07/02/2021   Southbound Shorebirds  (link to here)
In the Western Washington birding world, the southbound shorebird migration kicks off the second half of the year and the first uncommon shorebird to show up is usually a Semipalmated Sandpiper. Presumably named for the vestige of webbing between its toes +, the Semipalmated is a close cousin of our common Western Sandpiper from which it is distinguished not by the webbing, which is shared by the Western +, but by its short, straight and relatively stout-tipped bill and in breeding plumage by the limited streaking on the breast and the absence of orange on the cap and shoulders.
A few Semipalmated Sandpipers were spotted this spring on their way north but I failed to recognize the one, that we saw on the beach at Westport. The first southbound migrants showed up on 1 July in several places in Western Washington including the Point Ruston Marina in Tacoma. Fortunately they stuck around until we could get out there 36 hours later. I could not remember from our last visit several years ago whether or not the site would be accessible by wheelchair. It was, though relying on the eBird reports we at first went to the Dune Peninsula Park where the bird was not. Upon Darchelle's insistence I called Wayne S who quickly got us straightened out. From my wheelchair I was able to see the birds in flight but Darchelle got some great photos of the shorebirds together. Both the Least and the Western Sandpipers are also southbound migrants in breeding plumage; the Killdeer are local residents. One odd thing is how large the Least Sandpipers look relative to the other two supposedly-larger peeps. Another odd thing is how much eclipse-plumage Mallards resemble Black Ducks.

07/06/2021   Claire and the kids  (link to here)
Claire had a seminar in Seattle on Wednesday so she rented an AirB&B and brought her nanny and the kids so we could visit for a couple of days. Tuesday evening we had a combined birthday party for Jake and Luke, and maybe Judah and Isaac as well, I can't remember. We sang Happy Birthday multiple times and went around the circle for each person stating what it was about them that we were grateful for.
On Thursday we drove down to Northwest Trek and walked around the paved trail to see the animals. Most of them were hiding but we did see the bears and a Lynx. We also did the auto tour, in two cars because there were too many of us to fit in one car, and saw the Buffalo and a group of Roosevelt Elk, or at least their antlers. I also spotted a Woodland Caribou above us on a wooded hillside but I don't think anyone else got on it. Jake and Judah rode with us and had a bit of meltdown during the drive but I don't think their screams disturbed the animals. Afterwards we hung out near the play area and ate ice cream; the kids enjoyed climbing the logs and rope ladders.
All in all it was a good visit.

07/14/2021   Big Four  (link to here)
We were supposed to do a boat trip out to Smith Island to see puffins today with Andy and Ellen and Ed and Delia. The tour, operated by San Juan Cruises, was to have left La Conner at 10AM so we had booked overnight accommodations in town and were having dinner together at a local Mexican restaurant when we found out that the cruise was canceled due to mechanical problems. Darchelle immediately tried to locate someone else who could take us out on short notice but the best she could do was a trip on Friday afternoon for six people with Ken of Spirit of Orca Whale-watching Tours +, someone Maxine had used last year.
Meanwhile we had a day to kill so I suggested looking for Black Swifts up at Big Four Ice Caves. The trail to the ice caves is closed due to a washed-out bridge but in the past I've seen Swifts from the boardwalk, which I could negotiate in my wheelchair. Moreover an American Redstart was reputed to be nesting behind the restroom. The weather was encouraging as well, a fairly low overcast which tends to encourage the swifts to forage in the valleys rather than flying around the mountain tops.
By the time we reached the trailhead parking lot the sky had cleared, not so good for finding swifts, so we strolled out onto the boardwalk and then on around the loop trail, keeping an eye skyward while tallying the local birds +. We heard the Redstart but could not find the nest. No Black Swifts either, so we stood around the parking lot for a while and as luck would have it, one briefly joined the small crowd of swallows and Vaux's Swifts coursing over the treetops. As luck would have it, Andy and Ed were the only ones who saw it. We lingered longer with Ed and Delia and were rewarded with good views of the Redstart but the Black Swift did not reappear.
During the drive up the Mountain Loop Highway I was amazed to see the extent of the damage to conifers both young and old caused by the heat wave last month. Much of the foliage on the south side of the trees up to a thousand feet above the valley floor had turned orange. Closer inspection revealed that it was the mature needles which had been killed; this year's growth was mostly unaffected. We did not see that kind of damage in our neighborhood, where the temperature reached at least 105F, so temperatures in the mountain valleys must have been in the neighborhood of 110F. I doubt that has ever happened before.
On the way home Darchelle and I continued around the Mountain Loop Highway to Darrington. A mile or so southeast of town I recognized Clear Creek as a stream I had walked up some 40 years ago and had wanted to revisit ever since. Somewhere along the stream bank I had found what I thought at the time was a vein of Asbestos and I had always intended to return and check it out. Too late now.

07/15/2021   ALS clinic  (link to here)
At the ALS clinic today my breathing function as measured by FVC and MIP was actually slightly better than it was three months ago. At 16% of normal though, it is barely adequate for everyday use. About a month ago during our outing to the Blue Mountains, I managed for nine hours without the ventilator but at this point two or three hours is more typical. The doctors did provide some helpful advice regarding constipation, reassuring me that the problem, even if chronic, can be solved. Afterwards we ate lunch at Plum Bistro + where the food was better than I remembered. Delicious, actually.

07/17/2021   Puffins at last  (link to here)
Smith Island + is a flattened and eroded mound of glacier-compacted gravel at the east end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca about 5 miles off the northwest side of Whidbey Island, 6 miles south of the south end of Lopez Island and not on the way to anywhere. Lots of Double-crested Cormorants, Glaucous-winged Gulls and Rhinoceros Auklets nest there. A few Tufted Puffins nest there as well, and possibly even Horned Puffins; not normally seen south of Alaska, one or two of the latter were reported on several occasions last month. We hoped to see both and improbably, we did. Here is a link to our checklist l+.
Aboard Chris Long's fishing boat the "Jolly Mon" + we motored out of the Cap Sante Marina in Anacortes shortly before 4PM on a sunny Saturday afternoon. It was our fourth attempt to charter a boat to go look for puffins around Smith Island. Were it not for Darchelle's persistence we never would have made it but we did and exactly an hour after leaving port we pulled up next to a Tufted Puffin on the deep blue waters just north of the island.
The bird, splashing and stretching on the surface, seemed little concerned by our close approach though getting sharp photos was still a challenge given that both the boat and the bird were constantly shifting position on the waves. I had never been so close to one before and was delighted that Darchelle was able to capture the memory. We saw several more during the course of our circuit around the island + but none as close as that first one.
The beds of Bull Kelp around Smith Island are the most extensive of any in the Sound. The birds seemed to prefer the kelp over the surrounding open water. Gulls, both resident Glaucous-winged and visiting Heerman's, were roosting on the floating stems and small groups of Rhinos along with scattered individual puffins were foraging in the beds. Unlike the birds Chris, concerned about entangling his prop, preferred to stay in the open water but ventured close to and even into the kelp on occasion to give us better views of birds. We appreciated both his caution and his accommodation.
We estimated that the island hosted between one and two thousand gulls, mostly Glaucous-winged and Heerman's, but we saw most of them only at a distance, wheeling above the beaches when flushed by one of the more than a dozen Bald Eagles scattered along the shoreline. After rounding the kelp beds northwest on the island, we were able to motor up to a flock of 50 or 100 gulls feeding in a tight scrum on something just under the surface, perhaps Sand Lance, Chris speculated. We watched the gulls diving repeatedly into the water but never saw them come up with anything.
Westerly swells sweeping down the Strait of Juan de Fuca have been chewing away at Smith Island since the retreat of the continental glacier 10,000 years ago leaving a high bluff all along the west shore. Even in historical times the island has lost a significant amount of real estate; a lighthouse built 200 feet from the edge of the bluff back in 1858 finished collapsing into the sea in 1989. Here is a link to a blog with photos + and a bit of the history of the island; here is a link to a brief history + of the lighthouse; here is a link to a more extensive article + about the lighthouse and its keepers and here is a link to an account + of life on the island in the late 40s. I don't know when the last human inhabitant left but it was probably at least 40 years ago. Birds and pinnipeds have re-colonized the island in our absence.
We motored around the long gravel spit of Minor Island with its basking seals, breeding cormorants and battered navigational aids, including a large block of concrete sitting cockeyed on the beach. That was the Minor Island Beacon Light + constructed by the U S Lighthouse Service in 1935, per the article in Lighthouse Digest +. The lighthouse keepers on Smith Island were responsible for keeping the light in that lighthouse operating and at least one, Edwin Clements, lost his life in December 1939 attempting to do that.
As we were wrapping up our circuit of the island Andy spotted something white in the water off the northeast shore. He thought it might be our Horned Puffin so Chris turned into the kelp to try to get closer. Darchelle got on the bird and got one photo before it went down and we lost it. When it came up again we were too close to it and we each had only a brief view before it flushed. I observed the white head and white breast of a puffin-sized bird, then saw the dark upperparts as it flew off to the west. Only Darchelle got photos and they were blurred but good enough to verify that we had indeed seen a Horned Puffin. For a little better view, here's a photo taken by Maxine Reid of the same bird in the same area 10 days later.

07/21/2021   Wheelchair Ramp  (link to here)
Back at the end of January we started looking into options for getting in and out of the house when I could no longer walk up and down stairs even with assistance. After playing tag for a month and a half with a local handyman we started looking further afield but not until I could no longer make it up the front steps without both Darchelle and Monica helping me did we really get serious about it. We asked Ed and Delia if they knew anyone and they asked their friend Betty who asked her friend John Swann who is semi-retired but has been helping out Chris Stokely of Sound Built Remodels + who was just wrapping up a job and was willing to consider taking on something as small as a wheelchair ramp.
We knew what we wanted. I had spent a number of sleepless hours in bed back when we were still upstairs figuring out whether or not we should do a wheelchair ramp, and if so where, and how long and wide it would have to be, and how to build it, and how many 4x4 posts and 2x6 stringers and sheets of plywood we would need. We wouldn't have room for an ADA-compliant slope on the ramp so I verified with our wheelchair salesman that a 1.8 inch per foot rise would work instead of the ADA-specified 1 inch per foot. He said no problem.
Had it been up to me to build it, and if I had been able to I would have, the structure I would have come up with would be neither as strong nor as attractive as what Chris and John built for us but I still think it would have worked, for a few years anyway. They built the ramp to my specifications but of course with their professional knowledge and skills. Or rather, they are building it, because while it is navigable, it is not finished but they promise we will have a ramp by the time we get back from New Hampshire.

07/22/2021   First Wheelchair Flight  (link to here)
It was with considerable apprehension that I anticipated our first flight post-wheelchair, and incidentally, post-COVID, or more accurately, mid-COVID. Would we check the wheelchair at the ticket counter or at the gate? Would it survive the baggage hold intact? Would we have to disassemble it first? If so, we would be in trouble because disassembly requires two 5 mm hex wrenches and we had only purchased one. Alaska made it easy. We had lots of help at every step and no disassembly was required. Marco dropped us off at the curb; the friendly person at the wheelchair counter lined up somebody to wheel me to the gate and two sturdy guys strapped me in a skinny little chair and escorted me down the aisle of the plane to our seats.
The plane was nice and new but the flight uncomfortable nonetheless, in part because seats nowadays do not recline enough for me to hold my head up. It was a long short night but Ali met us at baggage claim and drove us to Jackson with a stop for lunch at Frontside Coffee Roasters +. It could not have been easier, other than the actual flight.

