December 28th - Wahkiakum Christmas Bird Count

What was this guy thinking??

I was admittedly anxious for this day. I'd come up with this idea that I could find 150 species of birds in four counties in the Southwest corner of Washington State in 2023. I'd completed the mission in three counties (Clark, Skamania, and Cowlitz), back on October 31st, and then just put it all aside for a couple of months. All I had left as three species in Wahkiakum County, with plans to come don for the Christmas Bird Count. Even if the birds were there, car trouble, or any number of other wrenches could have gone into the proverbial works -- sinking a year of birding in Wahkiakum (with plans to have a 150 year in every county in the state, I'd need to revisit it deeply in another year). 

I got my assignment - the west half of Puget Island, which I would be birding with Kevin Black. The day was not without possibilities!

Waterfowl: Snow Goose, Redhead, Ruddy Duck

Gallinaceous Goodies: Ring-necked Pheasant, California Quail

Grebes: Eared and Red-necked - both Code 4

Shorebirds: Black-bellied Plover, Dunlin, Sanderling - unlikely, but I'd been thinking of the sandy beach at Ostervold Point.

Gulls: Bonaparte's, Herring 

Loons: Pacific, Yellow-billed! (One had been seen near the county border during the previous week - it had been noted that the bird could be chased by boat, but apparently nobody took the time to get in a boat and chase it to Puget Island.... disappointing. lol)

Raptors: White-tailed Kite, Sharp-shinned Hawk, American Goshawk, Rough-legged Hawk

Owls: Short-eared, and an odd sighting of Northern Pygmy to follow up on

Falcons: Merlin, or a very unlikely Gyrfalcon

Flycatchers: Tropical Kingbird has been seen in winter once on Puget Island!

Shrikes: Northern

Horned Lark - unlikely, but there's a little sand at Ostervold!

White-breasted Nuthatch - recently sighted, and another nice patch with an older historical record

Thrushes: Mountain Bluebird (Come on... why not?)

American Pipit

Finches: Lesser Goldfinch, Common Redpoll

Sparrows: Swamp, Lincoln's, White-throated, and other even less likely things like American Tree or Harris's

Based on this, based on Kevin's needs list, and based on other hoped-for birds during the count, I constructed fanciful bingo sheets for Kevin and me: 

Kevin's Bingo Sheet

My Bingo Sheet

It was fun to have Kevin try to decipher this, but he eventually got up to speed on the Redhead, quail, Red-necked Grebe, etc. in the sheets. Some, like Wrentit, were not going to happen, but if they did. . . how fun to have a Bingo sheet calling out the discovery, right??

The joys of vehicle ownership

My car's check engine light had come on a couple eeks earlier. At the auto shop, they had identified it as a thermostat issue. It had turned off as I left, of course. . . and the holidays came. . . and the light remained off, so. . . I did the holidays rather than bringing it in to get it fixed. 

Noooooooo!

Kevin stopped in at the Longview Fred Meyer to pick me up at 6:00 or so. My plans for these days had not included a visit to an auto repair place, or lodging in Longview, but I'd have to sort some of that out later. From there, it was on to Puget Island!

First birds of the day

I usually reserve the parenthetical stuff for my running yearlist total, but I'll see if I can't reproduce our CBC efforts here. It had been brought to our attention that a birder had recently found 80 species in this area on the CBC. ???!!! I had looked over the list, and as pretty amazed by this, but it was certainly in reach on a good day! The wind was blowing from the east, however, so I knew it might be a tough go as far as seabirds. A west wind might blow them up the Columbia a little bit, but the conditions might just make for slim pickings on the water, I figured. 

Kevin and I hit an area that we knew as good for owls, having gotten permission from the homeowner to additionally walk the grounds once the sun as up to hit the feeders. Strolling up and down the main road here, we got Barn Owls, (1 species for the day) first heard, and then seen flying into the grove of trees. At one point, I as able to see one of the birds silhouetted against the sky with some kind of rodent in its maw.

One of the neighbors as up and about as Kevin and I walked the roads. we actually had a good conversation with him - especially given that we were walking around at dusk with binoculars. when he learned we were doing this through the Audubon Society, he got talking about birds he had seen recently on a trip up to Skagit County. "But not near as many Bald Eagles. . ." he related. It's on the one hand, really cool that people are tuned into patterns like that. It's the hole reason that we do the Christmas Bird Count! To see if species are increasing or decreasing in abundance. 

