Today I tried once more for the Brant in the wet fields between Riverside Rd and Auto Way in Sumner, finding a diminishing flock of Cackling Geese behind the Honda dealership again, but today the Snow Geese were gone and the Brant still not found. Rain was found though and increasing hard rain at 33 degrees, so I decided car birding was in order.
I headed for Orting hoping for Peregrine Falcon or who knows what. I got two good FOY Pierce birds as in a flock of sparrows on the Orting Farm Loop off Calistoga I had nice looks from the drivers window at an obliging Lincoln’s Sparrow and near the end of the loop I noted four big white birds with the Cackling Geese. I assumed Trumpeter Swans, but was really surprised and pleased to see four Tundra Swans, one with a really lot of yellow in front of the eye on the bill. I hoped for maybe Bewick’s Swan or even Whooper Swan, but it was just a very upper limits of normal yellow on the bill of a Tundra. I called Bruce Labar to come see and while I waited for him another 3 Tundra Swans walked into view. That was two good birds on one of my favorite winter bad-weather birding-by-car drives. Sweet.