07/23/2021   New Hampshire  (link to here)
We spent two full weeks in New Hampshire. The place looked pretty much the same as I remembered indoors and out but things were different. John was diagnosed with salivary gland cancer two months ago after an earlier diagnosis of lymphoma which failed to respond to treatment with a month of chemotherapy. The tumor has paralyzed the left side of his face and causes him considerable and nearly continuous pain for which he is taking morphine. Although he tries to maintain his normal schedule of activities - reading the newspapers, fixing breakfast or lunch, getting out for an afternoon walk - age and illness make it difficult. The morphine affects his vision and balance so he grabs onto furniture for support in the house and uses a cane outdoors. He doesn't talk much anymore and dozes off in his chair while the rest of us talk around him. I found it disturbing to see him in pain and so frail, but also recognized myself to some extent in his withdrawal and isolation. We are both coping with difficult physical challenges and expecting to die soon, but we didn't talk about it much.
Because I can't get upstairs to our bedroom at the house, Eric's friend Rick graciously offered us his home to use during his stay. He even had a wheelchair ramp built up to the front door for us. He lives in the house that Eric owned and occupied (and arguably neglected) for 25 years, but he has made considerable progress in fixing it up both inside and out. The new hardwood floors, as yet unfinished, made wheeling around the house easy for me and his bed was very comfortable for us. The bathtub worked for me as well though we didn't avail ourselves of it as often as we might have.
In the morning I would sit in front of the big picture window in his living room and watch the birds visiting his feeders while Darchelle fixed coffee. We neither arose early nor moved quickly so we often did not leave the house until late morning. Rick had mentioned that a little bear would drop by the backyard from time to time and so it did, on two occasions that we know of. We thought it looked depressed.
Rick himself dropped by from time to time as well. On our first morning he came by to see how we were doing and talk a bit about Mom and John. He checks in on them daily, delivering John's Boston Globe and making sure that they are okay.
That first morning Rick came down with us to the house in his white pickup truck. We were going to have him help Darchelle get me up the steps to the front porch but he pulled a lawnmower ramp and a couple of pieces of plywood out of the back of his truck and assembled a makeshift ramp for us. It wasn't elegant but it did the trick and Darchelle was able to wheel me in and out of the house without assistance for the rest of our stay.
The weather was unseasonably cool for most of our visit, too cool to sit comfortably outside so I spent much of the first week sitting in my wheelchair in the PT room while John read the paper or snoozed and Mom either read or worked on one of her projects. I don't have a good way to read in my wheelchair so I mostly looked out the window. By the 2nd week I was tired of that so I hung out more on the porch where I could at least listen for birds.
It wasn't all sitting around. We got out for at least short walks on most days, sometimes just in the immediate vicinity of the house and sometimes up on Moody Farm Road between Burgess's and Black Mountain. That section is flat enough for Mom and John and for the wheelchair so we would drive up to the top of the hill and walk from there in one direction or the other.
The goal of our stroll was often a flower garden. Terry maintains Mom's gardens and helps Rick check up on Mom and John as well. I could not tour Mom's gardens but Darchelle did. After a dry spring the summer has been well-watered; the grass is green and the gardens are colorful. Although in Jackson the woodlots are thriving, from Glen south to Ossipee the trees have almost all been defoliated and are now just putting out new leaves. Spring in July.
We did have good conversations on several occasions, and John and I even mixed it up over politics once. If we did not have as many significant conversations as we would have liked it is probably because we had a hard time getting started, not being accustomed to talking about the feelings engendered by the challenges we face. John and I talked about finances, and also about his options as his health declines further, and with Mom I shared something about my experience of decline and disability. I think she appreciated the confidence. We never talked about what it's like for her to push her older son in a wheelchair, knowing that she may soon lose him just as she lost her younger son a few years ago. Nor did David and I talked about what it's like for him to push his dying father in a wheelchair.
We had barely just began our visit when we spotted our first bear, or maybe our first two. Our first sighting was along the brook below the bridge; our second, 15 minutes later, was between the cabin and Mom's vegetable garden. We would go on to see at least one bear on more than half of the days we were there. The bear in the picture stopped by two days in a row to eat blueberries across the street. David got some of them too.
We ate well. Roger fixed two delicious meals, maybe three. His rice was particularly good. Kirsten and Rowan drove up from New York City and a fixed a Mexican menu for us. Kirsten made a perfectly seasoned Mole and Rowan made tortillas from scratch to go with it. We ate out once too, our first time since the pandemic, on the porch at the Eagle Mountain House with friends from Marblehead. Ali stayed an extra night and drove us back to the airport.

08/07/2021   Orcas Island  (link to here)
Due to our New Hampshire trip, we were only able to join Darchelle's family for the last weekend of their stay on Orcas Island. As usual we all stayed at the Ruisma's lovely home in the woods. It was not as easy as last year. The sloping stone path to their front door was scary steep though we negotiated it without incident. The king bed in the master suite where we usually sleep was almost too tall for me to get into. Covid was also a concern as neither Ben nor Sally have been vaccinated but we decided the risk was relatively low because Ben apparently had it several months ago and the kids all had it back in early July and Sally, who gets tested regularly for work, still hasn't caught it.
Darchelle and I joined everyone on several outings including a visit to the top of Mount Constitution where Ben pushed me up the steep paved trail to the overlook and Darchelle and the kids scoped for puffins out in the strait. No puffins, nor did any Black Swifts happen by. Darchelle and Sally bought matching sweatshirts at the new gift shop. No one got ice cream; the food truck which used to sell Lopez Island ice cream at the edge of the parking lot has apparently moved down to Cascade Lake. We did not make it to Cascade Lake for supper this year but Ben and Sally and the kids did get out to explore the tide pools around the little island just off the beach in Eastsound.
On Sunday afternoon we nabbed a table at Eastsound Village Green Park for a late lunch. As Darchelle was wheeling me past one of the other tables, a little boy around 6 years old noticed us and shouted out, "That guy's dead."
"Not quite yet he isn't!", I called back over my shoulder.
By the time we reached our table, the boy's parents were earnestly talking with him. Noticing their concern, Sally settled the kids then went over to their table. I couldn't hear their conversation but when she returned, Sally reported that the woman had protested, "I try so hard to teach them to be courteous and civil". Sally responded that with five kids of her own she understood and that we took no offense but when she explained that I had ALS, the woman began to cry. Her own mother had died of ALS not long ago.
The kid's observation made sense given that he had recently watched his grandmother progress from walking independently to leaning on a walker to sitting in a wheelchair to lying in a coffin.
After lunch Ben, who had flown his plane over from Walla Walla, offered to take Darchelle for a ride and she was delighted to accept. About a half-hour later a plane waved its wings at us as it climbed overhead from the nearby airport. They flew as far afield as Roche Harbor on San Juan Island but Darchelle was so absorbed in the experience that she forgot to take any photos.

08/12/2021   Sharp-tailed Sandpiper  (link to here)
Back on 31 July while we were in New Hampshire, Maxine Reid found a rare adult Sharp-tailed Sandpiper at Lind Coulee + south of Moses Lake. Even though the bird had not been reported since the 9th, we decided to go chase it. The forecast was not auspicious - haze, smoke and temperatures over 100F. We went anyway. The car thermometer read 104F in Moses Lake but only 99F down at Lind Coulee when we arrived around 5PM. Not much smoke either, visibility at least several miles.
We parked at the foot of the boat ramp and completely obstructed it but figured that wouldn't matter because 50 yards of mud and weeds separated the boat ramp from the navigable waterway. Reports indicated that the bird's location a couple of hundred yards west of the ramp could be reached by a rough trail along the edge of the mud flats. Darchelle found the trail, but not the bird, while I waited in the car, entertained from time to time by Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs foraging in the mud in front of me.
Per Andy and Ellen's suggestion we tried another vantage point, the easternmost fishing access road on the south side of the coulee west of Road M. From there we can see lots of little ducks and even littler shorebirds out on the mud flats, but no Sharp tailed. Seeking a better view, Darchelle carried the scope up the bluff 100 feet or so from the car and from there, spotted a promising bird to the east, back towards the boat launch. It was clearly the right size and shape and seemed to be more spotted or streaked underneath than the similar Pectoral Sandpipers so she took some very distant photos When she brought the scope back to the car, I was not sufficiently convinced to bother to try to look through it. Instead she stood me up by the door of the car and I looked out over the mudflats where as she recalls, I was able to see little pale dots of distant shorebirds. Presumably the Sharp-tailed was among them.
Seeking a closer view of our possible target, we returned to the boat launch where Darchelle ventured out again. She took lots of photos in the fading light but did not relocate the suspected Sharp-tailed. We left uncertain as to whether or not we had seen it so did not bother to do a checklist but we did decide to try again in the morning. Passing up the more reputable chains near the highway, we pulled into the Sage N Sand Motel where we spent a comfortable if not memorable night. The big neon sign out front said "OTEL" but we knew what they meant and they had a room which did not require a step up to get inside.
The next day we recruited Andy and Ellen to help us (they offered) and although we were still unable to locate the Sharp-tailed, they and Steve Giles did find us a Stilt Sandpiper over at Perch Point. New for the year for us though not unexpected; Andy told us that they tend to show up around 10 August. On the way home, driving south on Road M past Lind Coulee again, we noticed a couple of birders walking up the boat ramp. Had we stopped to inquire of them, we would have learned that they had just seen the Sharp-tailed. They were the last people to see it. A couple of weeks later we concluded that we were the second-to-last people to see it, having after some deliberation decided to count it after all. The local Pectorals lacked the bright white eyebrow and showed a sharp demarcation between the streaked breast and unstreaked belly. On the Sharp-tailed Darchelle noted both features through the scope and they are at least suggested in her photo. The size and shape of the bird ruled out other species. Some might complain that I am lowering my standards for what I count and don't count and I would have to concede that they have a point, but most birders would also acknowledge, "It's your list."

08/15/2021   Chasing birds  (link to here)
Yesterday our target was the Bar-tailed Godwit at the Westport Marina. Today we went for the Pacific Golden Plover at Bos Lake on Whidbey Island. We were successful in both pursuits but I did not find either one particularly satisfying. I had only the briefest of glimpses of the birds and we did not succeed in getting any good photos. Ed and Delia joined us for both adventures; it was nice to visit with them and helpful to have their eyes and opinions as we sought the birds.
In Westport we found two Bar-tailed Godwits roosting with the Marbled Godwits in their traditional location at the south end of the marina. One was gray, probably an adult in winter plumage, and the other still in faded summer plumage, rusty-brown below and brown above, not unlike the Marbled Godwits except for its smaller size and bolder white stripe over the eye.
Fog drifted in over Bos Lake soon after we arrived and we had to wait for it clear before we could definitively identify the Golden Plover. Eventually though it flushed and flew over us calling. Sitting in the car, I heard it but not well enough to distinguish it from an American Golden Plover. Steve Giles, birding next to us, identified the call and it was confirmed by photos from other birders.

08/18/2021   Happy birthday B!  (link to here)
Julia, Bridget and Moriah paid us a visit and Monica gave me a massage.

