February 10th - New Roads, New Spots, One New Bird

Taking care of business

One of the beauties of freelance writing is that I can do it from nearly anywhere with wifi access. I woke up, checked email, and realized that my owling plans were a no-go. They weren't extensive plans - just hoping to find my first Barred Owl of the year. But deadlines are deadlines! So, I worked out a few last items on a science assessment, reviewed a few curriculum pieces, and watched the sun start to light up the fog outside of my room at the Pitchwood Inn. 

I'd finished the previous day with 115 birds on my year list in Pacific County - a February total that I was pretty happy with! Goals for the year? 220 is the number I am going to go all out for (and in all likelihood, miss - a fact that my sense of humor will weather just fine), 200 species for the year would be a lot of fun, very doable, and would make a good statement about how birdy the county is. Bottom lines are out there too! For the last decade (and for another decade, if God is willing and the creek don't rise) the goal has been to have a 150-species year in every county in the state. 20 down, 19 to go. 

I also have other life list goals - 150 species in every county is a goal I could have reached yeeears ago if I wasn't doing this other silly pursuit! 175 is another long-term goal. I point out these goals because my life list in Pacific was at 149 (!). Exciting to think that even the simple beginnings of this year could bring me to that milestone. 

I just needed one new bird.

But first I just needed breakfast

Hope I spelt this right

I drove out of Raymond, wrapped up with my writing for the morning, and feeling pretty productive. But good lord I was hungry. I drove right past the Raymond MacDonald's. Yes... there is an ease and comfort and affordability to a Sausage McMuffin with egg meal... so it does check some boxes! But I'm not just out here to find birds. I want to get to see more of the people and places. With some work, and a little asking around, I ended up finding the Yellow Deli.

...

If you know nothing of the place... hey, me either Dear Reader. Me.. either. In fact, up there where I typed, "I ended up finding the..." that's where I stopped, before typing "Yellow Deli" and dove into the rabbit hole. 

And now, I get punished for my choices. I choose to do this thing where I don't just talk about birds, and sometimes it comes around to bite me in the butt. Fun fact - the Yellow Deli is kind of a cult. Nope, it's a cult. I'm watching more of this YouTube series from "Reckless Ben", who got in and infiltrated this cult and... it's as culty a cult as one could ever want to be out there culting. And they believe in like... all the bad things one would expect. OR all of the good things that Yeshua has taught us, depending on your point of view! lol goodness. 

Carob... because chocolate is on 
the long list of things
that these folks don't like

What is the most likely outcome of this little PSA? Whether it's dropping in to have a spelt waffle... or a loved one deciding that it might be great to join the movement. Nope. Run, friends. Run! I had a nice waffle, nice enough conversation (I was the only customer that morning), and a nice stroll through the various organic products in their extensive gift shop area (I left with soap). I was surprised at the time that this little deli in this little town was connected to another Yellow Deli on the east coast. I was interested in the free barn calendar which described the Yellow Deli story.

Nothing threw me off as odd at the time. Small processing pauses with almost every comment or question I had with the guy behind the counter, but... I've been around far too many people to automatically categorize it as "odd".

I did have one fun moment during breakfast, as the guy from behind the counter looked out at the water and noted, "Wow... look at that tide." I looked out, saw... nothing of interest. The water was neither high, nor low, and I could tell he saw me not seeing. "That boat?" He pointed out to a small motorboat out in the river, "See how fast it's moving? Its motor's off." 

Across the Willapa River

And then I could see it. I'm really interested to find out how much more I see after a whole year visiting the coast. I have the distinct feeling that understanding the movement of water is going to matter quite a bit as I try to find birds. Good lord. I'm hoping to attempt some kayaking this year. I'd better start noticing things before I put a boat in the water with me in it. 

I ordered up a Rueben to go, got out the door to start my birding for the day. 

South Bend-Palix Road

I'd looked into this road quite a bit! There were a fair number of species that I thought I could pick up here, including Sooty Grouse in spring and summer. I wish I had gotten here earlier in the morning, but hey... if wishes were fishes. Being there earlier may have brought me more singing, although I did get to hear plenty of Hutton's Vireos - one of the highlights of this whole trip. Who knows what else may have been singing. A morning chorus in February isn't much. I may just be too trained to get out when the birds are singing!

I stopped here and there along the road (which, incidentally, turned to gravel very quickly). Each time, I'd try having a little talk with Northern Pygmy Owls. This was in part to get a better feel for where they could be found in the county. On that point, it was a success! I did get one returning a call. The other goal was to call in other birds. Townsend's Warbler? Red-breasted Nuthatch? No luck on either, but I did finally get a call from One New Bird - A Canada Jay (116!). And there it was - the 150th bird for my life list in Pacific. One of several goals (large and small) complete.

Canada Jay, before I threw popcorn out onto the road

I had grabbed a bag of popcorn from my bar's popcorn popper at the end of the night on Saturday, thinking that this would be good for chumming for gulls. The previous day, I had stood on the beach, where I tossed out a handful of popcorn. The 50 gulls on the beach stood unaffected, watching the idiot throwing popcorn on the beach. They'd likely had their fill of crabs, clams, and fish. I wasn't needed. The Canada Jay ... I just figured that any Canada Jay is required *by contract* to come down to a human hand if that hand had food in it. 

So, there I stood, optimistically, for a minute. I tried just spreading it around on the ground. 

