Running Tally and Needs List

Here we go again!

This will be one of the most interesting years I've done. Most of the time, when I do single counties, they are under-birded counties (as Pacific County is!), but I've never stepped into one where the potential species total is quite so high. Some of the easiest birds are going to be tough (I think. . . although my thoughts going into a year are hit or miss), and some difficult birds are going to be easy. Just. . . in the sense that Pacific County has far more code 4 birds and code 5 birds than your typical under-birded county. Here's the list! And we're going into the 4s and 5s this time. 

Code 1 Birds (87 of 90 species seen)

These are birds that are listed as "Common". I'd hope to find all 90 this year without too much planning.

January gave me 55 of these species! I was fortunate to get a complete day of gorgeous weather, and the birds definitely showed up.

Second January trip landed me 5 more of these. 

February - Spotted Sandpiper. Phew! One of the toughest code 1s. Along with four other code 1 birds.

March was an excellent month here. New birds rolled in (Violet-green Swallow, Rufous Hummingbird, Orange-crowned Warbler, Turkey Vulture), and I was able to find some other birds that had been tough to find (Common Murre, Brandt's Cormorant, Red-breasted Nuthatch, American Goldfinch). I love that this list has gotten so short so early!

April trip (so far), I have snapped up Savannah Sparrow, Brown Pelican, Barn Swallow, Short-billed Dowitcher, and Common Yellowthroat. 

May - one trip in, and I knocked out a good handful of these Western Flycatcher, Warbling Vireo, Brown-headed Cowbird, Black-throated Gray Warbler, Wilson's Warbler, and... Swainson's Thrush? May 1st felt early! Cedar Waxwing was slower coming - not until I came across some in a clear cut in the Willapas! This sent me into June with just five code 1 targets left. 

1. White-winged Scoter
2. Black Turnstone
3. Common Tern (182nd most seen bird - 0.527% of trips)

Not much to say here! I should get all 90. As always, it will be interesting to see if the code matches my experience. There are two species I flagged - Bushtit and Spotted Sandpiper. It would not be the first time that Spotted Sandpipers gave me trouble! Bushtit doesn't have me quite as worried.(Got it! 1/14) Spotties are one of those birds that are "everywhere... and nowhere...", a description given to me about Ruffed Grouse in Mason County. Everywhere and nowhere birds are the worst.

Common Terns. . . there are many code 3 birds, some code 4 birds, and even a code 5 bird seen more frequently than Common Terns.

July brought me 8 billion Heermann's Gulls and Sooty Shearwaters, leaving me with only three species left on this list!

Code 2 birds (53 of 64 birds... and a pheasant)

"Uncommon" is the descriptor here. I tend to phrase it this way: Code 1 birds = hard not to find. Code 2 birds = not hard to find. Code 3 birds = hard to find. I think it means that any Code 2 bird is not hard to miss, potentially, if you're not specifically looking for it. I do not expect to have that experience with Least Sandpipers this year! But do note the puddle ducks on the list. This is a salty county, so I am ready to hunt down some freshwater to find some of those 2's. 

January, as noted, gave me at least one clear, beautiful day. So, I got 20 of these birds on my first trip. None of these have me nervous... yet. :) Peregrine always does. They always seem to be on my short needs list near the end of the year! But some other birds (Sharpie and Coopers, Lincoln's Sparrow) have also been trouble for me in other years, so I don't mind having them cleared off of the list.

Second January trip took six more birds off of this list. (Ring-necked Duck, Black-legged Kittiwake, Pacific Loon, Herring Gull, California Scrub-Jay, and Hermit Thrush)

February: Greater White-fronted Goose, Iceland Gull (one of the tougher 2s!), Pileated Woodpecker, Brown Creeper

March: Northern Shoveler, Band-tailed Pigeon, Whimbrel, and Barred Owl. Not bad, but... gosh it hurt to see that a pelagic trip had wandered into Pacific County and knocked off some of these birds! Onshore birds that I'd hoped to find were Wood Duck and Brant. 