And part of the beauty of the CBC is that it really does consider long-term trends and includes details like weather and effort data to ensure that fair comparisons are being made. So, in the case of this fellow, he may have had some concerns that were based on fairly anecdotal data (Bald Eagles in Skagit are, to my understanding, thriving these days!). But you see this even within the birding community! On a Christmas Bird Count in King County a number of years back, I remember Western Grebe was missed on the count. This brought a long moment of silence from the count compiler. . . "And that may be the end of Western Grebes on this count. . ." he announced somberly.

It has not been the end. :D Just a few years where the birds spent their time elsewhere, interpreted with excitement by a young-ish compiler. But the CBC turns up important trends for so many different species. Western Screech-Owl comes to mind as one that has been getting harder and harder to find as Barred Owls move in. And climate change has slowly encouraged several species to inch northward each year. This is especially visible in Wahkiakum, here you see Black Phoebes, Great Egrets, and California Scrub-Jays rising so sharply in abundance over time. Across many Christmas Bird Counts, and many years, the efforts to make it a controlled scientific effort pay off in helping us to understand how species change in abundance over time. Even those short- to medium-term shifts in location are important signs of change, and important to monitor. 

Great Blue Heron (2), Song Sparrow (3), American Wigeon (4), and Mallard (5) called from some et fields. Other "junk" birds called as well, and we made diligent counts - part of the fun of the CBC, as we might normally just overlook some of the starlings, etc. Eurasian Collared Dove (6), European Starling (7), House Sparrow (8), House Finch (9), Red-winged Blackbird (10), Spotted Towhee (11), Black-capped Chickadee (12), and American Robin (13) were among the additions as the sun slowly thought about rising. 

Black-capped Chickadee at feeder

Anna's Hummingbird

Checking the feeders, more birds shoed up: Chestnut-backed Chickadee (14, and a tough one on Puget Island!), Golden-crowned Sparrow (15), and Anna's Hummingbird (16). In the distance, I heard a Bewick's Wren calling (17), and the repetitive call of a Black Phoebe (18). Pacific Wren (19) also chipped from some gathered up piles of branches. Lush, soggy, grassy fields - commonplace on Puget Island - proved to be good habitat for a number of raptors. Spotted on various perches were Red-tailed Hawk (20), Northern Harrier (21), American Kestrel (22), Bald Eagle (23), and even a Great Horned Owl (24).

Continuing along the property line, other birds heard at a distance included Red-winged Blackbird (25), Northern Flicker (26), Cackling Goose (27), and Golden- and Ruby-crowned Kinglets (28-29). At one point, Kevin slipped away to the car, and I caught the best bird of the day. Great Egret!! (30) In comparison to the "Good" Blue Herons, I mean. . . it was just no contest. 

Kevin called me back to a chicken pen, where a number of sparrows were feeding on the ground. This included new birds, such as Dark-eyed Junco (31) and White-crowned Sparro (32), and my first new year bird for Wahkiakum - a White-throated Sparrow! (33 for the day, 148 for the year). 

A few passes through the list told me that the other two birds at that location were Common Raven (34), and California Scrub-Jay (35). Sounds about right. 

It had gotten just late enough that I was wanting to move along - headed towards Ostervold Point, where we had chances for some seabirds, gulls, shorebirds, etc etc. 

Birnie Slough Road

This was interesting, just in terms of "how do you make sure birds aren't double-counted?" Birnie Slough runs between Little Island and Puget Island. The other team on Puget Island for the day would also be counting birds from Little Island, so they got the birds in Birnie Slough - up to the end of Little Island. Along the road, and in fields to the south, we picked up some more expected birds: Brewer's Blackbird (36), American Crow (37), and some large flocks of Pine Siskins (38 - and nice to see after they had been so conspicuously absent in the previous winter).

Kevin and I had Pink and Green here

Black Phoebe in the dredge pits. At a distance,
its call echoed off of the sides, giving us a 
nice double-note, and tricking us briefly into
thinking of American Pipit!

This eventually got us to Ostervold Point. I had spent most of the year unaware of this spot but had visited it in October with other birders. I'd added no birds then, but the sandy shore had been so full of gulls, I had high hopes! I had also thought that the East wind might lead some species to take a little leeward shelter nearby. 

