So far this year a Pierce County Merlin had avoided me until today. I started at the Chamber’s Bay beach access where yesterday Bruce had seen 2 Baird’s sandpipers, but today I had just WESA and LESA for peeps, but did manage a distant Cassin’s aucklet. Best bird for me though was a perched Merlin Read More…
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White-winged Dove with Indigo Bunting for Desert
Thursday, in a somewhat unusual strategy prompted by morning commitments for both myself and Bruce, Ken Brown, Bruce Labar and I headed for Yakima from Bruce’s house at 11:15 AM with the White-winged dove as our target species. It had been seen the prior 2 days at the backyard feeders of Kevin Lucas in Selah, Read More…
New Mitigation for Fall Shorebirds in Pierce
Today while I was taking a different than my usual route to Levy Pond in Fife, just after turning onto Freeman Rd off Valley Ave in Fife I noted what looked like a big construction site with a large muddy pond. I turned around, drove into the dirt drive to the area, and quickly came Read More…
Barn Owlets on the Nest
Tonight Kay and I visited Tim Mellema and Keri at their new place on Tanwax Lake. They have a wonderful property nestled between two huge estates with > 1000 feet of lake frontage and are remodeling several old buildings. In the overhang space between the roof and the porch roof of the guest cottage is Read More…
Red-eyed Vireo in Orting
Again this year the Red-eyed vireos have returned to the riverside dike area where the path through the field off 178th St. meets the river dike. As soon as I got near the river I could hear the REVI singing. I believe there were two birds together as I saw two similar birds in flight, Read More…
Chamber’s Bay AM and Buckley Bank Swallows PM
This morning I tried for the haul of great birds found yesterday by Bruce and Marcus at Chamber’s Bay but settled for large numbers of alcids. At least 7 Cassin’s Aucklets, 9 Marbled Murrelets, and 82 (probablyk many more) Common Murres. After working the afternoon at Bonney Lake I checked out the Buckley gravel pit Read More…
Dash for a Wandering Tattler
This afternoon our Pierce County text group notified me of a Wandering Tattler at the Point Defiance Marina. Hope Anderson initially located the bird, and posted to eBird at 12:30 PM. Michael Charest noted the eBird list and went to see and photograph the bird about 3:30 PM. He put out the group text and Read More…
3 More Pierce FOY Species Today
This morning a quick walk of the loop at Wildwood Park yielded several calling Pacific Slope Flycatchers and two singing Cassin’s Vireos. Then I met Bruce at 134th to look for the LEGO and WEKI, neither showed. Bruce later found a SOSA at 156th St, and I got there just about 1 minute before it Read More…
Back in Pierce
This morning I got out birding in Pierce County for the first time since April 16, and so Pierce FOY birds were pretty available. That said I missed the real target of the morning when I could not find the Brewer’s Sparrow at the 56th St Stormwater Ponds. I met Bruce Labar an Peter Wimberger Read More…
Kittitas County
Today Ken and I headed east to bird Kittitas County. We started just over the summit at the Hyak Sewage Lagoon’s where our highlight was a flock of about 30 Evening Grosbeaks (FOY #1) flying about, calling loudly, and entertaining us. Barrow’s and Common Goldeneye as well as Ring-necked Ducks were on the lagoons, and Read More…