“From Billions to None,” documenting the demise of the Passenger Pigeon was shown to ABC. The film had some excellent re-creations of the birds darkening the sky, simulating many eyewitness accounts. The concept of extinction and the extent of our culpability were explored, with one scientist postulating that the loss of Passenger Pigeons may have allowed the spread of Lyme disease that is happening now. The railroad enhanced the speed at which the birds were dispatched, along with the concurrent extirpation of the bison.
The film briefly looked at the artists who are bringing back extinct species to our senses, as well as actual researchers seeking to de-extinct Passenger Pigeons using DNA from museum specimens and Band-tailed Pigeon hybridization. So far, this has produced no birds, but the concept is expanding to other species now (Woolly mammoths, for example).
Joe Tieger remarked after the meeting ended that the take-away for him was when one of the scientists interviewed remarked that we (humans) are the equivalent of the comet that wiped out the dinosaurs.
After the film, we relaxed with two short subjects, the oft-watched Goshawk flying through incredibly narrow spaces easily, followed by our “cartoon” feature on flying penguins, which everyone enjoyed. Ed played the stooge at the end by asking, “Is that true?”
The group at the scopes early Saturday AM at the Mesa STP.
A contingent of ABCers in 3 vehicles met as usual for Eastern WA trips at the Snoqualmie Pass rest area on Wednesday Sept 4th and headed west. Our first stop was at the boat launch near Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park, where we started looking for vagrant passerines, one of the primary goals of the trip. As was the case all day, sorting through Yellow-rumped Warblers in every variant of plumage for the Audubon’s race was the biggest challenge, but singing and calling Canyon Wrens were the highlight of the stop, with Say’s Phoebe and Yellow Warblers among the 15 species there. Up top, at the Ginkgo State Park it was slow so we made it a quick stop and headed for Getty’s Cove.
Our group on Day 4 after the Willette’s car arrived
At Getty’s Cove we enjoyed good looks at two of the three
vireo species seen there. Fortunately Red-eyed and Cassin’s were the two seen
well by most, and the more common Warbling Vireo was the only tough one to get
focus on. Wild Turkeys were seen, and
molted feathers collected by many, empids were confusing as can be with silent
fall birds, and we all started to get our warbler neck ache going.
Next at the Wanapum Recreation Area we saw a daytime Great
Horned Owl, at least 2 Townsend’s Solitaires, Red-necked Grebe and a Herring
Gull among 25 species and sat for lunch.
North Potholes Reserve took up most of our afternoon, and we
had 28 species there highlighted by a large flock of American Pipits, several
Lark Sparrows, a bright male Townsend’s Warbler, another Townsend’s Solitaire,
a fly-by Black-crowned Night Heron, but very few shorebirds.
We spent the first night in Moses Lake at the Inn at Moses
Lake, and ate at Michaels on the lake.
Thursday Sept 5th we started with a look at the
Winchester Rest Area Sewer Ponds, where there were only Killdeer as shorebirds.
Birder’s Corner off Dodson Road was better, with looks at a
Sora, our only Solitary Sandpiper of the
trip, plus good looks at Wilson’s Snipe, Long-billed Dowicher, Yellow-headed
Blackbird, and lots of dabbling ducks.
We spent the morning at Potholes State Park where again the
challenge was to sort anything else out of the seemingly everywhere Audubon’s Yellow-rumped
Warblers. We conservatively estimated
350 of these for our eBird list, but there may have been >1000. We all got nice looks at a Nashville Warbler,
several Orange-crowned Warblers, a Lincoln’s Sparrow, Pine Siskin, a Sharp-shinned
Hawk and a Peregrine Falcon. There was a
nice flock of Western Sandpipers, at least two Semi-palmaged Sandpipers but a
low diversity of shorebirds.
A highlight of the trip was a Sabine’s Gull sighted from the
O’Sullivan Dam Road stop flying with small terns. Ken and Ed got long in-flight looks in
scopes, and at least a few others managed to get onto the gull with binos. We tried for a while for better looks, going
back to the boat launch area for a while, but could not relocate the bird.