Nope! We did add some species for the day: Fox Sparrow (39), Glaucous-winged Gull (40), Downy Woodpecker (41), Double-crested Cormorant (42), Horned Grebe (43), Greater and Lesser Scaup (44, 45), Belted Kingfisher (46), Bufflehead (47), Common Merganser (48), and Hooded Merganser (49). But one of the spots I'd really hoped would get me another year bird had failed to do so. I still believe in this spot - go bird there!

Kevin, giving a Horned Grebe a closer look

Southside

The southwest-facing stretch of the island is interesting. It's got some nice fields to the East, giving us plenty of blackbirds to count (no cowbirds to be found), and even a Red-Shouldered Hawk (50). The road itself doesn't continue along the entirety of the island, turning sharply inward along Welcome Slough, and then curling sharply back to shore on the other side of the slough. This slough did give us some new birds as well, including some Ring-necked Ducks (51), and Pied-billed Grebe (52).

The road becomes Sunny Sands Road as it hits the Columbia again. One of the nicer stops e made during the day as at a heavily treed home. There had to be feeders, I'd think, based on the number of birds, but we never saw any. Just scads of sparrows (Golden-crowned and White-crowned, Spotted Towhee, Dark-eyed Junco, and Fox), more robins than we'd seen anywhere on the count, and our only warblers of the day - Yellow-rumped and Townsend's. (53, 54). Varied Thrushes eluded us all day, making me sad.

I spotted a bit of habitat that looked right enough for Lincoln's sparrow. I didn't get a picture - not of the habitat; not of the sparrow, but: 

Lincoln's Sparrow habitat

There were two of them in here, and they did as Lincoln's Sparrow's do. A few call notes (similar to a Fox Sparrow, but. . . I always feel like Lincoln's is not all "smack" but includes a little more spitting, like.. it's expressing disgust? Lol, we all do what we can for audio.) A bird popped up - long enough to look like a Lincoln's, then dropped back in, with timing completely unrelated to any pishing or playback we did. Lincoln's pop up when they want to, by and large. But hey! 55 for the day, and 149 for the year.

Back on the Columbia, we pulled off for lunch at a spot that I'd missed on previous trips to Puget Island. 

Svensen Boat Ramp

From here we found 8.3 trillion scaup - a dark line of them running towards the shores of Coffee Pot. Our first and only Western Grebe was here, as well as Canada Geese (56), and a Spotted Sandpiper (57).

so... many... scaup...

Spotted Sandpiper

No Tufted Ducks hanging around in the raft of scaup, but Mourning Doves (58) joined the Eurasian Collared-Doves here.

Kevin and I continued to the Ferry Landing and scanned fruitlessly for a bit. The other half of the island had come across a Franklin's Gull, but it had flown up the Columbia, so it couldn't have been relocated by us with any ease.

Coffee in Cathlamet

Kevin and I drove to Cathlamet to regroup and recaffeinate at Patty Cakes. I pulled out the laptop to look for any sightings and to look over patterns in old sightings, trying to dig up some birds for us to go after. It felt like it made sense to return to some of the areas where we'd been owling in the morning, perhaps to pick up a Northern Pygmy Owl. They'd run out of drip coffee during our order, so we got our coffee to go (Kevin's with oat milk!) and off we ran. 

Mission Accomplished

At one of the owling spots from the morning, Kevin and I split up. I found myself walking a forest/field edge, when an owl dove out of its camouflaged position in a tree, dove under a nearby branch, and swooped up and out of sight to another perch. The most striking field mark - lightly colored wrist patches. I'd seen those before! Boom. Short-eared Owl! 

I got Kevin over, and he calmly explained to me that no Short-eared Owl had ever acted the way this one had acted. "It had to be a Long-eared," he told me - the first of eleven people over the course of the day to explain this before I decided to make a call. There had been one other piece of evidence for this bird that put the last piece together for me. As we had owled here in the morning, we had been listening for Great Horned Owl, and got a single low hoot. Long-eared Owls make that call. . . and it doesn't sound too unlike a Great Horned Owl in quality. It's just that. . . Great Horned is only rarely going to just call once. 