08/21/2021   Two Hours in Spokane  (link to here)
A rare Hudsonian Godwit was discovered at a marsh east of Spokane a week ago so when it was reported again this morning we decided to chase it. Darchelle was already eager to go; I had been reluctant but changed my mind this morning for no particular reason. I verified that I had an audiobook to listen to on my phone and Darchelle downloaded a series of lectures for a continuing education class which she had not yet listened to and at 1:03PM we pulled out of the driveway. At 5:45PM we arrived at our destination, the Saltese Church Pond, a decent-sized pond with a rocky mud spit extending part way across it and lots of tall marsh grass around it. A gated gravel road led from a parking area about 1/4 mile out to the pond so we rigged up my chair and wheeled on out there with camera and scope and high hopes.
We found the bird but not without mishap. I had to pee so Darchelle stood me up in front of the chair and pulled down my pants. I peed then lost my balance and fell forward onto my knees and then sat back on my butt with my feet splayed out to either side. My shriveled muscles do not tolerate that kind of flexion and I cried out in pain until Darchelle was able to grab me around the waist and lift me back onto my knees and then up into the chair again. The pain in the back of my knees gradually subsided over the next few minutes. When a couple of hours later I had to pee again, I had regained enough strength to stand. But not to remain standing, and I fell forward again onto one knee but this time Darchelle was able to grab me so that only my right knee buckled. Fuck, that hurt! It took about a week for my right leg to recover.
Darchelle got the bird in the scope then held me up while I looked at it. Definitely a Hudsonian, probing almost nonstop in the mud along with a Dowitcher buddy. She went off to try for pictures. Generally it's a bad sign when she does not return fairly promptly, so when she did not get back until just before sunset, I figured she had not had much success. Not that I cared at that point; I was cold and had to pee and just wanted to go home. And then I fell the second time.
But we got the bird and had an uneventful trip home, arriving just shy of 12 hours after we'd left.

08/28/2021   American Golden Plover, #325  (link to here)
We visited Hayton Reserve on Fir Island in the Skagit River Delta four times (18th, 20th, 25th and today) in the past two weeks and saw Golden Plovers three of those times but concluded on the first two visits that the bird we saw was a Pacific, not an American. The third time we saw no Golden Plovers at all. Finally today, after failing to find an American Golden Plover up in Blaine (which was photographed yesterday and reported as a Pacific on eBird), we decided that the plover we saw and heard this evening at Hayton was an American Golden Plover. No photos, and I never even laid eyes on it except as it flew overhead, so not the most definitive of identifications, but if the bird we saw and heard on our first visit was a Pacific, then this was probably an American. And vice versa, so one way or another, I believe we have seen both species. And did I mention, it's my list?
Ironically I could've saved us a lot of trouble if I hadn't succeeded in convincing my fellow birders on our first visit that the Golden Plover we saw and heard that day was not an American, but a Pacific. The others were ready to call it an American. My views through the scope were inconclusive; at one point I thought it had the long primary extension of an American, but then another time it seemed to have the shorter primaries of a Pacific. It was the call, which I transliterated as "chuweeet", which convinced me that it was a Pacific but after I went home and listened to more calls on xeno-canto, I was less sure of myself. Other sightings within a day or two were not helpful; both species were reported but most reports lacked convincing documentation.
Today Darchelle found one or two birds through the scope which she was certain were Golden Plovers but they kept moving so I was never able to get a look at them. Twice though, plovers flew over making "ko-leek" calls which seemed sharper and more rapid than the calls of the plover I called a Pacific. But who knows? The authorities at eBird have not yet confirmed any of the Golden Plover sightings from Hayton except Andy's American, despite his description being no more convincing than some of the others.
Note: As of 7 September, our Pacific Golden Plover report from Hayden on the 20th was approved, though not those from the 18th. That feels appropriate since I had a good look at the bird on the 20th and it clearly had long tertials relative to the primaries.
On the plus side, we finally got a Black Swift for Darchelle. One flew right over us while we were standing on the dike at Hayton on the 20th looking for plovers. Perfect day for them, cloudy in the mountains and overcast in the lowlands with the ceiling around 3000 feet, but given that even in the best of conditions a few swifts are distributed over a large area of lowlands, I was not expecting to see one. I am delighted that we did see one though since they are only around for another couple of weeks and Darchelle really wanted to get it for the year.

09/02/2021   Grayland Beach  (link to here)
The pelagic trip is tomorrow. We need to get settled into our motel early enough to get a decent night's sleep. I need to poop this morning because I won't be able to tomorrow. I need to stop drinking fluids well before bedtime forgo coffee in the morning so as to avoid any chance of having to pee during the 9 hours we'll be on board the boat. I don't know how we will get down the ramp to the float because the tide will be low and the ramp steep. I don't know how I will get into the boat either, or how we will stabilize the wheelchair. I found enough to worry about that I almost didn't care whether or not the trip was canceled. It wasn't.
Driving the beach north and south from Grayland State Park provided a welcome distraction from my concerns about the trip. We did not have much chance of finding a new bird for the year on the beach. About the only possibility would have been a Buff-breasted Sandpiper but the time for them to show up is mostly passed and none have been reported. Nonetheless you never know what you'll find on the beach. Today we found a dancing Sanderling, a line of Caspian Terns and a handful of the usually elusive Snowy Plovers. We also came across a mixed congregation of Ravens, Crows, Turkey Vultures and Western Gulls attending several Albacore Tuna carcasses. The vultures got first dibs; the ravens tried to steal a bite here and there without getting noticed while the gulls ate leftovers and the crows stood around and watched.
We shared four rooms at the Pacific Motel and RV Park + with Ed and Delia, Andy and Ellen and Mary for both the night before and the night after the trip. Our room was comfortable and accessible; we would stay there again. Andy and Ellen had the suite so that's where we all ate dinner together both nights - Ellen's pasta with homemade pesto the first night and takeout from Bennett's Fish Shack + the second night. We shared breakfast together the morning after the trip as well.

09/03/2021   Pelagic magic  (link to here)
The forecast the night before was auspicious - 1 foot swell, partly cloudy, light NW breeze. The weather in the morning, not so much; fog limited the visibility to about 1/4 mile for the first half of the trip and the swells were running about 4 feet. Activity was very slow except at a shrimp boat where a large flock of shearwaters had gathered, including several rare Flesh-footed and several hundred unusual Short-tailed among the thousands of Pink-footed. Otherwise we saw few birds for the first 5 hours even when we found the Wyoming, a longliner out of Aberdeen about 30 miles offshore. Apparently seabirds rely on sight to locate fishing boats so in the fog, they can't find them. At our chum stop over Grays Canyon about 35 miles out, we were unable to summon a single bird other than a subadult Long-tailed Jaeger; not that I'm complaining - Long-tailed Jaeger was one of the birds I was most hoping to see. Unfortunately I did not get on it until it was some distance away and we did not get any photos.
The large number of Short-tailed Shearwaters offered a great opportunity to practice distinguishing the species from the very similar Sooty Shearwater. I found that both in flight and on the water the shorter and thinner bill of the Short-tailed was the most helpful field mark but even so, I could not always tell them apart.
When we turned around and started back to port Darchelle and I had ten new species for the year, the number I had counted on, though I had hoped for as many as 15. That was starting to look like it might be out of reach, then the fog cleared. We added two more in short order. Shep spotted a South Polar Skua at the same time as I saw Parasitic Jaeger fly over the boat, though at the time the jaeger appeared to me to be heavy in flight, like a Pomarine. Fortunately it showed up again a minute later and other people confirmed the identification of our third jaeger for the day.
Soon afterwards we came across the shrimp trawler again, this time trailing an even larger flock of birds than before, perhaps 4000 in total. As we trolled through the shearwater flock looking for a Buller's, Bill Tweit spotted a Pomarine Jaeger coming up behind us. Darchelle pivoted me in my chair and I saw my fourth jaeger of the day, giving me my first Skua slam since 2015. The Buller's Shearwater which the spotters picked out of the flock a few minutes later was our last new year bird of the day, number 339.
Ed labeled the day the Magic Pelagic but for me the trip was bittersweet. I loved being out on the water again and I really enjoy the challenge of spotting and identifying seabirds. The people who joined us were a friendly and experienced group, most of whom knew Chris and Phil and each other from previous outings. They were also very supportive of me, taking turns literally supporting my head for most of the trip as well as holding my wheelchair down when the water got rough. Knowing that I was on the port side of the boat, Phil made sure to turn to starboard whenever we came across a new bird so as to give me the maximum opportunity to see it. Bruce repeatedly checked in with me to find out what I was looking for and to make sure I had seen all the species so far. At the same time I was sad during and afterwards simply because I needed all that help, because I couldn't stand up front the way I always used to, couldn't speak loud enough to call out birds as I saw them, couldn't use optics, couldn't take photos. A Magic Pelagic it was but my experience was nonetheless diminished by my limitations.
Due in part to the fog we saw fewer marine mammals than usual, though one highlight for me was a Humpback Whale which breached about 2 miles away. I was sitting in my wheelchair at the back of the cockpit, staring forward off the port bow and talking with Wayne Sladek when the huge animal reared up perhaps 40 feet out of the water then crashed back down with an enormous splash. No one else noticed it.
Back at the float several of the men carried me off the boat and deposited me in my wheelchair then Maxine's husband Mike pushed my chair up the ramp to the street. While the others returned to the motel Darchelle and I drove around to the north end of the marina so she can walk out to the fisherman's bridge overlooking the godwit flock. Normally the godwits roost on the floats at the south end of the marina but the sea lions have recently displaced them so today they were all hanging out on the beach by the fisherman's access. While I sat in the car Darchelle got photos of the flock which included two rare Bar-tailed Godwits, a Willet and a Whimbrel along with 950 Marbled Godwits +.
On Saturday we continued around the peninsula in order to try for Spotted Owls on a couple of forest roads south of Clallum Bay. Light rain developed as we drove north and by dusk the forest was dripping though the rain had mostly stopped. The forest was predominantly 2nd growth, not ideal for the owls, but we found a few areas with larger trees at which we played recordings. No owls responded.
We spent the night at an overpriced motel in Port Angeles and spent the next morning waiting for a Common Tern to fly by Point No Point. It didn't, but ospreys fishing for salmon put on a good show.

09/10/2021   McNary NWR  (link to here)
Darchelle caught up to me in the eBird standings for the year this morning when we heard an American Pipit fly over the Tyson Blood Ponds. We also cleaned up our list a bit with a Franklin's Gull, a bird we counted back in May despite a somewhat sketchy identification. This time the bird sat still for a photo, then a couple hours later we found several more. They don't have black heads this time of year.
We drove over the mountains yesterday afternoon and spent the night at Andy and Ellen's, then they joined us birding in the Tri-Cities area. They were looking for a Franklin's Gull as well, and also a Common Tern. We found a few of the terns but only with the assistance of Mike and Mary Lynn Denny who identified a handful of them foraging far out over the Columbia River, studying them through scopes and describing the location of each bird to me so that I could locate it with my opera glasses. Certainly not the most satisfying of sightings, but Darchelle did get a photo. Other than on a pelagic trip, the last time I saw one was 2015.
Combining birding with family we spent the Sabbath in Walla Walla. Friday evening Darchelle made a magnificent Plum Upside-down Cake for Richard's birthday, then we all met Sally and her family at Lions Park for a picnic lunch.
On the way home on Sunday we stopped by Dodd Road again but no new shorebirds had showed up at the Blood Ponds. We were hoping for an early American Golden Plover, which Mike Denny had told us were regular there in late September. That's another list-cleanup species, like the Franklin Gull.
We didn't go straight home but instead detoured to Sunrise at Mount Rainier National Park to try for a Boreal Owl. We missed them there last year, and everywhere else we tried as well for that matter, but one was reported up there a few days ago. Conditions appeared perfect - temperature in the low 40s, partial stratocumulus cloud cover, slight breeze, few cars in the parking lot. I'm not sure if playing recordings of the owl's calls in the park is legal so I did not want to have a lot of people around to overhear us. We arrived around 7:45 PM, neither early enough to verify how well the wheelchair would perform on the service road nor late enough to head out right away so we sat in the car and ate a little something while we waited for darkness. Darchelle bundled me up in my down coat and a blanket and we ventured forth while the silhouettes of the subalpine firs were still visible against the sky but stars were also visible in the breaks between the clouds. Wheeling down the service road not even a quarter of a mile (though it felt farther than that), we played owl calls every couple hundred feet but got no response. A slender moon peered out between the clouds now and then so perhaps it was not dark enough, or perhaps we simply turned around too soon. At any rate I was well chilled by the time we returned to the car.
Darchelle was not done owling so after leaving the parking lot we stopped every quarter mile or so and played some more, an effort which has not in the past yielded any results but this time, about a mile down the road, we heard a small high-pitched "skiew" after playing our medly of hoots and skiews. Almost in unison we announced "We got it!" and headed home.

