January 14th - Totally not Chasing Birds

Yeah, I'll freely admit that I TOO can do math. And I looked at January 6th (my last day down), and January 14th. And goodness, that's a small number of days in between! 

Snowy Owl sightings
from over the years
at Leadbetter State Park, 
Long Beach Peninsula

Balance is at the heart of the years that I do. I'm going to stand by that. . . but I'm going to be taking advantage of opportunities as well. This trip was a combination of a few things. Writing projects were a few days from ramping up, the weather was supposed to be delightful, I've got some less mobile weeks coming up, and. . . 

To be chasing birds requires birds... in a place... that you go to. I was only chasing hunches. In a Facebook group, someone posted a picture of a Snowy Owl with no location. I think it was stipulated that it was from the coast, but no other information was given. I thought this over... where could a Snowy Owl hide from birders? What's a place where a Snowy Owl would love to be, but also a place that gets very little traffic? My answer was Leadbetter Point.

What a magical destination! Drive out to the southern-most point on the Washington Coast - Ilwaco and Long Beach - and only from there can you turn north up this long narrow peninsula. 28 miles long. 1.5 miles narrow (on average). Driving will take you to the parking lot on the bay side, a hike up the bay side takes you to a trail that lets you walk to the ocean side, and a hike along the ocean, up and around the tip, brings you to some of the richest, most unexplored birding areas in the state. I'd never been, and the weather was telling me I should make my first run! Chasing weather on a bird hunch. That's my stand.

Out the door

I did some cooking in the morning - making up some chicken flautas that would be my lunches. I had another clean round of packing; This was especially impressive because I was essentially packing for a hike that would take over half a day, including a spotting scope and camera supplies. 

I came into Pacific, not over Highway 6 as I did on my first trip of the year, but over Highway 101. It's a long haul to Ilwaco - 3 hours! So, I had cautioned myself to keep the dilly out of my dally. But the highway had a few clearcuts that grabbed my attention. I stopped at one. 

"I love clearcuts"? Is that what I'm claiming? I always hesitate, because they are at least cosmetically and also ecologically unattractive. But are they all bad? I also hesitate there. What trees are coming down? How many? How would they otherwise have obtained those trees? 

Selective thinning is a practice that could probably be done in larger areas for the same number of trees, escaping the notice of many drivers-by. But that is a disruption to a much larger area. Compacting soil and removing some understory over much wider swaths of land. And in a larger forest, it doesn't always *add* to species diversity to selectively thin. A clearcut leaves behind habitat that is used by wrens (especially house), bluebirds, woodpeckers, raptors, and some warblers (especially MacGillivray's and Orange Crowned) that would otherwise not do well with deeply forested habitat. 

Any loss of habitat is a hard thing, but I've just come across too many interesting species along the way that are thriving in clearcuts, so I've found some beauty in them. 

On this run, on a late clear morning in mid-January? Nothing, really! I got a couple Pacific Wrens, a couple of Song Sparrows, and not much else! Traffic noise was a little problem, and at one point when I thought I heard a harsh call from a Hermit Thrush, I was unable to confirm it. 

Potter's Slough

The river is visible distantly on the far edge of this huge field. 
On my last trip, the parking spaces were dry islands in the middle of water.

Yowzer. Getting to see this at nearly low tide rather than at a +11 tide was interesting. The entire right half of the road had simply been the Willapa River on my first trip. This time, it was a wide-open field. A Rough-legged Hawk had been seen in this area recently, so I did my due-diligence, inspecting all of the fenceposts and other low perches across the field. While I didn't find one, I did find some ducks in the ponds forest-side of the highway. This is where I picked up my first new species for the trip, Ring-necked Ducks (90, a number I'll keep tallying parenthetically). 

All the other sloughs... and rivers...

Almost always some beautiful water outside my window as I took 101 south. It took me over rivers and sloughs. It took me past Long Island Passage - a splash of water that separates Long Island from the mainland. I have dreams of making the paddle across later in the year, hitting another little-explored area in this county. 

