7/31/2024   Concluding July  (link to here)
During July we drove 1424 miles, spending 4 nights away from home and 5 days birding and submitting 30 complete checklists with 139 species. We added only two new year birds for a total of 312.

8/26/2024   Pelagic Trip  (link to here)
Today we had a truly remarkable day of pelagic birding with Westport Seabirds +. Of the 19 pelagic or mostly pelagic birds we might hope to counter on a late-summer trip we missed only two, an impressive feat in itself, but in addition we found three mega-rarities, species which have each been seen fewer than four times in the past four years on 75 trips out of Westport. I'm not sure that has ever happened before in nearly 50 years of Westport pelagic trips.
Although fog had not been in the forecast, mist shrouded the marina when we arrived at Float 10 at 5:30 AM and enveloped us as we motored out of the harbor, across the bar and out to sea. The water was glassy and almost flat; I've rarely seen the bar so calm. That's not necessarily a good thing. The birds tend to move around more when they can take advantage of the energy of wind and waves and when they are on the move, they are often easier to find.
The fog began to thin out as the sun rose behind us but we still were not seeing many birds. We passed, or were passed by, an occasional murre or shearwater but no big flocks so I began to adjust my year bird estimates for the day downward. I had initially figured 12-15 new birds would not be unreasonable but after an hour and half in the fog I was prepared to be content with 10-12.
Not long after that we began to see groups of mostly Pink-footed Shearwaters and Westport Seabirds started their first checklist - westbound from the 50 fathom line L+. Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels began to show up, individuals at first then large flocks. They were not new for the year for us but the Buller's Shearwater in one of the flocks of Pink-foots was one of the birds we were looking for, as was the Northern Fulmar a few minutes later. Both species are regular but neither has been seen in large numbers recently. Given that I do not always see every bird, I was grateful to get them.
Two hours out we had our first mega-rarity. Bill was standing next to my wheelchair on the port side of the boat when, alerted by someone up front, got binoculars on a dark storm-petrel and shouted "Wilson's Storm-Petrel!" In his words: My view was too distant to identify it without optics but I watched it fly past the boat and over the wake while Darchelle scrambled to get photos. To my delight she succeeded. Only the seventh state record, it was a state bird for both of us and our sixth year bird of the trip. Things were looking up!
Around 9 AM we caught up to several fishing boats trailing large loose flocks of seabirds, mostly shearwaters but also albatrosses, gulls and jaegers. Westport Seabirds did a separate checklist for the next three hours and 18 miles covering the area north of Grays Canyon L+ near the edge of the continental shelf. As noted in the checklist comments, The birds were excellent too. Along with the Black-footed Albatrosses were several less common Laysans, a beautiful bird. We saw numerous Sabine's Gulls and Cassin's Auklets, both expected, and Arctic Terns as well, which we've seen on very few trips. Among the flocks of Red-necked Phalaropes were a few Red Phalaropes, another bird we needed but were not counting on. Bill pointed out another hoped-for bird, a Short-tailed Shearwater, in the swirling groups of Pink-footed Shearwaters. By 11 AM we'd also had good looks at a couple of South Polar Skuas, several Long-tailed Jaegers and at least one Parasitic Jaeger which, together with the Pomarine we'd seen earlier, gave us a "Skua Slam" - sightings of all four Washington members of the jaeger family. That has only happened on about one trip in three over the past four years.
With 16 new birds at that point we had already exceeded my mmost optimistic projections when we came across our second mega-rarity, a Scripps's Murrelet. A small black and white seabird which occasionally wanders north into Westport waters in the fall, it had not been reported for the past three years. I first saw one on another memorable pelagic trip back in October 2013; I think it was unusual then too.
Within 10 minutes of leaving the murrelet we were motoring past a another group of Pink-footed Shearwaters when someone (I think it was Bill again) noticed a very large dark brown bird with a bright pink bill sitting on the water with them. Short-tailed Albatross! Our third mega-rarity in three hours, it is the rarest of the three albatrosses which breed in the North Pacific ocean and a bird which few people on the boat had ever seen. For Darchelle it was particularly exciting; prior to each of our past three trips she has named the Short-tailed Albatross as the bird she has most desired to see.
Phil cut the engine and we floated quietly in the company of the rare albatross for almost 15 minutes before the big bird got up, padded across the water and flapped heavily away.
Shortly after we turned to head inbound from Grays Canyon L+ we met up with another bird rarely found 40 miles off Westport, a Brown-headed Cowbird. Although they can be quite tame on land it was nervous on the boat and soon took off low over the water, presumably to its demise. Otherwise the trip in was relatively uneventful though we did pick up our 19th year bird of the day, a Tufted Puffin about 25 miles offshore.
Not only was it an amazing trip in terms of birds, but it was easier than I anticipated as well. I always worry about getting on and off the boat but many people helped and the transfers went without a hitch. Bill, in addition to serving as one of the spotters, was especially helpful to me in pointing out species which I might have overlooked or was unable to identify without optics. Unlike some past trips I never got too cold. Also unlike past trips, I had to pee but Darchelle had brought the bottle and it worked fine. I don't know if we'll do another one next year but if not, what a way to end!

