any interest, unless you count a male Black-headed Grosbeak, which is a quite common bird around here this month.  I haven't seen a female yet, but the males are singing all over the place and are very responsive to playback.

 

I had a nice walk at Three Forks Park, but didn't get any birds or any pictures.  I drove down to the Snoqualmie Valley and picked up a sandwich at the Carnation Market.  I took the sandwich and some chips to the Stillwater Access for the Snoqualmie Valley Wildlife Area, where I took my camp chair out to the trail and sat in the shade and ate my lunch, while watching for birds.  I saw a few birds, but nothing I needed for May and nothing worth a picture.  I walked a little on the trail, and I did manage to see a Northern Rough-winged Swallow, which was a species I needed for my 2019 King county list..

 

Next I drove up to Duvall and drove up W. Snoqualmie River Road NE.  The Western Kingbird that has been on the wires outside the Muslim butcher's place for the last couple of years is back again this year.  Western Kingbirds are uncommon around here, and it's interesting that this one keeps coming back here, to the exact same place.  It ought to be in Eastern Washington or down in California, where it would have a chance of finding a mate.  Here are a couple of pictures of the Western Kingbird.

 

 

One reason I had driven up that road was to check out the Great Blue Heron nests that I've shown pictures of before.  The young ones have grown a lot, but they have a ways to go still before they fledge.  It seems strange to me to think of them just sitting in their nests, out in the open, for a number of weeks.  Just as I got there, an adult bird flew in with some food, and two youngsters mobbed the parent to get some.

 

 

There were three young ones in that nest the last time I was there, so one must not have survived.  I drove farther up the road and got this picture of a Barn Swallow sitting on a wire, calling.

 

By the time I got back to the Great Blue Heron nest, the parent bird had left the two youngsters on their own, and I got a couple more pictures of them.

 

 

Those birds stay in the nest for 7 to 10 weeks after they hatch, just standing or sitting there.  They can't go anywhere, and they are out in the open day and night, rain or shine.  It's a wonder that any of them survive.

 

So, I had a nice day out in the sunshine, but all I got for it was Northern Rough-winged Swallow for my 2019 King county list, which gives me 131 species in King county this year.  Coincidentally, I have 131 species for May so far, too.  My year total stands at 245 species.

 

 

Sunday, May 19, 2019

 

My first stop this morning was Sprague Pond Mini Park in Lynnwood.  A Green Heron had been reported there last week, and I have seen Green Heron there in the past, so I stopped by for a quick look.  No Green Heron, but there were a number of Canada Goose families on the pond.  Here's a picture of one group of Canada Geese with goslings.

 

Canada Geese mate for life, and they supposedly have a low "divorce" rate.  I looked it up, and they supposedly lay between 3 and 8 eggs each year.  Well, I've seen plenty of Canada Goose "families" with a lot more than 8 goslings.  It turns out that sometimes one brood, or part of it, will join another brood, and that's how you get such large "families".  In the picture above, there were 12 goslings and four adults, but when they went into the water and swam off, all 12 goslings stuck with one adult pair.  I noticed there was a variation in size among the goslings, though, so they must have been from multiple parents.  Here's a picture of all 12 goslings, swimming off with one pair of adults.

 

I'd say there were 8 or 10 family groups on the pond, with most of them having from 3 to 5 goslings.  Here's a picture of one of the smaller youngsters.

 

Think how much its stubby little wings will have to grow before that gosling can fly.

 

So, without anything for any lists, I went on to Yost Park in Edmonds.  It's a nicely wooded park, and I walked the trails.  I was playing the songs of 3 or 4 species as I walked around, but there wasn’t much to see.  I did see a couple of Red-breasted Nuthatches, but I didn't need that one.  Then I saw a Hairy Woodpecker working away on a fallen log.  There wasn’t much light under the canopy, and the bird never stopped its digging, so pictures were tough.  Here's what you get in low light when the bird keeps moving its head up and down.

 

Low light means slow shutter speed, and that means motion blur.  I kept at it, taking over a dozen pictures, trying to time it so the picture would take just as the bird reached the top of its motion.  I succeeded twice, as shown in the next two pictures of the male Hairy Woodpecker.

 

 

Note that the bird wasn't standing still for me; I just managed to time it so I caught it at its peak.  I was pretty pleased to get two decent pictures under those conditions.  It was my first Hairy Woodpecker in Snohomish county this year, so I had a bird for one of my lists.  A little later I saw a Pileated Woodpecker flying through the woods, and that was another first for Snohomish county for me this year.

 

I continued to walk along the trails and play bird songs.  At one point I saw a bird, but all I could see was the tail and back, before it flew off.  I thought it looked like one of the birds I needed, so I played the song and calls of that species.  I heard a response, and then I saw the bird, and it was indeed my first SWAINSON'S THRUSH of the year.  It was too far away for a picture, but I kept playing its call, and it eventually approached me and I got pictures.  Here is today's Swainson's Thrush.

 

 

It stayed up in the trees, but eventually it flew into a tree that was downhill from where I was standing, and I got this picture looking at it from the side.

 

So, I had my May bird, and I headed for home.  I had some time, though, so I stopped at Wallace Swamp Creek Park in Kenmore.  I knew that there were Black-throated Gray Warblers that hung out there, probably nesting, so I walked around and played their song.  I managed to attract one, but I wasn't able to get a picture.  I continued on through the park, and on my way back at that same spot, I tried again.  This time the bird stuck around for pictures.  Here is a female Black-throated Gray Warbler.

 

 

 

That was it for today, and I was quite pleased to get 2 more species for my May list, to give me 133 now for May.  I added 3 species to my 2019 Snohomish county list, too, and now I have 116 in Snohomish county this year.  Swainson's Thrush was new for the year as well, and now I have 246 species in 2019.

 

There are still 3 or 4 returning-migrant species I could possibly get this week, before I head off to Oregon, by way of Central Washington, on Saturday or Sunday.  We'll see if I can get lucky again.

 

 

Monday, May 20, 2019

 

It's a short report today.  I wanted to go up to Snohomish county around the town of Snohomish today, and the hourly weather forecast said 15% chance of showers, each hour this morning.  That sounded good to me, but the rain won.  It rained just about all morning.  15% chance, my eye.  I checked out a new place I had never heard of before, Field's Riffle, just west of the town of Snohomish.  I found it, but it would have involved a walk of about 150 yards just to get to the trees, and it was raining, so I didn't do it.  Maybe another time.  I moved on down the road to Rotary Park, on the outskirts of Everett, and I sat in the car and read while the rain continued.  Eventually it let up enough that I ventured out a little.  I saw a hummingbird at the top of a dead tree, and it turned out to be a Rufous Hummingbird, the first one I have recorded in Snohomish county since I started keeping county lists in 2012.  Here are a couple of pictures of the male Rufous Hummingbird at the top of the tree, in poor light.

