January 5th - A Big Day in the Land of the Buffleheads

Two Lesser Scaup, one of which is a Bufflehead, naturally.
Hang with me - I swear I'll explain this theory.

Of course, I went Owling

I'm a decade or so into this little project. I've seen over 150 species in a year in King County, my home, several times over the years. In 2012, I repeated the task in Thurston County. 2013, Island; 2014 Kittitas; and then I started blogging it all in 2015 in Mason County. In all of these efforts, I have loved going after owls as early as possible in the year. Most of them are present year-round, many of them are calling early in the year, and most of all. . . it's dark out for a lot of hours!

I'd gone to bed early the previous evening, so I woke up on a good 2/3 night sleep around 2 in the morning. 25 birds was a good start to the year, especially since it was just the trip in. I was pretty excited to see what birds would come my way, given the fabulous weather forecast. 

I packed up some coffee, some yogurt and granola, and booped out the door. On my way to the Willapa Harbor Airport, I spied a road to the right that looked like it might be good for owls. I did my standard owling routine - stopping every 1/3 of a mile or so up Hammond Road, calling for little owls, listening for a bit, calling for bigger owls, moving along. At nearly the end of the road, my Northern Saw-whet Owl call got a "skiew!" response. (26 species for the year in Pacific County! I'll track this number parenthetically as I go.)

I waited, listened, and gave another soft whistle. The owl was a good bit closer now and did a bit of beak-clicking. I've never been one for throwing a spotlight on owls to get a picture. A response is plenty for me. But I'm sure this might have been an easy photo!

I slipped back down the hill and went to the airport. Here I got a Great Horned Owl (27) to respond almost immediately. Despite being fairly close to the freeway, there was almost no noise. Nearly no wind. Stars above. 

What other owls to try for? I was leaning towards Western Screech and Barred. As I continued up the road towards Tokeland, I saw an easy pullout. As soon as I got out, I heard a female Great Horned Owl calling. After calling the bird back, I got a response from a male. My final stop looked like great habitat for my other two targets. Wet habitat with good cover on the edges... not bad-looking for Western Screech. Dense trees behind it all looked good for Barred.

I was convinced enough at this spot (it very well may have been the entrance to Cedar River), that I stayed for a good bit, allowing for some long waits after I called. I don't think a single car passed for the entire 20 minutes I was there. 

Visibility is a word we use. It's a great way to describe seeing conditions. What's our equivalent word for hearing? Saying that there is visibility for 30 feet, or a half-mile, or more, paints such a vivid picture of conditions. I would just love to have this magical corresponding word for hearing. I'd like to believe, at any rate, that I'd have heard a Barred Owl from a mile away, had there been one. And it would have heard me.

The final stops for owls happened along Smith Anderson Road. I got one more Great Horned Owl before I decided it was time to head to Grayland Beach State Park.

Grayland Beach State Park

Clouds drifted in and out of the sky overhead. I may have even been drizzled on. But lord, it was a gorgeous morning. Overall, it remained fairly quiet, so it was easy to pick up on some birds as soon as I got out of the car. Red-winged Blackbirds (28) and American Crows (29) were some of the first sounds to hit my ears. I even heard a Killdeer (30), although I never got eyes on it. But right next to my car was a vast puddle on the sand, and it was chock full of shorebirds. I scanned them with my binoculars, then grabbed my scope. Walking out to get a better view, nearly one of the first birds I found was a Snowy Plover (31). 

My camera was back in my car. . . and I knew how this would go. . . I looked at the Snowy Plover. It looked calmly back at me, and skittered around a little in the sand. I turned one of my feet towards my car. I paused. The plover paused. We paused. . . and I made a break for the car, and it flew away laughing. I'd love to have a picture to drop in here, but this felt very rewarding. 

This is a bird I've seen exactly once before, when a Snowy Plover accidentally found itself in a field in King County in 2017 (gosh that feels like an age ago). And it's not that it's a monumental identification challenge. . . it's just that I had a LOT of birds that I had never/rarely/not recently seen, stacked up and ready to go dashing in front of my optics this year. I sometimes joke that my one downfall as a birder is that I "don't know what birds look like", and of course... I do. Nobody knows *all* of the field marks in all plumages on all species, but my knowledge of visual markers definitely lags behind my skills with ear birding. 

