January 14th - Kickoff in Kitsap and Jefferson

A Busy Brain

Jefferson peaks - King-side perspective

Any time I do these years, of late, it seems like my January trips are well planned out and take me out the door (often on Jan 1), at an obscene hour of the morning. I end up trying for owls too early but catch sunrise with my feet on the ground. This year, it took me a couple weeks to get settled on a plan, I scrambled to get some lists and leads together, and got my January trip to Jefferson and Kitsap planned right on the tail end of a writing deadline. My brain had hardly shut down, I hadn't packed, and my notes were less than complete. 

3 A.M. found me awake, ready to take on the day... but also sleepy. 

7 A.M. found me wondering what exactly had happened to my morning! 

But none of these years are without their wrenches. If I needed sleep, then taking it was a tip of the hat to balance - something I try to honor. I got up and started packing, happy to have a full breakfast at home. One less meal to pack or purchase. 

And off I drove to the ferry. 

"The" ferry?

Kitsap and Jefferson Counties are on the other side of Puget Sound from me. I've stepped through the different paths I could take to get from here to there. . . 

Mukilteo-Clinton, Copeville-Port Townsend. The northernmost way to get there, and one of the more direct ways to get right to the heart of the birding in Jefferson. 

Edmonds-Kingston. More driving on this side of the water to get me from Renton to Edmonds, but this drops me off on the north end of Kitsap, and very close to Jefferson. 

Seattle Bainbridge. Maybe? I'll have to keep looking at the birds to get my head around this choice. It means driving into Seattle, and getting dropped off on Bainbridge Island - an area that is a birding puzzle to me, with its private beaches. But I'm sure there's places to explore here as well!

Seattle-Bremerton. Still taking me into Seattle and dropping me off a little farther south. This one's not out of the question. 

Fauntleroy-Southworth. Hard to beat, in that I have to drive the least distance and the boat runs me directly into Kitsap. If I'm hitting the south end of Kitsap at all, this is almost a no-brainer. 

Or no ferry at all: The Tacoma Narro

Diagram A

ws, or even a long drive around through Olympia - up to Shelton, and up Hood Canal to the Southern end of Jefferson. These save me money on ferry passage, but at the cost of miles in my car. Depending on the goals during a trip, though - not a bad plan!

Getting to Jefferson from Kitsap, incidentally - not so complicated! To get directly from one to the other, there is but one bridge! The Hood Canal Floating Bridge, to my astonishment, is the only way. I suppose a bridge farther South - something connecting, say. . . Seabeck to Brinnon. . . never got a lot of support! 

Until then, for reference, consider Diagram A.

There's actually no situation that makes Mason County a shortcut. Unless you have people to see in Mason County. That may happen for me this year - haven't been back to the Mason in a couple years now. 

So, at least as long as I'm doing Kitsap and *East* Jefferson, my birding plans are on this grid: 

I don't feel as bad now about sitting and wondering which way to go home at the end of the trip!

Back to the Ferry - Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth

The most direct east-west line from Renton to Kitsap is the one that I took. I'm going to come clean on one thing very early on. I haven't seen like. . . a Pigeon Guillemot in a few years! I know, these are common birds in King County, but I've been running around to Douglas, Klickitat, and the entire southwest corner. The Columbia just isn't that salty! So, after a few years away from all of the saltwater birds. . . I'd gotten a bit rusty. 

Snipped from activity_murrelet.pdf (savetheredwoods.org), 
a neat organization dealing in conservation.

Like. . . as an example. . . This is a coloring book page I'd fail. Black, white, gray. . . somewhere on the bird. . . yep. And mix them around, and you have a Pigeon Guillemot. Then invert all of the colors, maybe? And you have a breeding plumage Pigeon Guillemot. Or maybe an Oreo? I'm just not the one to ask, is what I'm saying. Not today. Not quite yet. 

Even from the ferry terminal, I had lots of bird to sort through. The quiz before the tests, I suppose!

Brandt's Cormorant - Vashon terminal

These cormorants certainly fall into that category. Birds you're simply never going to see in Cowl... well, okay there was one in Cowlitz County last year. And Clark, but. . . c'mon, you get the point!

Vashon Island is still King County, so the year tally couldn't start quite yet as we pulled up to the Vashon terminal. I was so ready to start ticking off birds as we got to the Kitsap side!

But. . . by-golly it happens fast. You get about halfway to Southworth, comfortably in Kitsap waters, and they're rushing you down to your car. You pull up and engines are starting, and you're off. I somehow imagined some of the same relaxed pace from boarding. Clearly this was a good memory jog (or common sense jog?). Disembarking from the ferry is the fastest part of all. 