 

 

I heard Swainson's Thrush in the brush, and eventually I lured one out for a quick picture.

 

Yesterday I saw my first Swainson's Thrush of the year, and today I had another one.  I guess they are back from their migration now.  The rain started up again, and I gave it up for the day.

 

I added one species to my 2012 Snohomish county list, to give me 170 "lifetime" species in that county now.  Of course, it was also new for my 2019 Snohomish county list, giving me 117 species in the county this year.  That was it for today.

 

 

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

 

I had an errand to run this morning, but after that, I went over to Marymoor Park.  My first stop was at the rowing club pond.  I can't resist taking pictures of Wood Ducks, and here's a shot of three of them, two males and a female.

 

While I was taking pictures of the Wood Ducks, a male Downy Woodpecker flew in, and I got this peek-a-boo picture of him, through the foliage.

 

I drove over to the main part of the park, and there was an Osprey sitting on one of the light poles at the baseball fields.  It was preening and the wind was ruffling its feathers.  Here are a couple of pictures of the Osprey, from two different angles.

 

 

Next I climbed up on the viewing mound to look for Lazuli Buntings.  No luck at that, but I got this picture of a male Spotted Towhee in a fir tree.

 

After that I drove over to the slough and walked a little.  As usual, there were a lot of Great Blue Herons around, because of the rookery nearby.  Here's one of them.

 

There were a couple of female Common Mergansers at the weir, and I took this picture of them.

 

As I was doing that, an immature Bald Eagle swooped in and caught a fish below the weir.  The eagle took his fish to a tree across the slough, and some crows harassed it as it ate its catch.  Here's the immature Bald Eagle with its fish.

 

The eagle pecked away at its fish, taking bites out of it.

 

After a number of bites, it just swallowed the rest of the fish.  Here's a picture of the last of the fish going down the eagle's throat.

 

After its snack, the eagle sat there for a while, watching the water for another fish.

 

A couple of Great Blue Herons chased each other around at one point.  I don’t know what was going on, but eventually they landed and postured at one another.  Here's one of the Great Blue Herons displaying.

 

Here's the other one, about 50 feet away from the first one.

 

Here's another picture of the second one., as it approached the first one.

 

I couldn't tell if they were fighting or if it was some kind of mating ritual.

 

That was it for today.  I didn't get any birds for any lists, but I gave it a go, and I got some pictures.

 

 

Saturday, May 25, 2019

 

I’m on the road again.  I’m heading for Burns, Oregon, to meet my friend, Fred, and his faithful Golden Retriever, Tugboat.  We plan to spend four full days looking for birds around Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.  This will be our seventh year of birding together at Malheur.  Tonight I’m in Ellensburg WA, which is only about two hours from home.  I did a lot of birding today, and I have a long report with lots of pictures.

 

My first stop today was Bullfrog Pond, just west of the town of Cle Elum.  I was looking particularly for an uncommon species I had seen there before, and I played its song.  After a couple of minutes, I was rewarded by a VEERY flying in to check me out.  I got a couple of mediocre pictures of the Veery, which is a member of the thrush family.

 

 

There were some swallows flying overhead, and I noticed that there were some swifts in with them.  I got a good look at some of them, and I decided later when I looked it up that they were BLACK SWIFTS, a really great bird to get.  It’s early for them to be back from migration, but some are here already, and I believe that’s what they were.

 

The only other thing I saw at Bullfrog Pond that I needed was a YELLOW WARBLER, high up in a tree.  I’ll see lots of those in Oregon this coming week, but this was my Washington May Yellow Warbler, and my first of the year.

 

Next I went to the Railroad Ponds in Cle Elum.  People have been reporting a Barrow’s Goldeneye there, and I needed that one, but I didn’t find it.  While looking for it, a Bullock’s Oriole flew in, though, my first one in Washington this year.  Here’s a picture of the male Bullock’s Oriole.

 

One of my target species there was Pygmy Nuthatch, so I played its song.  A couple of them checked me out, but they stayed up high.  Here are a couple of pictures of a Pygmy Nuthatch high in a tree.

 

 

That’s a good location for House Wren, and I needed that one, so I played its song.  A Mountain Chickadee responded by flying in to check me out, which was fine by me, since I needed that one, too.  Here are a couple of pictures of the Mountain Chickadee.

 

 

Mountain Chickadee looks very much like Black-capped Chickadee, except that Mountain Chickadee has a white eyebrow over each eye.  I walked up the road a bit, and some CASSIN’S FINCHES landed in a tree near me.  That was a great one to get for the year, but they flew off before I could get any pictures.  There were Black-headed Grosbeaks singing loudly all over the place.  I didn’t need that one, but here’s a picture of a male Black-headed Grosbeak.

 

I still needed House Wren, so I stopped on my way out and played its song again.  This time one responded and sang back to me.  Here is the House Wren, a good May bird.

 

 

After that I stopped at Subway and got a tuna sandwich.  I drove to Swauk Prairie, and it started to rain a bit.  I ate the first half of my sandwich in the old Swauk Cemetery, but I didn’t see any birds there today.  I picked up Western Meadowlark and Western Bluebird along Swauk Prairie Road, but got no pictures at that time.  Later I got this distant picture of a Western Meadowlark.

 

I saw a couple of Chipping Sparrows along Swauk Prairie Road, but I didn’t feel like getting out in the rain to try for a picture, and they flew off.  It was a good one to get for May, though.  I went on to Bettas Road, which goes through a nice little farming valley and always has birds along the road.  At one point I thought it looked like good habitat for Vesper Sparrow, so I stopped and played the song from the car, through the open window.  One responded, so I got out in the sprinkling rain and took pictures.  Here is the Vesper Sparrow, an excellent one to get.

 

You might notice that it looks a bit wet.  It was singing to me, as it rained, so I call this next picture “Vesper Sparrow singing in the rain”.  Those of you of a certain age will understand the reference.

 

I drove to the top of Bettas Road and went off on the side road there.  I was looking for Mountain Bluebird, and I ate the second half of my sandwich near where I have seen them in the past.  I didn’t see one until I was leaving, and then a male Mountain Bluebird put in an appearance.   I had to chase it for a minute or two, in the car, but eventually I got this picture of the male Mountain Bluebird.

 

I drove down that side road because I have seen Horned Larks along there before, and I saw one today.  Here is a distant picture of a wet Horned Lark vocalizing.

 

It turned toward me, and you can see the “horns” that give it its name.

 

The rain was stopping by then, and I drove into Ellensburg.  On the way I saw my first Black-billed Magpie of May, but I couldn’t get a picture.  I stopped at a place where I have seen an uncommon swallow species before, and I took this picture of its nest holes.  I watched a while and finally saw a BANK SWALLOW fly into one of the holes.  Here is the Bank Swallow colony.

