NORTHWEST WINTER BIRDS: A GALLERY

Our Colorado birders got 114 species on the Oregon/Washington State trip last week.  As we headed south from the Olympic Peninsula we got our final two species at the Wild Birds Unlimited Store along Hwy 101 southeast of Sequim.  Pine Siskin and Cassin’s Finch were among the crowd in the garden full of feeders there at WBU.

Look at the beak on this fella.  It would make a House or Purple Finch jealous.  It’s a serious seed-crunching implement.

Amonmg our 114 species: five alcids including a few fly-by Cassin’s Auklets and good look at Rhino Auklets. There were twenty-nine species of waterfowl from Trumpeter Swans to Eurasian Wigeon, three mergansers, two goldeneyes, Harlequin, Long-tailed Duck and both scaup in large numbers.

You got your Wood Duck, your Mandarin Duck, your Cinnamon Teal or even your Red-breasted Goose.  But this guy in full breeding regalia…Parisian courtiers could not conceive of such glamor.  Neither could I until I finally saw this duck up close a few years back.  This male and his mate paddled around the Keystone Ferry harbor, Whidbey Island, within thirty feet of us for half an hour.  An ecstatic half-hour for our birding group.

We did OK on raptors, with over sixty different Bald Eagle sightings. 

And we enjoyed some pretty good land-birding as well, from Pileated down to Pacific (nee Winter) Wren and both kinglets at close range.  And then there is the Northwest’s scenery where snow, fog, steep mountains, volcanoes and blue seas combine for a panorama not found in most of the world.

Not the overcast skies but no rain.  While the Coloradans’ friends and family struggled with blizzard and sub-freezing, we breezed around the Northwest under mild temps of 45-55 degrees and only a half day of rain in seven days afield. 

Finally there were several satisfying looks at Varied Thrush, including one in the garden at Wild Birds our last day.

The park is named for the Dr. Tolmie who gave his name to the Latin binomial for MacGillivray’s Warbler.

This group of VATH was in the shade beneath the Sitka spruce at Tolmie State Park near Olympia, WA.

Winter Wonderland For Water Birds

What would you say about a birding day that brought dozens of Harlequin Ducks and Rhino Auklets?  Plus a Cooper’s Hawk on an offshore piling, Red-breasted Mergansers by the score, Red-necked Grebe, Cassin’s Auklet, Long-tailed Duck, Black Oystercatcher, Greater Yellowlegs and even a co-operative Belted Kingfisher who posed for pictures at our luncheon restaurant?  Well, our Colorado birding group said, “Wow!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And our total for the trip: 112 species and a couple dozen lifers for many on the trip.  A nd this is the season.  There won;t be any Pacific Loons or Red-necked Grebes this far south in summer.

NORTHWEST: Nisqually NWR and Tolmie State Park

Our PIB Northwestern Birding tour hit Washington State at dawn today.  We birded Tomie State Park first. It’s named for the Hudson Bay physician who also gave his name to the MacGillivray’s Warbler’s Latin binomial.  Then we went next door to the Nisqually National Wildli8fe Refuge.  We added many new birds, pushing our total to 95 for the trip.  White-winged Scoter, Pileated Woodpecker, Peregrine, Long-tailed Duck, Northern Shrike, Eurasian Wigeon, Marsh Wren and a small flock of highly unseasonal Barn Swallows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And these California sea lions on the boat dock next to our motel in Astoria:

Birding the Continent’s Edge

Out PIB Northwestern Birding Trip was at the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon today.  And then went south to Cannon Beach on the Pacific shore.  Have you ever really seen the feathering on a Black Turnstone?  We did.

We encountered White-fronted Geese in a Cannon Beach city park.

Altogether we’ve seen over seventy species.  Today we added Surf Scoter, the turnstones, Dunlin, Sanderling, Horned Grebe, the White-fronts, Varied Thrush (always a hit among visiting birders), Wrentit and Pacific Wren.

SAUVIE ISLAND–NORTHWESTERN U.S. IN WINTER

This was the first official day of our annual Northwestern U.S. trip.  Birding Sauvie Island west of Portland and nearby Scappoose Bottoms we had over sixty species.

 

 

 

 

Here’s a cross-section of the thousands of Cackling Geese wintering in the area.

 

 

 

 

And here are a few of the Sandhill Cranes that winter this far north.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And we had Golden-crowns galore…sparrow, and kinglet.