8/31/2024   August Totals  (link to here)
During August we birded 9 days and spent 11 nights away from home, although 7 of those were for a family reunion in Walla Walla. We drove 2114 miles for an ending odometer reading of 124060. Thanks to our pelagic trip on the 26th which contributed 25 species and the morning of the 31st at Steptoe Butte which added 22, we tallied 151 species for the month on 26 complete checklists. That gives us 337 species for the year in Washington, two fewer than a year ago.

9/01/2024   Washtucna  (link to here)
We spent the night in Othello and drove over to Washtucna early, arriving at Bassett Park L+ by 6:30 though we didn't park my chair in front of the bush right away. The morning was sunny but cool and there initially wasn't much activity at the bush so we drove around inspecting sparrow flocks. That might have been a mistake; by the time we returned to the bush it was hopping so we might have missed a few early birds.
I still did pretty well in four hours of watching the bush, with close views of Warbling Vireos, Dusky and Hammond's Flycatchers and Wilson's Warblers every few minutes along with an occasional visit by the previously-reported American Redstart, a new bird for the county for me.
The flycatchers were vocalizing which made it easy to distinguish Dusky ("wit") from Hammond's ("peet") and provided an opportunity to compare plumage characteristics between the two species. In the fall migration Dusky Flycatchers haven't molted yet so tend to be more gray overall with more visible feather wear. Hammond's Flycatchers have already molted into fresh plumage with more olive coloration and more contrast in the underparts. They also tend to have a more crested and larger-headed appearance which in turn makes the bill appear smaller. Despite the practice though, at the end of the day a solitary silent bird could still leave me guessing.
Most of the warblers were Wilson's which, like the other species, visited the bush both to bathe and to forage. Fat moths were the preferred food item though they were neither easy to catch nor to subdue once caught. The White-crowned Sparrow in the photo on the left above took a couple of minutes to get its moth under control, with the young Wilson's Warbler all the while watching intently.
Among the birds which did not visit the bush were the wrens. Darchelle, watching the willows up beyond the swimming pool at the northeast corner of the park, had three species - the two pictured above along with a Rock Wren.
Also in the willows were the two best birds of the day. The Red-eyed Vireo would have been another county bird for me but the grosbeak was also a year bird, putting her one ahead of me in the eBird Top 100 +. Neither bird lingered long enough for her to come down to get me and even if she had, the path up there was too steep for us to negotiate with the wheelchair. I was sorry to miss them but delighted that she was able to get photos.

9/12/2024   Emails  (link to here)
I wrote two emails today. It took me three hours.