 

I was going right past my motel for tonight, so I checked in early and headed out again.  I drove on the freeway to the town of Kittitas and then drove up Parke Creek Road.  My target there was Yellow-headed Blackbird, and I saw some.  Here is a poor picture of a male Yellow-headed Blackbird.

 

Next I drove up the old Vantage Highway to the wind farm and stopped at my spot for sage species.  I soon heard a Sage Thrasher singing, and I got this picture of it.

 

Later I got another Sage Thrasher picture.

 

I lured in a couple of Brewer’s Sparrows by playing their song, and got this picture of one of them.

 

It took a lot of playing and trying different places along the road before I got a Sagebrush Sparrow to show itself.  Here is a Sagebrush Sparrow (formerly called Sage Sparrow) with a bug in its beak.

 

While I was trying to find a Sagebrush Sparrow, I got this picture of a male Mountain Bluebird.

 

With the three sage species in my book, I drove on down to the Columbia River and Recreation Road.  I played the song of Rock Wren and one cooperatively flew in, but it only stuck around for one picture.

 

While I was trying to get it to come back for more pictures, a Say’s Phoebe showed up, and that was the other species I was looking for there.  Here is the Say’s Phoebe.

 

I drove up to the Gingko Overlook, but I didn’t see anything new there.  I headed back to Ellensburg then, but as I was getting on the freeway, this Red-tailed Hawk insisted I take its picture.

 

That was the end of a long (for me) day of birding.  It was extremely successful.  Last year on the way to Malheur, I had gotten 20 new species for my May list, and I thought that was fantastic.  To my great surprise, despite the rainy interlude, today I got 22 species for May, and now I have 155 species this month, beating my total last year in Washington for May.  Five of those species were new for the year, too, and now I have 251 species in 2019.  Black Swift was new for Kittitas county, and now I have 116 species in Kittitas county since I started keeping county lists in 2012.

 

I decided to take three days to drive to Malheur this year, instead of the two days I took last year, so I have another day in Washington to add to my Washington May list.  I hope to add another 5 or 6 species tomorrow for May.

 

 

Sunday, May 26, 2019

 

I’m in another lonely motel room, this time in Goldendale, Washington, just across the border from Oregon on Highway 97.  The weather forecast for today called for rain in the morning and showers in the afternoon, so I took my time getting out of Ellensburg and didn’t hit the road until almost 10:00.  I drove south through the Yakima River Canyon, a scenic drive with birding stops.  My first stop was Umtanum Creek Recreation Area, and it was still drizzling there.  I decided it was just too wet to walk across the river on the pedestrian suspension bridge, but there were YELLOW-BREASTED CHATS singing loudly at the parking area.  That was one of my main targets there, so at least I didn’t get skunked due to the rain.  I walked in the drizzle a little and got my feet and pants cuffs wet, but I managed to see a chat, at least.  I couldn’t get any pictures because the bird was up in a tree, and you can’t shoot upwards in the rain.  The lens gets water drops on it, and that ruins any pictures.

 

I moved on down the canyon, glad to have at least gotten the chat.  I saw a group of American White Pelicans, which I already had this month, on the river and I stopped and took this picture (looking downward from the road).

 

There was a pair of Common Mergansers on a log just upriver from the pelicans, so I took a picture of them, too.

 

The white one with the dark green head is the male, and the one on the right is the female Common Merganser.

 

The rain was letting up as I came out of the canyon, but my next planned stop was up Highway 12 into the foothills of the Cascades, and that put me back in the drizzle and rain.  I was looking for two particular species up there, and I probably should have just given up on one (which I didn’t get anyway) and looked for the other one in the lowlands.  I kept to my plan, though, and I drove to the cliffs where White-throated Swifts nest.  I didn’t see any swifts, although I did have a false alarm when a bird flew into a crevice on the cliff.  I looked with my binoculars, though, and there were Cliff Swallow nests all over the place, and I think what I saw was a Cliff Swallow.

 

I backtracked a short distance and drove up Oak Creek Road, looking for my other target species, which was a woodpecker.  The rain was a real nuisance because I couldn’t have my windows open to listen for birds.  I’m learning more and more to “bird by ear”, as birders call it, and when driving slowly on an unpaved road, having the windows open is crucial.  I didn’t see much at all, although I did get this picture of an unneeded Mourning Dove in the rain.

 

I stopped at one point and ate half my tuna sandwich that I had bought at Subway in Ellensburg.  I found it interesting that yesterday I paid $9.95 plus tax in Cle Elum for a foot-long tuna sandwich at Subway, and today the same sandwich was only $7.75 plus tax, 20 miles down the road.  $9.95 is much more than I have ever seen before, and $7.75 is at the lower end of the range I see.  I have a lot of experience buying tuna sandwiches at Subway.

 

After I had my half sandwich, I continued on down the road back to the highway.  Perhaps due to the delay for my lunch, I spotted my target species on a dead snag, a LEWIS’S WOODPECKER.  Here’s a distant shot of the Lewis’s Woodpecker.

 

While I watched, it hopped up the tree trunk to the top, and I got this picture.

 

That was very satisfying, but I had hoped to see (or hear) other species on Oak Creek Road.  At least I got my main target, despite the rain.  Back at the highway, I stopped again by the cliffs where the swifts nest, but I didn’t see anything.  I drove down the road to the Oak Creek Wildlife Area visitor center, which was closed, and ate the other half of my sandwich at the beginning of the unpaved road up into the wildlife area.  As I ate, I saw a Steller’s Jay, which was a new one for me for Yakima county.  I also saw a male Bullock’s Oriole fly into a dead tree.  The oriole proceeded to preen and basically take a bath, with the rain wetting him.  Here he is tending to his feathers in the rain.

 

He fluffed up his feathers, maybe to try to dry them.

 

Those two pictures show the colors of a male Bullock’s Oriole.  The head and face are orange, but the body is yellow.

 

I was darn tired of the rain by then, and I drove back down to the lowlands of Yakima.  On the way into town, I saw an official sign that said, “Welcome to Yakima, the Palm Springs of Washington”.  Well, I haven’t been to Palm Springs for a long time, but I know it is a destination resort town with lots of golf courses, upscale stores, and rich people.  Yakima is no Palm Springs, I can tell you.

 

At least the rain had stopped, and my next destination was the Poppoff Trail, in Union Gap, next door to Yakima.  I had a target species there, too.  I parked and did a little walking.  I heard California Quail, but didn’t see any there.  I saw quail a couple of times today, at other places, but I didn’t need that species for May.  I walked to the end of the branch trail and found my target species, GRAY CATBIRD.  I had been playing the song and call of Gray Catbird, but I don’t know if this one had noticed that or not.  It never vocalized and it didn’t seem to react to my playback.  It stayed in brush, and I tried for pictures.  Getting a camera to auto focus when a bird is in brush is a challenge, and this picture of a Gray Catbird was the best I could do.