09/13/2021   American Golden Plover redux  (link to here)
No need for further trips to the Skagit or the Tyson Blood ponds. This morning we got good views of the recently reported juvenile American Golden Plover on the South Beach at West Point. Darchelle rolled me out to the path along the beach so I could see it with the naked eye while she took pictures. Another photographer was already present so we knew right where to go. The bird appeared injured. Its wingtips drooped almost to the ground and it refused to take flight even when beach walkers passed right by it, although a report the following day described how it flew out far over the Sound before returning to the beach so it was apparently capable of flight. The plumage perfectly matched photos of juvenile American Golden Plovers, which was reassuring since we could not assess the length of the tertials relative to the primaries, my usual technique for identifying golden plovers. On this bird it was hard to tell even where the tertials were, let alone how long they were. When we returned to the car I was relieved to see that it had not been towed or ticketed since we had not bothered to stop at the visitor center to obtain the required permit. Darchelle does not worry as much about things like that as I do.

09/16/2021   Lapland Longspur  (link to here)
The Lapland Longspur at Eide Road by Stanwood was our prize, year bird #343 (which as 7 cubed must be a lucky number), but the Least Sandpipers were so cute that I had to give them equal billing in this report. Maxine was the one who found the longspurs, yesterday I think, but we did not get there until 24 hours later and when we at first did not find them after walking all the way out to the end of the dike, Darchelle despaired that we had arrived too late. I reminded her that the show wasn't over until the fat lady sang and on the way back, she did just that.
There were two of the longspurs and though they looked like sparrows they moved quite differently, creeping along the ground instead of hopping like sparrows do. They were also quite tame so Darchelle got good photos.
Two or three Least Sandpipers pushed up against the dike by the incoming tide were also quite tame, and also quite difficult to spot roosting on driftwood and debris above the waterline on the boulders of the dike. Like many other sandpipers, the juveniles are more colorful than the southbound adults, which have already molted into winter plumage.
With no other targets available in Western Washington, our decision as we returned to the car was which grouse to chase east of the mountains. I was thinking that Spruce would be the easiest but rain in the forecast for their high elevation forest habitats persuaded us to try for the sagebrush species - Sharp-tailed and Sage - instead on the Waterville Plateau where sustained rainfall would be less likely this early in the season. Our next decision was how to get there. Highway 20 would have been more scenic but Highway 2 over Stevens Pass was the quicker route to Chelan, where we arrived after dark and found both a comfortable place to sleep in the Apple Inn Motel and decent coffee in the morning at Lake Chelan Artisan Bakery.

09/17/2021   Greater Sage Grouse  (link to here)
I did not expect the Greater Sage Grouse to be the easier of our sagebrush species to see and for several hours my expectations were confirmed. For one thing, much of their habitat on the Waterville Plateau burned in the Cold Springs Fire a year ago. Initially we explored southwest of Mansfield + down as far as Road 9 where we found a fair amount of unburned sagebrush and wheat fields but no grouse. We have seen them there in the past + so we drove roads which deteriorated into weeds as tall as our car and roads from which grouse had been reported as recently as a month ago before giving up and heading back into Mansfield en route to the area east of Jameson Lake where we have searched before but without success.
Heading east from Mansfield on Highway 172 I couldn't remember which gravel road to take south to the grouse area. I thought maybe it was Road H but we missed that one so we turned south on Road J instead. Later, studying the map, I determined that Road H was indeed the road I meant to take. Just as well that we missed it because not even a mile south of the highway we flushed three Greater Sage Grouse from the weedy edge of a wheat field along Road J. They flew a couple hundred yards but we were able to view them through the scope and Darchelle got photos.
We did not fare as well with Sharp-tailed Grouse, for which we searched the Big Bend Wildlife Area that evening as well as much of the following day + after a comfortable night at the Eight Bar B Motel in Wilbur, to which we were directed by Joy at the Grand Coulee Center Lodge when she had no ground-floor room to offer us. We kept forgetting that we had already called her so we probably talked with her three times but she was gracious about it, and very helpful.
On the way home we stopped for coffee in Soap Lake at a bakery with a hippie vibe called the Cloudview Kitchen +. Darchelle picked me up a sandwich which was really delicious; I think it was the one with Portobello mushrooms. The coffee was excellent too.

09/23/2021   Views from Artist Point  (link to here)
We picked up Alicia and Daniel at the airport on Sunday evening and they returned the favor by dropping us off at the airport Thursday evening for our flight to New Hampshire. Thursday morning we took them up to Artist Point where they hiked up Table Mountain while we loitered around the parking lot hoping to scope a ptarmigan on the slopes above us. It is probably impossible to view a ptarmigan from a wheelchair in Washington State but it could theoretically be done at Artist Point so we tried. And failed, but it was a beautiful day to be out and the mountains were glorious. Daniel and Alicia enjoyed their hike but though they searched, they didn't see any ptarmigan either.
We stayed the night beforehand at the Blue T Lodge where they lost our reservation so gave us an extra room in compensation. Daniel stayed in the room while Alicia joined us owling along the road up towards the ski area where we played Spotted Owl calls but heard no response.

09/24/2021   New Hampshire  (link to here)
We hadn't wanted to wait too long before returning to New Hampshire given that our time with my folks is limited at this point, both because of my condition and because of John's cancer. Originally we were thinking the first week of October but Darchelle's dream class and Richard's Portland Marathon constrained us to move the visit up a week. Having been there just two months ago our expectations for this visit were modest. Back in July we had not seen them for a year and a half so we felt we needed to have meaningful conversations about important things. This time we were more content to just be together.
Like last time though, I found the visit emotionally difficult. I felt somewhat depressed, or maybe just sad, more frequently than I would have liked. John seemed to be doing better this time though, less troubled by pain, more engaged with the rest of us. He stuck with his routine, sleeping in until 10 or 11 most days, reading the Boston Globe and the Wall Street Journal every day and marking the front-page headline with a ballpoint pen to indicate that he was done with them, fixing a couple of pancakes for breakfast and drinking a chocolate Boost for lunch, retiring to bed while the rest of us lingered in the PT room for another hour together.
After a day or two we settled into a routine. We would get up around 9AM then sit in Rick's living room for an hour or so drinking coffee, nibbling on the banana bread and smoked cheese which he left for us and watching birds come and go from the feeders just outside his big picture window. Sometimes I would manage to have a bowel movement. Between 11 and 12 we would pack ourselves into the van, drive down the hill to the house and wheel in through the front door via the ramp that Rick set up for us. Darchelle would park me in the PT room while she fixed a little breakfast or lunch, depending on how you look at it. John would read the paper and Mom would come and go. At some point in the afternoon we would devise dinner plans and maybe go out for a walk. Before dinner John might fix some crackers with smoked salmon to go with my half a beer and his glass of wine. After dinner around the table in the dining room we would retire to the PT room again where Mom would read a book and John might doze off for a bit before heading up to bed. An hour or two later Darchelle and I would gather our stuff and wheel back out the front door while Mom or David turned out the lights behind us. Back up at Rick's, Darchelle would pull the van onto the front lawn, open the front door to the house and turn on the lights then return to transfer me from the front seat into the wheelchair and roll me up the ramp into the house. Before bed we would sit for a while in the kitchen while I drank my chocolate Boost with Docusate and perhaps soak my feet in a dishpan of hot water if they were too cold.

10/03/2021   Portland Marathon  (link to here)
Alicia picked us up at the airport when we returned from New Hampshire. The next day we drove down to Portland to cheer Richard on in his eighth running of the Portland Marathon. Darchelle had reserved rooms for us all at the Motel 6 on SE Powell Blvd - bare-bones but seemed okay until we had to leave a $50 cash deposit at the office for each room. It seemed even less okay when Richard got bedbugs. Bug bites notwithstanding, he ran an excellent race. It was not his fastest (though he beat his 6:28 time of two years ago by several minutes) but he ran even splits for the first time and felt remarkably good afterwards. Darchelle recorded his finish.We celebrated together with Chinese takeout in our room, along with a mellow honey porter + which Darchelle picked up for me at the brewpub next door.
We left the motel well before dawn on Monday morning to look for Spruce Grouse along Forest Road 1070 east of White Pass. People have been seeing and photographing them along the trail about two miles beyond Conrad Meadows but we can't get there so Andy suggested we try Road 1070 instead. We drove it for about 10 miles but it mostly skirts the spruce forest, staying out in the open terrain of an old burn. At one point we came across a couple of deer hunters who said that in five days of driving the roads and hiking the woods they'd shot one grouse and seen one other. Nice fall color up in the high country but no grouse. Darchelle did however get a good view of an adult Northern Goshawk out in the middle of McCormick Meadows.

