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Thursday, May 9, 2024

 

I went birding again today.  Once again I went out to the Snoqualmie Valley.  This is the seventh time I've gone birding this year, and every time has been to the same area.  It's convenient, there are good birds out there, I can do almost all my birding from the car (all my pictures today were taken from my car), and I love the sandwiches from the deli at the Carnation Market.

 

I stopped at the Redmond Retention Ponds, but there were no water birds there, and there isn't any mud around the edges, so no shorebirds either.  I did see my first Common Yellowthroat of the year there, and my only Anna's Hummingbird of the day.  At the Redmond Watershed Preserve, I couldn’t call up the Pacific Wren I had been seeing there.  It has probably moved up into the mountains to breed now.  There were four Hooded Mergansers on the pond, though, and I got these two pictures of a male Hooded Merganser.

 

 

Out in the valley, I added the usual species, although the count was low all day, despite the sunny weather.  Here is a Northern Rough-winged Swallow, seen on the south side of the river at Chinook Bend.

 

At the same place, here is a Violet-green Swallow.

 

I also had Barn Swallow, Cliff Swallow, and Tree Swallow today.

 

There was very little at the original feeder house in Carnation and nothing at all at the new feeder house.  I don't think there was any bird seed at all in the feeders at that house, which is something I don't remember seeing before.  So, I picked up my ham and salami sandwich and a couple of cookies at the deli in the Carnation Market, then stopped at the bridge over the Tolt River, south of Carnation.  No dippers there today.

 

I drove down the west side of the Snoqualmie River, but I didn't see much at all.  There were a few Wood Duck on the pond south of Jubilee Farms, though, and here is a picture of a male Wood Duck.

 

At Tokul Creek, on Fish Hatchery Road, I couldn’t find a dipper today.  While I was on the bridge, a female Common Merganser flew down the creek, though.  I drove west on Fish Hatchery Road from the bridge, and at the first pullout on the left, I spotted a couple of ducks on a rock in the river.  The distance was great, and the light was terrible, but here are two pictures of the pair of Harlequin Ducks on the rock.  The male is the one on the left.

 

 

Harlequin Ducks spend the winter months on salt water, from here to Alaska.  In the spring, they migrate up into the mountains and breed on streams and rivers at higher elevations.  I was barely into the foothills, and I think they must have been in the midst of their migration to their breeding grounds, which could be as distant as the Rocky Mountains.  I don't think I've ever seen Harlequin Ducks on fresh water in King county before.

 

I headed back toward home, but all I could add after that was my first Black-headed Grosbeak of the year, and my first Savannah Sparrow of the year.  I ended up with only 28 species today, my lowest total of my seven trips out to the valley this year.  It was a beautiful day, though, and I enjoyed being out there and seeing 4 or 5 new species for me for the year.