 

The focus in on the branches in the background, but at least you can see the bird, even if it is out of focus.  Gray Catbird is an excellent bird in Washington, and I was pleased to add it to my year list today.

 

It was actually sunny at that point, and I drove to a nondescript pond along the Yakima Valley Highway called Kerry’s Pond on eBird.  It is a reliable site in the spring for Redhead, Cinnamon Teal, and Black-necked Stilt. I didn’t need Cinnamon Teal, but I needed the other two for May, and I got them there.  Here are a couple of pictures of Black-necked Stilts.

 

 

In the first picture you can’t really appreciate how long the bird’s legs are, but in the second one, the bird is in shallower water.

 

Here is a male Redhead, lazing on the shore.

 

Here is a pair of Redheads, showing the sexual dimorphism of the species.

 

While I was taking those pictures, a storm cloud moved in, and it was pouring rain in a cloudburst as I left.  A mile down the road it was dry, and I got a little gas in the town of Granger so I could get to Oregon to fill up.  I had planned to stop at the headquarters of the Toppenish National Wildlife Refuge, but the gate was closed, presumably because it was Sunday or a holiday weekend.  It seems strange to me to close public recreation sites on weekends and holidays, but I guess that forest rangers like their holidays, too.

 

I went on toward Goldendale, and stopped at Brooks Memorial State Park, about 15 miles before Goldendale.  It was windy and the park was full of holiday campers, so I didn’t stay long.  I did hear a bird singing loudly, and I feel kind of proud that I thought I recognized the song, and I was right.  I even got a picture of the singing Warbling Vireo, which is a good bird, even thought I already had it this month.  Here is the Warbling Vireo, sitting in the sunshine.

 

After that I drove on into Goldendale and checked into my new home away from home, after stopping at the local supermarket to get some dinner to heat in the microwave.

 

The rain today impacted me a lot, but I still managed to get 5 more species for May, bringing me to 160.  I probably wouldn’t have gotten more than one or two more species, but it would have been a more satisfying birding experience without the rain.  Three of those species were new for 2019, and now I have 254 species this year.  The Steller’s Jay I saw while eating the second half of my lunch gives me 83 species in Yakima county since I started keeping track in 2012.

 

Tomorrow my plan is to drive to Burns, Oregon, where I plan to meet my old friend, Fred and his dog, Tugboat.  I hope to do a little birding on the way, if the weather permits, but I won’t have a lot of extra time, as it is a five hour drive.

 

 

Monday, May 27, 2019

 

Burns, Oregon.  My 5 hour drive today was uneventful, and now I’m in Burns.  I stopped about 20 minutes north of Burns at a couple of campgrounds in the Malheur National Forest, to look for birds.  At Joaquin Miller Campground, I was playing the call of White-headed Woodpecker when a White-breasted Nuthatch flew in, seemingly in response to the woodpecker call.  I needed the nuthatch, although I would have rather had the woodpecker.  Here is my May White-breasted Nuthatch.

 

I moved on over the summit to Idlewild Campground and looked for birds there.  I didn’t get anything I needed for May, but I did hear a lot of birds, most of which I wasn’t able to identify.  There were a lot of robins calling, and I think a number of Cassin’s Finches.  I saw two or three Cassin’s Finches, but I never could get a picture.  I also saw two or three Mountain Chickadees, but again, no pictures.  I also saw a couple more White-breasted Nuthatches.  There was a single Chipping Sparrow that was very cooperative about pictures, so I’ll show several of them.

 

 

Here’s one from the rear, showing the wing coloration.

 

Here’s the Chipping Sparrow with a little tidbit it found.

 

At one point it seemed to become aware of me, and it looked right at me for a minute or so.

 

 

I like the little black V on its forehead.  I’ve never noticed that before.

 

A House Wren also posed for me.

 

So, it was fairly birdy there, but all I got that I needed at the two campgrounds was White-breasted Nuthatch.

 

I drove down to the outskirts of Burns to our motel.  As I approached it, I noticed gulls swooping around overhead.  They turned out to be FRANKLIN’S GULLS, my first this year.  They have black heads at this time of year, so they are easy to identify.  I’ll try to get a picture sometime this week.

 

Then there were three White-faced Ibis in a flooded field, and that was a good May bird.  Here are a couple of pictures of White-faced ibis.  This first picture shows the white face better than I usually can see in my pictures.

 

 

I got checked in to the motel, and Fred and Tugboat showed up a little later.  This is the sixth year out of the last seven that we have stayed in this motel for five nights of birding.  Fred prepared us dinner and we ate in his room.  He noticed a hawk on a wire while we were eating, but I hadn’t brought my binoculars or camera to dinner.  When I got back to my room after dinner, I looked at the power pole out back, and the usual Swainson’s Hawk was sitting there.  We have seen what is presumably the same bird around the motel here for the last 2 or 3 years.  They migrate, so I assume the bird can find its way back to its territory each year.  Here’s a close up picture of that excellent May bird.  Swainson’s Hawk.

 

So, I managed to add 4 more species to my May list today, and now the real birding can start tomorrow.  I have 164 species in May now.  Franklin’s Gull was new for the year, and now I have 255 species in 2019. 

 

Last year I had 191 species in May, so I need to get 27 more May species to match that.  According to my spreadsheet estimates, I’m on track to get to about 187, so I have my work cut out for me.  Remember that target – 191 species for May, to match last year.  Each day I should get a little closer to that number.

 

 

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

 

Today was a big day of birding for Fred, Tugboat, and me.  We started at the Burns water treatment plant pond and added a lot of ducks and other waterfowl to our Malheur list.  I’m not going to attempt to remember everything we saw, but I’ll try to mention the May birds that I saw, and also other “good” ones.  At the treatment plant pond we saw WILSON’S PHALAROPE (year bird), Canvasback (May bird), Eared Grebe (May), California Gull (May), and a number of duck species.  From there we moved on to Hotchkiss Lane and saw more ducks and a lot of Yellow-headed Blackbirds.  I got a couple of pictures of a Yellow-headed Blackbird a little later that I like.  One is from the back, showing great feather detail.

 

When they fly you see the white patches on the wings, and you can see the white in the picture above.  The next picture shows Yellow-headed Blackbird from the front.

 

Check out those feet with the fat toes.

 

We drove on down the highway toward Malheur National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), which starts about 30 miles south of Burns and runs for another 30 miles south from there.  I added American Avocet to my May list and here’s a picture.

 

I also got this interesting picture of a male Northern Shoveler from the front.