10/07/2021   Spruce Grouse and no Ptarmigan, but a Lynx!!!  (link to here)
Concerned that snow would soon shut us out of the high elevation forests frequented by Sprucies, we determined to dedicate our weekend to the search, setting out on the five hour trip to Republic right after Darchelle's last appointment so we could check Albian Hill Road early the next morning before continuing on to our real destination, Salmo Pass. We never got there. We drove the entire 12 mile length of Albian Hill Road starting at sunrise and scrutinizing the Lodgepole Pine and Engelmann Spruce forest on both sides of the road for two solid hours. I had not realized that Albian Hill Road offered so much suitable habitat, more than either Salmo Pass or Bunchgrass Meadows, but we still did not find any grouse.
We were about 45 minutes into our somewhat more casual return trip across Albian Hill Road when Darchelle quietly announced, "A grouse!"
"Seriously?", I asked, a bit skeptical.
"Yes" she insisted. "A Spruce Grouse!"
The bird was on her side of the road so after a bit of excitement she got the car turned around so I could see it. I couldn't find it at first; it was just a dark lump on the ground at least 50 feet back from the road, but once she got the car in just the right position I was able to pick it out and she was right, it was a Spruce Grouse! She got a couple photos from inside the car to verify the ID then while I kept an eye on the bird she got out to try for a better angle. Apparently the Spruce Grouse in that area get some hunting pressure because the bird immediately went on alert and as soon as it saw her standing by the car, it got up and walked hastily farther back into the woods and out of sight.
Our plans had been upended by the unexpected sighting but without cell signal we couldn't research our alternatives so we continued east into Kettle Falls. When the Riverside Inn graciously allowed us to cancel our reservation and the Mazama Ranch House had an accessible room available we knew what we had to do. Get up to Slate Peak and look for a Ptarmigan.
At 7200', the parking lot below Slate Peak is the the highest point accessible by car in the state and is the best, and perhaps the only, place in the state where it is possible to see a Ptarmigan from the road. It is also a rough 21 miles from Mazama via the road to Harts Pass, which has a short section so intimidating that Darchelle vowed after the only time she drove it that she would never drive it again. Sometimes however, principles must yield to the prospect of Ptarmigan. Five hours after leaving Kettle Falls we pulled into the parking lot at Slate Peak where the Forest Service had thoughtfully erected guardrails since our last visit. Even though the rail on one side had fallen off its posts I still found it reassuring.
We almost got a Ptarmigan too. How amazing that would have been, to get Spruce Grouse and Ptarmigan in the same day! Alas it was not to be. We spent two hours up there. It was sunny but cold so I sat in the car with the windows open peering over the guardrail at the rocky slopes below, looking for anything moving while Darchelle walked the ridge in both directions playing a recording of Ptarmigan calls and scanning the basin below us with the spotting scope.
We had the place mostly to ourselves; I think two or three other parties showed up including fellow birder Peter Z, a gray-haired guy like me who arrived late in the afternoon, also looking for Ptarmigan. He parked behind us so I did not notice him until I heard a Ptarmigan call so faint that I thought I might have imagined it. Darchelle returned soon afterwards to tell me it was not my imagination, it was Peter. Not too long after sunset we started down the hill while Peter walked up the ridge to listen a bit. When we happened to meet Peter again at the Buff-breasted Sandpiper in Enumclaw a week later, he told us that he had heard a Ptarmigan call at dusk, five minutes after we had left.
In partial compensation for missing the Ptarmigan, we had an even more unusual sighting on the way up the Harts Pass Road - a Lynx. I thought it was a Bobcat when I first spotted it walking up the road about three miles below Harts Pass, then I noticed the big feet, and the long ear tufts, and the blue plastic ear tag - I don't think they bother to put ear tags on Bobcats. Printed on the tag I thought I saw the characters "2TS" but Andy checked with the Forest Service biologist who told us that five Lynx were live-trapped in 2011 and 2012 and given blue ear tags with a 3 digit number beginning with 3 on them. When I flipped the image upside down the first two characters read "31" and the third might be "7". The animal did not appear to be in good condition; it was walking slowly and stiffly and paid very little attention to us. At one point it even laid down in the ditch briefly before getting up and walking off the road into a meadow. Later we learned from the Forest Service biologist that its behavior did not necessarily indicate that it was unwell because they often have little fear of humans.

10/08/2021   Slate Peak and no Ptarmigan, again  (link to here)
The Mazama Ranch House was delightful; we would definitely stay there again (and did, exactly one week later). After our long day yesterday we didn't rush out in the morning but instead enjoyed some leftover coffee and a bit of breakfast while the morning sun streamed in through our window.
On the way down last night we stopped at Harts Pass and picked up a couple of Cascade Crest Trail thru-hikers who had just finished their six-month epic/ordeal/adventure an hour earlier by hiking 30 miles back south from the Canadian border, where they were not allowed to cross. Having suffered from a shortage of both calories and hot water they were looking forward to a shower and a big meal though unfortunately neither would be forthcoming at the bunkhouse in Mazama to which we delivered them. They were not looking forward to other aspects of reentry though, including adjusting to the absence of the daily dose of endorphins generated by hiking 8 to 12 hours every day.
The air being a little warmer this morning than yesterday evening, Darchelle bundled me up and I sat outside in the wheelchair in the the Slate Peak parking lot while we resumed our Ptarmigan search. We turned off the ventilator for a couple of hours so that I could listen for bird calls without the constant sound of Darth Vader breathing in my ears. I heard a variety of birds + but no Ptarmigan. The views were amazing though.

10/10/2021   Rare birds  (link to here)
While we were chasing chickens east of the mountains two potential year birds showed up on the west side - a Palm Warbler near downtown Seattle and an Orchard Oriole at the Hoquiam Sewage Ponds. The warbler migrates through western Washington but is uncommon enough that if you miss an opportunity to see it, you may not get another. We missed our opportunity last month; one spent three days at Montlake Fill while we were in Jackson. The oriole is a rare fall vagrant which I have previously seen only at Neah Bay, which this fall is still closed to visitors due to Covid. Anticipating we might need assistance, not to mention company, we recruited Ed and Delia to help us.
In retrospect we should not have wasted our morning on the warbler. I could have inferred from the lack of sightings the previous day that it had moved on, but of course if I had the gift of foresight I would apply it to investing in the stock market rather than to birdwatching. Had we arrived in Hoquiam at 10AM rather than after noon we would have had better views of the oriole as well as the corroboration of other birders. Instead Darchelle alone had a brief view of the bird as it flew a few feet out from the cattails then back in again shortly after we arrived. About an hour later I had an even briefer glimpse as it flew away from us along the dike, apparently never to return. Darchelle saw a medium-sized yellow bird with gray wings, enough to get our sighting subsequently confirmed in eBird. Seeking a better view, we stayed the night in Hoquiam (at the Econo Lodge Inn & Suites, worthy of a repeat visit); we returned early in the morning but the oriole did not.
Although Buff-breasted Sandpiper was on our list of possible birds for this fall, the possibility of seeing one was remote. They are a rare fall migrant from the central flyway; one or two show up in Western Washington around the last week of August in most years but I have never seen one in a location which could be accessed by a wheelchair. This year only one was reported, at the remote tip of the Long Beach Peninsula at the end of August. Only one person saw it.
This Monday morning we were relaxing at home when we received a text from Nancy & Bill L, with whom we had been visiting the day before in Hoquiam while waiting for the oriole. A Buff-breasted Sandpiper had been discovered in Enumclaw and they were on their way to see it. Within 20 minutes, so were we.
We spent the whole afternoon down there. After some effort, Darchelle got some decent photos. We called Ed and Delia and talked them into coming down even though it was rush-hour by that point. We attached faces to some familiar names from eBird lists - Garrett H who frequents the Auburn area, Greg H who is just ahead of us at #3 in the state year-list rankings, Peter Z who heard the Ptarmigan that we missed at Slate Peak four days ago. After taking a break to visit John and Karin who live only a mile or two from where the bird was foraging in a cornfield, we returned to track the bird along with Ed and Delia until Maxine could make it down from Everett. Everyone saw the sandpiper.

10/14/2021   In pursuit of Ptarmigan, yet again  (link to here)
Another Ptarmigan report surfaced a couple of days ago, this one from FR 5900 near Lake Chelan. The report read in part: Darchelle wanted to check it out. I was somewhat skeptical that the habitat would be suitable - in part because ptarmigan terrain rarely hosts enough trees to support a forest fire. But perhaps the bird had simply gone a bit astray, so at 5:30 in the morning we left to go investigate.
About three miles up FR 5900 from the lake a big sign announced that the road was closed. Having driven four hours to get there we were disinclined to turn around so we kept going. The road appeared to have been worked on recently so I was anxious about encountering construction traffic but fortunately the only vehicle we met, a big water truck, was able to get by us without any difficulty. The report wasn't kidding about the fire. Our few photos don't do justice to the devastation - the ashy gray ground devoid of vegetation, the smoky brown foliage of the ponderosa pines, the charred black logs and snags.
At mile 11 we recognized the area in which the ptarmigan had been seen. We played a few calls but it seemed highly unlikely that any ptarmigan, no matter how confused, had ever graced the spot with its presence. No peak high enough to support ptarmigan habitat was visible for miles in any direction. The south facing slope had probably hosted pine forest prior to a previous fire; the forest on the other side of the ridge appeared to be Douglas fir and Lodgepole pine. At mile 12 we found the road blocked by Forest Service trucks so we turned around and started down. Within a few minutes one of the trucks came up behind us. The guy was friendly but confirmed that the road was closed and that we should not be there. He followed us down, perhaps to notify upcoming water tankers of our approach, or perhaps just to make sure that we left.
The question remained - if the reported bird was not a ptarmigan, what was it? Several days later I think I figured it out. A female Sooty Grouse can show a considerable amount of white on the lower one third of its body, though not in patches like a ptarmigan but rather as individual feathers. Still, it could appear to be molting into white plumage. Prior to the fire, the area was probably reasonably good habitat for Sooty Grouse.
After another four hours of driving we pulled, or rather plowed, into the Slate Peak parking area. Our photos show less snow than I remembered but the steep and narrow road was completely snow-covered for the last mile or so. Ours were not the only tracks but we were the only people anywhere near Harts Pass that afternoon, as far as we could tell. The ridge was in the fog with an inch of rime ice on the trees and several inches of snow on the ground. I didn't get out of the car except briefly to pee. Darchelle played the Ptarmigan call every 15 minutes or so until it got dark. We never heard any response. Our checklist + included only three species - a pair of Rosy-Finches along the road, an unhappy-looking Horned Lark around the parking area and a Raven which dropped out of the fog into a snowdrift in front of the car and attempted to bathe, crouching down to wag his massive beak back and forth in the snow and flutter his big wings rather ineffectually on the surface.
On our way home the next morning we almost got a good photo of a Golden Eagle perched in a snag east of Mazama and we almost got to Hayden Reserve in time to catch a glimpse of a probable Sharp-tailed Sandpiper. It had been photographed the previous day + so Gary B and several other birders were keeping watch when we arrived. When Darchelle got out to inquire, they told her that they thought they'd seen it fly by with a small group of Dowitchers a few minutes earlier but they didn't know where the birds had gone. As we lingered in the parking lot to eat some lunch, I saw a small group of Dowitchers fly over the chain-link fence from the slough to the north. With them was a slightly smaller white-bellied bird with a dark upper chest and contrasting white underwings. We did not report it but I believe it was the Sharp-tailed.
Incredibly, the next morning we got up early and drove 3 1/2 hours to Richland to see a Slaty-backed Gull + then drove 3 1/2 hours home again. Andy was there too, and Greg. Maxine had gone the day before. We did not get a good view because it was 500 yards away out in the river, but we were able to identify it. The autumn colors between Snoqualmie Pass and Ellensburg were glorious in the sunshine. The cottonwoods were a mix of green and yellow and the patches of aspen mostly a deep yellow reminiscent of the Cadmium pigments I used to use in my oil painting palette but the color in the understory was the main event - scarlet and orange vine maple supported by yellow willows and dogwood in deep shades of red wine - all against a backdrop of dark pines and firs. We were grateful to get the gull (#348) but the scenery alone would have been almost enough.

10/17/2021   Happy Birthday D!  (link to here)
Sally came over to help us celebrate and to go shoe-shopping at Goodwill with Darchelle. They returned with takeout from The Maple + for a birthday eve supper. It was delicious. In the morning we walked and wheeled over to the Sod House Bakery + for breakfast. We sat and savored our coffee and pastries at an indoor table, our first time to eat in since March of 2019. I enjoyed the simple pleasure of watching neighborhood customers come in, place their orders, pick them up and leave.
Darchelle got her hair done to celebrate her birthday. While they were out I wrote a card and a poem for D. I was going to read them to her at our little party that evening but we ran out of time so I read it to her in bed afterwards instead. She liked it. I need to write more poems for her.
The next morning Alex showed up to put up the new wallpaper in our dining room. It's a much better match than the old paper, accentuating the grain of the fir paneling and integrating the various greens of the adjacent rooms.

