March 30th - Digitally Nomadic Cowlitz Trip, Day 2

Woodland Bottoms

During nearly any of these county-focused years, there inevitably ends up being a place I return to many times. Woodland Bottoms will likely be that place in Cowlitz this year. No matter how many birds I find there, sightings will pop up on eBird, letting me know what I've missed!

Western Meadowlarks are seen here fairly often. I checked with Russ, and he told me they could be found "In the grassy parts."

Everywhere, Woodland Bottoms

Cruising along the north spur of the dike, I found Ring-necked Ducks, Wood Ducks, Mallards, and Green-winged Teal. I stopped numerous times, just listening for the call of a meadowlark. At one point, I wondered out loud, "Would it kill you to pop up on a fence post?" A glance at an American Kestrel reminded me that the answer to this was "possibly."

Scanning for Rough-legged Hawks, I picked up a few Red-tailed Hawks, before finally deciding to pull off to the beach access at Martin's Bar. Great Egrets circled the Columbia, some swinging back to roosts high in the trees. Many of them were getting tangled up with gulls, and I eventually found the mother lode of gulls. 

At this point, the gulls I most hoped to add for the year were Iceland and possibly Bonaparte's. Most of them were California and Ring-billed, with a few Short-billed and a Western mixed in. 

I kept scanning for a small gull. . . spot behind the eye. . . small black bill. . . some of the easy field marks for a Bonaparte's. The gulls were just a little far out for me, as I had only my binoculars and my camera in tow. Snapping distant pictures of the gulls, I did pull up one gull that I thought was a good candidate for a Bonaparte's, with a line of black along the trailing edge of the upperwing. 

Who even posts pictures this blurry? (This guy)
Still, if you have thoughts on this gull - please comment!

Looking at different plumages of different possible gulls, the only ones I could find were Bonaparte's and Black-headed Gulls - far less likely, but not unheard of. So, my skills wouldn't let me narrow it down to a species. 

I returned to the main road, and went south, continuing to keep an eye and an ear open for Western Meadowlarks or Rough-legged Hawks. As I got to the south end of Woodland Bottoms, I got out and heard my first new year-bird of the day, a Savannah Sparrow (95 for the year in Cowlitz). Here, where the Lewis River empties into the Columbia, there were also 100 or so American White Pelicans . . . all sitting comfortably on the Clark County side.

American White Pelicans, probably visiting Clark County at this moment. 

 Oh the joys of county birding. :) I sat and watched them perched. . . flying along the channel. . . and once in a while one would slooooowly start swimming towards the Cowlitz side. . . then turn around, well short of the middle. 

How. . . do they end up drawing a 
county line like this? 

Giving up on hopes of them coming my way, I pulled up my map, and saw that the county line wasn't quite at the middle of the river. 

For full clarity, I was not even considering Austin Point, but the close hug that the county line gave the Clark side farther up. Pelicans flew up the channel, and continued to wander away from the Clark side. . . maybe they had entered Cowlitz? A look at the map. . . a look at the pelicans. . . hmm. Not realizing that the 50 or so of them down on Austin Point were ALL in Cowlitz, I gave up on it, and got in my car. 

And two of them circled into Cowlitz for me. (96)

I had been speaking with someone else later in the week about this, in the context of road trips and the magical moments when you pass into a new state. Such a small difference from one spot to another on a map. . .on a globe! But we've drawn these lines to separate one place from another, to figure out where we are. It's interesting to think of what my birding would even look like if there weren't any of these lines!! 

There are a couple of stray lines and labels, but it's still a fun thought

Would I bird in Oregon? Hm. 

I started to get back into populated areas, and wondered. . . where was that Lesser Goldfinch sighting? I pulled over and found my notebook, where I'd jotted down an address. 6th and Davidson was the cross street I was looking for. 

Oh!

So, that made things easier. I pulled around the corner and parked. A short walk around the park by the thrift store got me nothing but juncos and chickadees. Brewer's Blackbirds were up on a wire, making all kinds of odd sounds, and I thought I heard a Tweeyoo call. I was pretty suspicious of the blackbirds, and wanted to confirm, so I walked over to them. 

"Tweeyoo!" the call came from behind me. I turned and found a female Lesser Goldfinch, perched at eye level in the yard behind me! (97)

One more stop in Woodland Bottoms - Rose Way off of Guild Road. Russ had spotted a White-throated Sparrow here in some of the blackberries lining the road. I did find it (98), mixed in with some Golden-crowned Sparrows and got a bonus in the form of a White-Breasted Nuthatch (99). 

Homeward Bound

I grabbed a quick lunch at Rosie's - standard diner fare - and decided to head home, with a stop at Imboden Road, where Snow Geese had been sighted. It's such an interesting little stretch of road, with a nice bit of water and open fields, just before Cowlitz slips into Lewis. Finding no geese, I turned back towards Barnes Road, hoping to find Brown Creeper or possibly a Canada Jay. The latter is an interesting bird to me - they have a few lowland spots where they'll hang around, including Barnes State Forest. I did end up hearing one, making it a century of birds in Cowlitz for the year. Surprisingly, I could not get it to show itself, despite my best imitations of a potato chip bag. Alas. 

Garter snake- Barnes S.F.

Day 11 in the books!