So, I could have continued to consider the idea of a Short-eared Owl leaving a perch about 8 feet in the air and flying directly to another tree on the edge of a field. And I could continue to consider a Great Horned Owl giving a single hoot. Or I could just explain both with a single Long-eared Owl. Unlikely as they are, they are really under-detected in Western Washington. The order of events is of course mixed up here, but this turned out to be bird 150 for the year in Wahkiakum for me! and 59 for the day.

Cross Dike Road

Great stop here. We finally got out of the car (parked perilously on the side of a nearly shoulderless road...) and did a bit of walking. From the soggy edges of the road, we got American Coot (60), and Marsh Wren (61). Killdeer! As I'm typing this up days later, I'm trying to figure out the birds I've missed in this tally, and that's one - from several stops during the day (62). And just for a bit of gravy, we came across one more year bird for me - Swamp Sparrow! (63 for the day, 151 for the year). 

As always, the view of the Swamp Sparrow was long, and satisfactory. 

lol

These birds make Lincoln's Sparrows seem like exhibitionists. It called periodically from the water at the bottom of the roadside ditch, popping up once, just long enough to not look like a Black Phoebe (which has a similar call), and diving back in to remain silent. Someday, I'd love to have that long, satisfactory look at a Swamp Sparrow, but today was not that day.

Had to dive and roll for this Great Egret shot.
Totally worth it.

At the far end of this road, we came across a field with thousands of Cackling Geese. I . . . got too close and startled them before we could do a proper scan, although in flight there were clearly no Snow Geese. 

Back to the car, and we started towards Ostervold and Birnie Slough, hoping for some new waterfowl and maybe Bushtits. Along the way, we stopped as we spotted a Peregrine Falcon on a treetop (64).

Ostervold and Birnie Slough again

Hoping for some new species, we gave these spots another try. It was so crazy to see the tide had completely consumed the dredgey beach. Kevin and I had to walk the "cliff" between the now soggy path, and the dredge pit. From the top, we scanned and found no new birds on the water, then got five swans flying past - at least one of them being a Tundra (65) by call. 

And... Bushtit on Birnie Slough was 66. . . and we detoured up Hendrickson Road to find Gadwall for 67. For the life of me, I can't reconstruct (on the third of January now) what three other birds we located during the day, so maybe we actually were short of 70 - a number I'd hastily come up with, counting up the scrawls on our tally sheet! Not 80, at any rate, not by a good stretch. So, hat's off to folks that had squeezed a few more birds out of the area!

Tally ho!

I look forward to the after-count "party", and this one happened at the Duck Inn in Skamokawa (skuh MOCK uh way, for those of you new to all of this). I had a chance to cross paths with some of the good people I'd birded with during the year, and a few others besides, as we ate and drank in one of the cabanas out back. It was a fine place for us to meet, and the waitress handled the group quite well. Gosh, we talked a lot about that owl. Other fun birds found during the day included American Bittern, a leucistic Red-tailed Hawk, Horned Larks from the kayaking groups, and a Mallard-Pintail hybrid. 

Russ and Becky had come over from Longview - an annual thing for them. And they were able to do some recruiting for kayakers to hit the islands in the Columbia on the Cowlitz CBC happening a couple days later. 

Kevin needed to slip out early to relieve his wife who had been on watch-the-little-guy duty all day in his absence. I got a ride back to Longview with Russ. "So. . . where's it going to be next year?" If anyone *gets* the ridiculous way I've approached county birding in Washington, it's Russ. But folks, I didn't have a county to give him as my destination for 2024. There'll be one, no doubt. I'm just taking a few days to let the last year digest properly, and . . . as odd as it may sound. . . I may chase some birds to start the next year!

Now, to clarify, if a Cerulean Warbler shows up in Jefferson County, just as a crazy forexample, I may go running after that sucker, kind of hoping to find it, but maybe more hoping to get a *really* good start on a year. Any time there's a great bird out there, it pulls in a lot of birders, and they usually find a couple more good birds, populating eBird with all kinds of good reports. I have a short-ish list of counties I'm inclined to do, but that is presently the "plan" for the start of the year. No clear indications yet, but I'll see what shows up!

Finis

I actually had time to get to Auto Zone before it closed. They scanned it. "You're fine!" "But. . . there's a check engine light..." "Oh, that's not a bad code. You're fine!" 

I'm oversimplifying the conversation, but in short, I felt safe enough driving it down to Vancouver to stay with the Blacks. 

Safe in bed, and mission accomplished for the year, by the skin of my teeth!