9/15/2024   Walla Walla  (link to here)
The flight over Adams county + was indeed big; at 2.7 million birds it was the third largest flight of the past four years. Excited by the prospect of a busy day at Bassett Park, we left David and Kasey to fend for themselves for breakfast and pulled out of the driveway at 5:35 AM headed for Washtucna. The bush was full of birds when we arrived at 8:30 so Darchelle wheeled me over and parked me in front of it but the activity died down quickly and never picked up again. RJ dropped by around 10 to report that he had never seen so many birds at Hooper as he had that morning, adding to the mystery of the Washtucna big day that wasn't. Giving up on Washtucna we drove down to Lyon's Ferry where I sat in the car and counted juncos flying between the fruit trees while Darchelle searched for vagrants in the thickets along the shore. I came up with 51 and she came up with a thrush which she was unable to turn into an Ovenbird.
We spent Sabbath with Darchelle's folks in Walla Walla, not even slightly tempted to chase birds after our disappointing experience on Friday though I did do checklists on both Friday afternoon L+ and Saturday afternoon L+ while sitting outside visiting with Richard and Donna. The flyover Nighthawks on Friday and Wood Ducks on Saturday both stumped me at first but Darchelle was able to get binoculars on them to confirm the wing pattern on the former and the face pattern on the latter.
On our way home this afternoon we stopped at McNary NWR L+ to look for a Long-tailed Jaeger which had been discovered at the headquarters ponds this morning. While Darchelle was scoping distant ducks in the marshy cove where the jaeger had been reported half an hour earlier I spotted a dark brown gull flying erratically out over the open water and tried to follow it, suspecting it might be the bird. Shortly after I lost it Darchelle found it again and confirmed that it was a jaeger by the white patches at the base of the primaries. Whether or not it was a Long-tailed is still being debated by those with greater knowledge and better photos. As for myself, after watching the bird in flight and reviewing Jeff Blake's photos here + along with photos of both Long-tailed + and Parasitic + Jaegers on eBird, I believe that the bird is a Long-tailed Jaeger for the following reasons: NOTE: Photos of another juvenile Long-tailed Jaeger taken by Charlie Wright on a Westport pelagic trip + a few days later illustrate several of the above characteristics.
The Long-tailed Jaeger was not the only pelagic bird at the McNary ponds this afternoon. When we arrived two Sabine's Gulls were paddling around right next to the causeway and as we departed, a large flock of Red-necked Phalaropes was milling about on the east pond. I particularly enjoyed the close-up views of the former, which btw is a species not often recorded on the same checklist as Blue-winged Teal.

9/16/2024   Black-headed Gull  (link to here)
We have chased a Black-headed Gull four times in the past eight years; while we were successful in 2016, 2022 and 2023 I never enjoyed a satisfactory view of the bird but Darchelle was eager to try once more so after it was reported again this morning we set out for Birch Bay.
The gull had recently been seen roosting on the beach with a flock of Bonaparte's Gulls but when we arrived we discovered that the beach was at least a mile long and mostly hidden by a berm of dune grass from the street which borders it. We were, to use one of Darchelle's recent favorite words, daunted. Compounding the difficulty, access to the beach is private except for a few widely-separated public parking areas. We resorted to live-parking illegally at intervals along the street so that Darchelle could get out and scan the narrow strip of beach between the dune grass and the high water line. That worked! Within a few minutes she spotted the gull standing on the wrack line at the edge of the water immediately opposite a little path cutting through the dune grass. Parking illegally again, she loaded me into the chair and wheeled me out to the beach L+ where I sat and watched the Black-headed Gull from within 20 feet while she and another birder named Kellie S took photos. Kellie also captured a recording of the gull calling, used here with her permission. I heard a different call, a thin "kileee" given as the gull threw its head back with its bill pointing at the sky.
Shortly before we left all of the gulls along the shore flushed at once giving me an opportunity to compare the Black-headed Gull with a Bonaparte's Gull in flight. The Black-headed appeared to be about 20% larger but otherwise pretty similar.

9/18/2024   Hawk Watching  (link to here)
We had been planning a trip up to Harts Pass to look for Ptarmigan with Andy and Ellen for several weeks but the decision to meet on Sugarloaf Mountain but to look for migrating raptors was a new development. Inspired by a recent report +, we were particularly hoping to see a Broad-winged Hawk or two since our report L+ from Mill Canyon on the same day has not been approved. Not that we doubt our ID, though apparently the reviewers do. In any case we were disappointed; we sat just below the fire lookout cabin L+ for four hours and saw almost no hawks at all.
We saw other migrants - Mountain Bluebirds, White-crowned Sparrows, Yellow-rumped Warblers - but even that activity was slow. I sat next to the information kiosk facing out to the north up the Chiwawa River valley where I used to hike and hunt 40 years ago. Thanks to the Tyee fire 30 years ago which burned the surrounding boreal forest, my view of both mountains and migrants was unobstructed as was the westerly breeze which despite the warm sunshine eventually persuaded us to give up and retreat to the warmth of our cars. I don't know if we will return. Andy and Ellen had arrived before us and spoken to the lookout, a friendly and sympathetic man named Doug who had opened the gate to allow us to drive the last quarter mile to the top. We would not have been able get there otherwise.
Where we would like to return is the forested canyon of Van Creek L+ which we followed out of Leavenworth to get to Sugarloaf. Having spent the night at the nearby Wedge Mountain Inn we were there early and found lots of birds, including a Ruffed Grouse, in the thickets along the stream. Maybe next June we can get back there to check out the breeding birds.