So, I studied. And I'm still going to get surprised by birds on this trip or confused by birds on this trip. It's a journey! But one of those birds that I stared at quite a bit was Snowy Plover. It's funny, but this felt like my first *real* Snowy Plover. Getting one on the beach, in the epicenter of their breeding range was very satisfying! 

Returning with my camera (as well as my Sibley's), I started picking my way through the other peeps in front of me. Dunlin (32), Least (33), and Western Sandpipers (34) all worked the sand in front of me. Some of them came quite near, hardly minding the giant human pointing a camera at them. 

Dunlin

Western Sandpiper

Least Sandpiper 

The water didn't look like it had anything of interest... so I turned the scope out there and scanned for a bit. Western Grebe (35), Common Loon (36), Red-throated Loon (37), and Surf Scoter (38) were all distant, but identifiable birds. Turning my attention along the shore itself, I found one more new bird - a Horned Lark! (39). This was not totally unexpected, but was still a nice surprise. Content, I thought I'd try the camping areas. 

I checked in at the gate. A ranger was up and working the booth. She confirmed that it would be fine to park at the restrooms, and to walk the grounds, as long as I didn't intrude on any campsites. Fair enough! Out of curiosity, I asked about the January campers. I was told that they were here for the "Clam Tide". 

In my last post, I had explained ... lol, probably too much about tides. But yaknow what? Let's do it again. Ya got yer high tides when the water moves up towards the land, and the low tides when it moves back out to sea. Two of each of those every day. You also get two spring tides and two neap tides every *month*. Spring tides give you higher high tides and lower low tides, because the sun and moon are lined up and making things more tide-y. Neap tides give you far less excitement, with not much of a high tide, and not much of a low tide, because the sun and moon are very much *not* working together. 

King tides - these are spring tides that are even more extreme, either because the Earth and Sun are close to each other (as they are around Jan 2-4 every year), or because the Earth and Moon are close to each other (once every 28 days or so, and not the case on this trip). And extreme tides are good for clamming! Lower low tides just mean that there is more exposed beach, and people DO plan around these things. 

Let me apologize for that really long ramble with the best bird - a Varied Thrush:

Varied Thrush!!! (40)

If nothing else, the tide ramble saved you from a ramble on Varied Thrushes - my favorite bird. One such ramble can be found here, for those that are curious about this little jack-o-lantern thrush. If you just want to see one, and you're in Washington State? You probably don't have to go too far. There were about a dozen of them in the trees at the park. Also added to the list: American Robin (41) and a Hairy Woodpecker (42).

Zombie by the cranberries

My next stop was the area east of... good lord, what highway. A few days removed, and I can't even remember which highway this was. 105! I clearly spent all of my time following signs to towns, rather than freeways. If you're in Raymond, and you want to get to Aberdeen without the nuisance of being close to the ocean - you take 101. If you LIKE the beach, you take 105, which loopity-loops around through Tokeland, Grayland, and Westport, among other hamlets.

I was at the marker :)

Rainbow over the bogs

East of 105 on this stretch, one finds acres and acres of cranberry bogs. Ocean Spray owns many of these bogs. It's not 100 percent Big Cran, but it's a lot of it. I had dreams of finding some ducks in the Aythya family - Greater and Lesser Scaup, Tufted Duck, Ring-necked Duck, Canvasback and Redhead - it seemed like sightings were pushing me towards the cranberry bogs. 

Interesting. Even before you get berries on them, cranberry plants are red stemmed, which made this a beautiful drive. Most of the fields were filled with cranberries, but you did get these ponds mixed in. An awful lot of them would have a Bufflehead or two. These are pretty common ducks in most parts of Western Washington. And they're not all that picky. Put out the kiddie pool - Bufflehead habitat!

My search was justified! I ended up finding a pond with a Lesser Scaup, my 43rd species for the day. 