Kitsap Lake

No rest for the person on a freeway with traffic behind them! I set the GPS for Kitsap Lake, and simply got-a-going. Bald Eagle (1) and Red-tailed Hawk (2) became my first two birds for my Kitsap year as I drove. I passed by Gorst, seeing that Sinclair Inlet had gotten a bit iced over. Not seeing any birds from the car, I decided to pass it by. Of course, as I turned around the north side of the inlet - kaboom - I could see all 5 bazillion gulls and ducks roosting on a secure bit of ice, but it was too late to stop and find a vantage point. On to Kitsap Lake!

The lake itself would be a good stop, and I expect it will continue to be a good one through the year. In Kitsap County, you're never *that* far from saltwater! It means that there's not an abundance of lakes and freshwater marshes that hold dabbling ducks like Gadwall, teals, and for that matter, even American Coots. 

One recent sighting here was of a Canvasback - a code 3 bird. My plan for Kitsap this year was to make it a "through" county, but to make sure that I have a good list of code 3 or higher birds to guide my path through the county. If I can pick up a couple of those each month, I figure a 150 year should be doable? It's the plan, at any rate! 

First step out of the car, and I caught my favorite song. Varied Thrush! (3)

I feel like the cold weather really brings these birds out. They're hands-down my favorite bird, and I keep figuring the groundswell should be there to make them the state bird. But, alas, I think I have to resign on this one. It's the American Goldfinch for us. Yep. That's the bird that makes us special. Us, and a few other states. 

American Robins (4), Song Sparrows (5), and Spotted Towhees also made their presence known as I made my way out to the dock. The lake had frozen in parts, but there were quite a few birds scattered around the lake. 

Ring-necked Duck

Photo for perspective, more than. . . look, if you're new to my blogs, I should explain. There's going to be a lot of out of focus distant birds here. Squint. It helps. :)  But Common Merganser (6), Hooded Merganser (7), Bufflehead (8), and Mallard (9) were some of the more common ducks on the lake. More scanning brought me to a big pile of Ring-necked Ducks (10) and some Canada Geese (11). Some American Wigeon (12) and a Pied Billed Grebe (13) were mixed in with this group as well. 

A Double-crested Cormorant (14) picked up from somewhere on the lake and did a flyby, but I could not see any Canvasbacks. Finally, I did at least pick up some other ducks from the Aythya family - Lesser Scaup (15). 

Back towards the parking lot, I found more Varied Thrush, some Black-capped Chickadees (16), and Dark-eyed Juncos (17). A bird was working the ground around the base of a tree and turned out to be a Fox Sparrow (18). 

Cartographical Recap

This helped me. Maybe it'll help you. The first points are in King County - ferry terminals. 3 is the Southworth Ferry Terminal - finally in Kitsap. 4 is Gorst - Sinclair Inlet is the water poking in there. 5 is Kitsap Lake. 

6 is a spot I marked - Chico! I saw some birds where Chico Creek was emptying into Dyes Inlet. Briefly encouraged, I pulled off on Chico Way. I found two private roads, one private beach, one coffee shop I'll need to visit another time, and zero places to look at the water.

7 - I marked the freeway here, because I feel like maybe this is the stretch that I recall as just being miles of Scotch Broom - an awful invasive plant that lines freeways here and there in Washington. It was largely gone! Not. . . gone, which is always the problem with Scotch Broom. But I'm a fan of things like progress and hope, even against some of the worst stuff we need to deal with, yeah? 

8

Here on the map we finally reach Poulsbo. I had seen a report of a Trumpeter Swan, a nice code 3 bird, at the Fish Park, just North of town. This was a fun little stop. Things were, again, fairly frozen over, but I still picked up some new birds - American Robins, Dark-eyed Juncos, and Spotted Towhees were joined by Ruby-crowned Kinglet (19), and Yellow-rumped Warbler (20). A Bewick's Wren (21) also belted out its calls from the parking lot.

Lots of people were out and about on a Sunday, with dogs or family, and I came across a path that dead-ended at what might have been a little pond. . . now a little ice rink that a few kids were tromping across. It had been. . . a long while since I'd stood on natural ice, so I took a few steps out. 

Onto the ice - Not much, but it's important now and then.

The park had plenty of signs documenting the volunteer hours that had gone into the park over recent years. An amazing amount of work and thought had gone into making the park what it was. Everything down to the parking lot - designed to ensure that oils would run inward to the center of the lot, where a small bit of plantings could help keep the oils out of the groundwater. 