 

Is that a goofy bill, or what?  I also added Willet to my May list.  Here’s a picture I got of a Willet later today at the Malheur headquarters pond.

 

I’m used to seeing Willets in California in the winter, and they are very plain looking.  They evidently breed inland and this bird is in breeding plumage.  Fred spotted a Great Egret, and that was a May bird for me.

 

We knew of a nest for an uncommon hawk, a nest we had seen for the last two years.  Before we even got to it, though, we spotted another nest that turned out to have an adult FERRUGINOUS HAWK sitting in the nest.

 

Here’s the Ferruginous Hawk nest we had seen before, with an adult and two fuzzy youngsters.

 

I think there was a third chick in that nest, but I never saw all three of them at the same time.  We’ll be going by there again several times, and we’ll look each time.  Ferruginous Hawk is a great bird, and we are fortunate that this nest (and now the second one) is so visible.  I haven’t seen a Ferruginous Hawk anywhere else, for many years.

 

At the bridge over the Narrows, we saw a Common Raven on a nest.  The picture isn’t very good, but I’ve been showing a lot of nest pictures this year, so here is a Common Raven nest, in the girders under the bridge.

 

As we entered the NWR we headed east toward the headquarters area, which is a green area with a lot of trees and the refuge buildings.  Those are the buildings that the Occupiers, as they called themselves, took over in 2016.  They squatted there with guns for months, and finally the feds got them out.  They trashed the place and it had to be redone to some extent after that.  Anyway, on the way to the headquarters (which I’ll call HQ from now on), I got this picture of a Great Blue Heron with a furry critter it had caught.

 

As we watched, the heron flew off with its meal.  I guess it didn’t like being watched as it ate.  I’m guessing it swallowed it whole, and I would have liked to have gotten pictures of that.

 

We kept seeing birds for our Malheur list, and I’m not mentioning most of them.  We had three species of swallows today, for example, along with a lot of other species.  At HQ there were a couple of male Western Tanagers and I think they are handsome birds, so here are two pictures of male Western Tanagers.

 

 

Brown-headed Cowbirds aren’t particularly attractive, but I like this picture of a male Brown-headed Cowbird anyway.

 

There was a male California Quail under one of the feeders, with the blackbirds and House Sparrows, and I got this picture of him.

 

We saw and heard quail in several places today.  Down at the pond I got this semi-distant picture of a Forster’s Tern (May bird) taking off.

 

We heard a distinctive bird call there, and we tried to find the bird, but never could find it.  More on that later. 

 

I had read that a pair of Great Horned Owls had nested at HQ, and that the two youngsters had left the nest.  People were looking at a couple of them when we got there, so we looked too.  Great Horned Owl was an excellent May bird for me.  Here is one of the adult Great Horned Owls.

 

Young owls typically leave the nest before they can fly, and they climb around in the nest tree for weeks, while the parents feed them and watch out for them.  Sometimes the owlets even fall out of the tree, but they can usually climb back up.  At this stage of their development, birders call them “branchlings”, since they are no longer nestlings, but they are not yet fledglings (meaning they can fly) either.  Here is one of the Great Horned Owl branchlings.

 

Here’s a view from a different angle, showing the face better.

 

We missed some species we have seen around HQ in other years, but you always miss some species.  We will no doubt go back there this week.  Next we drove by the Field Station, but we didn’t see anything there.  From there we headed on down the Center Patrol Road (also called Central Patrol Road in some documentation).  The common abbreviation is CPR.  We haven’t historically done well on that stretch of the CPR, and we debated about taking the time to drive the 15 or 20 miles of unpaved road, but we decided to do it.  It paid off and we saw some good birds for our Malheur list and also for my lists.  I didn’t get any pictures along there, but I added EASTERN KINGBIRD (year bird), WILLOW FLYCATCHER (year bird), Townsend’s Warbler (excellent May bird, and only the second time we have seen one here), and BLACK TERN (year bird).

 

We drove across to the main highway at Buena Vista Ponds.  On that stretch we saw a couple of Sandhill Cranes (May bird).  We had actually seen one flying when we were on the CPR, but this time I got some pictures.  Here is one of the Sandhill Cranes.

 

They were moving around while feeding, and this one must have gotten too close to a Red-winged Blackbird’s nest because a male Red-winged Blackbird flew at the crane and actually landed on its back at one point.

 

We picked up Cinnamon Teal and Blue-winged Teal along the CPR, and I got this picture of a male Cinnamon Teal at Buena Vista Ponds.

 

I mentioned earlier that we had heard a bird calling repeatedly at the HQ pond, and we couldn’t identify it.  We heard that same call a couple of other places, including at Buena Vista Ponds.  The penny finally dropped for me, and I remembered what it was.  It was one of the calls of Sora, one it makes in the spring, evidently.  I didn’t need it for May, but it was satisfying to finally remember what it was.  It was an excellent bird for our Malheur list, too.

 

We drove up to the overlook for the Buena Vista Ponds, and on the way we spotted a male LAZULI BUNTING (year bird).  I got this very distant picture of that excellent bird.

 

The overlook is at the top of a cliff that is maybe 100 feet above the Buena Vista Ponds.  While we were there we heard an American Bittern calling several times, and that was the first time we had ever gotten American Bittern at Malheur, so that was exciting.  We also heard a Pied-billed Grebe calling in the distance, and that was another one for our Malheur list.

 

Here’s a picture of Fred and Tugboat, at the top of the cliff overlooking the Buena Vista Ponds, far below.

 

Tugboat is 12 years old now, and he’s slowing down, but he is still an integral part of our almost-annual Malheur birding trip.  This is the 7^th year we have done the trip.  Fred lives in Sacramento, and we meet at Burns, which is just about halfway between Kirkland and Sacramento – an 8 or 9 hour drive for each of us.

 

After that we headed back up the highway to Burns.  We saw a few more birds for our Malheur list on the way back, but the only one I got for my May list on the way home was Long-billed Curlew.

 

We ended up getting 73 species today, which is our second highest total for the first day.  The highest was 75 in 2015, which was also our biggest total at the end of the week (118 species for the 4 days).  Now we have to try to beat that 118 number this year.

 

I added 17 more species for my May list today, and now I have 181.  My goal is to beat last year, when I had 191 in May.  I got 6 more for 2019 today, and after correcting for an error I found today, I now have 262 species this year.

 

Whew.  That was a lot of pictures to process and a long report to write, and now it is almost 10:30, and I want to go to bed.  Tomorrow is another day.