And did I see things as they were already? I'm not sure. I can't expect you to see what's going on in Pacific County... not yet... but here we go. I'm going to give you my hypothesis about the ducks down here in Pacific County. Buffleheads down here are actually infected with some kind of zombie virus. They touch other ducks, and it turns them into Buffleheads. 

Why would I come up with a silly claim like this. Because I know what I saw!!! 

Let's step back and think about... any other Western Washington County. They've got ducks. Lots of them! There's ... I dunno, maybe 15 species that you can find in the hundreds. Including Buffleheads. Last year, by comparison, I went to Columbia County. They just have less water, less habitat, and fewer ducks. However many ducks you have of this species or that species, just divide it by 100. 

Here in Pacific County, it felt like most ducks were similar in abundance to what you'd find in Columbia Couty. Maybe a little higher, let's be fair, but like... closer to Columbia County than King! The only exception? Buffleheads! No harder to find Buffleheads than anywhere else. It's only harder to find every other species. 

One thought could be that it's just not great habitat down here for Common Mergansers, Northern Pintails, Green-winged Teals, etc etc etc. This explanation a dozen times. OR, it's fine habitat for all of these ducks. . . and the Buffleheads are just zombifying them into Buffleheads. Believe what you will, but please try to view the rest of this trip through that lens. We may be able to stop them, but you just. have. to believe me.

And if it's not what's going on? How do you explain the song Zombie by the Cranberries with your just-not-good-habitat for Gadwall theories? 

Continuing down 105

Midway Beach confused me. I may need to inquire with other birders, but the signs proclaiming "No Beach Access" seemed to tell me that I couldn't access the beach. There may be a more nuanced read of this sign that I wasn't picking up, but for now I just didn't want to run afoul of any local ordinances.

Warrenton Cannery Road was a bit more welcoming. I drove down to the beach, past a small puddle with four Buffleheads, and immediately got looks at some new shorebirds. 

Semipalmated Plovers (44)

Sanderling (45)

There were healthy numbers of both species running up and down the beach, playing in the surf. A puddle farther up from the surf contained more Least Sandpipers and Dunlin. They were joined quite abruptly by a flock of 20-30 House Finches (46).

House Finches

These and the Crossbills from day 1 were the only finches I found on the entire trip! On a far less conspiratorial note, some years are just like that. Cone crops in different regions are variable from year to year, so you actually get a "Finch Forecast" every year, predicting what finches may show up in different parts of the United States. Well...by "different parts", I guess that just means different parts of the Eastern United States? I didn't do an exhaustive search, but all of the finch forecasting I viewed was very heavily skewed towards Eastern US predictions. What a weird choice to exclude half of the US! :D

Surf rolling in off of Old Highway 105

Old Highway was a wonderful stop that gave me no birds of note. The waves were really crashing in on the rocks as we got closer to high tide. There was also a surprise in the form of a telephone: 

It's a wind phone! Kaze no denwa is the original Japanese name. Their purpose? To give you a chance to pick up the phone and have a talk with loved ones you've lost. The idea is that your words are picked up by the wind and will go where they need to go. I'm sure that the wind would not discriminate between people you've lost due to time, death, or distance. If you need one of these phones, I can report that there is one on Old Highway 105 in a very beautiful spot. Come say what you need to say. I did. 

Tokeland

I'm going to freely admit. I went into Tokeland thinking that I knew how to bird Tokeland, where to go, etc. etc., and I do not believe that I *actually* knew how to bird in Tokeland. Despite this fact, I found some birds! From behind the Tradewinds Hotel (I got permission from the desk), I took a look at Graveyard Spit. There were some Mallards (47), my first Northern Pintails of the day (48), and some Buffleheads. 

There were shorebirds aplenty in the water and on the far shore. More Dunlin, and smaller peeps. There were also numerous Black-bellied Plovers (49). The weather continued to cooperate, so I kept a window down as I drove, picking up a Downy Woodpecker (50), Golden-crowned Kinglet (51) and Black-capped Chickadee (52) on the way out to the main road. 

Another pullout and a scan of the water gave me a Red-necked Grebe (53). It was funny how long it took my brain to give me the name of this bird. It's been two years since I've seen one! The final addition on the way to the marina was a loudly calling Bewick's Wren (54).

