East Side Migrant Trip

Ken Brown with minimal assistance from Ed Pullen led an ABC trip Saturday Sept. 8-10, 2012.  We were exploring well known east central WA migrant and shorebird sites, most of us for the first time in fall.  We started at Getty Cove, the state park near Wanapum State Park off the Columbia River at Vangage.  This was a very pleasant start as we followed mixed flocks of warblers, kinglets, nuthatches and sparrows around the park.  Sorting through the flocks of Yellow-rumped warblers yielded 12 RB nuthatches, 2 Red-eyed vireos, 4 warbling vireos, 1 Nashville warbler, 2 Wilson’s warblers, and an estimate 40 Yellow-rumped warblers along with two first-year/female aspect Bullock’s orioles and both Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned hawks as highlights.  Crossing the road to Wanapum was less productive of passerines, but we added 3 Western Grebes, an American  Kestrel (first of dozens on the wires as we travelled), and a nice spot for lunch.

We spent most of the rest of the afternoon shorebirding, and found an nice variety, starting at Potholes near the Egret Rookery where nearly the first shorebird we found was a close up, out-in-the-open Solitary Sandpiper, with both Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs nearby.  Large flocks of Am. White Pelicans and searching for more shorebirds nearly led us to overlook a sub-adult Franklin’s gull, which Pat and Laurel finally convinced Ken and I to help identify. It was felt to be a second year bird and gave us nice in-flight views.

From there we visited Perch Point where we added Spotted Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, Wilson’ Snipe, Baird’s Sandpiper and Pectroral Sandpipers to our shorebird list along with good numbers of Western, 4 Greater and 2 Lesser Yellowlegs, 5 W. Snipemixed among an estimated 80 Westerns.  Next we visited Lind Cooley, where unlike reports earlier in the week we found perfect water levels, if not easy to get to viewing.  At the back end of the water Ken and I tromped through the bushes to find excellent views of 3 Stilt Sandpipers mixed among lots of other shorebirds.  Then back at the mouth of the waterway after walking down from the large parking lot we had great light and nice looks at 8 Baird’s sandpipers, 12 Pectoral Sandpipiers, 2 Least Sandpipers, 2 Semipalmated Plovers, and about an estimated 100+ Western sandpipers.  Rolan and John lagged behind and got a look at two Buff Breasted sandpipers that the rest of us could not relocate after they told us about them a bit later.

From here off to Othello for a good nights sleep and getting ready for Bassett Park the next day.  On the way to Bassett park we stopped at the Hatton Rest Stop (more sewer ponds) getting another great look at  Solitary Sandpiper in the wide open quite close in along with two Red-necked Phalaropes and assorted other shorebirds, as Barn and Bank swallows sallied about.

We spent a couple of hours after this at Bassett Park, finding it fairly quiet but beautifully kept up by a town with obviously limited resources.  We managed to see 2 Dusky and 1 Willow flycatcher and surprisingly few warblers, only 2 Wilson’s, 6 Yellow-rumped and 1 Orange-crowned counted.  We had better luck at Lyon’s Ferry, where we spent much of the day and had lunch in chairs under some trees watching many YR warblers playing in the sprinkler of a hose.  A modest  variety of warblers including Nashville, Yellow, Common Yellow-throat, Wilson’s and Townsend’s joined the party there, and we generally enjoyed that it was warm but not hot and that the wind seemed more modest there.  Back to Basset Park for evening birding after dinner at the tavern and a disappointing last 30 seconds of the Seahawks game, added a family of 4 Barn Owls screeching and flying about.  The soft grass made camping enjoyable.

The next morning little new had shown up, and we met Vera, Jack and Pat who showed us photos of what we thought might be a Sharp-tailed sandpiper they found at the Para ponds outside Othello where they had returned to a hotel for the night.  We quickly analyzed Pat’s photos, and raced for the ponds, to find neither Pectoral nor Sharp-shinned but added Long-billed Dowicher and Semi-palmated Plover to the trip shorebird list.  On further review on better looks with outside help the potential STSP was determined to be a bright capped Least Sandpiper. The rest of the day was dominated by high winds, leading us to abort a second try at Getty Cove and return home to beat the traffic.

Overall a nice introduction for many of us to eastern WA fall migration and a very enjoyable 3-day weekend.  Hope to add photos and a trip list soon.    15 shorebirds seen by most, Vera and Pat had Sharp-tailed, Rolan and John Buff-breasted for a group total of 17 shorebird species.

Birding Ken, Ed, David, Rolan, John, Laurel, Vera and Pat.  Jack driving.

Woolley

September 9, 2012, three of us did the long trip up to Sedro-Woolley to see what might be the best Vaux Swift chimney in the world (we’ll have to wait until this season’s tallies are completed to know that). This was the old Northern State Hospital, and our hosts were Skagit Audubon with a large group of enthusiastic swifters including head counter Tim Manns whom we met last year. What a beautiful campus this is, now housing the Job Corps, but closed to the public, so we were special guests. 5500 Swifts and one persistent Merlin entertained us for an hour before finally going in earlier than expected, perhaps because of the clouds. A truly wonderful show, but they have been known to have 20,000, so the best may be yet to come up there.

Tallest swift stack in the state/Diane Y-Q, host Tim Manns, Carol Smith, and Adam Trent

Coast trip Aug 25-26 2012

Report from trip leader Ken Brown:

10 ABCers visited the coast 8/25-26. We visited the game range, jetty, sewer pond, bill’s spit and behind the casino at ocean shores, finishing at the hoquiam sewer pond. We found 18 shorebirds at the game range including, P.G. Plover, Buff br sand, 3 stilt sand, 1 Baird’s, 1 S-P sand. We picked up 2 Ruddy t., 6 Surfbirds, 1 Tattler at the jetty and osstp. We left for hstp with 21 shorebirds. At Hstp we picked up the code 5 Avocet and ran into Bruce LaBar.

Sunday, we visited Bottle b. Thanks to Wayne Sladek who was with us 1/2 day we easily picked up he HDGT, studying it off and on for 2 hrs. We visited Westport, Tokeland, Midway Bh, Washaway Bh., and Cranberry Bh. rd. We added four more pipers: Willet, Snowy pl., BB pl. at BB, with over 2,000 Marbled god. at BB 1200, Westport 800, Tokeland 150.

Coast trip report Aug 25-26

What a great trip to the coast this past weekend put together by Ken Brown and Vera Cragin! We spent the weekend looking for and looking at rarities. A new record of number of shorebirds seen on one weekend: 27! Will expect Ken to post a list soon. In the meantime, here are several photos:

Photo of group at Westport shows Vera, Laurel, Ken, Carol, David, Pat, Melissa, Faye (not shown Wayne, Diane, Jack).

Swift field trip Sept 9

Come see the most amazing Vaux Swift chimney in the state, maybe in the world, on Sept 9. Those of you not going on the 3-day trip this weekend, come for one evening northwards with me. Those who sign up can help determine whether we make any stops along the way and thus the route and time to leave. We’ll be going to the old Northern Hospital grounds where a huge chimney was just uncapped 3 years ago and promptly “stole” many of the swifts using other chimneys. This outing is just for ABC’ers, as there are other (closer) swift trips thru Tahoma Audubon open to all on other dates (see The Towhee).

Contact Diane Yorgason-Quinn at Avosetta@hotmail.com or 253-857-3367.