10/22/2021   Tropical Kingbird  (link to here)
When a Tropical Kingbird was reported yesterday afternoon hanging out around the cranberry bogs at North Cove south of Westport, we determined to get down there immediately despite a forecast of rain. Ed and Delia joined us and it was indeed raining when we arrived. The Kingbird was not evident so we set about searching the nearby area. The clouds cleared and the sun came out. The Tropical Kingbird was not in the nearby area. After birding the area + for about an hour and a half, we were conferring with Maxine and Mike when we noticed a man at the end of the street waving his arms and pointing. Seeing as how he was standing precisely where the Kingbird had initially been reported, we figured we'd better check it out. His name was Kenny and he was a lean bearded man who had by his own account raised cranberries for 40 years and had fished for 40 years. He had also seen a yellow bird bigger than a goldfinch and was in fact currently pointing it out to us. Will B had been there an hour earlier and told him what it was. Although slightly miffed that Will, who had arrived a half-hour after us, had found the bird first, we were nonetheless very grateful to see it.
The Barred Owl popped into view as we were leaving; it was new for the year for Ed and Delia.
I thought we might drive the beach on the way back to Westport but the water was very high and the sand appeared to have overrun a significant amount of the dune grass belt along the shore. After admiring the very large flocks of Dunlin along the water's edge, we decided instead to search the willows at Bottle Beach for a previously unreported Palm Warbler but when we got there we all took a nap in the car while Darchelle researched bird reports and discovered that a Red-shouldered Hawk had just been seen along the road to the jetty in Westport. Aborting the warbler search we drove back to Westport. Initially we found no hawk but Darchelle recognized Jeff B along the entrance road, remembering him from the Orchard Oriole stakeout. We were all impressed with her human-spotting ability when she turned out to be right. We had a nice visit with Jeff, who had not yet heard about the hawk. On our way out of the park Ed and Delia impressed us with their bird-spotting ability when they found the Red-shouldered Hawk. We all had good views, including Jeff.

10/27/2021   Pelagics Ashore  (link to here)
Three days ago a major storm + developed several hundred miles off the northern coast of Washington, generating 30 foot swells before weakening as it approached Vancouver Island. Washington recorded a peak gust of 85 mph on the Long Beach Peninsula on Sunday afternoon. Big storms sometimes blow birds onto land from far out at sea and this one was no exception. On Monday birders began to report storm petrels and other pelagic species, including Red Phalaropes, along the coast. We had missed the both the phalarope and Leach's Storm-Petrel on our pelagic trip back in September and did not expect to get a second chance for either species but Maxine found both at Westport on Tuesday so in accordance with Blair's Maxim #1 (Go now or accept the consequences) Darchelle cleared her scheduled for Wednesday and we drove down there even though we thought we might be too late.
When we pulled into the parking lot at Westhaven State Park we immediately found one of the two Red Phalaropes which Maxine had reported two hours earlier. Unfortunately it was the dead one. Dead Phalaropes don't count for our year list. Knowing he had been with Maxine, Darchelle texted Jeff B and found out that he was just a few hundred yards away at the base of the jetty. The parking lot which overlooks the jetty is now off-limits but not physically inaccessible to motor vehicles so in accordance with Blair's Maxim #2, we decided to ask forgiveness afterwards rather than asking permission in advance to drive up there. Talking with Jeff, we learned that he had seen a Leach's Storm-Petrel fly right along the jetty an hour earlier. Another one might show up but who knows how long we would have to wait. Meanwhile the tide was rising and would soon be too high for beach driving, and driving the beach was probably our best chance of seeing a Red Phalarope. It was beginning to look as though we were too late but as Darchelle and I sat in the car debating our options, Jeff, down on the base of the jetty, started waving his arms and pointing. Another Leach's Storm-Petrel was flying by. Darchelle jumped out of the car and snapped two identifiable photos before it disappeared in the swells. Until two days ago we had considered the Storm-Petrel so unlikely that it was not even on our list of possibilities.
Not to sound ungrateful, but the bird we had really hoped to see was the Red Phalarope and at that moment, our chances for finding one were looking slim at best. Other than the bird Maxine had seen with the dead one, no new reports were coming in from anywhere along the coast. We headed out to the beach anyhow.
We drove in at the Bonge Ave access + and turned south. Considering it was still officially low tide, it was disconcerting to see how far up the beach the waves were reaching, pushing a diffuse wrack line consisting mostly of lumps of eelgrass almost all the way to the edge of the dunes. Officially the swells were running about 13 feet but we had noticed from the jetty that the widely spaced rollers were breaking continuously for a half mile or more up into the harbor. I don't think 13 foot swells do that.
We found small gray shorebirds scattered here and there among the clumps of eelgrass but we were looking for a medium-sized gray shorebird. We saw one too, a very pale bird which flew low over the ground past the car. Slightly larger than a Sanderling but smaller than a Black-bellied Plover, it was probably a Red Phalarope but our view was too brief to identify it and we could not relocate it.
We also spotted a dead Northern Fulmar in the wrack line; at least we thought it was dead until it picked up its head when Darchelle went to move a strand of the eelgrass from its bill. When she texted Jeff about the fulmar he wanted to see it so we waited for him at the spot, fending off a gull from time to time. We suspected that the gulls were the reason that all of the other dead fulmars we found nearby on the beach were missing their heads. It proved surprisingly difficult to keep track of our fulmar, particularly when a large wave surged up the beach and chased us back to the edge of the dunes.
After Jeff photographed the former he suggested that he could walk the dunes to see if any Red Phalaropes might still be lingering in the dune ponds. At first I was reluctant to impose but he explained that he would be happy for an excuse to put off his errands. We would continue south on the beach for a few miles and he would text us if he found anything.
We found Peregrine Falcons, two of them taking turns strafing the large flock of Dunlin scattered along the beach. We also found a handful of Snowy Plovers, our fourth sighting this year. I am always surprised by how easy they are to find when we are not looking for them.
Jeff found a Red Phalarope. He explained that he was some distance back in the dunes and he did not think we could get there in the car but he was nonetheless quite close to the Cranberry Road beach access. Returning from farther south on the beach, we were approaching that point ourselves so we looked and there was Jeff on a dune. Following sandy hollows between the dunes, Darchelle drove as close as she dared then hopped out to find the bird. It was practically at her feet in the small grassy pool between her and Jeff. She returned to the car and drove a little closer so that I could peer over a low ridge and finally spot the bird swimming in tight little circles between clumps of dune grass.
With the Red Phalarope we tied my previous record for number of species seen in Washington state in one year. The day felt as though it had been made up of a remarkable series of coincidences. Were I a believer I might have attributed them to God. Jeff happened to be at the jetty when we arrived and pointed out the Leach's Storm-Petrel, which flew by right before we left. On the beach I happened to notice the fulmar which enticed Jeff to join us again which was why he decided to walk the dunes which is how he stumbled across the Red Phalarope, which happened to be in a little pond to which we were able to drive so that I could see it. One would think that with such success, the the day would have been an exhilarating if not relaxing experience for me but no; I felt anxious and tense most of the time. Those feelings have faded though, leaving warm memories of a great day of birding illuminated by Darchelle's excellent photos.

10/28/2021   ALS Clinic  (link to here)
As we were driving to the ALS clinic this morning in the dense drizzle characteristic of fall in western Washington we heard a story on KUOW about an informal weather haiku contest so we decided to come up with our own offering, which goes like this: The Seattle Times picked up the story + and posted some of the other submissions; ours was not among them, almost certainly because we never turned it in.
At the clinic, my FVC had dropped to 11% of normal (0.52L), a 20% decline from last time though with GPB I was able to get it up to 41%. FRS was 12/48, a decline of 4 points. My weight is down to about 107 pounds though at the clinic they weighed me in my wheelchair for a total of 168 pounds, down 5 from last time. The other helpful piece of information we acquired at the clinic was that I do not have pneumonia. The respiratory therapist listened to my chest backwards and forwards and found no indication of trouble. Dr. Elliott suggested 20 mg of OTC Omeprazole (I think) for heartburn. We discussed hospice, indicated when patient needs medical care more frequently than the clinic offers and when patient has difficulty traveling to medical appointments. They agreed that I'm not there yet.
Reluctant to let a day pass without birding, we drove down to Renton to look for the Burrowing Owl which has been entertaining photographers at the Cedar River mouth for several days now. It was hiding in its usual spot inside a cinderblock looking bedraggled and unhappy. They show up in Western Washington only by mistake and generally do not depart alive. I can relate; although it was not exactly by accident that I arrived here 40 years ago, I too will likely not depart alive.

10/30/2021   Wild Goose Chase  (link to here)
I do not remember this trip as fondly as some of the others though we did find the wild goose which we sought, and with it set a new record for the most birds I have seen in Washington in one year. That goose, an Emperor Goose, also happens to be my final species of the year in each of the two previous years (2013 and 2016) in which I have set new personal records for a Washington big year.
Richard's friend Mark Ludwig first spotted the Emperor Goose + on the Oregon side of the Columbia River at the McNary Dam earlier this week but two days ago it crossed over to Washington. Maxine was going to see it and encouraged us to meet us there so we embarked early this morning with Ed and Delia on the four hour drive to see a goose which looked like a decoy made of concrete. On the way home we stopped at Columbia Park Marina and could not find the Slaty-backed Gull for Ed and Delia though the Black-crowned Night-Herons they spotted on the far bank were new for them this year. We stopped again at the Ringer Loop Road fishing access in Ellensburg and inspired a pair of Western Screech Owls, also new for Ed and Delia for the year, to start chatting.
I did not get out of the car all day.

10/31/2021   Skunked  (link to here)
While we were chasing the goose, Scott D found a Palm Warbler near Tokeland. Although we were unable to replicate his feat we did call up, like an evil little spirit, an indignant Northern Pygmy-Owl along Logan Road +. Jeff B stopped by to help us search for the warbler then moving on, discovered two Red-necked Phalaropes just across the Cranberry Road beach access from where he found us the Red Phalarope four days ago. Darchelle's photos of the owls and phalaropes helped make up for missing the warbler.
The forecast being favorable we decided to search for Spotted Owls again along Forest Road 3116 near Sappho. It got dark before we got there so we turned off at Quinault and played owl recordings whereever the habitat looked suitable from the lake up to the North Fork Trailhead. We found a lot of suitable habitat but no owls. Later along Road 3116 we did not even find any suitable habitat.
It was a late night; we pulled into the Forks Motel after midnight so in the morning we slept in and did not attempt any more birding on the way home except at the Kingston Ferry Terminal where Darchelle took photos in the rain while I tried to take a nap in the car. BTW, the bed was reasonably comfortable but the toilet was low and access to it was tight, but doable.

