Some members suggested a way for members to borrow and loan “stuff” from other members. On this post you can leave a comment noting items you’s like to borrow, or have available to loan. Just leave a comment. I suggest starting with HOPING TO BORROW or AVAILABLE TO LOAN as the header. Then list the details and how to be contacted. I suggest using an e-mail address written in a self explanatory way but that won’t be easily spammed. For example myname – at- yahoo dot com
I’ll post the first available to loan item comment as an example.
Our Big Year people include our key counties and state and now include the 253 CLUB, thanks to Marcus, who monitors that! Yes, you must reach 253 species inside the 253 area code!
I’ve learned about a birding resource that I’m excited to be helping with here in Washington. Birding Hotspots is an “Open-source” and “Crowd-Sourced” website that works alongside eBird to help birders know about how to bird at hotspots. By Open-source they mean that the coding and back-end of the website is open, i.e. not secret of proprietary. This is not the way a for-profit site would function, and gives assurance that the founders are not in it for profit from our work. Crowd-sourced means that the content comes from a broad audience of birders, i.e. the “crowd.”
Every eBird Hotspot in the world is imported into Birding Hotspots, and information on how to access and best bird the hotspot, along with any other useful information can be added easily.
I’ve been working for a while with Ken Ostermiller and Adam Jackson ans I think it is a great resource that will help me when I am traveling, and will help any birder visiting an eBird hotspot where they are inexperienced with the site.
The site relies on local knowledge to be useful. I’ve agreed to be the Washington State editor, a role where I both try to enter content for sites I know, and review and confirm the appropriateness of content entered by anyone else for WA hotspots. I’m having fun and feeling like I can contribute in this role.
I’m asking WA birders to add content for eBird hotspots that they feel like they know a reasonable amount about birding at the spot. It is really easy to do, and can be done either on a computer or directly from your phone.
Because some of you learn best by reading directions, and others are more visual learners, I’ll write a step-by-step how-to use the site here, and also add a short video of how to use the site.
Navigate to the desired hotspot in any of several ways.
Type the name of the hotspot in the “Find a region of hotspot…” space
Select the state from the list of states with an editor (WA is there)
Click on the Explore Nearby Hotspots blue text to navigate by address of by city and state.
Once at the hotspot click on the “Suggest Content” text.
Enter your name and email address so the editor (me in WA) can know who is submitting content and contact you if they have questions. This also can help by letting the editor know that you are not a “bot”.
The key sections are “About this Location” and “Tips for Birding.” The Birds of Interest and Notable Trails sections can be filled in if you have helpful knowledge.
If possible answer the Yes-No button questions Restrooms, Wheelchair trails, Roadside Viewing, and Entrance Fee questions. (Unless there is safe and good roadside viewing either enter “no” of leave as “Unknown”
If you want the editor to know something not appropriate to put in the options otherwise enter them in the “notes to the editor” section.
Be sure to click on the Submit Suggestion big green button so it gets submitted.
I If possible add a photo of the site. To do this is a separate task. Click on the Upload Photos text. Enter you rname and email. Then click on the “Browse” text in the big rectangle. You can add photos either from your photo library or other folder, or directly on your phone by clicking on the “take a photo” option. This is designed to be a photo to help visiting birders know what to expect. Great examples might be a photo of the entrance or parking area, a photo of the general habitat, or a photo of the trailhead. A photo of a map of the site is good too. Again be sure to click on the big green “Save photos” button.
If you want to see this visually, watch this video.
Hopefully this is helpful. If you have any questions contact Ed Pullen. I answer the submissions on the Contact section of this website.
Birders: Scott Saunders, Julia Dolan, Tina Suda, Laurel Parshall, Ellen Cohen, Ken Zirinsky, and Sydney Rometsch.
We all met at the Roy Y Park-N-Ride at 5:30, figured out our car pooling arrangements and off we went, ‘The Mountain’ in sight.
Our first stop on the way to Paradise was Ohop Creek where we hoped to see a few Lazuli Bunting. There were plenty of Cedar Waxwing and swallows, but no Lazulis.
Our next stop was at the Elbe bridge where there are occasionally American Dippers, but again no luck. We got to see a Great Blue Heron take flight and a family of Common Mergansers.
On our way up the mountain a pair of Barred Owls flew over the lead car and landed on a big snag. Not realizing the owls had flown over us we kept going and Julia walkie-talkied us that we might want to turn around and come back. At least one of the owls was kind enough to stay put while we took pictures.