Amazing bit of work by the good people of Kitsap

I eventually found some water that had dodged the freeze. Some ducks, including Green-winged Teal (22) had also found it, and quite a few Killdeer (23) had also gathered on the rocky bars in the stream. 

Continuing into Poulsbo-Proper got me a handful of everyday birds I hadn't seen yet, including American Crow (24), European Starling (25), Rock Pigeon (26), House Finch (27), and House Sparrow (28). Spotted Towhee didn't get a tally before! So, we're actually at 29 species for the year. 

Poulsbo itself will warrant a stop someday. I was inclined to, as I'd still not had lunch, and it was now past noon. But on the middle day of a three-day weekend, there were no parking spots to be found by any of the bakeries, brewpubs, or boutiques. Birding Liberty Bay would have to wait. The Scandinavian roots of the town are deep - had I taken the time, I could have even bought an opportunity to try some new cuisine. . . But on this day, Port Gamble would be getting my business for lunch. 

Port Gamble

There's not a lot to Port Gamble, but that's fine by me. The core of the town is just a few blocks on the water, and it's a beautiful setting. I scanned the water from the park perched high above the water, picking out a lot of the common salty birds. Surf Scoters (30) were prominent here, and everywhere on the trip. The binocs and scope pulled in some Goldeneyes (both Barrow's and Common - 31 and 32), and Grebes (Pied-billed, Horned, and Western - 33, 34, 35). Red-breasted Mergansers (36), were also prominent.

Barrow's Goldeneye - Port Gamble

I saw people down below, so I hiked down the road to the Olympic Outdoor Center - a kayaking operation, based only on the signage and racks full of kayaks. Maybe a place to visit later in the year? I finally reached a couple who were birding the shore with binocs and a spotting scope. As they helped me find some birds they'd gotten in the scope (including a Northen Pintail - 37), we talked about their birding and mine. As it turned out, some of the breadcrumbs I'd been following, such as the Canvasback sighting at Kitsap Lake, had been placed on eBird by them over the past week or so. 

I told them that I was from King County, "And. . . they let you in? Guess they've gotten a little lax," they joked. They filled me in on a few of the good spots to bird. I did ask them about one of the code 3 birds I'd been looking for here - Black Oystercatcher. They show up now and then on the rocky tips that enclosed the small bay. To the right, and around the corner, the water would lead into Port Gamble - the geographical feature, not the town. To the left, I now realize, was technically Hood Canal - some of the last stretches of the Fjord before it emptied into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. 

Map from this study - image available through creative commons

 

This map. . . wow. I knew from my year in Mason County (www.masoncountybirding.blogspot.com) that some of the saltiest birds, alcids like Marbled Murrelet and Common Murre, could be very difficult to find farther up Hood Canal, as the saltwater competed with the various rivers that pour freshwater into the fjord. From the looks of it, things really start to get salty once you've reached Port Gamble!

Common Loon (38) from waaaay out in Hood Canal

Scanning the water from below, I added Greater Scaup (39). Great Blue Heron (40) and Belted Kingfisher (41) perched on the rocks. I was told that Black Oystercatchers and Black Turnstones could show up on those same rocks every now and then. 

Great Blue Heron

The couple left, and I took the opportunity to head up and grab some lunch at the cafe/gift shop. The soup/salad/sandwich offerings were excellent, and I grabbed soup and salad. I eyed some of the Port Gamble mugs, but . . . a buck and a half for a Chico Credit Union Mug would be more my speed. 

People-watching is an important part of taking the pulse of a place, and on this particular day, it was three women at the cafe that gave me a soundtrack for my soup and sandwich. What an interesting change of pace after a few years in places like Douglas, Klickitat, Wahkiakum. I'd been privy to talks about recycling, politics, million-dollar rains, and the local high school football team. Today, it was just talk about golf, entertaining, and the joy of finishing a man-cave. "With pool tables and a bar. . . a place where they can talk, but you know. . . not talk talk, but just a place they can relax and talk about sports or poker."

Tuna salad sandwich and soup of the day (parsnip!) The half-sandwich option was welcome. 

The discussion turned to hobbies, and how their husbands all seemed to lack them. Whether or not their husbands would agree with that assessment, it made me thankful for my chosen hobby. It made me thankful for the friends and the family in my life with whom I can "talk-talk". There's much I don't "have", I suppose, and much that I've lost, but I've got what I need. I'd been talking with a dear friend about the "please"s and "thankya"s we cast out into the universe, and for all this, I say thankya.