Lind Coulee after lunch on Thursday was the shorebird
highlight of the trip, but immediately on arrival at the upper overlook 4
Sandhill Cranes were the first thing that caught the attention of everyone. We
quickly forgot about them though as at least 60 Lesser Yellowlegs, 13 Wilson’s Snipe
1 Baird’s Sandpiper, 3 Semipalmated Sandpiper, 7 Pectoral Sandpiper, and both Least
and Western Sandpipers along with over 60 Killdeer seemed everywhere. This was one of the highest recent counts for
LEYE that any of us could remember.
We were exhausted after a long day of searching for birds,
and were happy to find rest at a hotel in Othello, with Mexican food for
dinner.
Friday we started with a fly-by Merlin in the parking lot of
the hotel as we loaded up for the day. A
quick stop at Hatton Coulee Rest Stop sewer pond gave much better looks at
Baird’s Sandpiper, a good look at a Semipalmated Sandpiper, and got the day off
to a good start. This was a day for looking for rare eastern vagrants, and as
that sort of day can go we didn’t really find any, but were pretty happy to
find other good stuff, though not much at Washtucna, our next stop. Diane, Fay,
Laurel and Melissa joined us in Washtucna for the rest of the trip. Lyon’s
Ferry was much birdier though, after we left the waterfront to get out of the
wind. Along the road into the old
camping area we saw a White-breasted Nuthatch, a House Wren, a Barn Owl, and at
least 7 very unusual Evening Grosbeak, and again tons of YRWAs. The grosbeaks were fun, as Faye saw them at
the same time and in nearly the same place that many of us were looking at a
flock of Cedar Waxwings. As the birds
took flight we all heard the loud flight call of the grosbeaks. Ken was
startled, saying I could hear that, thinking it was the waxwings, and several
of us knew immediately it was not the waxwings, and Melissa added that she
thought it sounded like Evening Grosbeaks.
Consensus agreed, and then Faye told us she had seen them perched. Ken gave her grief for not pointing them out
to us, and I suggested we sit, do our eBird list and see if they would
return. We soon heard them again, and 7
of them flew right overhead for good looks and photos.
I convinced Ken to cross the river, to try for some Columbia
County birds as we seemed ahead of time, and I added 4 new county birds,
Osprey, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Brewer’s Blackbird and Barn Swallow, and Diane snagged
a needed diet cola to fend off her withdrawal headache.
Our last stop of the day was going to be the Connell Sewer
Ponds, but as there were few ducks and almost no shorebirds there we Ken aimed
us to the Scooteney Reservoir where we scanned a flock of gulls, managed to
pick Bank Swallows out of the more numerous Barn Swallows, and squinted to ID
very distant ducks.
Friday night we stayed in Connell, and ate at the next-door
family restaurant for dinner and breakfast Saturday AM.
Saturday we met Jason Fidorra at the Mesa (in WA pronounced Me-Sah not Meah-sah like in AZ) STP, an area usually inaccessible, and a good spot especially in the AM with great light for shorebird observation and photography. We had great looks at Lesser Yellowlegs, along with peeps, Spotted Sancpiper and a few ducks. Jason is encouraging the city to make the area open to birders to promote birding tourism in the area. Great stuff Jason!
Jason Fidorra with trip leaders Ed Pullen and Ken Brown (L to R)
We finished the trip with stops at Lind Coulee, the O’Sullivan Dam Road again hoping for looks at the Sabine’s Gull and had to settle there for early Snow Geese found by Ken on a distant rock in the lake, had lunch at the state park again, tried for a Northern Waterthrush seen earlier in the day without success, and ended at Perch Point, where shorebirds were largely lacking.
Overall a fine trip, good company,
good birds, and 134 species on 27 eBird Checklists. See the eBird summary
below.
I didn’t have my camera working,
so have few photos to add, maybe Pat and Kirsten can add links to some photos in
the comments below.