Upon reaching Longmire we ran across the road to view the meadow and within a minute Julia jumped on a MacGillivray’s Warbler flitting around. It took a bit of searching but we all got eyes on it. A couple of trees on the other side of the meadow were loaded with Band-tailed Pigeons with one sitting out on the end of a fallen snag. Life birds for some: Red-breasted Sapsucker.
Finally our main destination, Paradise, 9:00am. No rain, a little cool, hardly any wind. Crossed our fingers that the weather would hold.
One of our first treats was a flock of 14 Red Crossbills, they may have split up as we repeatedly had 2 flocks of 7 all day long.
We got on 6-7 purple finches, all appeared to be first year males with their streaky breasts.
Here and there a couple American Pipits showed themselves, a life bird for some which is always exciting. Laurel used her pipit whispering skills and got one to come right over to us as she took several hundred pictures 😉 right after this a Gray-crowned Rosy Finch flew over us, calling as it went, the only one of the day.
“But in the mountains did he feel his faith.
All things, responsive to the writing, there
Breathed immortality, revolving life,”
Wordsworth
By now it was starting to lightly sprinkle and the wind was picking up just a little. Panorama Point beckoned. We continued to see Pippits and Marmots everywhere as we got onto the steeper trail. The wind started to pick up pretty strong, blowing in clouds, which drenched us even though at the most it still was only sprinkling. By the time we reached Panorama Point the wind was blowing us sideways, it was a little cold, and we had planned to eat lunch. We scarfed down a little of our food and then headed onwards to get to the rock face that blocked the wind almost entirely. Then we all sat and actually ate lunch. Without the wind we warmed up a bit, attempted to dry off and changed clothing. We learned later that shortly after continuing on it started to sleet – we were lucky to have missed it.
Continuing around the loop and starting down it took awhile to reach the tree line again.
A Hermit Thrush was spotted hopping around in the brush and actually came out and poised for us. A lifer for Sydney!
It was still sprinkling, the wind had slowed down a little, and it was still a little chilly. Coming around a corner we came upon a small meadow where Ellen pointed out a large dark bird. With all of our binoculars clouded over it was difficult to see. But then a laser pierced the fog to land on a male Sooty Grouse! Where’d that laser come from? Another lifer for several. A Varied Thrush took off from right next to the male grouse and landed right next to a female grouse about 30 feet away. As we watched three chicks, that appeared only a few weeks old, crept out of the scrub and ran over to her. We spent a good 10 minutes watching the family.
After passing Myrtle Falls we paused under some trees providing a nice dry spot. Ken put down his backpack and poles while he took pictures of some wildflowers nearby. A Hoary Marmot wandered through the group, completely ignoring us, and went straight for Ken’s poles. After sniffing them several times and determining them to not be edible he continued to wander in and out of the group.
After escaping the Hoary Marmot we came to a grove of evergreens that were a short way up slope and discovered a handful of Pine Grosbeaks making their way back and forth through the trees. Lifers for some!
The parking lot finally provided us with a couple of Canada Jays, they had been absent all day.
Before heading back home we sat down in the visitor’s center for something warm to eat and drink and reflect on our day. Though cold and wet we all agreed that we had a great time, saw some birds (several lifers) and altogether enjoyed each other’s company. Looking forward to doing this at Sunrise in a few weeks.
One last stop at Longmire and we were ready to go home!
I’m home and have had enough time to put up a trip report on my “Ed’s Birding Notes” folder on the Bird Banter website, and to post some photos to Flickr. Here are links if anyone is interested.
Ken and Ed led a trip to the coast with so many ABCers interested that we started Saturday Oct 8 taking 16 birders in 4 cars to the Westport-Tokeland side of Gray’s Harbor, 7 more birders joined us Sunday for the Ocean Shores side, and the 7 + one holdover repeated the south side of the harbor on Monday. Weather was good, exceting morning fog most days, and birding was surprisingly excellent.
Hudsonian Godwit seen on Day 1 at Tokeland
The route was to the Hoquiam STP first on Saturday, then on to Bottle Beach, Tokeland and Graveyard Spit, North Cove, MIdway Beach and then back to the Hoquiam STP to chase the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper found there by Shep and others after their weathered-out pelagic.
I won’t go into great detail, but here are the highlights:
Day 1:
-At the STP good numbrers of ducks, a few Pectoral Sandpipers seen through the fog.