April - I got my Wood Duck and Brant! Also, Lesser Yellowlegs, Brant, Red-breasted Sapsucker, and Townsend's Warbler

May - Yellow Warbler, Western Flycatcher, Cliff Swallow, Osprey... and lol for what it's worth, I did hear a Ring-necked Pheasant. Second Trip: Western Tanager, Black-headed Grosbeak, Ruddy Turnstone, and Red Knot.

June: Olive-sided Flycatcher, Willow Flycatcher, Vaux's Swift - all easy pickups at the start of the month.

August - Rhinoceros Auklet!

1. Surfbird 
2. Pectoral Sandpiper
3. Parasitic Jaeger
4. Bonaparte's Gull 
5. Black-footed Albatross
6. Fork-tailed Storm Petrel
7. Northern Fulmar
8. Buller's Shearwater
9. Pink-footed Shearwater
10. Peregrine Falcon

Some of the birds in here that are listed as lower frequency seem to be semi-pelagic birds - things like Parasitic Jaeger, Black-legged Kittiwake. Is semi-pelagic a term? I made it up. They're seen at shore they're seen on pelagic trips. I have never been on a pelagic birding trip in my life. This will be interesting! There will be new storm-petrels, shearwaters, and albatrosses on my life list by year's end!

Pheasant is being scratched from the list. On eBird, it's listed as introduced, so I'll leave it uncounted. 

Yaknow... Hermit Thrush... Lincoln's Sparrow... Merlin and Peregrine Falcon...Cooper's and Sharp-shinned Hawks... These are all ones that may have also given me trouble in the past. I'll keep 'em on my radar!

In a normal one of these years, I might miss one or two of these birds. I'd really like to close out the 2s this time! That would make 153 birds, together with the code 1 birds. 150 for a year is the goal in this decades-long project that is taking me to every county in the state! So, there's some optimism here.

Code 3 birds (34 of 62 species)

As noted above - hard to find. 

January felt like a great start on these birds (12)! I made many of them targets (more so than the code 2 birds), and this plan seemed to pay off. Owls (Northern Saw-whet and Great Horned) aren't always good targets in January, but the weather was amazing, and I had success at nearly every stop. American Dipper was a great one to get out of the way, Willet and Snowy Plover - I knew I was going to the right places, and they just showed up for me. 

The second January trip landed me four more - Anna's Hummingbird, Gadwall, Northern Pygmy Owl, and Mourning Dove.

February - Rough-legged Hawk and Canada Jay

March - Western Bluebird, and American Pipit.

April - Ruffed Grouse, Sooty Grouse, Sandhill Crane, American White Pelican. Two grouse that were definitely trip targets, and two flyovers that definitely were not. 

May - Western Screech Owl, Purple Martin, Evening Grosbeak, and Red-necked Phalarope; Trip 2: Hammond's Flycatcher, MacGillivray's Warbler

June - Western Wood-Pewee, American Bittern and Common Nighthawk.

July - American Barn Owl!

August - Cinnamon Teal was a nice chase. Semipalmated Sandpiper was just a nice find.

1. Canvasback
2. Harlequin Duck
3. Black Scoter
4. Ruddy Duck
5. American Coot
6. American Golden-Plover
7. Pacific Golden-Plover
8. Long-billed Curlew
9. Baird's Sandpiper
10. Wandering Tattler
11. Red Phalarope
12. South Polar Skua
13. Pomarine Jaeger
14. Long-tailed Jaeger
15. Marbled Murrelet
16. Cassin's Auklet
17. Sabine's Gull
18. Glaucous Gull
19. Arctic Tern
20. Leach's Storm-Petrel
21. Short-tailed Shearwater
22. Manx Shearwater
23. Green Heron
24. Northern Shrike
25. Lapland Longspur
26. White-throated Sparrow

There's such an interesting mix of birds here...