9/19/2024   Harts Pass  (link to here)
We checked into the Mazama Ranch House around 7:00 after stopping for supper at the Twisp River Tap House where the Chicken Pot Pie was solid but the Traditional Cheesesteak Sandwich was spectacular. It was a treat to eat out with friends again and I managed both the eating and the visiting without any serious problems.
We tackled the 18 mile trek up to Harts Pass L+ at 6:00 hoping that if we were the first cars up the hill we might spot a Spruce Grouse on the road like we did two years ago, but we didn't. We instead had three falcons for the day, and maybe a Peregrine to make four, along a handful of Accipiters. We did not find a single Ptarmigan even though Darchelle and Ellen hiked across the basin and back while Andy and I watched from above. The weather was just about perfect, sunny and cool without too much wind. Clouds were curling over the crest from the west when we reached the pass so we birded Meadows Campground while we waited for Slate Peak to clear. Lots of White-crowned Sparrows and Yellow-rumped Warblers. Higher up around Slate Peak L+ American Pipits predominated.
While Andy and I waited for Ptarmigan to appear, I noticed an interesting pattern in the vegetation of the basin below us. Grasses and forbs are interspersed with diffuse areas of Mountain Heath across the floor and gentler slopes of the basin but the other common ground cover shrub, Cascade bilberry (Vaccinium deliciosum) +, mostly seemed to grow in discrete patches up to 30 feet wide that were sometimes almost circular. Their uniform dull red color and sharply defined margins suggested that few other plants were growing within the borders of these patches. Apparently the Cascade bilberry often spreads by rhizomes so it seems likely that each patch consists of a single plant. I wondered how old they were and whether they were relatively recent arrivals, given that they appear to be currently expanding at the expense of the surrounding vegetation.
The Merlin just east of the pass was eating a small bird, perhaps a warbler. Ellen spotted the Northern Pygmy-Owl on top of a Subalpine Fir along FR 700 west of Harts Pass. Darchelle and I thought it might be new for us for Whatcom County but it was not; we saw one in the same location L+ exactly three years ago. The Pika on the other hand was a first - the first photo Darchelle has ever taken of that species.