Cape Disappointment - North Jetty

This was one of the first places that I really didn't get to bird on my previous trip. I had gotten up to the lighthouse, but when I came down to North Jetty, it seemed too windy and wet to warrant a walk on the jetty itself. This time I was met with clear weather and calm skies. On the way in, I stopped for some Bushtits (91) at the entrance, working the many deciduous trees. I parked, and spotted some ducks on the Jetty pond, some Mallards, Buffleheads, and numerous Green-winged Teal. 

Then my first. . . give me a break, it was my first, trip up the jetty began. I climbed up the rocks, and there wasn't anyone to tell me that there was a path at the top. I just got part of the way up and peered out at the birds below. Cormorants flew by... but mostly Pelagic, with one Double-crested. I was short a Brandt's Cormorant for the year and couldn't seem to pick any out. Close looks at a loon did give me another species for the year - Pacific Loon! (92)

Clambering back down, I looked along the jetty and thought it would make sense to walk further down it, hoping to maybe catch some rocky shorebirds playing on the land side of the rocks. This is how I eventually found out that the jetty had a path on top! I walked up and started hiking towards the end. 

I'm curious now about exactly how far it is to the end of that jetty. I pushed on for a bit, but I definitely got to a point where it seemed unlikely that I was going to get any new birds - just wet. I stopped short of the end (the path was also getting rougher) and watched the waves crash into the jetty and into each other. 

On my return, I hopped down from the jetty and explored the beach, where a big pile of gulls was congregating. Most of the gulls were Short-billed Gulls (93), with a small number of Glaucous-winged and Western Gulls, and quite a few more that looked like hybrids of the two. Then I caught a bird with a sizable smudge on its face. Black-legged Kittiwake (94)! 

Beach, with many-a-gull, and North Head Lighthouse in the distance. 

It's just a code 2 bird, so by code it's not all that unexpected. By frequency of sightings on eBird, it's sitting at 168th, only 6 code 2 birds are seen less frequently. I wanted to get closer to get sharper images, and of course the bird stood (showing off the black legs) and flew to parts unknown.

Cape Disappointment Light in the other direction

Interesting! Glad I got the shot and asked the googles.

Northward

I was happy to still have some sunlight, so I looked over my list of possible stops. In the end, I chose to visit a spot in Long Beach where there were, at the very least, some hummingbird feeders, so that I could try for Anna's. The spot did not disappoint! There were a few Anna's Hummingbirds (95) in the neighborhood, some visiting feeders, and one going into a big J-dive. I also picked up another species that will become much easier in the months to come - White-crowned Sparrow (96). 

Interesting... I thought I caught a flash of white throat patch on one of them, so I spent some time getting pics and inspecting them more closely. Some of these included birds that just would not face towards me, making the throat details invisible. Now... the facial patterning is also a help, but what I didn't realize at the time (but realized after giving my photos and field guides a closer look) was that White-throated Sparrows have a gray, never yellow/orange, bill. 

My attention had just always been elsewhere, so it was kind of nice that most of the elsewheres were hidden in the photos. 

Continuing north on Sandridge Road, I came across some Mourning Doves (97). 

Heavily altered just to be able to see any details on these backlit/dimly lit doves

These make for an interesting comparison with the Kittiwakes I mentioned above. Mourning Doves are a code 3 bird but are seen more frequently than Black-legged Kittiwakes, a code 2 bird. They're very similar in frequency! So, it's not like... a glaring error in coding. But it is just a good example of why I use the codes as a start, then eBird to dig a little deeper. 

I continued to 227th. What an amazing little road! There were several points along this road where one could stop and view ponds. At one of the first ones, I thought I had a Gadwall. At a later stop, I *knew* I had a Gadwall (98). My third code 3 bird for the evening. (Anna's Hummingbird - 50th most commonly seen species in the county year-round; Gadwall - 145; Mourning Dove - 156).

Dinner

I stopped in at the Cove - a restaurant tied to a golf course. I stared at my options and was of course surprised that there were no oyster shooters available, although they did advertise that their clam chowder had won first prize at a recent Razor Clam Festival. I swear, every restaurant, and likely every laundromat, every vacation home rental agency. . . seemed to have the best chowder in town. 

I veered off course, however, from my try-every-chowder plans. There was a sandwich calling my name - a Reuben.

