Flycatcher Study Trip: Not today

A small contingent of ABC birders went out to study flycatchers Saturday, and the rain, cold and wind kept the birds in that family largely out of sight and earshot, but we had a good time trying and found some other good birds along the way.  Meeting at Snoqualmie summit Vera and Jack, Mark and Kelly, and Ed and Kay started by the ski slope looking, listening and trying to keep warm.  A Lincoln’s sparrow gave a fleeting glimpse, and it took us a while to figure out that the out-of-place birds that sounded like Spotted Sandpipers were in fact 4 Spotted sandpipers in the wet and snow by the tow station.

The Hyak hummingbird-house had only a few hummers out early, and we tried in vain to confirm that what sounded like a Gray Catbird was one, left as an out-of-place maybe. Gold Creek was cold too, but yielded a dipper that Vera saw after the rest of us took cover in the trees.  Great views of several Townsend’s warblers along with a fly-by of a Hermit thrush who helped us all remember their “chuck” call after hiding was fun.  Still to this point not a flycatcher heard or seen.

We decided to flee the high ground in hopes that the east-slope would be warmer, drier and less windy.  It was drier, windier and if it was warmer then not much.  At the road off Exit 62 to Stampede Pass we listened for the expected Hammond’s flycatchers, but the wind and cold kept it quiet.  We did see our first flycatcher, Western Wood-Pewee, and several  Warbling Vireos gave us a show along with lots of Western Tanagers.

We were surprised to see the area in front of the parking lot at Lake Easton Campground was clearcut, and a big parcel of trees taped to be cut near the lake.  It was pretty quiet there too, and so we dropped down to check out Bullfrog Pond at Salmon-le-sac.  It was pretty there, we had enjoyable looks at Cedar Waxwings, Rufous Hummingbirds among others as a Veery sang constantly.

After a pow-wow we decided to drive across Umtanum Rd to Yakima and chase the eastern rarities up Oak Creek Road in the afternoon.  The drive across yielded most of the expected birds including the always enjoyable

except missing Mountain Bluebird, though we kept moving and the high winds kept the sage birds out of sight and quiet.  We did manage to stop to marvel at how two “rocks” could look like snowy owls, and when we brought out binos up we saw:

Two Baby Great Horned Owls sitting on the ground

with the ID confirmed by finding a watchful parent keeping a close eye on us from a nearby tree.  Check out the tiny “horns” on the lower bird.

At Oak Creek Rd we could not locate the Eastern Phoebe despite a fairly good effort over a couple of hours, and met several locals who had been there much of the day without relocating this bird.  I did hear what I’m pretty sure was the Chestnut-sided warbler at the area where others had found it, but never got a look, and  it sang only about 10 times in a row, then was quiet until we left about 5 PM.

Here’s our trip list.  See you all at the next meeting.

Canada Goose

Turkey Vulture

Osprey

Swainson’s Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

American Kestrel

Prairie Falcon

California Quail

Common Snipe King WA US Jun 9, 2012

Caspian Tern this was a brief look driving on the lake just south of the Road to Wenas Campground. Seemed out of place.

Rock Pigeon

Eurasian Collared-Dove

Great Horned Owl Adult and two babies off Umtanum Rd

Black Swift

Vaux’s Swift

Rufous Hummingbird

Lewis’s Woodpecker

Red-naped Sapsucker

Northern Flicker

Olive-sided Flycatcher

Western Wood-Pewee

Tree Swallow

Violet-green Swallow

Cliff Swallow

Barn Swallow

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Cedar Waxwing

American Dipper

Rock Wren

Bewick’s Wren

Pacific Wren

Western Bluebird

Veery

Hermit Thrush

American Robin

Varied Thrush

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Steller’s Jay

Black-billed Magpie

American Crow

Common Raven

European Starling

Warbling Vireo

Yellow Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Townsend’s Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Western Tanager

Spotted Towhee

Chipping Sparrow

Savannah Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Lincoln’s Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

Black-headed Grosbeak

Lazuli Bunting

Red-winged Blackbird

Brewer’s Blackbird

Brown-headed Cowbird

Bullock’s Oriole

American Goldfinch

House Sparrow

 


May 2012 meeting recap

On May 24, ABC met and celebrated Empidonax flycatchers! This timely information was presented by Ken Brown with A/V by Ryan Wiese. Also had reports from Diane Yorgason-Quinn on the ABC field trip to Theler Wetlands in Belfair, as well as enjoyed Ruth Sullivan’s photos of the breeding-plumaged Ruff she found at Grays Harbor earlier this month.