Canada Jay - after I threw popcorn out on the road

I fished out the list of Amazing Birding Ideas from my pocket and drew a firm line through "popcorn". I made other stops along the way, with no new birds. I drove as if I expected a Sooty Grouse to be on the road around the corner at any moment. Good practice, if nothing else. There was no shortage of gravel. I couldn't quite figure out why this wasn't Ruffed Grouse habitat. A puzzle for another day. Both of these grouse - the only gallinaceous birds (upland game birds) truly present in the county - were going to be a challenge. 

And this is part of why I enjoy this little puzzle every year. It's a LOT of puzzles. Some of these puzzles would resolve themselves easily - like the Spotted Sandpiper and Barrow's Goldeneye that I'd found the day before. These birds were expected at a location, and they were found nearly immediately. Grouse (along with another hundred birds) would be puzzles. 

The road eventually became paved once again, and dropped down into this amazing meadow. 

There were Mallards. There was a Belted Kingfisher. There just was no evidence of anything more interesting. And it felt like an interesting spot! I couldn't figure out why this beautiful space didn't hold more interesting birds. Whenever I run into puzzles like this, I remind myself that Northern Harriers don't eat meadows, they eat rodents. And here, I kind of did get stuck, because rodents do eat grasses. I stared out across this vast meadow and wondered if this particular grass suited no particular species of rodent. And again, maybe I'm not understanding something about tides.

Here at home, don't think I haven't been watching YouTube videos on water voles and digging into GoogleMaps. This may have borne fruit: 

This matches what I saw

This... is the same location on "Map" view, rather than "Satellite"

The first thing that got me was the contrast between what I saw, and what Google Maps was showing me. Are ya under water or not? Well, the answer is sometimes! And this became an interesting little rabbit hole. Or vole hole, as it were. ChatGPT and all of that AI mumbo jumbo upsets me when it is used for creative endeavors, such as writing, art, music composition... But just out of curiosity, I shot it the address and started asking questions about rodents and owls. 

Not the best picture but look at them legs! Long-legged Fly (this is a *family* of flies)

Man... I don't know about anyone else, but AI liked this spot for Short-eared Owls. With a little bit of querying, it got into the hours when Short-eared Owls hunt, and the tide conditions that have higher rodent activity (likely Townsend's Vole, apparently). And then I asked if there was a day in March when those hours might best coincide. March 22nd looks like my sweet spot. 

five or six questions into the process...

I can't say I won't throw other questions out there in the future. I will still continue to research tirelessly, and email five different people to explore all five angles on the same question; But in cases where it's 10D chess, I'll let Chat have a go at it. I stopped short of having it tell me how to detect voles, or how the wind speed and direction can affect flooding of that meadow. 

Lynn Point Road

Goodness. When I was sitting down and mapping out my trip, this was one place that I figured would be gold for me. It appears to be birded regularly by someone who undoubtedly lives along the road, so maybe there is a little bit of sampling bias here, but I still had hopes for some woodland species (Red-breasted Nuthatch, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Townsend's Warbler) and open habitat species (Peregrine Falcon, Red-shouldered Hawk, Western Bluebird, Northern Shrike, White-throated Sparrow), and maybe even waterfowl (American Coot, Northern Shoveler, Wood Duck). 

American Kestrel

I passed fields that were wide open with lots of perches for raptors. Scanning the fence lines, I found nothing bigger than a blackbird. There were plenty of them - Brewer's and Red-winged Blackbirds, and American Robins littered across the fields. I passed little sloughs where one might hope for some of the ducks mentioned above, or a surprise like a Canvasback. Most were empty, although I did pick up some Common Mergansers in a couple peek-a-boo views. 

Pileated Woodpecker

I passed a trail that I may need to explore later down the road, but my late start on the day had me anxious about heading off on a walk. I continued further, and learned that this road dead ends at a private gated driveway. I turned back around, finding a pull-off in this wooded area to look for some of those woodland species noted above. Two birds that I'd needed for this trip were Pileated Woodpecker and Hutton's Vireo. I'd already picked them up on the first day of the trip, but it was still nice to come across them here. 

On the way back out, I drove up "New Washington Road". Nothing on the sign told me that this was a driveway. . . but it sure felt like a driveway. Now, I really do want to get a good look out here for bluebirds, likely in March, but I'm still a little uncomfortable about it! 

Bay Center

Boy... this wasn't much of a stop. It was a lot of time sitting in a single spot, eyeballing some Black-bellied Plovers. I am on the lookout for the off-brand plovers - Pacific Golden-Plover or American Golden-Plover (among other rarer plovers!). My general sense is that I don't spend enough time picking through some birds, so this little exploration had a simple total of two steps. 1) Find the differentest looking Black-bellied Plover I can find. 2) Find all the reasons it's a Black-bellied Plover. 

This really just came down to looking for black "armpits". When a Black-bellied Plover raises its wings, there are dark marks under the wings that are not seen on the aforementioned golden-plovers. I'll even say with some honesty that I never found these pits on the bird I stared at! Along the way, I was able to just study the bird and get a better idea of the structure and coloring of all of these plovers, going back and forth between field guides and scope views. 

It was nothing but a Black-bellied Plover, but this did not at all feel like a waste of time. Just getting to focus on this group of birds in the guide was a good bit of practice. Hopefully I'll have chances to find both golden-plovers down the road, and I won't be caught flat-footed! 

No other stops on the way home, outside of nap stops and a stop to eat my Rueben sammy. 

It'll be interesting, trying to put together a good March plan! I want to catch some birds before they slip away, take advantage of good peaks for things like Brant and Western Bluebird, and always... always... get me some owls. 

Stay tuned!!

Brown Creeper - Lynn Point Road