WINTER BIRDS OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST

UPDATE: SIGN-UPS FOR THIS TRIP CLOSE ON NOVEMBER 15, 2011.  This coming January PIB and Minneapolis Audubon are teaming up on a trip to the Pacific Northwest.  For Minnesotans the weather will seem mild despite the rain.  The wintering birds will agree.  Most have come down  from the Arctic to enjoy the temperate weather of coastal Oregon and Washington State.  The trip will begin and end in Portland.  For a complete itinerary, dates and list of target birds click here.

Here are soe pictures taken by birder Bob Shade on one previous trip:

Male Barrow’s Goldeneye on Hood Canal.

Black Turnstone on the rocks at Seaside, Oregon.

Pair of Harlequin Ducks just off the ferry dock at Keystone Harbor on Whidbey Island, WA.  This photo by tour leader, Harry Fuller.

A Pacific Wren in brush at Fort Lewis, OR, near the mouth of the Columbia River.  And a Surfbird with its gray back on the same stretch of beach as the turnstones.

A bunch of Brant watching a bunch of birders near Hama Hama, WA.

Other birds we see on this trip include: Red-throated and Pacific Loons, Black Oystercatcher, Long-tailed Duck, Pigeon Guillemot and Rhino Auklet, Glaucous-winged and Western Gulls, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Anna’s Hummingbird.  We will also visit Ft. Clatsop where Lewis & Clark spent the winter 1804-5 and a Native American cultural center for the S’Kallam Tribe.

Here’s a link to blogs done during last year’s trip.

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.

SEABIRDS IN THE RAIN FOREST, GALLERY PART 2

More pictures from the birders on our 2010 winter trips to the Pacific Northwest.  HERE YOU CAN FIND OUT ABOUT OUR TRIP IN 2011.

PHOTOS, TOP TO BOTTOM:

Brant loafing along the shore of Hood Canal, Washington State.  Photo by Steve Murray.

Male White-winged Scoter, Hood Canal.  By Steve Murray.

Harlequin couple on the rocks along Hood Canal.  Photo by Jeannie Mitchell.

Male Olds… Long-tailed Duck cruising the yacht harbor at Sequim, Washington.  Photo by Ms Mitchell.

A Glaucous-winged Gull struggles to get up enough speed to show its disapprobation of an adult Bald Eagle.  The eagle seemed to be carrying a Coot  in its talons.  This action shot by Ms Jeannie Mitchell.

Red-tailed Hawk dining on fresh rodent, Sauvie’s Island, Oregon.  Photo by Ms Mitchell.

Trumpeter Swans in flight, Sauvie’s Island, Oregon.  Photo by Ms Mitchell.

Whidbey Island beach, photo by Jennifer Hyypio.  Here we saw a large flock of Black Oystercatchers.  A flotilla of Harlequins, several species of loon and grebe fished offshore and a Pacific (nee “Winter’) Wren came down to insect-hunt in the driftwood.

SEABIRDS IN THE RAIN FOREST

The continental United States has only one rain forest.  It stretches along the spectacular Oregon and Washington State coastline.  The evergreens reach two hundred feet into the skies, often disappearing in the low-lying clouds.  The Pacific and Puget Sound shoulder up to a rocky coastline with scattered bits of sandy beach.  The cold, wave-churned waters are rich in critters from plankton to Orcas.  And here the seabirds pull out onto huge floating logs carried down from the forest just uphill from the water’s edge.

Last year PIB had two winter birding trips to the Northwest Coast for those wintering birds down from the Arctic.  Here are a few of the photos taken by birders on those trips.  Take a look, because we are once again offering this great photo safari into the great American Northwest:

TOP TO BOTTOM:

Northern Shrike at Nisqually NWR, Washington.  Photo by Ms Jennifer Hyypio.

Harlequins off the shore of Whidbey Island.  Photo by Steve  Murray.

Pelagic Cormorant and Glaucous-winged Gull pole sitting.  Photo by Ms J. Hyypio.

Gang of Bald Eagles patrolling the edge of a marsh at Nisqually.  Photo by Ms Hyypio.

Red-throated Loon in Hood Canal.  By Mr. Murray.

Rhino Auklet over Puget Sound.  By Steve Murray.

Surfbird along Oregon Coast.  You’ll wait a long time before this species shows up in Colorado.  Photo by Steve Murray.

HERE’S LINK TO OUR 2011 NORTHWEST TRIP SCHEDULE.

More great shots from birder Steve Murray

Top to bottom:

Black Turnstones on the ferryboat dock, Port Townsend, WA.

Bald Eagles over Nisqually NWR.

Horned Grebe on Hood Canal along the Olympic Peninsula, WA.

Red-winged Blackbird walks on shells, oyster shells.  Hood Canal.

Steve Murray: More Fine Northwestern Images

Top to Bottom:  Mule deer buc watching the watchers.

Red-breasted Merganser.

White-winged Scoter male on Hood Canal where they were often within thirty yards of shore.

Lincoln’s Sparrow in the marsh at Crockett Lake on central shoreline of Whidbey Island, across the road from  the Keystone Ferry Terminal.

Marsh Wren at Nisqually NWR.