Getting this picture felt like skeet shooting - even told the guy "Pull!"

The Tokeland Marina was packed. People were out trying for crabs along the dock, under the watchful gaze of some gulls, including a Glaucous-winged (55), a Ring-billed (56), and at least a couple Western Gulls (57) that seemed free of hybridization. Brewer's Blackbirds (58) poked around on the dock as well.

Western Gulls have these dark mantles and dark primaries
pink legs, and a clean white head 
hybridization can show up with lighter features, or a smudgy head

Honestly pretty fun to watch them flinging the crab pots out, pulling them in, checking the crabs over, and most commonly releasing them (wrong species, too small, or female). So, I got some good views of live crabs skittering around on the dock and getting guided back into the water. 

The water was chock full of loons. I gave each of them the once over and was only able to come up with Common and Red-throated Loons. No Pacific yet!

Common Loon

I even picked up some new ducks! Naturally, there were some Buffleheads in and around the marina, but there were a few other survivors, including Red-breasted Merganser (59), and Greater Scaup (60).

Red-breasted Merganser

Three shorebirds popped up from... I have no idea where. They whirled around and I started snapping pictures. In the end, I never figured out where they had come from or where they went to, but they were species that I expected at the marina. Talk about a nice bit of blind luck!

Two Willets (61) and a Marbled Godwit (62)

I'm fully expecting to see more of the Godwits, especially, as the year goes along. Hundreds can be found here at the right times and places, with a few rare species of godwits sometimes mixed in (Hudsonian and Bar-tailed).

Willets again - seen later en route from somewhere to somewhere

I was headed back to Nelson Crab. Although I had packed a lunch, I figured I could make that my dinner and take advantage of some wifi. I couldn't get any in the morning from the motel, and it seemed like a good idea to check emails, perhaps to look for any new sightings to follow. But hey. . . what's this grebe? 

I am going to run into some identification challenges this year, and I've really tried to do my homework. This particular challenge is fortunately one I've run into a few times over the last year or two! This is an Eared Grebe (63), a code 4 bird on my county checklist. So, there's patterns of occurrence, but they're not necessarily birds you can expect to be reported every year. In winter, they can be easy to mix up with Horned Grebes, a much more common bird, and they're not always sitting quite so close by!

Not the last rainbow of the day!

I grabbed these two shots out of many that I took in order to get the most diagnostic pieces - both bill-related. The top shot shows that there is no white tip to the bill (as is found in Horned Grebes), and the bottom one shows the slight upturned look to the bill, which comes from a little taper on the bottom half of the bill. Most of the other features track: smudgy neck, dark cheek patch, and a compact build. The head is more peaked than flat, although in Eared it often appears farther forward - peaking over the eye. Those latter marks, and even the more compact build have a lot to do with posture. 

Inside Nelson Crab Company - yes, I was able to secure my Pacific County mug here!

I didn't find any new, surprising sightings on eBird, but I did get some good reminders of what birds I should be targeting as I continued through the day. There had already been a nice handful of Code 3 and higher birds during the day, but there were more lying ahead of me! The chowder was probably the best of the trip, and the oyster shooters were... tiny, inexpensively obtained (not even a buck and a half each), and delicious. 

On the way out of Tokeland, I grabbed two more species - Double-crested Cormorant (64), and House Sparrow (65). Not super-tough birds, but I never stopped being thankful for the weather, and how easy it made to find new things during the day. 

Cedar River

Being from Renton, the name here will probably throw me off all year. The Cedar River in King County is a great spot to look at gulls, ducks, and shorebirds in season. At *this* Cedar River, it appeared that all seasons may just be shorebird season!

Clouds of Dunlin

One of the first things that I saw upon arrival was a pile of swans. I had seen Trumpeter reported here, and was able to hike close enough to get good confirming views (66). I tried to pull a Tundra Swan out of the group, but I coudn't find any good candidates.