Was it a Reuben? It was pastrami snuck in there, rather than corned beef, so I know some purists would be vehemently opposed. But... there was sauerkraut, not slaw, so it wasn't quite a Rachel. Why should this matter? My fellow listers will understand as soon as I add the distinction - this would be a lifer. 

And just as we can't leave well enough alone and simply enjoy a warbler with beautiful combinations of different streaks and washes borrowed from Townsend's and Hermit Warbler parents, I can't "count" this as a lifer sandwich. Hybridization. But it really was a tasty sandwich. Interesting - I barely noticed any of the individual ingredients. It wasn't dripping with thousand island dressing, it wasn't a big gooey mess of Swiss. But all of it worked together. Good sammy. Would recommend. 

And there are recommendations out there about not trusting a skinny chef... the kitchen was open, and I could see everything getting tossed around by a mountain of a man at the flat top. It engendered trust. 

The conversation wasn't bad either. The night was just slow enough for conversations to happen between two of the staff. I got mixed into the conversation and got to hear a little of the local gossip, local concerns. It's part of why I do these trips - to see the things that are common across the state - to see the things that affect specific parts more than others. It's not a bad bit of amateur sociology. 

I wrapped up dinner and started back towards Ilwaco where I had a room waiting. One stop at Black Lake, trying for Barred Owls - nada limonada, as they say. I figured the drive back up the peninsula the next morning might give me some more good chances to try for Barred, Northern Pygmy- and Western Screech-Owls.

98? 98! Quite a few species picked up for the day, with promises of pleasant skies the next day. 

January 6th - Probably not My Last Stormy Day in Pacific County

The previous night had been another early-to-bed-and-rise situation. I'd spent the entire day out driving, hiking, and peering through optics at birds. And it had been gorgeous. Sure, there were some sprinkles at different times, as well as threats of more, with gray clouds passing overhead occasionally. But all in all, Jan 5 was a nearly immaculate day. I was sitting at 83 species for the year, and 77 of those had been seen between 2 AM and 5 PM.

This day, however, was not shaping up to be a "good" weather day. 

"Good"? Well, for some people, there's nothing better than a gusty day at the beach, with big waves pounding the shore and torrents of rain falling all around. I'd assume it's a pretty strong split between people who love these days, and people who "are smart enough to get out of the rain" as the expression goes. There's nothing about 30 mile an hour gusts that would lead to neutral responses. 

Which side do I take?? I feel like context shapes my response to these days. Being out on a day with steady rain and so much wind while trying to see birds? There may be some disappointment mixed in here, but all in all, it just kind of tickles my funny bone. I'm not a Pacific County resident who can just stay inside instead of birding. I'm not someone running down for a single day of good weather. I'm usually coming down to make a few days of it, so there was really no choice, but to step out into the lousy weather and make the most of it. 

I started the day with a McDonald's stop. I really want to support local businesses as much as possible, but they were open at 5, and I knew what I'd be getting!

The Plan

Rain smashing my windshield, I pulled my McHashbrown out of its little cardboard sleeve, and asked myself precisely this, "What's your plan here, Buddy?" There were a few hours of dark remaining. I mean. . . I could go owling, but this was not the weather for it. So, until the weather decided to give me any sort of break, it was just going to be driving south from Raymond. 

If I had gotten any break, I would have looked for a place to try for Barred Owl. A more focused search for Western Screech-Owl habitat would have been fun as well. My focus instead was on staying alive. Visibility was awful, drivers were tailgating me, and there were opportunities aplenty to hydroplane off of the road. 

Further and further south on 101. It didn't even sink in that I'd forgotten the name of one of my destinations...Nemah? Nahcotta? Something N... I got to a junction offering me a trip this way to Ilwaco or that way to Astoria. In confusion I pulled off. Naselle!

That little stretch around Naselle has had some good owl sightings. It still wasn't looking like the best morning for it, but I had hopes that the hills between Naselle and Chinook might give some kind of shelter from the storm? It really never did. I was all the way down to Fort Columbia by the time I gave up on owling and shut the eyes for a little rest before sunup. 

Sunup?

I don't think there ever was a proper "sunup" per se on this blustery day! I figured that, rain or no rain, it wouldn't be hard to pick out a Rough-legged or Red-shouldered Hawk on a tree or fencepost, so I turned into a road that led into the Chinook Valley.