The Hudsonian Godwit with several Marbled Godwits for comparison. Many Black Turnstones with at least 2 Surfbirds at the Ocean Shore JettyA Surfbird at the jetty
-At Bottle Beach we arrived early for the incoming tide, spent an hour or so on the trail adjacent to the beach where a good variety of common birds were seen well, then on the beach we had 10 species of shorebird including 3 Sanderling, 12 Marbled Godwit, 1 Black Turnstone, +/- 400 Black-bellied Plover, 6 Semi-palmated Plover, Dunlin, Western and Least Sandpipers.
-On to Tokeland, where the arguably best bird of the trip, a Hudsonian Godwit had us all fooled for a while until Ken (who else) correctly IDed the bird as a Hudsonian Godwit a bit after we left. This one rarity was mixed nicely with an estimated 350 (probably more) Marbled Godwits, a good number of Willets and one Whimbrel.
A Whimbrel with the MAGO at Tokeland
-We made a short stop at North Cove hoping for Franklin’s Gull which had been reported earlier in the week without luck.
-A nice walk out into the wet fields at the end the road to Midway Beach yielded one Wilson’s Snipe, a nice walk in a wet field, and good numbers of distant ducks and Long-billed Dowichers, and one American Pipit.
As we left there Ken found out about a reported Sharp-tailed Sandpiper at the Hoquiam STP, so instead of birding the Westport marina we went back there, near our hotel, and got excellent looks at this rarity in great light on the east side of the middle pond in the nearest short patch of muddy shore.
Day 2: After Mexican food for dinner at Mazatlan and a night’s sleep at Econolodge we joined the arriving second party group and headed for Ocean Shores, with a short try at the Hoquiam STP for the STSA without luck in foggy conditions.
-At the Brown’s Point Jetty we did a seawatch, with waxing and waning fog, but were pleased by a nice flock of rocky shorebirds that flew in and found one Rock Sandpiper and 6 Surfbirds mixed with at least 50 Black Turnstones. A nice variety of seabirds made the watch enjoyable.
A Black Turnstone at the Jetty
-Nothing special at the Ocean Shores STP on a brief stop, and we walked the Oyhut Game Range area from the new path at the Tonquin Ave entrance. It was very slow overall, but a nice highlight was flushing 5 Lapland Longspurs from almost underfoot, calling their nice rattle to be heard by most and a nice look as they flew up and away. Nice numbers of Red-throated and Common Loons were fun to see, and a Peregrine gave great overhead flight looks as it soared high above us as we got to the parking lot at the end of the stop.
A Lapland Longspur flying away at the game range.
-After lunch at the playfield by the airport, we went to the Quinault Casino beach access with high hopes from excellent reports there in recent days, but a dense fog rolled in and we almost saw the water. Zip.
-We killed a little time at the Cabana Pool, waiting for the tide to receed a bit before going to Bill’s Spit hoping for shorebirds. The pool area was pleasant but without many birds. Bill’s Spit had the tide just going out, and as more sand became available the largest group of shorebirds of the trip gave a nice show. Highlights were several Red Knots, good numbers of Dunlin and Western Sandpipers, lots of gulls to sort through, and one shorebird we had to leave unidentified due to distance, but always fun to try.
Shorebirds and gulls to sort through at Bill’s Spit
-We tried in the afternoon with better light to recover the STSA for the new arrival birders, but were not able to confidently ID it among several Pectoral Sandpipers who were more distant than they had been Saturday.
-Monday, after dinner at the 8th Ave Bar and another night at Econolodge we again headed south. The stops were similar to Saturday, but we missed the HUGO at Tokeland, picked up a Pacific Golden Plover at Bottle Beach, and took some time to explore a new area at the mouth of the Cedar River just south of Tokeland to find a few county birds for the county listers in the group.
Bruce LaBar, Will Brooks, Peter Wimberger, Max Merrill and Ed Pullen undertook a later than usual May Pierce County Big Day on May 15th, a rainy day a few days later than our previous big days, on a whole different route that Will and Bruce planned. Ken might have called it a “hot-damn” day of birding, finding 138 species, the highest of any of Bruce’s 21 years of doing this. Read the full report at my birding notes page on the Bird Banter site.
When I travel to an area where I expect to see birds I don’t know and to study them. It has the advantage over just studying a field guide book to the birds of the area of showing you the birds you are really likely to see, in order of likelihood. Check it out.
How to use eBird to study birds likely in an area.