Steve Murray’s Focus on Northwestern Birds

TOP TO BOTTOM:

The only Pied-billed Grebe we saw on this trip.  There were dozens of Red-necked and Horned Grebe plus a few Western and Eared.

Thayer’s Gull

river otters

Eurasian Wigeon male at Nisqually NWR.

Dusky Canada Geese, Sauvie Island

Some Northwest Trip Pictures From Bob Shade

Top to bottom:  Sunrise that first dawn just outside Astoria.

Barrow’s Goldeneye on Hood Canal.

Black Turnstone on the bouldery beach at Seaside, Oregon.  Just after taking this picture, Bob Shade took a tumble among the jumble of rocks.  He and his camera survived, shaken but unstirred.

Winter Wren in the woods.

Birders on the rainy sand at Cannon Beach, scoping Haystack Rock.  We later found Harlequins here but never located the Black Oystercatcher.

Birders all in a row.

All birds seen on February, 2010, Northwest Trip.

PIB Northwest Birding Trip, Feb., 2010—Birds Seen:

Greater White-fronted Goose, Sauvie Is.
Snow Goose
Ross’s Goose, Sauvie Island
Brant
Cackling Goose,   Canada Goose,    Trumpeter Swans  on Whidbey Island                                                                                          
Tundra Swan
Wood Duck
Gadwall
Eurasian Wigeon
Am. Wigeon
Mallard
Shoveler
Pintail
GW Teal
Ring-necked Duck
Greater Scaup
Lesser Scaup
Harlequin Duck
Surf Scoter
White-winged Scoter
Black Scoter, Cannon Beach, OR
Long-tailed Duck
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Barrow’s Goldeneye
Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Red-throated Loon
Pacific Loon
Common Loon
(we could not locate the YB Loon at Point Wilson)
Pied-billed Grebe
Horned Grebe                                                                                      
Red-necked Grebe
Eared Grebe
Western Grebe
Brown Pelican (three off the Oregon Coast)

Brandt’s Cormorant, Whidbey Island

Pelagic Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret, Sauvie Island
Bald Eagle–seen each day
Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper’s Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk, Ft. Clatsop
Red-tailed hawk
Rough-legged Hawk, Sauvie Is.
Kestrel
Merlin
Peregrine
Coot
Sandhill Crane, Sauvie Island
Black-bellied Plover
Killdeer, Potlatch State Park
Black Turnstone
Surfbird
Sanderling
Dunlin
Mew Gull
Ring-billed Gull
California Gull
Herring Gull
Thayer’s Gull
Western Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Common Murre
Pigeon Guillemot
Marbled Murrelet
Cassin’s Auklet
Rhino Auklet
Rock Pigeon
Band-tailed Pigeon, Whidbey Island
Eurasian Collared-dove
Mourning Dove
Great Horned Owl, Sauvie Island
Anna’s Hummingbird, Sequim
Belted Kingfisher
Red-breasted Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker, Tolmie State Park
Steller’s Jay
Western Scrub-Jay
American Crow
Northwestern Crow or AmericanXNorthwestern
Common Raven
Black-capped Chickadee
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Bushtit
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper, Sequim
Bewick’s Wren
Winter Wren
Marsh Wren,
GC Kinglet
RC Kinglet
Am. Robin
Varied Thrush, seen  in numbers at Fort Stevens Park
Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler, Sauvie Is.
Spotted Towhee
Fox Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln’s Sparrow, Whidbey Island
White-crowned Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
DE Junco
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Brewer’s Blackbird
House Finch
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Total species:  120                                                              Can you find the Winter Wren?

Our mammals included: harbor seal, California sealion, mule deer, white-tailed deer(on January trip), river otter, orca, eastern gray squirrel, coyote, western gray squirrel, harbor porpoises off Seaside, elk, muskrat, surfers.   Cold-blooded animals included: steelhead on

the surface of Coffeeberry Lake; red-legged frog, ring-necked snake, a newt.

Northwest Birding Pictures From the Watsons

Joe and Betty Watson from Contra Costa County, CA, were on the February trip to the Northwest.  Here are some of the great images they captured.  As much poetry as a birding trip can stand.

Ferryboat taking a test run at dawn, Port Townsend.  Here we saw Pelagic Cormorant, Surfbirds, Black Turnstones, Pigeon Guillemots at close range, Red-necked Grebe, Surf Scoters, Northwest Crows, Glaucous-winged Gulls, harbor seals and two mule deer walking down the sidewalk.

A truly Northwestern experience, birding on a ferryboat.

You might call this next photo, “Birders Adrift.”  It was taken on Penn Cove, Whidbey Island.

AND THERE WERE ALSO SOME BIRDS

Three Eagles along the Nisqually River, in Nisqually NWR.

The locals refer to the genetic admixture of gullness as “Olympic Gull,” a large hybrid of many mixed generations of Glaucous-winged and Western.  Those specks offshore are scoters (Surf and White-winged), Common Goldeneyes,  Common Loons, Red-breasted Mergansers, Bufflehead, Greater Scaup, Horned Grebes and probably some Mew Gulls riding high in the water.  This was taken along Hood Canal at Dosewallips State Park.