First, you have the birds that may have no business being code 3 birds: Willet and Anna's Hummingbird stick out. Birds that are the 48th and 50th most commonly seen species in the county, respectively. They're like... a nice bit of brain sugar, anyway. "Oh my gosh, I just found a code 3 bird!!"

There's more of the pelagic birds. I can't even tell you the number of birds I typed and said "that'd be a lifer. That'd be another lifer..." It's a lot. 

Owls! People don't go to Pacific County to go owling. I am going to Pacific County to go owling. May not be as many breadcrumbs to follow, but the owls are out there! Barn Owls though... goodness, I have missed them in many years. Western Screech is waaaay down on the frequency list, but it does have some sightings in recent years.

MacGillivray's Warbler is not a code 3 bird. :D I mean... I am sure that it is infrequently seen, but in my head, a lil trip up into the Willapas, go find a clear cut, boom, MacGillivray's. Shaking hands with a Western Bluebird, I'd suppose. (Confirmed - both found at clear-cuts on the road to Brooklyn in May!)

And a small number of these will come down to persistence (grouse) and timing (Sandhill Crane). I wonder if some of them may come by kayak? Who knows!

I'm going for all of them! In a typical year like this, I might get 80 percent of them. I hope I can push that up! 80 percent of them would be 48 birds. 90 percent is more like 54-55. . . OR we can just go with nice round numbers: What if I had a clean 200 species between the code 1, 2, and 3 birds? 

The county year list record? 220. So, two higher-coded birds each month could put me over that tally. And in a county where there are so many higher-coded birds, I think this becomes interesting!

Code 4 birds (6 of 52 birds)

These are birds that are not seen annually, but that have a pattern of occurrence - 5+ observations over the years. 

In January, my focus was on getting a lot of species, and especially going after some code 3 birds. My one code 4 bird was an Eared Grebe. Likely the best candidate for a code 4 bird to become a code 3! But I was happy to have one very close to me at the Tokeland Marina to allow for pics and a confident ID.

February - exact same spot. Tokeland Marina! A Barrow's Goldeneye had been previously sighted and stuck around for me. 

No new code 4 birds in March, but in April, I found a Sora just over the county line from Lewis, and a couple more in Potter Slough. 

May gave me a two-fer - a single forest road off of Highway 6 gave me Hermit Warbler and Northern House Wren. 

June - Black Swift

August - Bar-tailed Godwit and Elegant Tern

1. Emperor Goose
2. Tundra Swan
3. Blue-winged Teal
4. Redhead
5. Long-tailed Duck
6. Clark's Grebe
7. Black Oystercatcher
8. Hudsonian Godwit
9. Ruff
10. Sharp-tailed Sandpiper
11. Stilt Sandpiper
12. Rock Sandpiper
13. Buff-breasted Sandpiper
14. Solitary Sandpiper
15. Wilson's Phalarope
16. Ancient Murrelet
17. Parakeet Auklet
18. Horned Puffin
19. Tufted Puffin
20. Franklin's Gull
21. Laysan Albatross
22. Short-tailed Albatross
23. Murphy's Petrel
24. Mottled Petrel
25. Flesh-footed Shearwater
26. White-tailed Kite
27. American Goshawk
28. Red-shouldered Hawk
29. Snowy Owl
30. Spotted Owl
31. Short-eared Owl
32. Gyrfalcon
33. Tropical Kingbird
34. Western Kingbird
35. Say's Phoebe
36. Cassin's Vireo
37. Mountain Chickadee
38. Northern Mockingbird
39. Townsend's Solitaire
40. Snow Bunting
41. Chipping Sparrow
42. Swamp Sparrow
43. Yellow-headed Blackbird
44. Bullock's Oriole
45. Palm Warbler

