[Tweeters] Pacific County Birding - first trip of the year

[Tim Brennan via Tweeters]

Hey Tweets!

Looking at the weather, it looked like Jan 4-5-6 was going to be giving me rain-beautiful-awful out on the coast, so I made a ran for it. Interesting to see that I can get to Pacific County in about 1:45 (from Renton to the Lewis/Pacific line on Hwy 6), but to get to the far reaches of Leadbetter Spit is nearly 3 and a half hours! This year was supposed to feel closer... and it does... but it's interesting to see that chasing a bird in Leadbetter or McNary could be about the same amount of time.

89 species for the trip! I was able to get American Dipper on Elk Heights Road at a little pulloff. Continuing in towards Raymond on Sunday afternoon, American Kestrel and Eurasian Collared-Doves were found along Highway 6. I went up to the Willapa River Airport and found three Snow Geese mixed in with the hordes of Cackling and Canada Geese.

Early to bed, early to rise - I used the wee dark hours to do some owling on my way from Raymond to Grayland. An early stop on a backroad got me a Northern Saw-whet Owl, probably a feat that is possible up many many similar backroads if a person enjoys looking for owls. I made 5-6 stops along the way from the airport to the cranberry bogs outside of Grayland, picking up 4 Great Horned Owls at three stops.

Grayland Beach State Park was beautiful - the whole day was. I got a little twilight shorebirding done, with a nice long look at a Snowy Plover, and a nice mix of other shorebirds (Least, Western, Dunlin) feeding on some flooded sand. Down on the shore itself, I caught a Horned Lark. Back in the park, there were typical passerines, and close to a dozen Varied Thrushes.

Tokeland was full of shorebirds behind the Tradewinds Hotel - Black-bellied Plover, Least and Western Sandpipers. I also got my only Northern Pintails of the day here. After a year of birding in Columbia County, it's nice to have the ducks back... and I really don't mean to complain, but... all of them are Buffleheads. Not ALL of them, of course, but... Pacific County almost felt like a marginally better Columbia County, plus 3 billion Buffleheads. Other duck species were tough to come by!

At the Tokeland Marina, I got a flyover of three shorebirds - two Willets and a Marbled Godwit. An Eared Grebe feeding in very close was a nice surprise. Plenty of Common Loons, and a couple Red-throated Loons were out in the water.

The Cedar River was a great stop. I picked up Trumpeter Swans here, and there was a lot of shorebird activity, with high numbers of Long-billed Dowitchers and Greater Yellowlegs visible from the trail, and a lot of distant peeps. I also had a Black Phoebe here. Exciting for the moment, as my checklist has it as a code 5 bird, although I am sure that will change.

Potter Slough was a nice walk, and added Lincoln's Sparrow, Marsh Wrens, Northern Harrier, Western Meadowlarks, and Virginia Rail. Nearby Carruthers Slough had a nice flock of American Wigeon, including at least one Eurasian.

Bay Center gave me a couple more ducks I'd been missing - a single Hooded Merganser, and a single Common Goldeneye. A Merlin also made a pass at some shorebirds, making for some excitement.

Tuesday was awful! 😄 I birded through some rain in Chinook Valley to add a few more birds: Sharp-shinned Hawk, Common Merganser, and Wilson's Snipe. At Cape Disappointment, I had steady rain, and steady winds with gusts in the 20s. Here I added Pelagic Cormorant and Pigeon Guillemot. I poked around on my way up to Long Beach, hoping to look at some feeders, but the weather was just pretty miserable! So I headed back after a bowl of chowder.

The blog at pacificcountybirding.blogspot.com will get updated in the next few days.

Cheers,

Tim Brennan
Renton
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