I did find a hawk here! But not the kind I expected. A Sharp-shinned Hawk (species 84 for the year) zipped across the road in front of me. Small head, squared-off tail. Lord, it was nice to have BOTH accipiters found for the year (Cooper's Hawk and Sharp-shinned Hawk... I guess American Goshawk is still a pie-in-the-sky dream). They really aren't ones that you can look for in the same way you do with so many other species. Just one bird, but it felt like progress... felt like... not driving around aimlessly in October looking for a Sharpie!

And the Chinook River... goodness. This is probably the part of the drive that most drove me bazonkers in regard to the Buffleheads.

Not a lot of places to pull over. Not a lot of places with good views of the river. Not a lot of anything besides Buffleheads on this river. But then... I saw a bird that looked different. I pulled over... I walked... I saw a bird flap out of view around the corner. I found another bird, got excited. It was a Bufflehead. I found another bird. It dove. I looked around and didn't see it surface... steady rain coming down on me. I started walking again. It went up farther around the corner. 

My car is parked somewhere back around that corner. The parking is either like... in a driveway, or partly hanging out in the road. It's just not great. But I walked fully out of view of my poorly parked car just for this ridiculous bird. 

I finally got a look that ... had me convinced that I'd just gotten an awful look at a Common Merganser (85). I got better views of one later, so I included this one here but good lord. What a lot of work for what would normally be a pretty common duck! Again, this was par for the course for nearly every species of duck during this trip.

So much of this river is just out of view over an embankment or behind a home, etc etc. I have been considering the purchase of a kayak... and this kind of paddle would seem like a fine reason to pull the trigger on that purchase! American Coot, Gadwall, Ring-necked Duck, Goldeneyes, Ruddy Duck... I've been thinking of all of the species that might be tucked around some of these corners!

I finally gave up on trying to relocate this bird, and kept driving along the road. I came to a bit of water with scads of waterfowl. Canada and Cackling Geese, Mallards, Buffleheads, and ... Green-winged Teal! (86)  I only saw 3-4 in binoculars, but some of my pictures show that there may have been more waaaay back. And then another bird flew in... strange flight, for a duck, and when it landed... strange posture for a duck. My binoculars showed that this was because it was not a duck!

Craptastic picture of a Wilson's Snipe > no picture at all!

87! Despite some awful weather, I got four birds added along these roads. It was a little past 9 when I decided to keep pushing ahead to Ilwaco.

Ilwaco Marina

Ilwaco marina

More sideways rain here. I found that I had better luck viewing the blobs on the water if I had the car at least facing the right way. Facing the wrong way invited a lot of rain into the car! But circling around the marina, I got views of a Double-crested Cormorant, more Buffleheads, and my second Hooded Merganser of the trip. 

Even this was a small success, after having one of these little guys (well... girl here) fly away at first sight. 

A town I'll need to properly 
visit in the future

I pulled into Ilwaco and then turned towards Cape Disappointment. 

Fort Canby State Park Cape Disappointment State Park

This confused me for some time, but it turns out that this was just a name change. The park still includes Fort Canby, but the name has changed. It took me a minute to get my bearings. If asked to draw a map of the grounds, even now, I would fail to do so accurately. If asked to point north at any time during my visit, I would have failed to do so accurately. But this is what I remember from the fog. 

I did head to the lighthouse trail. The trail itself was not that birdy, but I did have some Golden-crowned Kinglets and Pacific Wrens along the way. I passed a sign letting me know that I could take the side trail to Deadman's Cove. Hey... under better weather conditions, maybe? But I was on a mission to get to the lighthouse. 

I made it. 

Gusts at the top were higher than anywhere I went that day. At times, I could almost lean in to the wind without falling. 

Suddenly, of all things, a Pigeon Guillemot (88) briefly popped into view, diving ... into the cliff below me! Makes sense, I suppose, although all alcids were kind of off of my radar for the moment. Far below in the waves, I was able to pick up only a handful of Surf Scoters enjoying very surfy conditions. 

On the other side of the cliff (North? South? it was at least *facing* the jetty) I saw a Pelagic Cormorant (89) fly from the surf to the cliff wall as well, perching in place, half-way up the cliff. 