Wowzer, what a list. Again, the House Wren? EZ PZ. It'll be riding on the back of a MacGillivray's Warbler, up in the foothills. Nobody in their right mind would bird up in the Willapas, right? It's not high-elevation birding, per se, and so much of it is being actively logged. So, I'll be popping up there and finding some of these birds. (Correct on the Northern House Wren!) And a Yellow-breasted Chat (down in the Code 5's). :D

13 of these birds are ones I've never seen. Many of those, again, are pelagic birds. Birds where my "planning" will be "go on a pelagic trip or two". Some of them may involve some chasing - should a mockingbird show up, I have no doubts that it would be chased, reported, etc. And others may take planning, patience, persistence, like Short-eared Owls. I have no doubts that there are a couple of them in the county right now, but one has to be looking at the right time!

Code 5 birds (3 of 99 birds plus 2 additions to the list)

Why list them?? I am about as likely to find a brand-new bird to the county as some of the ones on this list. But it helps my brain to type them out - a reminder of what to keep an eye out for. In some cases, they may actually be birds that are increasing in abundance in the county. 

In January, I found a Black Phoebe, although that is a bird that is seen fairly frequently now. It's just a recent arrival as this species extends its range northwards. Will likely be a 2-3 in years to come. 

May: Red-naped Sapsucker! I didn't find the picture until June and felt pretty silly about it. Fun, fun find along Elk Prairie Road. 

June: Lazuli Bunting. This one came from following up on Elk Prairie Road, where they had been seen several times in years past, but not since. Could just be from a lack of coverage here. 

July: Red-necked Stint! A new bird for the county list. 

August: Common Ringed Plover - another addition to the county list. 

1. Tufted Duck
2. Wild Turkey (??)
3. White-winged Dove
4. Costa's Hummingbird
5. American Avocet
6. Eurasian Dotterel
7. Wilson's Plover
8. Mountain Plover
9. Upland Sandpiper
10. Bristle-thighed Curlew
11. Great Knot
12. Curlew Sandpiper
13. Gray-tailed Tattler
14. Thick-billed Murre
15. Scripp's Murrelet
16. Red-legged Kittiwake
17. Black-headed Gull
18. Lesser Black-backed Gull
19. Slaty-backed Gull
20. Black Tern
21. Forster's Tern
22. Arctic Loon
23. Yellow-billed Loon
24. Wilson's Storm-Petrel
25. Northern Giant-Petrel
26. Hawaiian Petrel
27. Magnificent Frigatebird
28. Cocos Booby
29. Snowy Egret
30. Black-crowned Night-Heron
31. Western Cattle Egret
32. White Ibis
33. White-faced Ibis
34. Golden Eagle
35. Swainson's Hawk
36. Burrowing Owl
37. Long-eared Owl
38. Lewis's Woodpecker
39. Acorn Woodpecker
40. Prairie Falcon
41. Eastern Kingbird
42. Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
43. Fork-tailed Flycatcher
44. Gray Flycatcher
45. Dusky Flycatcher
46. Eastern Phoebe
47. Red-eyed Vireo
48. Loggerhead Shrike
49. Blue Jay
50. Clark's Nutcracker
51. Bank Swallow
52. White-breasted Nuthatch
53. Pygmy Nuthatch
54. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
55. Rock Wren
56. Canyon Wren
57. Gray Catbird
58. Brown Thrasher
59. Sage Thrasher
60. Mountain Bluebird
61. White Wagtail
62. Pine Grosbeak
63. Cassin's Finch
64. Redpoll
65. White-winged Crossbill
66. Lesser Goldfinch
67. Chestnut-collared Longspur
68. Rustic Bunting
69. Black-throated Sparrow
70. Lark Sparrow
71. Lark Bunting
72. Clay-colored Sparrow
73. Brewer's Sparrow
74. American Tree Sparrow
75. Harris's Sparrow
76. Vesper Sparrow
77. LeConte's Sparrow
78. Yellow-breasted Chat
79. Bobolink
80. Orchard Oriole
81. Hooded Oriole 
82. Rusty Blackbird
83. Common Grackle
84. Great-tailed Grackle
85. Ovenbird
86. Northern Waterthrush
87. Black-and-white Warbler
88. Nashville Warbler
89. American Redstart
90. Northern Parula
91. Magnolia Warbler
92. Blackpoll Warbler
93. Black-throated Blue Warbler
94. Summer Tanager
95. Rose-breasted Grosbeak
96. Painted Bunting

Oh... so not even 100 birds? C'mon Pacific County, try a little! What can one even say about this list?? I need to...