A Black Phoebe chipped from somewhere unseen (67). I know... for a code 5 bird, it seems odd to count it without a visual! But these birds have been seen frequently in the area, and have a call note that is pretty distinctive. A little similar to a Swamp Sparrow, but this sounded too persistent to be anything else. Not likely the last Black Phoebe I'll be reporting this year!

Shorebirds aplenty. The best views were of Greater Yellowlegs (68), and Long-billed Dowitchers (69). Could there have been a Short-billed Dowitcher mixed in here? Yep! They've been reported very rarely in winter. Could there have been two of them?? Extremely unlikely. And most of these dowitchers had the hunch-backed feel that I'd use during migration to start sorting out groups. 

So... many... shorebirds... Long-billed Dowitchers, Greater Yellowlegs, and Dunlin

Also added here - a Great Blue Heron (70), a Pied-billed Grebe (71), and a single American Wigeon (72). Buffleheads? Four more of them. 

This path was dry when I first crossed it!! Hello, tides.

Potter Slough

Potter Slough - Northern Harrier making a departure

I passed through Raymond and found a spot to park for Potter Slough. The tide was approaching a high of 11.85, so nothing north of the road was going to be walkable! I scanned the Willapa River, getting excited briefly at some ducks seen diving. They came up, and turned out to be Buffleheads, surprise. What a productive walk! I immediately spotted a Northern Harrier (73), and heard a weakly calling raptor. I was pretty excited and hopeful that it might be a Red-shouldered Hawk. My brain certainly was prepared for them, and may have wanted to turn this Red-tailed Hawk (which it turned out to be), into a Red-shouldered!

But the sun was in my eyes, and I'd need to walk the trail towards the south ridge to be able to get binoculars on the bird. As I tromped, I added other birds! Marsh Wrens (74) were "check"ing everywhere. Some Western Meadowlarks (75) erupted from one part of the field, a couple of them pausing on a tree for a quick photo-op.

"A couple" of Western Meadowlarks... lol 
Count them yourself and see how many you can find in here. 
It's more than two.

I did find the Red-tail, and it flew once I got in good view. At this point, I thought it a good time to try my Virginia Rail call. Success! It pulled up at least four of them calling from the surrounding marsh. (76). I had not been pishing all that much, so I did try some. It largely pulled up a lot of Golden-crowned and Song Sparrows, although on one occasion, I found a different bird. It was half-hidden by thin tree branch. I peeked around saw buffy sides, sharp streaking on the breast, and finally the familiar face of a Lincoln's Sparrow (77). I'd love to come back here and do a more thorough look for Swamp Sparrows and Palm Warblers!

Carruthers Slough

Finally! I landed on a big pile of American Wigeon. I'd heard some here and there - even seen one or two along the way. But at Carruthers Slough, I got a flock with hundreds of them. And my very first scope look showed me the red head of a Eurasian Wigeon (78). This was one of the code 3 birds that I assumed might not be too hard to find this year. They have been spotted off and on in these big flocks of American Wigeons over the last few weeks and months. I scanned the hordes of Cackling and Canada Geese for some Greater White-fronted, but I found none. 

Bay Center

Interesting drive... It was getting just late enough here that I had to be mindful of time. I kept thinking the sun would finally dip too low, and make for an end of my birding day. During the first stretch, there were huge fields to my left, but nearly nowhere to pull over and look through the mixed flocks of geese. Some of the few stops I made in the first stretch gave me views of Willapa Bay, with Common Loons and Buffleheads. At a greater distance, I spotted three Horned Grebes (79). Near the end of the drive, I came across a nice little pond with a few Buffleheads attending a Common Goldeneye (80). 

It never felt like I had a wonderful, obvious place to pull over and do some searching. So, it wasn't too long before I ended up back out on Highway 101. Here, there was a parking area for the Palix River Boat Ramp. This ended up being a nice stop! A Hooded Merganser (81) - my only one of the day - realized it had been spotted, and quickly took flight. I had a Great Egret (82) here as well. The most exciting bird for this stop was a Merlin (83)! It zipped past me as I stood scanning with my binoculars. It continued to the far shore of the Palix, where it stirred up hundreds of shorebirds. It had to have gotten a good meal out of the deal! Briefly thought that I had some more interesting birds out at a distance... but they were not. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me 73 times, you're a Bufflehead.

