Today I took advantage of being at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival to get relatively cheap access to the Norias Area of the King Ranch with Tom Langshied, a full time group leader/Birder for the King Ranch. Along with about 40 others we took a 6 AM bus to the ranch, and targeted everyone’s Read More…
Rio Grande Valley – We’re Here
Our first day in Texas birding today was about half traveling and half birding. Our goal was to find the Northern Jacana that had been seen almost daily for over a week at Estero Llano Grande State Park. We got there a bit after 1 PM and looked until about 4:30 PM but neither we Read More…
Short-eared Owl at Gog-Li-Hi-Ti
I was on the way home from our administrative office at SFM today where I stopped by to pick up some things, when Bruce Labar called to let me know he had flushed a Short-eared owl at the mitigated marsh called Gog-li-hi-ti near the tide flats in Tacoma. I dashed home, got boots and binos Read More…
Nothing New on Commencement Bay Today
Kay and I got out after a movie at the Grand this afternoon looking for a Parasitic Jaeger or Ancient Murrelet from Dash Point, the Brown’s Point Lighthouse, and the log booms on Marine View Drive today. I had hoped to take advantage of the only dry day of the week if the weatherman is Read More…
3-Crabs Brown Booby and Tropical Kingbird
Today Ken Brown and I headed for Clallum county to find the Brown Booby that has been seen there for the last week or so. We also hoped that the usual “Olympic rain shadow” effect would favor us with dry weather while it rained here in Pierce and Kitsap counties. We also hoped to find Read More…
Wrapping Up SE Arizona
Today was getaway day for Bruce and me from SE AZ and we made it a pleasant day of birding prior to our flight. Tucson does it right with their waste-water treatment. The Sweetwater Wetlands is a wonderful nature area associated with the STPs there. The wastewater is treated, filtered through an elaborate series of Read More…
A Rotarian at Kiwanis Park, Mesa,AZ
Today was a beautiful day in AZ. We had our 6 AM breakfast at the hotel, then off to Florida Canyon-lower to look for Black-capped gnatcatcher and Rufous-capped warbler. The BCGN are year round residents and we found them pretty easily once the sun came up and got things moving. Prior we found a pair Read More…
Day 3 AZ: No Lifers but a Great Day Afield
Today was another beautiful day, temps in the low 70’s with gusty 15 mph winds in the AM, less by PM. Our targets today were Montezuma Quail and Rufuous-capped warbler at Hunter Canyon and Plain-capped Starthroat at the Mendoza Alley stakeout in Patagonia. 0-3 on these but had a great day anyway. Hunter Canyon was Read More…
First 33 Hours in Cochise County, AZ
Bruce Labar and I are making a 5 day blitz of SE Arizona. We left SEATAC on a 5:15 AM flight to Tucson Sunday, got to Tucson in time to get a car and dash off birding. We copped a Vermillion Flycatcher from the shuttle-stop at the airport waiting for a ride to to Payless Read More…
Pectoral and Snow Goose
Today Bruce texted me that he had 4 Pectoral Sandpipers at the 56th Street stormwater ponds, and I dashed right down. He had mentioned that the PESA was on the second pond, but when I got there no PESA, but a whitish goose was standing there with a Cackling goose. My first thought was that this Read More…