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Thursday, February 22, 2024
Today I went back out to the Snoqualmie Valley, around Carnation. It was a lovely sunny day, and the temperature got up into the 50's. I picked up Trumpeter Swan and some ducks as I drove down the west side of the valley from Novelty Hill Road. As I drove across the valley on NE 100th St, I added more ducks at the pond on the south side of the road. At Sikes Lake I saw my first Great Blue Heron of the day, and some Double-crested Cormorants.
At the pond at Chinook Bend, I added the usual ducks and one uncommon one. Here is a poor picture of an excellent bird, a male Redhead (thanks for the tip, Hank).
I also got Hooded Merganser there, and here's a male from behind.
I had an American Kestrel on NE 60th St, but it wouldn't sit still for a picture. Here's a picture of a Eurasian Collared-Dove at the original house with feeders in Carnation.
There were a lot of Red-winged Blackbirds there as well, and here's what I think was a juvenile male Red-winged Blackbird.
At the other huse with feeders in Carnation, I got this picture of a couple of Anna's Hummingbirds.
Next I picked up a sandwich at the deli counter at the Carnation Market. It was a great sandwich, as always, but the price seems to have jumped from $6.49 to $7.99. It's still well worth it, but I love a bargain, so I'm sorry to see the price rise.
I stopped at the Tolt River, south of Carnation, but I couldn't find an American Dipper, my main target species for the day. I continued on down the west side of the river, and at one point saw a small bird by the road. It seemed to be a sparrow, and I hadn't seen any sparrows all day, so I pulled over to take a look. I hit the jackpot, with a small group of sparrows. Here is a Lincoln's Sparrow, the first species I identified.
Next was a male Dark-eyed Junco, another member of the sparrow family.
The Lincoln's Sparrow moved a little closer, and I got this side view of it.
There was a sparrow deep in the brambles, and when it moved out, I could see that it was a juvenile White-crowned Sparrow.
Next, a Golden-crowned Sparrow showed itself.
There was a Fox Sparrow, too, but I wasn't able to get a decent picture of it. This was the best I could do.
I had been playing a Lincoln's Sparrow song on my phone, and the Lincoln's Sparrow was hanging around, singing back to me.
So, after all that excitement, I drove on up to Tokul Creek to look for American Dipper up there. No luck, but I ate my great ham and salami sandwich in the car.
After lunch, I headed toward home, with some stops along the way to look for birds. Nothing new on Neal Road, but I found a couple of Cackling Geese in with some Canada Geese, just south of Carnation. Then, as I was passing Carnation Farms, I got this picture of a Red-tailed Hawk on a wire.
No more pictures after that, but I added Common Merganser and Pied-billed Grebe at Sikes Lake, and as I drove back across the valley on NE 100th, I added Green-winged Teal, Spotted Towhee, and Song Sparrow. That bang-up finish brought me to 35 species for the day, which beat my total from last month by one.
After my birding outing last month, my right shoulder hurt, from my rotator cuff injury, but it recovered in a few days. Today it seemed to bother me less, and I'll be interested to see how it is tomorrow. Maybe I'll be able to do a little more birding this year, if it continues to improve. I believe the injury itself was caused by the repetitive motion of raising my binoculars and my camera to my eyes when birding, so I'm being cautious. The injury pretty much sidelined me all last year. I don't want to get back into birding as heavily as I had been for years, but I'd like to be able to go out three or four times a month.