Just a little past King Tides, it was still fun to watch the wind and water working together, continuing their little conversations about "forever" with the rock cliffs below. Thank the lord for fences, because the wind was going to toss me around otherwise.

I peeked back at the lighthouse and got a good chuckle out of the fact that there was someone inside. Safe from the weather, and oblivious to me out on the lawn. I briefly chuckled thinking of this as some breach of etiquette - not coming out with at least a cup of coffee! A gust of wind got me fully laughing, and it was time to be smart enough to get out of the rain. 

Dead Man's Cove from above

I took the road down to North Jetty. I'd seen it from the lighthouse and had to at least survey the situation. A Birder's Guide to Washington described the birds that could be seen from the jetty. It also described how silly it would be to venture onto the jetty when weather is unpleasant. This counted as unpleasant. One of the park rangers parked in a truck nearby would certainly have agreed. Might have been a great viewpoint for shooting pictures of waves hitting the shore! But I am not sure that any birds would have found shelter on the other side of the rocks. 

Back into Ilwaco, and up towards North Beach. I made one stop at Black Lake to get a better view of some Common Mergansers - a bird I'd gotten a diagnostic but unsatisfying look at earlier. 

Dashing out in the rain for documentation. lol why?

I drove some back roads in Long Beach once I arrived. To be clear... even the back roads aren't all that far back. It's the ocean. . . a mile and a half or so . . . and it's Willapa Bay. This is a long, narrow peninsula - one that I'm looking forward to exploring in the year to come. But today was not going to be very exploration-heavy.

Uh. . . maybe not accurate, but hey?

I made one stop at this entrance to Long Beach out on Bolstad. I pulled over mainly to watch wind toss the sand around. I'll drop three images here - download them all and flip through them quickly. Trust me, it's almost like you're there. Thinking of calling this technology "moving pictures". It'll be really big someday, I figure. 

Very late morning, I stopped in at Scoopers, hoping that they might have wifi and a table. Nope! But they directed me down to Hungry Harbor. The sign outside proudly proclaimed that there was free Wifi. I sat and listened to rain pelting the windows, working on some clam chowder and a cup of coffee. Boy, I looked, and I thought. . . I had a passing thought of looking for some birds on the way back. Maybe another pass through the Chinook Valley? But that would have added another half hour to my trip. . . anything to chase in Wahkiakum County if I took that route?? Not really. 

So, I opted for the direct route. Straight up the coast to Raymond, taking the 101 to Olympia from there, and onward to home. 

at Hungry Harbor - 40 years of collecting Christmas villagey pieces!

And where from here?? 

• I generally plan on coming out once a month. Pacific County has me thinking of maybe doing a little bit of chasing. I'm looking at open windows to follow up on an interesting code 4 or 5 bird if it seems chasable. 
• If I do make it down for a chase like that... It just seems like the Long Beach Peninsula would be the logical follow up. Feeders in Long Beach, a safe look at North Jetty, gull sorting on the beach, and even a little pond where I might be able to find (heart be still) coots!
• Leadbetter. :) Nobody in their right mind makes trips out to Leadbetter, so I'd really better get out there. Besides, I have hunches.
• Owls. 
• And otherwise, it's looking at birds that are LESS difficult right now. Thank goodness it's a shorter list now, to the tune of 89 species. Some make sense - gotta get some hawks, gotta get some gulls, gotta get some sparrows. But Hermit Thrush? Noooooo.... By month, it goes like this (based on eBird - percentage of checklists that include Hermit Thrush sightings.... I think that's the number, but regardless, a higher number is better.)  Jan - 6.2% Feb - 3.25% Mar - 1.65% Apr - 1.78% May - 0.23% Jun - nope.. July, August - nope!! The thing is, my preferred way of finding Hermit Thrushes is listening to them sing their full song on some mountain hike in the summer. That isn't happening this year! Just one of the little discoveries eBird is throwing at me. So, this will be a feeder bird, as likely as not.  

And where will this take me by year's end? Lots of lovely places. Number-wise, I'd put a shiny nickel down on a number like 215 (the year list record being 220). If I can get out on pelagic trips this year into Pacific County?? Maybe a little farther. But that may be a challenge, with most trips just heading into waters in Grays Harbor County. 

We shall see!