I took a last peek at the shore and was happy to see a flock of Sanderling (42) do a flyby of the shore. Short-billed Gulls (43) used the little cove as well, and I finally caught a Pigeon Guillemot (44) floating into view from Port Gamble - The Geographic Feature (I'm. . . going to call it that now. Sorry, dear reader). Of final note was the only code 3 bird I'd found all day - Common Raven (45). 

On my way out, I had to pause for a wedding party crossing the street. I clapped from the car for the bride, and she took a bow. Happy people. :)

Jefferson County!

45 was not an awful start for Kitsap, although the plan of grabbing a couple code 3 birds each trip was missed in a bigly big yuge way. In fact - not a single Kitsap bird had been added to my life list! Still, the matrix of planning would be less complex the next time, and the next time after that. 

My landscape photos, always the special job for Flippy, my phone, are going to be a little lighter on this trip. After a good few years of flipping, Flippy has started giving me a message "Cannot access the camera" now and then. It seems to go away sometimes when it's jostled - the modern-day equivalent of that TV set you have to slap to get the picture to come in clearly. But trust me, the bridge is a beaut. The Hood Canal Floating Bridge is the third-longest floating bridge in the world (one and two are in King County, incidentally). As noted, it is the one way to get directly from Jefferson to Kitsap - separated by Hood Canal all along their common border. 

As I snipped the map, I thought that northern bit of the Kitsap Peninsula looked familiar. . .

Incidentals along the way included a couple of Common Ravens (1 - the parentheticals now tracking my Jefferson list) sitting in the snow as I turned up Oak Bay Road. Red-tailed Hawk (2), European Starling (3), and American Robin (4) were my other incidental finds. Cars in the ditch. . . two. Unfortunately, with the icy roads, there had been a few instances of people overdriving the situation. I've been in exactly one ditch during these trips (on a muddy forest road at 1 A.M. - Chelan County). Once was enough. 

Oak Bay County Park was my first destinope looks like I just passed it. This was an occasional theme during the trip. New spots, icy roads, missed a turn, too bad. So, I continued up Hwy 116, or Flagler Road. I did find a good shoulder at Nordland, so I pulled up and scanned the water for fowl.

Northern Pintail (5), presumably with an adopted Green-winged Teal (6)

I also found some Mallards (7), Killdeer (8), Song Sparrow (9), and a Blue Heron that was at the very least *good*. Possibly Great, although Egrets last year changed my whole perspective on Great. But still. . . possibly a Great Blue Heron (10).

Nordland - always picturesque

Fort Flagler Finally

At the advice of Steve, a local birder, there were shorebirds to be found on the lawns at Fort Flagler, but "it's a high tide roost". I was just kind of there and was not sure what the tide situation was as I pulled into the beach/campground area. Just as a shot in the dark, I held up my phone. 

"Hey Flippy. When is high. tide. Marrowstone Island."

. . . 

Nothing. The usual response from my phone in these situations. But I do like to explore my options.

Canada Geese (11), an American Crow (12), and a distantly calling Northern Flicker (13)
formed the bulk of the welcoming committee.

No shorebirds to be found on the lawns, so I grabbed my binoculars and camera and took the beach to the East. What a nice walk! Yes. . . it was cold, but the wind stayed light enough to make things tolerable (throughout the weekend, thankfully). A Chestnut-backed Chickadee (14) called from the wooded areas on shore, and Common Goldeneyes (15), Surf Scoters (16), and Red-breasted Mergansers (17) were the common ducks offshore.

Shoreline and shorebirds

And right on that shoreline itself were some Sanderling (17), and Black-bellied Plover (18). Again, birds I'd not enjoyed for a few years, as I had been birding counties along the Columbia River. The plovers. . . I just found myself thinking that evolution should have been able to tackle this a little better. I was just walking up the beach. I tried different ways of demonstrating that. . . this was what I was doing. An action with direction, consistency, etc. And one that did not involve attempts on the life of a plover. 

But these little dudes would skitter away, looking nervously over their shoulders, like someone in a horror movie running inefficiently away from The Killer. But skittering back in the direction I was coming from, letting me pass, was not an option for some of these little guys. 

the over-the-shoulder peek

Sanderling, by contrast, seemed to have an understanding of the situation, and would let me pass. They were on this stretch of beach in about equal numbers, sometimes clumping up. 

Sanderling

I thought I heard a familiar Tschup, and found a Varied Thrush (19) up on the sandy banks. 