Go get the Yellow-breasted Chats that are certainly dotted all over the hillsides now. Maybe. And a Black Phoebe? 

Learn my plovers and stare really hard at them. 

Go on a pelagic or two. 

Sparrows and Warblers - that's like... 20 of the birds on this list. And the implication is that there is probably some sparrow or warbler that is NOT on this list that could show up for the first time - Hooded Warbler? A wildly lost Grasshopper Sparrow? I've got to get dialed in on the sparrow patches of Pacific County, and I likely need to spend a lot of time craning my neck upwards at Leadbetter Point, listening, and trying to get pictures through the leaves.

Over 40 birds in here that I've never seen in the state. I'm very aware of my state list...my life list may include some of these that I've forgotten, from trips to North Carolina, California, or Florida. Should be an interesting year!!

Running Tally

1. Snow Goose (3)
2. Brant (2)
3. Cackling Goose (1)
4. Canada Goose (1)
5. Greater White-fronted Goose (2)
6. Trumpeter Swan (3)
7. Wood Duck (2)
8. American Wigeon (1)
9. Northern Shoveler (2)
10. Gadwall (3)
11. Eurasian Wigeon (3)
12. Mallard (1)
13. Northern Pintail (1)
14. Green-winged Teal (1)
15. Ring-necked Duck (2)
16. Greater Scaup (2)
17. Lesser Scaup (2)
18. Surf Scoter (1)
19. Bufflehead (1)
20. Common Goldeneye (2)
21. Barrow's Goldeneye (4)
22. Hooded Merganser (2)
23. Common Merganser (1)
24. Red-breasted Merganser (1)
25. Ruffed Grouse (3)
26. Sooty Grouse (3)
27. Pied-billed Grebe (1)
28. Horned Grebe (1)
29. Red-necked Grebe (1)
30. Eared Grebe (4)
31. Western Grebe (1)
32. Rock Pigeon (2)
33. Band-tailed Pigeon (2)
34. Eurasian Collared-Dove (2)
35. Mourning Dove (3)
36. Common Nighthawk (3)
37. Black Swift (4)
38. Vaux's Swift (2)
39. Anna's Hummingbird (3)
40. Rufous Hummingbird (1)
41. Sora (4)
42. Virginia Rail (3)
43. Sandhill Crane (3)
44. Black-bellied Plover (1)
45. Killdeer (1)
46. Snowy Plover (3)
47. Whimbrel (2)
48. Semipalmated Plover (2)
49. Marbled Godwit (1)
50. Ruddy Turnstone (2)
51. Red Knot (2)
52. Sanderling (1)
53. Dunlin (1)
54. Least Sandpiper (2)
55. Long-billed Dowitcher (2)
56. Short-billed Dowitcher (1)
57. Western Sandpiper (1)
58. Wilson's Snipe (1)
59. Spotted Sandpiper (1)
60. Lesser Yellowlegs (2)
61. Willet (3)
62. Greater Yellowlegs (1)
63. Red-necked Phalarope (3)
64. Common Murre (1)
65. Pigeon Guillemot (2)
66. Black-legged Kittiwake (2)
67. Heermann's Gull (1)
68. Short-billed Gull (1)
69. Ring-billed Gull (1)
70. Western Gull (1)
71. California Gull (1)
72. Herring Gull (2)
73. Iceland Gull (2)
74. Glaucous-winged Gull (1)
75. Caspian Tern (2)
76. Common Loon (1)
77. Red-throated Loon (2)
78. Pacific Loon (2)
79. Sooty Shearwater (1)
80. Brandt's Cormorant (1)
81. Pelagic Cormorant (1)
82. Double-crested Cormorant (1)
83. American White Pelican (3)
84. Brown Pelican (1)
85. American Bittern (3)
86. Great Blue Heron (1)
87. Great Egret (2)
88. Turkey Vulture (1)
89. Osprey (2)
90. Northern Harrier (2)
91. Sharp-shinned Hawk (2)
92. Cooper's Hawk (2)
93. Bald Eagle (1)
94. Red-tailed Hawk (1)
95. Rough-legged Hawk (3)
96. American Barn Owl (3)
97. Western Screech-Owl (3)
98. Great Horned Owl (3)
99. Northern Pygmy Owl (3)
100. Barred Owl (2)
101. Northern Saw-whet Owl (3)
102. Belted Kingfisher (1)
103. Red-naped Sapsucker (5)
104. Red-breasted Sapsucker (2)
105. Downy Woodpecker (1)
106. Hairy Woodpecker (2)
107. Northern Flicker (1)
108. Pileated Woodpecker (2)
109. American Kestrel (3)
110. Merlin (2)
111. Black Phoebe (5)
112. Hammond's Flycatcher (3)
113. Western Flycatcher (1)
     