From here, I returned to the Golden Lion. I called the manager and asked if he could text me the wifi server and password. He read them to me again instead. I got off of the phone, tried them again, and got no connection. I called back, let him know, and drifted off to sleep, pretty exhausted after a long day. A little after 8, I got a knock at the door, with the manager checking in to see if I had gotten a connection yet. It was pretty exhausting, just trying to manage this. I did get back to sleep, and it was a comfortable room otherwise, but what a bummer it was to count on Wi-Fi on a trip like this, and to end up without. 

83 species!! And I found 77 of them on this glorious day. This felt like a pretty good start for my Pacific County year. It had been beautiful all day. I got some nice surprises along the way, and. . . I'd hardly gotten through half of the county! I feel like this is the reality of a trip based in Raymond. There's plenty to visit in the northern end of the county. I had plans to do some morning birding the next day, before heading home. But clearly, I wasn't going to get up to Leadbetter! 

Even now, with that third day in the books, I'm sitting at home scratching my head, and trying to design a visit that will get me into the Long Beach Peninsula for a good day of birding!

Pacific County Kickoff! - January 4th

Happy 2026, y'all!

Highway 6 views

My Pacific County birding year has officially begun. 

I was hosting karaoke a couple of nights prior to this departure. Trying to pay attention to sound levels, add someone to the list, and. . . King Tides?? Two different TVs with two different channels on were both showing the weather. And a lot of the focus was on the Pacific Coast, with winds coming in, weather systems pushing in, and King Tides.

Science time! I'm more of an astronomy guy than an earth science guy, but this all tracked. You usually get bigger tide differences near full and new moons - higher highs, lower lows - because of Earth, the sun, and the moon all lining up (syzygy is the associated Scrabble word, should you find yourself with a blank tile for that third y). Those are called spring tides. Full moon was on Jan 3rd. Add to that, we are closest to the sun every year around Jan 4th (aphelion won't score you as many points, but it's still fun to know). Spring tide plus aphelion gives you a king tide. Highs are higher, lows are lower. Very tide-y.

I looked at my list of birds. Would chickadees care? Would murrelets? Would a Short-eared Owl give a hoot about a king tide?? I started to think on this, but the list of birds was way too long to justify too much thought. I focused on Good Weather. Do birds like good weather? Yes. Yes, they do. Do I like good weather too? Kind of yeah. It's easier to look at birds through dry binoculars, and it's easier to look at birds through a spotting scope that is not getting tossed around by the wind. So, I made the decision:  Sunday would be a go!

Getting Ready

I'd gotten home after 2AM the night before this trip, so I wasn't exactly packed and ready to go. But by 11:45 the next morning (well, *that* morning, I suppose), I'd gotten (I believe) everything together, and gotten out the door. My oil has been changed recently. My tires are behaving. Gosh, I think I even left with all of the various things that I forgot to pack on different trips last year. Maps, battery chargers, my laptop. . . all of them made it into my car. I even came with some food tucked into tupperware to ensure I'd be squared away for some breakfasts and lunches along the way. 

The front seat rundown

1. Camera - with charged batteries this time!

2. This camping pillow makes roadside naps so much better. 

3. Birder's Guide to Washington! Great for specific directions - a little in need of updates, but mostly just amazing. 

4. My gazetteer of Washington State - must must must.

5. Binocs (and 6, the tape holding them together lol)

7. So many miscellaneous lists and charts!

8. Water. Hydrate or die-drate.

9. Coffee. Caffeinate or angry.

10. More coffee.

11. So many colored pens. More on that later.

I was pretty happy with my pre-year lists this time around. It was a good process. Worth sharing. 

Of course, it all starts with a blank county list. All birds that have been seen in Pacific County, with codes for each: Code 1 birds - hard not to find 'em. Code 2 birds - not hard to find 'em. (yes, those are different things!) Code 3 - hard to find them, but they WILL be there. Code 4 - Hard to find them, and they just might not be there. Code 5 - Ha. They've been here, but good luck, buddy.