11/02/2021   American Tree Sparrow  (link to here)
An American Tree Sparrow turned up at Montlake Fill yesterday. Of our remaining potential year birds that is probably the easiest one to find but we are not taking anything for granted at this point so when Darchelle was able to arrange a two hour break in her work schedule we dashed over there despite the rain. David came with us since he had just arrived to visit for the night. Other birdwatchers directed us to the general location where the bird had been seen earlier. David parked me along the trail while he and Darchelle searched the brush. She found the bird first and gently encouraged it to fly in my direction, which it did. I saw it well in flight and picking seeds out of the dried grass heads, though not close enough to identify it on my own; to me it just looked paler and grayer than any of the other local sparrows. Both David and Darchelle were able to get decent photos despite the low light and rain.
Darchelle ordered takeout from The Maple again; I had a hamburger and David had the stuffed pepper. We ate in the dining room and it almost felt like we were eating out. The hamburger, cooked rare with just enough smoky flavor from the grill, was delicious and went very well with a glass of my leftover Even More Jesus stout. David and I enjoyed a wide ranging conversation both that evening and the next morning, mostly about relationships this time. It was good.

11/04/2021   Another wild goose chase  (link to here)
I did not want to grace this trip with a journal entry. We drove down to Vancouver to search for the Ross's Goose which Maxine photographed yesterday + along Lower River Road. I was ambivalent about the trip; we need that one but the bird was with a large flock of Snow Geese and I have never successfully picked a Ross's Goose out of a Snow Goose flock. Moreover, reports indicated that opportunities were limited for viewing the field where the geese were feeding; how limited I did not realize until we got there. Maxine had photographed the geese from on top of a berm to which access was not granted to the public. Apart from climbing the berm there were only two narrow gaps through which the birds could be seen. Nonetheless we tried.
As we drove up a flock of over 1000 Snow Geese flushed from the Frenchman's Bar field along the river (which actually can be viewed from the park) and mostly flew off to the northwest. We never saw them again. Turning our attention to the other field, we parked at one of the two gaps in the berm and watched as groups of between 5 and 30 Snow Geese at a time flew up out of the field and followed their companions off to the northwest. In one of those groups, both Darchelle and I separately picked out one goose which seemed clearly smaller and stubbier then the rest of the Snow Geese. I don't know if we were looking at the same goose but I believe that if I had been able to use camera or binoculars, I could have confirmed it as a Ross's Goose. Darchelle was not able to get a photo either so we had to let it go unidentified.
We spent the night in a cozy King Bed room at the Comfort Inn and Suites for about $130, thereby saving $38 over the total (and totally dishonest) price of the $71 AirB&B where Darchelle had wanted to stay. The bed was a comfortable combination firm and soft and the toilet was among the best in the state, of good height and easy to access. I wish ours at home was as good; all it needed was a bidet attachment. After staying up too late watching Schitt's Creek on Darchelle's laptop we slept in but I don't think it mattered. Back out at Lower River Road by 10AM we searched for two hours but found no trace of the thousands of Snow Geese which had departed the day before. We did not bother to do a checklist.
On the way home we failed to find the Harris's Sparrow on the Ridgefield auto loop drive and also failed to spot the Emperor Goose in Puyallup which everyone has been reporting the last two days.

11/10/2021   John  (link to here)    (link to John's Memorial service)
My stepfather John Pepper passed away this evening at home around 11:15PM after a 10 month struggle with cancer. He was 96.
It feels like the end of an era. Just over 54 years ago he married my mother and adopted me and my brother and sister as his own. He has been the head of our family ever since. He and Mom welcomed first our friends and then our spouses and children into their home over the years; we have all gathered there almost every Christmas and some part of almost every summer as well.
His energy and love of outdoor activities set the tone for our lives. He loved skiing, hiking, running, swimming, bicycling and sailing and so have we, except for maybe the sailing. Over the past decade we have watched as he has had to give up those activities one by one and I have admired the grace with which he has done so, accepting each loss without complaining and turning his focus to what he had left.
I will miss him.
John's obituary will be published in the Conway Daily Sun + around Thanksgiving.
On a lighter note, there were a few years back in the 90's when John was inspired to write poetry, particularly around Christmas time. Unfortunately none of his works were published and few were even preserved but in an old file folder I found two of his offerings from 1991, written to accompany Christmas checks for his children and college funding arrangements for his grandchildren respectively. Later in another file David discovered a Christmas poem to Mom from 1994.
John wrote an occasional letter as well, and even kept a journal for a while. Here is a letter he wrote to Susan for her birthday while he and Mom were on a ski trip in Europe.
His memorial service will be December 4 at 11AM in the Jackson community church. Sarah and I and the grandchildren are all planning to speak; here is a draft copy of my remarks.

11/15/2021   Great-tailed Grackle - yes, Bohemian Waxwing - no  (link to here)
When a Great-tailed Grackle was reported at Neal Road we drove right out there to see it despite it being rather late on a Monday afternoon. Major flooding was forecast on the Snoqualmie River for the next couple of days and we feared we would not be able to get out there again in time. As it turned out, Neal Road did flood but birdwatchers were still able to see the bird from the Fall City- Carnation Road. But it also turned out that Greg Harrington was at Neal Road at the same time as we were and when he spotted the bird he pointed it out to Darchelle, who saw it in his scope. It flew before she had a chance to get our scope on it but knowing that it was in the flock, I was able to pick out the one larger bird in flight among the hundreds of starlings and blackbirds. Not the most satisfying of views, but then my Neal Road sightings never are. I spent hours mining photos to find our Rusty Blackbird there last spring.
Bohemian Waxwings have been reported recently in Twisp. We did not get that one last year and Darchelle has been worried that we will miss it this year as well so she talked me into driving five hours each way over to the Methow Valley for a one night stand at the Sportsman Motel and an afternoon and morning of chasing Boheehees. We went; we saw; we missed. Darchelle probably saw one on the top of a snag" in town but I did not see the bird to confirm it. I probably saw one fly across in front of the car but we could not relocate it to confirm it.

11/20/2021   Blackburnian Warbler  (link to here)
Chasing the Blackburnian Warbler was my most disappointing birding experience all year. The bird, a colorful warbler common in the eastern US and Canada but very rare in Washington, showed up at Home Valley Park in Stephenson when it should have been down in Columbia or Venezuela instead. We spent a total of fifteen hours over three days searching for it and another ten hours or so driving there and back. In that time Darchelle saw it twice and I might have seen it once, but I was within 50 feet of it at least three times. Once I was sitting in the car looking at birders who were looking at the bird but it was on the other side of the tree trunk from me. Another time I was looking right at the bird but I could not pick it out among the branches. Were I not disabled I would have seen it easily, and probably managed to get decent photos as well. Had I not been discouraged about not seeing it, we would probably have spent a second night in Stevenson and would have been there on Friday morning when conditions were perfect and lots of people saw the bird.
Conditions were perfect as well on Saturday morning when Darchelle and I drove down with Andy and Ellen, but the bird was gone. Despite seeing it, Darchelle never counted it because I had not counted it and she did not want to be ahead of me in the eBird rankings. The bird which I saw which was probably the warbler might also have been a Golden-crowned Kinglet. It was too high up in a cottonwood for me to tell.

11/22/2021   Palm Warbler  (link to here)
I think this was the third or fourth Palm Warbler we have chased since the one we missed back in late September which lingered at Montlake Fill for several days while we were in New Hampshire. None of the others stuck around to be seen again after the initial report, but this one did. It was first reported at Montlake Fill yesterday and was still there this morning when we went looking for it. Ed and Delia met us there and Darchelle wheeled me over to the vicinity of the Osprey nesting tower, an area apparently known as Hoyt Meadow, where Delia and I heard it right by the trail while Darchelle and Ed were off in the bushes looking for it. I think I even saw it fly out across the trail and back again a few minutes later but lacking binoculars, I couldn't be sure. At any rate, it did not reappear for another chilly hour and a half. When it did show up we all had good views, even me, and Darchelle and Ed got photos.

12/04/2021   Memorial Service  (link to here)    (link to John's passing)
Darchelle and I flew back to New Hampshire for a week, arriving three days before the service and leaving four days afterwards. Daniel and David drove down to Boston to pick us up at the airport. Rick again loaned us his house for the week but came by every day to make sure the ramp was clear of snow and ice. The ground was bare when we arrived but an inch or two of snow fell on several occasions including the day we left. Sarah and Roger drove us down to Rochester and Ali took us the rest of the way to Logan. We flew Delta and went first class for the first time; the food was great but I found the seats, though much more spacious than economy, still pretty uncomfortable. Nonetheless I'm pretty sure we'll do it again.
During our first several days in Jackson, everyone was preparing for the service - collecting, printing and arranging photos, fine-tuning the program, arranging family and friends in pews, deciding how to enter and exit the church and not least, composing reflections and remarks. Daniel, Roger and Rowan also found time to prepare several memorable meals. Daniel grilled 27-day dry-aged Ribeye steaks one night and bean stew with ham hocks and three kinds of sausage another night, along with a vegetarian version featuring mushrooms. Roger prepared Shepherd's Pie and Rowan, a delicious vegetarian tart with a shortbread crust. Expensive wines and beers flowed freely.
Here is a copy of the program and here are a couple of links to a video of the service:

12/09/2021   Eastern Phoebe  (link to here)
While we were in New Hampshire a rare Eastern Phoebe was reported at Deer Lagoon on Whidbey Island. Despite an unfavorable weather forecast, we drove up there with Ed and Delia early on our first morning back in Seattle. Actually we tried to cancel with them while we were still in bed but were not able to reach them in time. Good thing, because we found the Phoebe quite easily with the help of Teri Martine and Bruce Carlson, though Ed was actually the first to spot it. The weather proved more pleasant than expected and the Phoebe at one point perched just 10 feet from me, so it was a good day.

12/12/2021   Another Skagit white gull  (link to here)
Last March + we visited the Skagit River playing fields + in Burlington several times in search of a Glaucous Gull which was subsequently determined (based apparently on input by Gary Bletsch) to be merely a white gull of some kind and not a full-blooded Glaucous Gull. A few days ago another white gull showed up in the same location. Although we no longer needed it for the year Ed and Delia did, so we drove up there today and found the gull without much difficulty hanging around a green dumpster. In my opinion its identity is no more certain than that of the bird last spring - today's bird was no larger than nearby Glaucous-winged Gulls and the black tip on the bill was too indistinct for a true Glaucous Gull. But what do I know? EBird is allowing it so we all counted it +.
FWIW The above images offer a comparison of three apparent Glaucous Gulls. In my opinion the bird on the right is a definite Glaucous Gull, albeit a first year bird as indicated by the dark eye and the flecks of pale brown on the body and wing coverts. The black tip of the bill is dark and clearly demarcated. The middle image is today's bird, a second-year by the pale eye and clean white wing coverts. I would expect the body feathers to become mostly white by March like the bird on the left, the white gull from last March, more photos of which can be seen here +. It could be argued that the darker iris and slightly longer primary projection disqualify that bird as a Glaucous, but I don't think those differences are more significant then the small size and pale bill tip of today's bird.
Emboldened by our success with the gull, we drove over to Rosario Beach to chase the Yellow-billed Loon reported yesterday +. We found a couple of Common Loons instead, along with the a fair number of other species + and several other birders including Blair, whom I haven't seen since he got married back in early September. Though the wind was cold and the desired loon absent, I still enjoyed sitting out there looking for birds.

