14 ABCers led by Ken Brown left the I-5/Hwy 512 Park and Ride at 7 AM today headed south for a few SW WA specialties enroute to La Grande, OR where we are hoping for Great Gray Owl at a nest box site tomorrow morning. We drove straight to Balsh Rd, Lyle, WA where a Read More…
Back in Pierce
I’ve been travelling, working both in the yard a lot, and at the office a little, so have really not been out in Pierce County for the last couple of weeks. My last significant birding locally was the TAS Birdathon, so since then many of the neotropic migrants have returned, and today I got 7 Read More…
Two County Year Ticks
On the way to work today, filling in at our Bonney Lake Same Day Clinic, I stopped by the Sumner Lesser Goldfinch spot. This has been a perennial nemesis for me, and I’ve been by several times already. I hoped an early stop would be the difference, and I was able to ID at least Read More…
Taking a Break from Yard Work Yields Lazuli Bunting and Western Kingbird
Today I had a short window between yard work and covering SDC so the PAs could go to their quarterly meeting, and when Bruce texted about not just the usual Lazuli Bunting but Western Kingbird in Orting, where to go was clear. I had only an hour to bird after dashing down the hill to Read More…
Pelagic Cruise Notes
From May 3-7th 15 members of our ABC Birding group took a cruise on the Ruby Princess, a 950 foot, 3100 passenger ship that is 18 decks tall from Los Angeles to Vancouver, BC with only one port of call, Victoria, BC on May 6th. It was my maiden cruise voyage, and was quite an Read More…
Birdathon Report: April 30, 2016
On the last day of April 2016 I headed out on my annual Tahoma Audubon Society fundraising project the Birdathon with the help of 4 strong birders. Kay, Ken Brown, Laurel Parshall and Eric Dudley met me at the park-and-ride and we squeezed into my Subaru to head out. We started immediately with 4 species Read More…
Birdathon Scouting/Preview
Today I got out in Pierce county to try out a possible route for a birdathon (TAS fundraiser) I’m leading Saturday. Overall not a terribly exciting day. I’m glad I got out to scout in a mock of a possible route. I learned that the place I had planned to start early, the Mountain View Read More…
Austin Area
Kay and I left Boerne, TX yesterday after Jean was able to get a ride to the San Antonio airport and we headed for Austin. We were pretty exhausted and really didn’t bird on the way up. We got to town, had low energy, found the Contemporary Art Museum closed for renovations, and walked around Read More…
Enchanted Rock State Natural Area
Today after sleeping in and having a lazy start to the day Kay, Jean and I went to explore the Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. It is a really unusual place where a riparian area passes beside a large ledge dome of rock. We didn’t get there until near noon, about the same time lots Read More…
Kay 2 – Ed 1 ABA Lifers Today at Lost Maples
Today Kay, Jean and I went to Lost Maples SRA to hike the East Side Trail and look for two Texas specialty birds, Golden-cheeked Warbler and Black-capped Vireo. Both were first time ABA birds (lifers) for Kay, and the vireo a lifer for me. We got there about 8:30 AM and just as we arrived Read More…