Not the best camo

The cold weather seemed to be pulling out the Varied Thrushes, here, and certainly in the Seattle area. I don't know if they are just more active and visible when it's cold, or if they move downslope a little in the cold. In summer, they do seem to prefer higher elevations, colder climes. I'll have to find out how this works for my favorite bird. (I did)

I continued to add some more birds from the water as I walked, stopping periodically to scan the gentle waves. Bufflehead (20), Horned and Red-necked Grebes (21 and 22), and the occasional flyby of a Double-crested Cormorant (23). 

Grebes up front, Whidbey Island in the back

I turned back towards the campground. It had been a long walk already, but I'd seen people headed to the West end of the beach as well, so I figured I should explore the place thoroughly. At first it was the same cast of characters - Sanderling and Black-bellied Plover. But then I heard the high, scratchy "creak!" of a Dunlin (24). I was walking towards the sun at the time, so I had missed some small details on the beach ahead of me. Dozens of shorebirds sat roosting on the shoreline. 

Yahtzee!

I moved away from the shore and came around the shorebirds a little bit for better lighting. Comically, as I did this, the Black-bellied Plovers continued to run ahead of me, stumbling on rocks now and then, and calling from the ground "What do you want??!! Don't kill me!! Pleeease!!" Every other species seemed pretty unworried about me walking the beach. I was scanning for a bird that looked a little different, and pretty quickly found the Rock Sandpiper (25). 

This was a lifer! And I'll admit, in my scrambling, I had not studied them in my Sibley's all that closely. Had not asked a lot of questions such as. . . "What does a Rock Sandpiper look like?" I did remember some of the basic appearance but was mostly just looking for the odd sandpiper in the bunch. Take a ton of pictures. Look them over later with book in hand. 

Jumping ahead to that, actually, I had a few moments of doubt when I got back to the car. Superficially - leg color, breast pattern, bill color, overall darkness, habitat, abundance - there were some reasons for me to stop and wonder if I'd just seen a Surfbird - a more common bird in these parts, and one that I don't get a look at annually.y (as easy as it would be at Alki!). But there's a good size difference. Rock Sandpipers are more Dunlin-sized, while Surfbirds are more Black Turnstone sized. The bill as well - it's much stubbier on a Surfbird. 

Black Turnstones (26), incidentally, were also running around on the shore. Some were even turning over stones, imagine that.

The end of the little spit. . . there were gulls. The gull situation out here was just weird. For the entire trip, I took a close look at dozens of gulls, and found only two kinds. Short-billed Gulls (27). . . 

And uncountable "Olympic" Gulls - hybrids between Glaucous-winged Gulls and Western Gulls. 

I was picking through this pile of Olympic Gulls when I realized there were some large black birds alongside them. Black Oystercatchers! (28)

 

Such beautiful birds, and then throw in a group of Harlequin Ducks (29) just off the end of the spit, and I was feeling pretty spoiled. 

I walked back, right past the calm Rock Sandpiper, the calm Dunlins and Sanderlings, and the hysterical Black-bellied Plovers. A Belted Kingfisher (30) rattled off a call, and moved farther down the beach, rising up and hovering over the water, looking for the right time to plunge. I also got a few sparrows, including Song, White-crowned (31), and Dark-eyed Junco (32) foraging on the edge of the campground and beach. A little out of place, two American Wigeon (33) were on the lawn now, with the Canada Geese, flying off at my approach. 

Okay, I sank 15 minutes into this lol. Red-breasted Merganser and Sanderling were both 17. I'm not going to sink another 10 into changing every number between here and there. But updates - that makes 34. And actually, Bald Eagle at Fort Flagler was species 35 for the day. A tree full of Mourning Doves (36) were my last addition on the way to Port Townsend and my bed for the night. 

Port Townsend

I got settled in at the Port Townsend Inn - pretty reasonable accommodations, all in all. Then it was off to Port Townsend, in search of dinner. I. . . need to research this better. I pride myself in finding some great food, and often without breaking the bank. But I looked at the menu in one establishment in PT, and . . . you're not going to put affordable options next to duck pate, let's be clear. So, I thanked them for letting me look over the menu and continued on foot to the Whiskey Mill. 

I have no complaints about the Whiskey Mill. Great place. It wasn't what I was looking for, but that's nothing on them. Great tap selection, and as you'd guess, quite a few whiskeys behind the bar. Interesting menu choices, but just more than I'd hoped to spend on a meal and a drink, in the end. The bar area was also a little smaller, so the opportunities to grab bits of conversation were limited. Good food, but not likely a place I'd hit again on these trips. Gotta watch those nickels! 

Slept. Hard.