12/16-19/2021   Okanogan expedition  (link to here)

12/23/2021   Dickcissel #359  (link to here)
While we were in the Okanogan a Dickcissel was discovered in Sequim during the CBC. They are rare but regular in Washington in the fall, particularly at Neah Bay, but since Neah Bay has been closed since the beginning of the pandemic, I don't think any have been reported this year. Darchelle worked on Tuesday and Wednesday so we had to wait until Thursday to go look for it. We caught the 7 AM ferry and were in Sequim by 8:30 where the bird had already been seen, though was not currently in view. It was a long scope view from the road but we set up and were searching for the bird in some blackberries and bushes on the far side of a grassy field when the owner of the field walked by and asked, "What are you looking for in my field?" We explained about the dickcissel and she said "You're welcome to walk out there if you would like." We immediately took her up on her offer and wheeled out there along with half a dozen other birdwatchers. It didn't take long for 15-year-old Liam Hutcheson to spot it, but we all saw it, even me. Darchelle got a few photos but the Liam's were better so I am posting his, with his permission.
On the way back into town to stop by Rainshadow Café Darchelle got a photo of the Lesser Black-backed Gull at Maple View Farm. It is a good-looking adult, much more satisfying to see than the second-year bird way out in a field with 400 other gulls in Centralia last February. We wrapped up the day with a seawatch from Diamond Point with Marcus Roening but could not find any Yellow-billed Loons.

12/24/2021   Christmas Eve  (link to here)
Originally we had made no plans for Christmas, figuring that birding would take priority but with no rare birds in our immediate vicinity we decided a few days ago to join Richard and Donna in Walla Walla. Then conditions over Snoqualmie Pass deteriorated and we decided not to tackle the drive, choosing instead to head up to the Skagit for one last (or at least second to last) attempt to see a large falcon. One was reported at March Point last week but we did not find it.
Darchelle fixed me a delicious Christmas Eve dinner of Caprese salad, Potato-leek soup and Greek salad soup, a selection of tasty cheeses including Delice de San Martine and a glass of Even More Jesus, a fancy stout to which Tim introduced me a year ago last Thanksgiving.

12/25/2021   Christmas  (link to here)
Conditions having improved over Snoqualmie Pass, we decided to head over to Walla Walla after all. On the way we searched for a large falcon along Thrall Road south of Ellensburg because Andy had told us that one had been seen there earlier this month. They had searched for it the next day and counted 63 Red-tails. We only had 28, plus 5 Rough-legs and 7 Kestrels.

12/26/2021   Boxing Day  (link to here)
Ben took us on an aerial tour of the southeastern corner of the Columbia Basin today. The weather was favorable except up in the Blues and an occasional snow shower elsewhere. The scenery was stunning. We took off from Martin Airfield in College Place and flew down the Walla Walla valley to the Columbia at Wallula Gap. Bucking a 25 knot head wind we flew down the Columbia about 10 miles, consorting with Snow Geese for several miles before sailing back upstream at 140 knots to the confluence of the Snake River. We followed the Snake up to where the Palouse River joins it then followed the canyon of the Palouse up to Palouse Falls and and a bit beyond before returning south to Dixie and up into the foothills of the Blues. We continued south into Oregon, how far I'm not sure, then followed the Walla Walla River from the confluence of the North and South Forks back into town.
Ben recently gained access to a plane with four seats so he and Sally could take both Darchelle and me for a ride. Darchelle attached the head brace that I use in the car to the back of the front passenger seat in the airplane then sat behind me to help hold my head up when necessary. Thanks to her her help I fared pretty well though saliva management was still challenging. The views out my side window were wonderful, as were the photos Darchelle took out her window when she wasn't holding my head.
We flew both above and below flocks of Snow Geese around Wallula Gap but were not able to get good photos. The layers of basalt scoured out by the floodwaters were particularly dramatic on the east side of the gap, around the Twin Sisters, which appear to be a single stump of basalt on the right side of the photo above. The crop circle in the center photo is a half mile wide and the Snow Goose flock includes at least 5000 birds. In the photo on the right, Fishhook Park, where we have often found Northern Saw-whet Owls, is the point of land just left of center.
The official waterfall of Washington state, Palouse Falls is a spectacular remnant of the Ice Age floods which scoured the surrounding channeled scablands about 15,000 years ago. Those, or perhaps similar earlier floods, rerouted the ancestral Palouse River out of its bed in the Washtucna Coulee into a new southeast-trending channel following mostly linear zones of weakness in the basalt. The floods scoured out a number of these zones of fractured rock in the area north of Palouse Falls, the most prominent of which is the three-mile long furrow containing the river itself which extends to about a mile above the current location of the falls. At the time of their creation the falls were probably much closer to the Snake River; waterfalls retreat upstream over time though how far and for how long the Palouse falls have been migrating upstream I could not discover online. What I found interesting though, both during our flight and later in examining Google maps, is how the river canyon zigzags both above and below the falls following the weaker zones in the rock.
During those Ice Age floods the Snake River acted as a big drainage ditch, collecting the floodwaters and routing them down to the Columbia. The effect on the landscape is obvious; north of the Snake the basalt bedrock has been scoured clean of all surface sentiments while to the south deep deposits of wind-blown silt called loess remain. The loess-based soils south of the river are great for growing wheat and have been used for that purpose since the 1870s. Although composed of airborne silt, the rounded hills of the Palouse are not actually dunes. Instead they have accumulated during multiple episodes of glaciation over the past 1.5 million years or so separated by periods of soil development. Erosion is primarily responsible for their shape, which in some areas superficially resembles mountains with cirques eroded by alpine glaciers on the north slopes. On some of the Palouse hills, including those shown in the foreground of the photo on the left below, south-facing slopes are gentle and un-dissected while north-facing slopes appear to have been scooped out by some giant spoon. I suspect that erosion by slumping snowdrifts is responsible for the difference in topography.
Layers of basalt are draped like a heavy blanket over the Washington Blue Mountains. Loess deposits lap up onto these basalt layers on the lower slopes of the Blues and thanks to higher rainfall, these are some of the most productive areas for dryland agriculture. On the day we flew over them, recent snowfall provided a visual illustration of the differences in precipitation between the valley and the foothills. Higher in the Blues the soils are thin and rocky, productive for wildflowers but not for farming. At some point as the hills descend into the valley, loess is replaced by water-deposited silt which precipitated out of the floodwaters backed up behind Wallula Gap. It is on this silt that Darchelle's parents' house, visible in the lower left center of the Majonnier Hill photo above, is built. Houses, at least near town, are becoming a more profitable crop than wheat.
After about two hours in the air we returned to Martin Field where a crosswind kept Ben on his toes during the landing. The breeze was probably related to one of the snow showers nearby. They look more intimidating from the air than from the ground, massive gray pillars as opaque as stone. Ben carried me directly from the cockpit of the plane to the passenger seat of our car while Sally kept my head stabilized.

12/27/2021   Family time  (link to here)
Claire drove up from Salem while we were out flying around and we all gathered at Richard and Donna's for dinner. Monday the kids all played with trains and watched the Grinch attempt to steal Christmas. I watched the kids play with trains and had a good talk with Donna and Claire at some point.

12/28/2021   Ross's Goose #360  (link to here)
We drove home via Vancouver, leaving near sunset on Monday afternoon. The roads were clear as far as Hood River then we ran into snow the traffic was okay. We stayed at the Comfort Inn and Suites in Vancouver again, not particularly charming but as comfortable as its name implies. Tuesday morning was cold and damp with an inch or two of soggy new snow on the ground. We drove out to Frenchman's Bar Park looking for Cacklers but as of 8:15 AM when we got there both they and the Sandhill Cranes were just arriving. We monitored the birds as they accumulated, looking particularly at white geese in the groups of dark brown Cackling Geese. Eventually I spotted a small white goose dropping into the field with a flock of Cacklers and shortly afterwards Darchelle was able to photograph it and confirm that it was the Ross's Goose we sought. Given the shortcomings of memory, that was probably not exactly how it happened but I was fairly confident that I had seen the Ross's and Darchelle's photograph left no doubt that she had seen it as well.

12/29/2021   Cold  (link to here)
When we arrived home sometime after dark last night, the temperature in the house was 52F. It was not our intention to keep the house that cold while we were away; the furnace had failed. Marco had called us on Sunday afternoon to let us know that the furnace was apparently not running so we were not totally surprised to find the house cold when we got home. That did not make it any more comfortable. At least we had the electric heater in the jungle room off the kitchen, so we cranked that up and sealed the door to the dining room with a blanket. I had Darchelle check all the faucets to make sure nothing was frozen. Saturday night and Sunday had been the coldest 24 hour period in Seattle in the past decade with a low of 16F and a high of 20F.
We placed a few calls to furnace repair outfits and discovered that the earliest someone could come out to check out our unit would be three weeks from now. Darchelle kept calling and eventually talked to a guy named John at Evergreen Home Heating and Energy, I think it was. John explained that the problem with our furnace was probably the condensate tube. The water it exudes tends to freeze at the point where the tube exits the exterior wall. When that happens the furnace stops running. He recommended thawing it with a hairdryer but I suggested squirting hot water up the tube. Darchelle did that and had the furnace running again within a few minutes.

12/31/2021   Last outing of 2021  (link to here)
With the house all warm again we drove up to the Skagit River delta on the last day of 2021 to search for a recently reported large falcon. Roads and fields alike were covered with snow. We began our search on Fir Island + where we found lots of Snow Geese and Bald Eagles, and just possibly a large falcon. A short distance north of Polson Road we both spotted a large gray bird which flew like a bullet in rapid level flight about 20 feet off the ground, stirring up ducks as it disappeared off to the south. The style of flight suggested a large falcon rather than a Peregrine but the bird was too distant to tell for sure and although we searched for another hour, we were unable to relocate it.
We continued our search at March Point along Padilla Bay where the large falcon had actually been seen a day or two earlier. We found lots more Bald Eagles but no Falcons, although thanks to Gary B we were able to spot the Emperor Goose which has been hanging out in that area. Darchelle got a photo and could see it clearly in the scope but even with my opera glasses I was only barely able to pick it out. It is very rare in the state but we already had it for the year. Our only hope for one final year bird was that the occasionally crepuscular large falcon might yet show itself, so we lingered until well after the last sunset of the year before returning to Mount Vernon, scoring takeout Thai food at Taste of Thai + and retiring to the Quality Inn and Suites for our New Year's Eve celebration. My deep-fried prawns and green curry were both delicious.
We wrapped up the year with 360 species in Washington state +, a new record for me and in the top 10 for anyone any year in the state as far as I know. In that total are several species which are probably not ABA countable in Washington, among them the Monk Parakeet #315, the Mandarin Duck #225 and perhaps the Ring-necked Pheasant #145. Our list also includes several species for which my sighting was sketchier than I would like. The Ross's Goose #360, the Orchard Oriole #346 and the Sharp-tailed Sandpaper #320 come to mind. In addition, some birders might question the legitimacy of the Cordilleran Flycatcher #311 as a distinct species in the state, but if they do occur here, it was one.
We missed a few species too. Spotted Owl, Yellow-billed Loon and Gyrfalcon eluded us despite multiple tries for each one over the course of the year. The Common Grackle in Kent dodged us at least twice last January. The White Wagtail on San Juan Island in May departed the day before we showed up and to Darchelle's continuing chagrin we never even showed up for the White-rumped Sandpiper in Everett. We arrived four hours too late for the Canada Warbler in Ephrata last September and discouraged by that failure, I was unwilling to chase the Ovenbird a few days later in Ritzville. We would have seen both of those birds had we chased them when Darchelle wanted to. Who knew that a White-tailed Ptarmigan would call five minutes after we left Slate Peak at dusk back in October +? Last but not least, there was that Blackburnian Warbler last November +. That makes ten failures and 360 successes - not too bad considering!