9/25/2024   The Coast  (link to here)
When we departed for a trip to the coast this morning there were, as far as we could tell, five species of non-pelagic birds in Washington which we had not yet seen this year in the state. By the end of the day we had ticked off three of them, or so we thought until I reviewed Darchelle's photos on the computer a few days later. The bird we found this afternoon on Midway Beach which we had hoped was an American Golden Plover turned out to be its more common consin, the Pacific Golden Plover. Anticipating that possibility, we spent the night in Shelton in order to try for the confirmed American Golden Plover at Fort Flagler State Park tomorrow.
Our first new year bird, the Laughing Gull at the Hoquiam STP L+ which Wayne Sladek found a month ago and Liam recently refound in the same location, was not one which I expected to see. I didn't end up seeing very much of it either, just its head - a tiny white dot - sticking above the grass on the far side of the pond. I would not even have known it was a bird except that Darchelle was at that moment standing outside my car door viewing it through the scope. The gull's plumage indicated that it was an adult which means that it could be the bird we saw at the Tokeland Marina in March and again in August of last year.
We were headed there next in hopes of getting a good view (and photos) of the rare Hudsonian Godwit which has been hanging out with a flock of about 1200 Marbled Godwits for at least a week now. When we arrived at the Marina L+ we found the godwit flock stretched out on the beach between the crab house and red barn. They were ideally positioned for photos but the incoming tide was steadily encroaching on their narrow remaining strip of sand so they could have at any moment relocated to the distant breakwater where they usually rested at high tide. Fortunately they did not so Darchelle was able to get great views and photos. Unfortunately I did not get out of the car so I did not see them as well as I might have.
Also in the godwit flock were two Bar-tailed Godwits so Darchelle had the opportunity to compare them with both the Marbled and the Hudsonian at close range. The three species are not as easy to tell apart as her photos might suggest. In basic, that is non-beeding, plumage Bar-tailed Godwits are generally gray with upper parts that appear scaly rather than barred but their Marbled cousins can be quite gray as well. Hudsonian Godwits, the smallest of three species, are gray-brown in color and do not appear as strongly patterned, at least at a distance, as the other two. Except in flight when the black and white tail really stands out.
Hudsonian Godwits breed in arctic Canada and Alaska and winter along the coasts of Argentina and Chile but rarely deign to stop in Washington or anywhere else in the western US in between.
The North American population of Bar-tailed Godwits breeds in northern and western Alaska, where they are known for their fearless defense of their nesting territories. The few birds which visit Washington nearly every fall are apparently slackers. Per Birds of the World +: Willets are a large shorebird comparable in size to the godwits. They are rare elsewhere in Washington but a small (though growing?) flock resides in the vicinity of Tokeland. I have to wonder what they think about the annual autumn invasion of their territory by the godwits but I have never observed any competitive interaction between the two species.
After Tokeland we drove the beach L+ north from the Warrenton Cannery Rd entrance in North Cove. The tide was high and occasional large waves were pushing the wrack line, mostly tangled clumps of eelgrass, up onto the dry sand. Flocks of ducks were flying south over the surf and shorebirds were foraging in the wrack. They were mostly Sanderlings and Snowy Plovers but somewhere off Midway we flushed three Golden Plovers. Excited because Golden Plovers are rare on the beach, we chased them for several minutes and Darchelle was able to get photos of all three.
From her photos I was able to determine that they were all Pacific Golden Plovers. American Golden Plovers have relatively longer primaries and shorter tertials but the differences are subtle and it helps to know the range of variation in those features in Pacific Golden Plovers. That range is illustrated nicely by the three birds we photographed on the beach. The photos are arranged from left to right by the length of the wing relative to the tail. The bird on the left has the longest primary extension beyond the tail (suggestive of an American) and the bird on the right the shortest (clearly a Pacific) but in all three the tertials appear long relative to the primaries with no more than three dark primary feathers extending beyond the spotted tertials.
FWIW Our hope of finding an American Golden Plover was not unreasonable; just nine days later + Maxine found one on the same stretch of beach.

9/26/2024   Port Townsend  (link to here)
There being no question about the identity of the American Golden Plover at Fort Flagler State Park L+, we gambled that it would stick around one more day and drove up there this morning to look for it. Our plan paid off, but barely; I think we were the last birders to report it. Darchelle found it roosting with about 100 Black-bellied Plovers on the sand (and pebble) spit west of the beach campground but the spit was not accessible for my wheelchair so I waited in the car hoping that the birds would fly and give me a view of the flock. They did and I counted the tick, #346 for the year. I assumed that the bird was in the flock and later confirmed that it was - dead center in the photo on the left above.
After identifying the American Golden Plover, Darchelle was distracted by two Black-bellied Plovers which looked very similar to it. Most of the Black-bellied Plovers were clearly larger and more gray overall than the Golden Plover but she wondered if those two might be Pacific Golden Plovers. She spent quite a bit of time watching the bird in the center photo above before it finally raised its wings and revealed the telltale black axillars of a Black-bellied Plover.
While we were out there we decided couldn't pass up the opportunity to pay our respects to the local celebrity bird, the Red-footed Booby which first showed up in Port Townsend back in August. It posed cooperatively for us on pilings by the Marine Science Center while Darchelle took photos.

9/30/2024   September Summary  (link to here)
As we had anticipated, September was a big birding month, second only to May for days in the field (13) and nights away from home (9). We put 3145 miles on the car (odometer now at 127205), entered 30 complete checklists and accumulated 165 species for the month. With 346 species, we are still two behind where we were a year ago and 16 behind our big year pace in 2022.