June 9 Fieldtrip for Flycatchers

We will meet early in order to be at Robinson Canyon early to hear the dawn chorus.  Meet  at the rest stop at Snoqualmie Summit at 6 AM to try for flycatchers there and then go on.  Try to carpool up ahead. Contact me for details at edwardpullen (at) gmail (dot) com.  Focus will be on empid ID by calls and songs, habitat, behavior as well as field marks.  I am far from expert so am hoping I can find someone like Ken B, Charlie or Marcus to come along to help.  Anyway we will move more slowly to take time to pay attention to the details, and try to become better at these tough IDs.  Probably on from Robinson Canyon to other areas.  I’ll be watching tweeter for other birds in the area to look for also.

Bring lunch, drinks etc for the day.  Plan to be back by early evening.

Ed Pullen

Theler Wetlands Monday May 7

Join John Riegsecker Monday May 7 for a walk around Theler Wetlands in Belfair before those dikes get breached for one last look around at a great year-round birding site and celebrate the beginning of International Bird Day week. This will be a 4-mile walk on a dead-end trail. Scopes would be good. They also have some great outdoor art work. Meet at Theler gate at 8 AM and be done in time for lunch. If anyone needs to carpool, e-mail this list to find rides/riders.

Website info here: http://www.thelercenter.org/wetlands/index2.php. Mary E Theler Community Center 22871 NE State Route 3, Belfair, WA (360) 275-4898 ‎

Other questions, contact John at jriegsecker@pobox.com.

Malheur invitation for the ABC Club

ABC’ers! Many of you have expressed interest in seeing Malheur this spring. We don’t have a lot of notice, so it looks like an actual field trip with leader isn’t in the offing (unless one of you steps up now), but here is some good information and an invitation from Jerry Broadus. He and fellow ABC’er Shep Thorp will be there starting now for just a little while (read details below) doing volunteer work and are willing to help out fellow ABC’ers who might want to come out in the next week or so. He talks about accommodations near the end:

> From: jbroadus@seanet.com > To: sthorp@theaec.com; avosetta@hotmail.com > Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2012 08:23:10 -0700 > Subject: Re: Malheur for the ABC Club (Advanced Birders Club) > CC: kennethwbrown@hotmail.com; edwardpullen@gmail.com; rwiese@wamail.net > > Hi all: I am home right now for a couple of days, and have delivered Clarice (she will be flying out to North > Carolina next week). I will head back to P Ranch at Malheur by May 1, and hope to get Shep back out there > from May 2-May9 or so. I will be leaving there May 15 or so, exact date flexible. Then will be around (here) > for most of the rest of May, until we go Rhody hunting probably in June. > > Birding started slow at Malheur this year, except at Ruh Red Road which is still excellent. We handled 7 > tours for the bird festival. Things are really starting to pick up now. > > All the fields at Burns are flooded and have many birds, except most of the Snow and Ross’ geese have > moved on. We had a lot of rain two days ago, which raised the Blitzen River considerably, and it is being > allowed to run into most of the fields on the refuge now. Benson pond was allowed to dry, but is filling back > up. Every where there is a flooded field there are a lot of waterfowl. I just saw FOY snowy egret yesterday > morning. As the fields flood the birding will pick up. Many Ibis arriving each day. Still not many warblers, > but the willows and smaller trees just started leafing out, and a lot of “non biting” midges are about, so the > migrants will be arriving at any time now (probably today, as I am at home). Swainson’s hawks have started > being more plentiful, and as the ground squirrel hunters are out near raptor alley I expect to see more > ferrugenous hawks (most of the rough legs have left). > > Stilts, avocets, curlews, and willets in very large numbers and started displaying a couple of days ago. > Sandhills and Clark’s grebes are also starting to display. > > If you can get together a smallish group real soon, I would be glad to lead it around some. I could take a > small group behind some of the gates to closed areas, including Sod House where the cormorants and > Great Blues are nesting. This is still not a busy time, so you could get rooms at Frenchglen (in the Drover’s > inn, the motel behind the hotel), I expect, with no problem. Or, of course, lots of rooms in Burns, and there > is room at Field Station (Dan Streiffert is staying there now, with some friends from this area). The Page > Springs campground is in good shape and has birds. Shep and I could probably put a couple or so up at P > Ranch, if we work out the logistics. Maybe we could also get Kelly Hazen out on a trip.