114. Olive-sided Flycatcher (2)
115. Western Wood-Pewee (3)
116. Willow Flycatcher (2)
117. Hutton's Vireo (1)
118. Warbling Vireo (1)
119. Steller's Jay (1)
120. California Scrub-Jay (2)
121. Canada Jay (3)
122. American Crow (1)
123. Common Raven (1)
124. Black-capped Chickadee (1)
125. Chestnut-backed Chickadee (1)
126. Tree Swallow (1)
127. Violet-green Swallow (1)
128. Northern Rough-winged Swallow (2)
129. Purple Martin (3)
130. Barn Swallow (1)
131. Cliff Swallow (2)
132. Horned Lark (3)
133. Bushtit (1)
134. Ruby-crowned Kinglet (1)
135. Golden-crowned Kinglet (1)
136. Cedar Waxwing (1)
137. Red-breasted Nuthatch (1)
138. Brown Creeper (2)
139. Bewick's Wren (2)
140. Northern House Wren (4)
141. Pacific Wren (1)
142. Marsh Wren (2)
143. European Starling (1)
144. American Dipper (3)
145. Western Bluebird (3)
146. Swainson's Thrush (1)
147. Hermit Thrush (2)
148. American Robin (1)
149. Varied Thrush (1)
150. House Sparrow (1)
151. American Pipit (3)
152. Evening Grosbeak (3)
153. House Finch (1)
154. Purple Finch (1)
155. Red Crossbill (1)
156. Pine Siskin (1)
157. American Goldfinch (1)
158. Fox Sparrow (1)
159. Dark-eyed Junco (1)
160. White-crowned Sparrow (1)
161. Golden-crowned Sparrow (1)
162. Savannah Sparrow (1)
163. Song Sparrow (1)
164. Lincoln's Sparrow (2)
165. Spotted Towhee (1)
166. Western Meadowlark (3)
167. Red-winged Blackbird (1)
168. Brown-headed Cowbird (1)
169. Brewer's Blackbird (1)
170. Common Yellowthroat (1)
171. Orange-crowned Warbler (1)
172. MacGillivray's Warbler (3)
173. Yellow Warbler (2)
174. Yellow-rumped Warbler (1)
175. Black-throated Gray Warbler (1)
176. Townsend's Warbler (2)
177. Hermit Warbler (4)
178. Wilson's Warbler (1)
179. Western Tanager (2)
180. Black-headed Grosbeak (2)
181. Lazuli Bunting (5)