This morning Bruce and I headed to E Pierce County to try for some of the winter specialties.  We both needed N. shrike, W. bluebird, and I needed Wood duck and W. meadowlark for my Pierce year list.

We started with a very quick peek at the runway area off JBLM but neither GYRF nor WEME was seen.  From there we went to the Spanaway Marsh, hoping for Wood Duck, and maybe RECR or HUVI.  No luck at all.  Next stop Chamber’s Lake on Ft. Lewis, where I added Sharp-shinned hawk as a FOY Pierce bird, but none of the above mentioned targets showed.  We even went to the N. bobwhite spot, but only saw 6+ BAEA, 1 NOHA, and 1 AMKE.

On the prairies in areas 13 & 15 with peeks onto 14 from the edges we managed to see hear singing Western meadowlarks, but no bluebirds, shrike or much else really.

My best part of birding today though had to be from the scope in the front window.  Brett visited and became fascinated with the ducks, why they kept diving, etc.  We looked at both goldeneye, males and females, along with HOGR and had a talk about why ducks dive (food!) and why grebes are not ducks.  Pretty fun to share an  eBird list with Brett.

This afternoon Brett, Kay and I went to see The Post, the movie about Katherine Graham, the Washington Post and the Pentagon Papers.  We give it 4/5 stars.