 

 

Wednesday, May 29, 2019

 

Today we were going to start out in the mountains north of here, but because of the weather forecast (showers in the afternoon), we decided to head south again today, but going east first.  We drove down what birders refer to as “raptor alley”, because of all the raptors along the way.  We saw lots of Red-tailed Hawks, along with a lot of Common Ravens, which were false alarms because of their size.  We had a PRAIRIE FALCON early, my first of the year, but it flew as we approached the pole it was on, so no picture.  After that, we wanted Golden Eagle, which we have always gotten before.  We saw three eagles, but we couldn’t confidently identify any of them as Golden Eagles, so we counted Bald Eagle, but not Golden Eagle.  Here’s a picture of an immature eagle, probably a Bald Eagle.

 

Golden Eagle is actually more common here at this time of year than Bald Eagle, but we had 3 Bald Eagles and no confirmed Golden Eagles.  Such are the mysterious ways of birding.

 

At the end of raptor alley, we drove down the road to the tiny community of Diamond.  We stopped at the Round Barn and picked up Green-winged Teal for our Malheur list.  This year the mosquitoes are fierce everywhere – more than I have ever seen here or anywhere else.  Luckily for me, they don’t seem to bite me any more, or maybe I just don’t react.  I had my first bite of the trip today and it itched for about 15 minutes, but I can’t even find it now.  Anyway, there were swarms of mosquitoes at the Round Barn.  There were a whole lot of Cliff Swallows gathering mud for their nests, too, and I took this picture of them at a popular mud puddle, gathering mud.

 

We drove through the Diamond area, but we missed most of the birds we usually see there.  There is much more water in the fields and ponds than usual (thus explaining the overabundance of mozzies), and I think that with so much water everywhere, the water birds are spread out more, so they are harder to find.  The swallow colony was active this year, though, and we picked up both Bank Swallow and Northern Rough-winged Swallow for our Malheur list.  Those two swallow species nest in holes in dirt banks, in colonies, and in this case, the colony has both species in it.

 

As we got back to the main highway that runs north-south through Malheur NWR, we stopped to check out a grebe.  It turned out to be a Western Grebe, not the more desirable Clark’s Grebe, but I got a picture I like.  Here is the Western Grebe, with “the eye in the black”.

 

Clark’s Grebe looks just the same except the bill is more orange and the black on the head meets the bill above the eye, so “the eye is in the white”.  At that stop we saw a female Wilson’s Phalarope.  Usually I see phalaropes swimming in the water, but they are actually shorebirds, and this one was out of the water.  The light was from the wrong direction, but here are a couple of pictures of the female Wilson’s Phalarope.

 

 

It always amazes me when I see a little bird like that and realize that it was in southern Argentina just a couple of weeks ago, and it will be back there again in a couple or three months.

 

Next we drove down the southern part of the Central Patrol Road (CPR), a gravel road that runs down the length of the refuge.  As usual, there were large numbers of Yellow Warblers, and I got this picture of a male Yellow Warbler.

 

We stopped at Benson Pond and walked the trail for a short distance, to see what we could see.  We picked up Common Yellowthroat for our Malheur list, and saw Western Kingbirds, Western Tanagers, swallows, and more Yellow Warblers.  We heard Soras calling several times.  Here is a Western Kingbird.

 

Here’s a male Barn Swallow with particularly long tail streamers.

 

Here’s a picture of what I think must be a female Barn Swallow, with a lighter color and shorter tail streamers.

 

Here are a couple of pictures of male Western Tanagers.

 

 

Back on the CPR, we saw Eastern Kingbirds a number of times.  Here’s one of them.

 

I had read that there were a couple of Trumpeter Swans on Benson Pond, and also that there was a swan nest along the southern part of the CPR.  The nest was really obvious, and here’s a picture of a Trumpeter Swan on the nest.

 

I think it’s pretty unusual for Trumpeter Swans to breed in Oregon.  They usually are way up north, in Canada or Alaska for the breeding season, but I guess this pair of them like it here.  Note the blue-green neck band on the bird.  It has an identifying number on it – what looks like a Greek letter theta (or an “O” with a horizontal line through it) and the number 64.

 

We saw a Long-billed Curlew in that stretch, and here’s a picture.

 

At one stop I got this picture of a male Bullock’s Oriole.

 

While were driving along, a large bird suddenly showed up ahead of us, flying toward us.  I thought I knew what it was, but fortunately, it landed just beyond us, and I got out of the car for a quick look at a Black-crowned Night-Heron.  That was one I needed for May, and I hadn’t expected to get it because we had never seen one here before, in our six previous visits.

 

There was a Western Meadowlark sitting on a sign, singing away.

 

We parked at P Ranch, which is at the southern end of the CPR, and Fred and I walked out on the river trail.  Tugboat used to go with us on that walk, but these days he doesn’t walk very far, so he stayed in the car.  I got another picture of a Yellow Warbler on that walk.

 

We saw a flycatcher on that walk, and I took a couple of pictures before it flew off.  I wasn’t sure of the identification until I processed my pictures, but I think this is a Willow Flycatcher.\

 

One of our big misses today, in addition to Golden Eagle, was Bobolink.  They are very uncommon in the west, and we usually see them, but not today.  That river walk is usually reliable for them, but today we dipped.

 

We went over to Paige Springs campground, with two particular targets in mind.  We stopped where have seen one of them before, and I played the song of Yellow-breasted Chat.  It took a while, but finally one responded and gradually worked its way closer and closer to us.  Here is a picture of our Yellow-breasted Chat today.

 

I spotted a flycatcher at the top of a dead tree, and got out to get a look at it.  It didn’t stick around long, but I got some pictures.  When I processed my pictures tonight, I decided it was my first OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER of the year.  Here is a heavily processed picture of what I think was an Olive-sided Flycatcher.

 

The dark smudge down the center of its upper breast is actually a shadow of the branch in front of it.

 

We drove on into the campground and stopped to check out the little wetland area where we have seen both Sora and Virginia Rail before.  Just as we got there, a Virginia Rail walked out of the reeds and we had a nice look at it, and then it went back into the reeds, not to be seen again.  Usually Virginia Rails are heard only, not seen, so that was nice.

 

It was getting late, and we were 60 miles from our motel, so we headed north.  We had just enough time to detour to Krumbo Reservoir on the way home, but we didn’t see anything there.  Come to think of it, we did hear Wilson’s Snipe winnowing in the distance there, so that one went onto our Malheur list, but that was all we got there.  As we headed on toward home, it started to rain, and we had some lightning and heavy rain as we drove back to Burns.

 

I only got 3 more species for my May list today, and now I have 184.  I looked at the numbers and remaining possibilities, and I realized last night that I have no chance of catching up to last year’s number of 191 species in May, and I might not get any more at this point.  Two of the ones today were new for the year, and now I have 264 in 2019.

 

We added 16 additional species to our Malheur list, and now we have 89.  Our record is 118, in 2015, and that seems out of reach.  We’ll get more, though, and we have a couple of places to visit that we haven’t been to yet this year, so we will see.  We could get lucky, but it was disappointing today to miss Golden Eagle and Bobolink.

