January 15th - Starting not with a Bang, but a Quimper

The Quimper Peninsula

I got up Monday morning and looked at the after-math of the eBird lists I'd entered the night before. A nice feature on eBird is that you can look at needs alerts for life lists or year lists. One tempting sighting that was fairly recent was a Great Horned Owl, not too far from my hotel. But I thought about the efficiency of heading out, searching, and then coming back to pack and get breakfast. Nope. Most of my birding plans revolved around three spots, all fairly close to each other - Kah Tai Lagoon, Point Wilson, and North Beach. 

For as large as the county is, it was pretty exciting to consider the many possibilities in such a small area!

Kah Tai Lagoon

I made coffee in my room as I looked over checklists and had the coffee maker do a second round of hot water to make up the oatmeal I'd brought along. Once I had a plan in place, I packed up the car and got out the door. 

Kah Tai Lagoon is a sweet little birding spot that was just blocks from the hotel. Formerly a tidally flushed lagoon, then degraded, then saved by volunteers, the 75+ acre park has had over 180 bird species visiting it, according to eBird. I found the parking lot, stepped out into the clear cold morning and started birding from the parking lot. 

Immediately, House Sparrows (species 37 for the year) and American Robins could be heard. And, as I'd seen elsewhere the day before (and throughout Western Washington during this cold snap), Varied Thrushes were out and active. 

Parking lot thrushes

In the same conifer right there in the lot, a Red-breasted Nuthatch called with its little tin-horn call (38). I even had a Common Raven come in and perch on a tree, calling off and on throughout the morning. 

I. . . loved the art installment. Loved it. Here's a few of the placards: 

"When you slow down"

"You see more"

It continues, and I eventually decided that I needed to clear the frost off of the words. It follows (three words at a time) the story of an area, and I was just taken by the simple art and storytelling, done in so few words. As someone who rambles, it was a fun departure! 

They change the art every few months or so. I'll be back!

Bird-wise, it was Song Sparrows, Spotted Towhees (39), a Pacific Wren (40), and several Bewick's Wrens (41). 

Bewick's Wren investigating some Douglas Fir cones.

Other trees held Black-capped Chickadees (42) and Chestnut-backed Chickadees, as well as some Golden-crowned Kinglets (43). A very typical Western Washington forest lineup, and I hadn't even gotten to the water. 

About that water, though. . . 

The lagoon had completely frozen over! Several Mallards still hung around on the ice, and some marshy looking stuff gave me my first Red-winged Blackbirds (44) and Marsh Wrens (45) for my Jefferson County year. Some finch appearances provided nice surprises, with both Red Crossbill (46) and American Goldfinch (47) making appearances during the walk. The final additional species was a Fox Sparrow (48). 

The deer seemed awfully tame. 

A meander through town

I left the lagoon and did a bit of a meander.  I got to the waterfront, looking for some new waterbirds, but the cormorants were all Double-crested, and no other good birds had really come in to use the water near town. Rock Pigeon (49) was at least a new species. I tried some other neighborhoods in town, windows down and eyes open, hoping for California Scrub-Jay. They've become more common in town but could not be found by me this morning. I did hear some House Finches (50) along the way.

Point Wilson

This was the lighthouse I had seen from across the harbor the previous evening! Nice to enjoy it up a little closer. This was also the opening round of Tim-needs-to-relearn-saltwater-birds. Immediately out of the car, I got distracted by more of the passerines, however. Golden crowned Sparrows (51) gave me hopes of other rarer sparrows - always fun to pick through them. The tall grasses held at least one Lincoln's Sparrow (52), and the fields between the parking lot and the water had a Western Meadowlark (53) - heard, but never seen. . . stealthy little suckers. Walking the beach I found some more Short-billed Gulls, and another mutt or two, but nothing else of note. 

Then it was Alcid time. :)

About as good as it got for Alcid Pics - Pigeon Guillemot

My first one was one of the easier Alcids (for me) - Common Murre. Black up top, white below. That basic pattern on a larger, slower moving Alcid is not too complex. The bill matched up, and it was flying not too far from shore. 54! Pigeon Guillemots then became 99 percent of what I saw for quite a while! (55). They gave me a nice reference, however. Getting views of so many of them and getting a feel for their flight and overall size and shape - all good things. At one point, I was watching a line of 6-7 Pigeon Guillemots in flight. . . so far out. Then two smaller white blobs overtook them, zipping past. Murrelets! I could see white underwing as they flew, which narrowed it down to Ancient Murrelets (56), an identification confirmed by their dive (or rather dissolving) into the water. 

Common Goldeneyes were still among the more common birds

I love watching Ancient Murrelets do this - it happens in a blink, where other Alcids will put on the brakes and land on the water. They go straight from flight into a dive! It also feels like most of the Marbled Murrelets I've seen over the years have been solo, rather than flying with others? I'm sure it's not a "field mark" but was at least something that had me suspecting Ancient Murrelets here. 

