Birding locally does not get much better than getting out with a good birding buddy, on a sunny day, and finding most of the birds you are looking for. That was today for me. Ken texted last night to see if I was interested in getting out in Pierce County to look for several FOY WA state birds for him and several FOY Pierce and/or state birds for me. Sounded great and we met and headed for American Lake to get Canvasbacks for Ken, easy at the Ft. Lewis boat ramp, then south to Easterday Road where the White-crowned Sparrow was at the feeders as expected. In addition a Wilson’s Snipe flew up just as I clapped my hands to startle it at a wet area after I told Ken this was an area they had been seen by others, but not by me Pretty cool experience. Not much was at Mount’s Road, and we headed back to see if we could find the Clark’s Grebe at the N. American Lake Park.
It was fairly easily found once we found a not too back-lit viewing area, and Marv Breese and we found it almost simultaneously. Pretty good though distant views. The bright yellow-orange bill, eye in the white of the face, and slightly paler gray color were noted and as we gave high-fives all around we headed to Gog-li-hi-ti for the Black Phoebe that has eluded me yesterday.
On arrival there a King Co. birder nabbed us on the walk in and told us just were to find the bird. Pretty much where we expected from my discussion yesterday with Bruce Labar and earlier with Marv. It posed pretty nicely for a photo and we felt like we couldn’t miss today.

The next stop for Slaty-backed gull at the 11th St Bridge proved us wrong, as almost no gulls were around, so we decided to see if we could find the Least Sandpipers reported a few days ago by Bruce at Alexander St. We got there and immediately were drawn to looking at a hybrid American x Eurasian Wigeon It was pretty cool, but eluded good photos. I soon noted a few Least Sandpipers near the right edge of the water and as we scoped the area we realized we has 26 individuals working the rocky beach.

Overall a great day together. I had 5 FOY Pierce birds, including two tough ones, the WTSP and BLPH. Sunny days birding in the Pacific NW rock!