 

 

Thursday, May 30, 2019

 

Today was Day 3 of our four day Malheur birding adventure.  We started by going up into the nearby mountains to Idlewild Campground.  It started to drizzle as we got there, but Fred convinced me to brave the wet, and we walked around.  Birding was slow, but we got House Wren, Chipping Sparrow, Cassin’s Finch, and Hairy Woodpecker before it started to rain harder.  When we left there we went a couple of miles down the road, which was across the summit, to Joaquin Miller Campground.  It was raining lightly there, too, but we played the calls of Steller’s Jay and attracted one in.  We stopped by Idlewild again after that, but it was still raining, so we headed down out of the mountains with only 5 for our Malheur list.  It turned out that it hadn’t even rained down in the lowlands.

 

Next we boogied on down the highway to Ruh-Red Road.  On the way I got this picture of the “new” Ferruginous Hawk nest we found on Tuesday.  The adult bird was on the nest, but I don’t see any young ones, although that white at its feet could be a chick or chicks.

 

Our main target on Ruh-Red Road was Burrowing Owl, and we gave it the old college try.  I even had the GPS coordinates of a spot where a Burrowing Owl had been seen this week, and we went there, but we never could find one.  We did get our secondary target, LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE, my first of the year.  Here are a couple of pictures of two Loggerhead Shrikes we saw, in terrible light.

 

 

We also got Sage Thrasher on Ruh-Red Road for our Malheur list.  We missed several other species that people have reported there, so we might go back there tomorrow.  There were very few birds along the road, but we saw one that stumped us.  I got a picture of it, and figured it out later.

 

I thought it might have been a juvenile starling, but the bill was wrong for starling.  It’s a female Brown-headed Cowbird, which we weren’t expecting out there in the sagebrush.

 

We moved on Harney Lake Road, but the rain caught up with us there, so we couldn’t do much.  On our way back to the highway a very large bird flew overhead, chased by blackbirds.  It had to be an eagle, and I got a look at it, but the differences between a juvenile Bald Eagle and a mature Golden Eagle are minor, and I wasn’t sure.  I was strongly leaning toward Golden Eagle, and I got one lousy picture of it before it flew off out of sight.  Here’s that picture, heavily processed because of the terrible lighting and poor focus.

 

We decided that the shape of the head and the color on the back of the neck proved it was indeed my first GOLDEN EAGLE of the year.  Later we saw a note on the whiteboard at HQ that said there was a Golden Eagle nest on Harney Lake Road, near where we had seen this bird.  That gave us even more confidence in our call.  I’d like to go back tomorrow to try to find the nest, since the note we saw said there were two baby eaglets visible in the nest.

 

The rain stopped and we drove to Headquarters (HQ) for Malheur NWR.  We felt like we had missed some stuff on Tuesday when we were there.  Almost as soon as we got there we saw the first of a number of Warbling Vireos we saw, and that was a good one for our Malheur list.  Later we got a good look at a Cassin’s Vireo, too, and that was a May bird for me.

 

I spotted a COMMON NIGHTHAWK roosting on a branch, waiting for dark to go hunting insects.  Here’s a picture of the Common Nighthawk.

 

Later we saw a second one, nearby.  Today the Great Horned Owls were in a different tree.  I guess I was wrong about the youngsters, and they are fledglings (they can fly), not branchlings.  Here is one of the two adult Great Horned Owls we saw today.

 

The adult was near the two fledglings, and today I saw the fledglings better, and they do look big enough to fly, I guess.  Here they are – two Great Horned Owl owlets.

 

 

We saw a shorebird on a log in the pond, and walked around to check it out.  It turned out to be a Spotted Sandpiper, one we had seen yesterday, but this one was much closer.  Here’s today’s Spotted Sandpiper.

 

There were a lot of Western Tanagers around HQ today, both males and females.  At one point, I had four males in my binocular field of vision at the same time.  Here is a rather pale female Western Tanager.

 

Here’s another female Western Tanager that is kind of greenish-yellow, rather than the pure yellow of some of them.

 

Here’s another view of a female Western Tanager, showing the yellow color of the underside of the bird.

 

Even that one isn’t as yellow as some of them.

 

I took this picture of a male Red-winged Blackbird.

 

When I saw my picture, I thought the normally yellow color under the red looked pretty white.  There is another species, called Tricolored Blackbird, that has white instead of yellow on the wing.  I had seen a note on the whiteboard in the HQ office that said a Tricolored Blackbird had been sighted in the exact location where I took that picture.  I looked it up, though, and Tricolored Blackbirds don’t live here, so it would be a rarity if it were a Tricolored Blackbird.  I think it was probably just a Red-winged Blackbird with a very pale yellow color on its wing.

 

Here’s a male Western Tanager.

 

The adult Great Horned Owl I showed the picture of before had moved a little, and I took another picture of it as we left.

 

At one point we walked around the back of the HQ area and saw a Western Wood-Pewee for our Malheur list.  I also saw a bird on the ridge in terrible light, but I took this picture (heavily processed).

 

I think it was a female Lazuli Bunting, which we didn’t need, but it is still a good bird.  Just before we left we spent some time watching one of the hummingbird feeders, and we saw hummingbirds fly in three times.  None of them stayed very long, but there are only three hummingbird species they get here, and these were not Rufous Hummingbirds or Calliope Hummingbirds, and that leaves BLACK-CHINNED HUMMINGBIRD, my first of the year.

 

We called it a day, then, and drove the 30 miles back to Burns.  We stopped at Safeway to get some provisions, and as we came down the road toward our motel, there was a California Scrub-Jay on a wire, another one for our Malheur list.  California Scrub-Jays are uncommon around here, but some do live in the town of Burns, and we have seen them here before a couple of times.

 

We had rain two or three times today, and it seemed we kept missing our target species, but we still ended up getting 14 more for our Malheur list.  We now have 103 species for three days.  We are already above our lowest year (100), but our highest year (118) seems out of reach.  Maybe we can 5 or 6 more tomorrow, but maybe not.

 

I did amazingly well for my lists today.  I thought I might not get any more May birds, and I ended up getting 5 more today, to bring me to 189 for May.  I thought catching up with last year’s total of 191 in May was out of the question, but now it is remotely possible I could get there tomorrow.  Four of the five were new for 2019, too, and now I have 268 species for the year.

 

We have one more day of birding here, and then we each head for home on Saturday, in opposite directions.

 

 

Friday, May 31, 2019

 

Today, on our last day here, we had three main goals – to look for Burrowing Owl along Ruh-Red Road, to see the Golden Eagle nest we had learned about yesterday, and to go up into the mountains again to get some more birds for our Malheur list.  We took them in that order.  At Ruh-Red Road, we saw a Lark Sparrow near the beginning of the road.  That was an excellent May bird for me, only the second time I have seen Lark Sparrow this year.  There were a lot more birds along the road than there were when we were there on Wednesday, maybe because it was morning instead of afternoon.  We saw Sage Thrasher several times, and I got this picture of one with a bug of some kind.