These checklists are updated annually, but there are a lot of lists and a lot of birds, so they're not perfect! 

My next step was to hop into eBird. This is the site I use to track my observations. These get saved and shared, giving us a huge database of bird sightings. Useful for people out looking for birds, and even useful to scientists. I went into the "Explore" tab, and clicked on "Target Species", which allows you to see what birds you might find in an area that you need for this list or that list. Given that I hadn't birded in Pacific County at all in 2026 (or 2025, when I started planning), I could just pull up the full list of birds. The added bonus? It shows how frequently these birds have shown up on lists. You get a frequency number that gives a feel for how likely it is that you'll find a bird with some effort. 

I printed out that year list, and then the same list for January: 

This list was used to decorate a printed copy of the checklist above. Birds seen in more than 10 percent of the checklists? Highlighted in pink. 5 percent or more? Yellow. 1 percent or more? Green. This gave me a picture of what I could expect in January. 

By changing the months, I could see how these numbers change over time. Some birds might be easier to find in January than other months of the year. Those are the birds that I wanted to highlight. Or they might just be difficult to find in *all* months but are always present. If a bird was code 3-5 and it had a real peak during winter months, it got a red box around it as a Target Species for my trip. Code 1 and 2 birds? Most of those got ignored, BUT I made a few exceptions. Some of the code 2 birds on the checklist show up pretty far down on the frequency list on eBird. Those got little black dots next to them. 

Finally, I put little eyeball markings next to a lot of the rare birds that like. . . *could* show up? Just a reminder to keep my eyes open, but they were not the birds to guide my plans. End product (including cross-outs for birds that I found!):

How's that for a mess? :)

And as messy as it seems, gosh this helped me on the trip. On the extreme ends, it means that I wasn't making plans around American Crows (which are extremely difficult to avoid) or Golden Eagles (hardly ever seen). This makes a 200-bird list far more manageable! And it kept my focus on some of the hard-to-find birds at a time when they were a little easier to find. Between the red boxes and the little black dots in the margins? About 50-60 birds. 

Getting there

Where is that Pacific County sign? Somewhere around Pluvius! (snip from revisitwa.org)

The first, most exciting piece of information? I can get to Pacific County in under 2 hours. It's about an hour to the south end of Thurston County... another 20-30 minutes to the turnoff for Highway 6... and 15 minutes or so beyond that to get into Pacific County. After a year of birding Walla Walla and Columbia Counties, which are, for all intents and purposes, twice as far away, this was a nice break! 

I hopped out of the car, excited to see (or hear) what the first bird would be.... Steller's Jay (1)! I'll keep a note of the year list totals in parentheses throughout the blog. 

And what a fun bird to start with! During the previous evening, as I was watching the Seahawks at the bar before setting up for karaoke, I was in a conversation with Bill, one of the regulars. "We get a lot of those blue jays in the back yard. A lot of people hate them, but I kinda like them!" 

I did a great job here - didn't even push the glasses up from the end of my nose to announce, "Aaaaaactually, they're not Blue Jays in Washington, they're Steller's Jays." I... it doesn't matter. I mean, it does. I can't wait to see my first Blue Jay in Washington State! They do wander West now and then, but I have not yet caught one. I just nodded and added that my kids are on opposite sides of this line. My son's favorite bird? Steller's Jay. I don't think it's even close. He loves how ebullient and wacky they are, loves their black and blue coloring. 

My daughter? She hates 'em. She is at the University of Washington, living in the dorms, and she gets Steller's Jays on her balcony. They're loud, and not in a sweet way. More of a SHAAACK SHAAACK SHAAACK!!! kind of way. So, outside of the name, Bill knew all of the important things there are to know about Steller's Jays, really. 

While the magic of this magical turnoff from Highway 6 was undeniable. . . the lack of any other birds was also undeniable. I sat, listened, and eventually gave up on this particular spot. Several other pullouts grabbed my eye, one of which was up against a little pond. The Willapa Hills Trail could be accessed from many of these spots - a 56-mile trail running from Chehalis to South Bend. At these other spots, I started to add birds. Common Ravens (2), Pacific Wrens (3), and Song Sparrows (4) were some of the first to join the list. Then I found a nice little sparrow patch, adding Spotted Towhee (5) and Fox Sparrow (6).

