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| Breakfast at the Tokeland Hotel |
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| Shared bathroom. No problem! Nearly no water pressure in this particular bathroom? Kind of a problem! |
I'd finished the previous day with 144 species for my year list in Pacific County. (One more than I had reported in the last post, because I had forgotten to add Savannah Sparrow to the list!) I started the day by scanning Graveyard Spit. I found a few nice vantage points, but all of them gave me some of the other dozen or so shorebird species I'd already seen. No Long-billed Curlew anywhere I could see. A good year needs a good nemesis bird, I suppose!
And you know... one nemesis from more than one county in years past was the humble American Coot. They'd been seen recently at Potter's Slough, so I eventually hung up my hopes of finding a curlew -- exchanging them for coot dreams.
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| No curlews detected! Graveyard Spit |
And not just coots! I had hopes for many species at Potter's Slough, including recent sightings of American Bittern, and a reasonable hope for Cinnamon Teal. All kinds of reasons to get out to the slough, get some walking in, and find some good birds.
Short Stop
I did stop at a pull-off before getting to Raymond. A field was rightly covered with shorebirds. As I zeroed in on some Wilson's Snipes, I also had an American Pipit fly past - not the easiest bird to find in the county!
Potter's Slough
What a nice little hike! It was sunny (someone remind me to start putting sunscreen on...), and there was a light breeze. Just nearly perfect weather. Almost immediately after getting out of the car, I heard a familiar sound far overhead. The bugling call of a Sandhill Crane (145). The bird was so high up. . . I scanned the huge sky looking for the bird but never got eyes on it. This is a species that has been reported in many different parts of the state this week. They are definitely on the move! In Pacific, they are listed as a code 3 bird - seen annually but not easily found. eBird runs on a slightly different method, and it was interesting to see that there are over 240 different species seen more frequently than these cranes in Pacific County!
I continued walking and soon heard some Soras calling. This is a species I'd picked up just the day before - a code 4 bird which is actually seen more frequently on eBird than Sandhill Cranes! Over the course of the morning, I got to hear two of these birds, including the full range of vocalizations, from "kerwee!" to their whinny call, and even a sharp "kreek!" they give.
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| One of many Marsh Wrens |
Swallows galore flitted over the ponds at Potter's Slough. Yet another species that went into the heard-only pile of birds was Northern Rough-winged Swallow (146), giving its repetitive spray-bottle/fart call as it passed by. Not unexpected, but on the early side! The forests of the Willapas behind the slough run right down to the edge of the area, but they were pretty quiet for the morning. Black-throated Gray Warbler had been reported here, and it made sense to me, given all of the evergreens, but I still couldn't seem to find one.
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| Northern Shovelers |
It was a ducky morning! There were Gadwall, scads of Northern Shovelers, and even some Wood Ducks in attendance. I did not find any American Coots. The cranes would have to be a consolation prize. Not the birds I was looking for.... but maybe a better find! There were still a couple Buffleheads lingering around, but so few... could it be that the Northern Shovelers had just come out of their Bufflehead plumage?? Likely.
I got fooled several times on American Bittern. I would hear a low sound, pause, and realize it was just a passing car or truck hitting the rumble strips on the highway. I stopped periodically to listen for the oompa loompa calls that they make. It had been a good place for herons so far this year, with Great Blue Herons, and Great Egrets. It would have been nice to get a third heron.
I scanned the sky, and again, came across not the birds I was looking for, but something a little better, perhaps: American White Pelicans! (147)
These, again, are code 3 birds, but one of the tougher code 3 birds on the county list. Ten of them circled overhead. I was happy that one of the new year birds was kind enough to pose for me! And yeah, not quite in the same family, but they are at least in the same order of birds - Pelecaniformes.
Back to the road to head back towards my car, I nabbed a photo of another bird that had been heard the day before - Savannah Sparrow.
And I gazed out at scads of distant shorebirds using the mud along the bay for a roost. The tide would start properly dropping soon, and they'd go out to really work the mud.
And with that, I nodded in approval at the morning and headed on home!
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