 

We thought it had a berry of some kind when we saw it, but the magic of digital enlargement makes it obvious that it was some kind of beetle.

 

We drove slowly along the dirt road, looking for our owl target.  I had the GPS coordinates of several sightings, and when we got to the first spot, about 3.1 miles from the highway, we saw a BURROWING OWL in the grass to the north of the road.  We stopped and I got out to take a picture, but that spooked the bird, and it disappeared.  It did pop up again, but all we could see was its eyes and the top of its head.  We marked the spot in the road with a rock and went on down the road.  Soon thereafter I saw a couple of Burrowing Owls only about 15 feet from the road, but when we stopped, they spooked and flew off.  We marked that spot, too, and moved on.  On our way back, there was nothing at the second place, but back where we had seen the first owl, it had come out again, and I got this picture of the Burrowing Owl.

 

The focus is a bit off, but it shows the cute little bird.  On our way back to the highway, I got this picture of a Western Kingbird on top of a sage bush.

 

We had stopped and used playback to try to attract 3 other species, but had no luck with them.  With the Burrowing Owl under our belts, though, we moved on toward or next goal – the Golden Eagle nest.  As we drove down the highway we stopped at the “old” Ferruginous Hawk nest, and I got this picture that shows three chicks in the nest, with an adult Ferruginous Hawk.

 

The picture is a little soft because of the distance and the amount of cropping, but you can see all three youngsters and the parent Ferruginous Hawk.  Here’s a shot from a different angle, a bit closer, but there are only two chicks visible in this one.

 

Here’s a picture of the nest tree, which is the only tree for quite a distance.  It is about 100 yards from the highway.

 

If you look carefully, you can see the nest near the top.

 

We detoured to HQ to see what we could find, but it was very quiet there.  I did get this picture of a flycatcher, which I decided was a Western Wood-Pewee after I saw my pictures.

 

As we left, I had just commented that we had gotten skunked at HQ for the first time, but from the parking lot as we were pulling out we saw five American White Pelicans flying in the distance, and we needed that one still, so we hadn’t gotten skunked after all.

 

We drove over to Harney Lake Road and found the Golden Eagle nest we had heard about.  Here’s a picture of the cliff it is on, with the nest in the middle of the picture.

 

Here’s a closer shot, taken just as the adult Golden Eagle showed itself briefly.

 

Here’s a closer crop of that last picture, showing the Golden Eagle better.

 

There are reportedly two chicks in the nest, and here’s a picture of the top of the head of one of them, showing its eyes and downy white head.

 

Here’s a view of one of the chicks from a different angle, showing the side of its head.

 

While we were looking at the eagle nest, I played the song of Rock Wren, and we heard a response from the cliff, so that one went onto our Malheur list.  We count birds that we only hear, as long as we are sure of the identification.

 

So, we had two of our three goals accomplished, and we headed back up the highway for about 45 miles to the mountains, to see what we could add to our Malheur list there.  We had been seeing and hearing thunder showers all around us for several hours, but we had dodged the rain up until then.  It didn’t look good for the mountains to the north, but we plunged onward, willing to take our chances.  We had some heavy rain on the way, but it stopped just before we got up into the mountains, so our weather luck for the day held.  We only had 4 new species for our Malheur list at that point, and I figured we might add 4 or 5 more in the mountains.  As it turned out, we got 8 more species for our list up there.

 

At Idlewild Campground, it was slow at first.  I played the songs and calls of various birds, but we just weren’t getting any responses.  We walked around, and did see some Cassin’s Finches, which is a good bird, but we had seen that one yesterday there.  I did get some pictures today of Cassin’s Finches, though.  Here is a female Cassin’s Finch.

 

 

Here are two pictures of the more colorful male Cassin’s Finch.

 

 

In the interest of gender equality, here is another female Cassin’s Finch we saw later.

 

We finally managed to attract a White-breasted Nuthatch, probably as a result of playback, so we had one for our Malheur list.  At that point we were discouraged, and we headed out for Joaquin Miller Campground, a few miles away.  On our way back to the highway, though, we stopped on a hillside where we could see the upper parts of some trees, and played some more bird calls.  I was playing Red-breasted Nuthatch calls, but a couple of Pygmy Nuthatches liked them, and they flew in to a tree close to us.  That was one we needed.  Here are a couple of pictures of Pygmy Nuthatches.  Check out their stubby little tails.

 

 

At that same stop we saw three Mountain Bluebirds, another one we needed.  Here are a couple of pictures of a beautiful male Mountain Bluebird.

 

 

Then, as we got to the highway, we saw a bird fly across the road, and it turned out to be a Mountain Chickadee, another one we needed.  After getting nothing for almost an hour, we suddenly had seen three species we needed.

 

At Joaquin Miller Campground, we played various bird calls, but we missed on the ones I really wanted – the ones I needed for my May and year lists.  We were able to call in a Brown Creeper and a couple of Red-breasted Nuthatches, though, both of which we needed for our Malheur list.  Here’s a Red-breasted Nuthatch.

 

Tugboat had a good day today, and here he is, inviting a belly rub.

 

Here’s a picture of Fred accommodating him.

 

We stopped once more at Idlewild Campground, and I got the idea of playing Dark-eyed Junco calls.  I had never tried that before, but juncos often come in when I play various sparrow calls, so we gave it a shot.  Sure enough, a Dark-eyed Junco came flying in and checked us out.  We hadn’t seen one yet, so that was great.  I had never tried playback for Dark-eyed Junco before because I had never been looking for one.  We have them in our yard every day.

 

We headed out then, with a total of 113 species, one fewer than our second best year.  We stopped once more where we had seen the Pygmy Nuthatches and Mountain Bluebirds, and while I was playing woodpecker calls fruitlessly, Fred spotted a Yellow-rumped Warbler, another common bird we hadn’t seen until then.  So, at the very last minute, we brought our total for Day 4 to 12 species, and ended up with 114 for the 4 days.  Our best total was 118 species in 2015, and this year we tied our second best year, which was 2018.

 

I added 2 more species to my May list, to my surprise, and ended up tying my 2018 May total of 191 species.  I had thought that was completely unattainable, so it was satisfying to catch up to last year’s total for May.  Burrowing Owl was new for the year, too, and now I have 269 species this year.  Last year I had 272 at the end of May.

 

Tomorrow I have an 8 and a half hour drive home, plus any stops I make.  I don’t like driving that far in a day, but I don’t want to spend another night on the road, either, so I guess I’ll do it.  It has been another great Malheur trip, our seventh one.