In addition to my earlier message, note that the sage grouse lek on Foster Flats Rd. has been extremely active this spring. > > Jerry Broadus > PLS 17660 >

Report on April 2012 meeting

The ABC club met at its new venue on April 26, 2012, at the University Place Library. Looks like a winner!

First Ryan Weiss gave a short trip report on the overnight sage grouse trip to Leahy Junction, SWaterville Plateau, and points between earlier this month. An incredibly satisfying trip for both the grouse and many other birds including an early Ferruginous. Plus it was an intro to our upcoming MAY ABC meeting on May 24 when Ryan will tell us some of the interesting stuff he’s learned about Sage Grouse while doing research to lead this trip and the one two years ago to the Yakima Training Range. So mark the date!

Then Carole Breedlove, “Queenfisher,” regaled us with tales about her recent trip to Madagascar and her continuing search for all the Kingfishers of Planet Earth. After thanking Wayne Jackson, who was present, for getting her into birding not that long ago, she told the tale of one crazy woman who has used Kingfishers as her excuse to visit all the continents and many remote islands in her search, managing to ring up almost 5000 world birds in the process and plodding on, no matter the nasty climate, nasty bugs (and some cute ones), and even illness, and she’s far from done.

Opportunity to explore Tacoma Rifle & Revolver Club

From Bill & Noel Hagens, our field trip chairpersons:

Krystal Kyer, the Tahoma Audubon Executive Director, had a visit from Duane Hatch, the President of the Tacoma Rifle and Revolver Club in University Place near the Chambers Bay properties. He is also an Audubon member. He is interested in having either a field trip or a birder come out and survey the property, which has about 70 acres of forested area with some primitive trails behind their range. Bill would like to pursue this idea and wonders if one of you might be interested in meeting Duane and Bill to survey the area initially and possibly lead a field trip out there sometime. Thanks! Noel and Bill Hagens

HELP!! Swift Counters needed at JBLM-Fort Lewis now!!!

Advanced Birders — Here is a call for help that surely some of you can answer!!

Spring migration is about to happen at Vaux Swift chimneys, and we have a treasure here in the south sound at the fort! It is very exciting to count swifts funneling into a chimney, and it takes less than an hour on the appointed evenings. Counting guidelines will be provided plus some expenses (see below), but we need people SOON!!!!

Contact swift expert larry Schwitters (leschwitters@me.com) or Burney Huff (burney.huff@mindspring.com) for more details. See below. you can also contact our own Rolan Nelson who has been a counter there in the past at rnbuffle@yahoo.com to find out what’s entailed.

This is a fabulous chimney, largely unknown to the birding community until recently because of its inaccessability on a military base. Help make it famous! It is, however, extremely well known to Vaux Swifts who visit by the thousands.

Diane Y-Q Avosetta@hotmail.com

> From: leschwitters@me.com > To: Avosetta@hotmail.com > Subject: Vaux’s Happening at JBLM > Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2012 11:38:57 -0700 > > Hi Diane, > > I hope that you’ve not just survived but thrived in the “off > season”. I’m afraid we are back to needing help at JBLM. Burney > Huff did an amazing job of getting an almost nightly count last > migration. He did it with a small number of people, but is not going > to have his number two any more. For this migration only we have a > milage reimbursement and Burney can help with the pass onto base. > > If we can get good data I’ll be able to nominate it for an IMPORTANT > BIRD AREA. This is not an easy one and I know you don’t live close by. > > Larry > > Larry Schwitters > Project Coordination > Audubon Vaux’s Happening > > vauxshappening.org >

East Side Field Trip April 14 – 15

Hi Folks:

I’m organizing a field trip to the East Side to look for Sage Grouse and other sage nominate species. The trip will be from April 14 – 15. We will meet at the Snoqualmie Pass Traveller’s Rest @ 8:00 am on Saturday, 14 April. Spending the night in Grand Coulee.

The general outline is to try some new areas including Beezley Hills and Moses Coulee on Saturday. If time allows, we’ll head off to Wilson Creek, then overnight in Grand Coulee. Sunday will be early, since we must arrive at the Leahy lek site by sunrise. I scouted the lek on March 24th and saw 21 Sage Grouse, including 18 males. The only good thing about getting up that early is leaving plenty of time on Sunday to bird our way back. Possible destinations include the upper Moses Coulee, the Bridgeport area and Badger Mountain.

Please email me at rwiese@wamail.net if you’re interested.

Thank you,

Ryan Wiese