Thanks to any and all Tahoma Audubon Society supporters who
have are plan to contribute in support of my 2014 birdathon effort to raise
funds for the educational and conservation efforts of TAS. From 3:48 PM on Friday May 2 until missing
our last chance at Chestnut-backed chickadee while sharing a Bud light at my
kitchen table to stay out of the afternoon rain at 3:48 Saturday afternoon Ryan
Weise and I chased species from Ocean Shores to Thurston and Pierce counties
while getting our highest ever total of 127 species.
Weather mostly cooperated until the last hour or so
Saturday, and tides at the coast were helpful.
We started at the Oyhut Game Range at Ocean shores with Rufous
hummingbird (hyperlinks are to Cornell Lab Bird Photos) our first species as we walked into the tideflats. The best bird there was a single Long-billed
curlew. As the 9+ foot high tide
receded we found the rock-loving shorebirds, Ruddy and Black turnstones
and Surfbird at
the back end of the jetty along with two early Heermann’s gulls.
We were surprised at the numbers of Rhinoceros auclkets
(120) and Common
murres (20) off the jetty, and found the expected salt water birds. Driving
the open beach for a couple of miles explained where the numbers of shorebirds
were, as we found thousands, including huge numbers, maybe 1000+ Semipalmated
plovers. At Bowerman basin in
Hoquiam we found the Great Horned Owlets
still on the nest platform where they had made the local newspaper for the Gray’s
Harbor Shorebird Festival the weekend prior. The Barn owl was at it’s
expected silo on Wenzel Slough Rd as the Wilson’s snipe winnowed all around us.
After a brief sleep in our own beds we met and started the
day at Niszually NWR where ducks, warblers, tanagers, and a calling American
Bittern posed for digiscoped iPhone photos,
bringing our list to 102 for the
trip by 8AM. We forged ahead to get a House Wren at the
Mountain View Cemetery marsh in Lakewood, added a few species at Ft. Steilacom Park,
and headed for Titlow Beach. The
highlight there was 7 Marbled Murrelets
in their brown “marbled” brown plumage swimming not too far off the beach. Bushtits and a
drumming Downy
Woodpecker brought our list to near 120 and we knew we’d get one at a time
from there on. The rest of the day we
chased “stake-out” birds, adding the American Dipper
at the Carbon River bridge in Orting, American Kestrel
on its usual wire on Hwy 162, and Hutton’s vireo
at the Spanaway Marsh.
We knew we had near 125 species but trying to e-bird, keep a
list, drive and bird had our record keeping a bit iffy. After a good night sleep this morning I
audited our e-bird lists, and we say 127 species for the trip.
As it seems always the trip was as notable for the birds we missed as
the ones we got. No Brewer’s blackbird,
Chestnut-backed chickadee, Turkey vulture, Evening grosbeak or Pine
Siskin. This makes us excited about
future trips and ways to find even more.
Still a great trip. You can contribute at http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/edpullen/birdathon
if you want to support TAS. Good birding.
Ed Pullen