Fox Sparrow, showing off the chevrons

Buffleheads! (7)

One of many rainbows during the trip

Other birds along the way: Bald Eagle (8), Red-tailed Hawk (9), Chestnut-backed Chickadee (10), Northern Flicker (11) and a loud bunch of Red Crossbills passing overhead (12).

Elk Prairie Road

I love this lil' road! It took a second to realize it, but I'd been here an age ago, back in 2011, when I did my first blog, trying to see 39 species of birds in 39 counties during the year to celebrate turning 39. There's a dipper spot here. I'd checked eBird, and... remember that ebird report you can run, giving the frequency of observations? American Dipper has been reported on 0.2% or so of all lists. There's 220 or so birds that have been seen more frequently, including all but 10 or so of the code 3 birds. So, this was definitely a target bird!

Would not be shocked if my feet were standing less than a couple of feet from 
here 15 years ago!

I looked... I listened... I moved along. 

There was some nice farmland to survey as I continued along the road. This brought me two raptors in the drizzle. 

Cooper's Hawk (13)

American Kestrel (14)

The kestrel was not the last of the day. It wasn't even the last for this bit of road. They're listed as Code 3 birds, but they are seen more frequently than ten or so Code 1 birds! As I described, there are a lot of ways to look at these numbers to help guide expectations and planning. It was still nice to get this species located - and they're really pretty birds!

A much more distant tree-topper Kestrel in the rain

I returned along the same path and made another stop to check for American Dipper. Yahtzee.

American Dipper - bird 15 for the year. 

These guys are fun to watch. They get their name from their constant habit of doing squats. Dipping up and down. They're not much to look at when it comes to color, but that's how they like it - need to make sure the caddisfly larvae don't see them hunting from the rocks!

Onward to Raymond

I pressed on, stopping now and then, when things seemed birdy. One house in particular was pretty productive. The Golden-crowned Sparrows (16), Dark-eyed Juncos (17), and Eurasian Collared-Doves (18) around their property hinted that there might be a feeder in the back yard. I found my first European Starlings (19) here as well.

Eurasian Collared Doves

A Ruby-crowned Kinglet here (20), a single Canada Goose (21) in a field, and I finally entered Raymond. Case Pond was an easy stop, and I got my first Belted Kingfisher here (22) along with another Bufflehead on the pond. 

Rock Pigeons (23) - not a difficult bird in the county, 
but not as ubiquitous here as in other counties

I found the motel, got to the lobby, and waited. The radio played operatic pieces, and I just kind of dozed off to it in a chair next to the "Be right back!" sign. I texted the number at the desk and decided to make a quick run up to the airport for some birds before I lost light for the day. 

Snow Geese! (24)

These are so easy to pick out, even in poor light, in the middle of countless Canada and Cackling Geese (25). I wasn't shocked to find them - I knew that Snow Geese had been seen now and then in local flocks - but every tougher bird just means more time to look for others! I called the hotel, and this got an immediate response (looks like this is greatly preferred over texts). I headed right back and got checked in at the Golden Lion. 

Comfortable place to stay for the night, outside of the wifi problems

I tried to connect to the wifi, but gave up on it and just walked across the street to the Pitchwood Inn and Tavern. Pretty hungry at this point, I knocked back a pizza, a pint of beer, and an oyster shooter (not my last of the trip!). Somehow, in life I have never had an oyster shooter. Plenty of oysters, and I love slurping them down. But this was my first time doing it with a cocktail sauce-and-lemon escort. Good lord, just typing about it, and I can taste it again. It's oyster heaven down here, so I'm excited for the year. 

Maybe hard to see, but the checklist on the left shows how colored pens saved my bacon.
I would use a different color each time I made a stop, and could just enter the number of birds
of each species seen at that stop. 
This is officially my new no-smart-phone solution for keeping accurate records!

I got some eBird entry done, checked emails, settled up, and went back across the street. I got to bed fairly early. The dreams were the same dreams I always have at the start of these years - dreams of owls!