One more Alcid - Rhinoceros Auklet - was also on the easier side. These birds are just plain old dark, all the way down to the bill, in this season. (57). 

Looking around the corner, I got on a loon, and discovered it was a Pacific (58).

Anywhere else in the state, these would be a bit more of a surprise, but they are a pretty common bird in Jefferson. Here's hoping for photos in the future that don' look like they were taken from space. :D

I also found a Common Loon (59) and both Brandt's (60) and Pelagic Cormorants (61). I'm 100 percent sure that a better choice of viewing time (relative to the tide) would have led to a fuller list, but this felt like a good start!

Brandt's Cormorant 

North Beach/China Gardens

Just on the other side of the State Park, there's a nice little area offering saltwater, freshwater, fields, feeders, and forests! North Beach Park was a very productive stop for me. I'd seen the reports for Pygmy Nuthatches but arrived without a recollection of *where* in the park they had been seen. Advice was to play tapes to bring them in - not an option for me with my telofono-no-intellegente, so I just went for a nice walk. 

Lots of Salal and Trailing Blackberry along the trail. Good signs!

Before leaving the parking lot, Pine Siskin (62) and Yellow-rumped Warbler (63) were heard. The latter were there in a pretty big flock. Likely a good spot for them throughout the winter, as YRWA's seem to latch onto favored areas. At home, I have to walk exactly two blocks to find my local ones in their favorite tree!

Marsh Wren

I followed the North Beach Trail, which took me into the forest. The forest was very quiet on this particular morning! The one species I had really expected to find in here (or gosh, just anywhere during this trip) was Steller's Jay. Maybe next time! Golden-crowned Kinglets, and a handful of Black-capped Chickadees were all I could get out of that little hike. When I got back to the large field, I could hear the American Wigeon calls coming from the China Gardens pond. Heading down, I could see them better, although in typical Wigeon fashion, they flew before I was even very close to the pond. 

On the north edge of the pond was a small bit of marshy stuff that turned out to be a little jackpot for me. Gadwall (64), Hooded Merganser (65), and Marsh Wren were quick and easy finds. Two Wilson's Snipes (66) also flushed from the reeds while I was there. Surprisingly, I struck out on Pied-billed Grebe here - it felt like another logical species to find. An Anna's Hummingbird (67) gave its zippy calls as I started back towards the car.

I took a look at the pond again, this time from the road as I exited, and saw a half-dozen-or-so Northern Shovelers (68). 

Very good stop!

Leaving the Quimper Peninsula

I'd hit the afternoon, and still wanted to drive the road through West Valley. I got back to the freeways through the West side of town, stopping once on Jacob Miller Road to look at some Mourning Doves in a tree that also included a Eurasian Collared-Dove (69). 

I passed more than a couple wineries and cider houses, but most were not open on the three-day weekend. I'm looking forward to coming back when they're open! Some had posters on their doors for live music events, and it's hard to imagine a more relaxing way of spending an evening. 

I stopped at the Chimacum Cafe for lunch, ordering up the Varied Thrush of sandwiches - a BLT. It was a double-stacker, and quite delicious. Much needed after all of the walking I'd done on my three stops! 

Red-winged Blackbird

West Valley. . . oh goodness, this road. It was just kind of ice. I mean. . . at one point, I wanted to stop just to get a picture of a Red-tailed Hawk, but the car kept going. So, I quickly just agreed with the car. Of course I didn't want a picture of a Red-tailed Hawk! Living is much more fun. Most of this was just driving slowly, stopping to scan fields, and listening for birds with the windowns down. That last plan was the only thing that got me any new species for the day! Brown Creeper (70), and Red-breasted Sapsucker (71). 

Here:

This is an interesting puzzle. I wanted to go to the Shine Tidelands, and my Gazetteer seemed to disagree with a few other sources. I ended up going down a "Primitive Road; No Warning Signs" gravel and dirt road, ending at a spot where. . . it looked legit? There was another car parked there, and I passed the couple belonging to the car as they were returning from their walk. So. . . I don't know. I think there's about a 50 percent chance that I was at Shine Tidelands State Park. I don't even know what other possibilities make up that other 50%, but I'm sure I'll find out over the course of the year. 

Gulls (all the same ones - Olympic and Short-billed), and the ducks I'd seen during most of the trip (American Wigeon, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye), and one final addition to the year list - Hairy Woodpecker (72). Still, it was a pretty walk, and it was fun to watch the gulls actively playing the shell game. They'd pluck some poor shelled creature from out of the mud, fly high in the air with it, and drop it to crack it open. 

Hairy Woodpecker

To the ferry! The Kingston Ferry

The sun was getting low, so I started towards Kingston. This actually involved a 10-15 delay, as traffic on the Hood Canal Floating Bridge stopped mysteriously (I was around the corner, so I couldn't see the cause). Easy drive to Kingston, and about 20-30 minutes to shoot pictures at the ferry terminal before heading back across the water. 

Plenty of cormorants to pick through. I did find Brandt's and Pelagic - Species #'s 46 and 47 for Kitsap.

Thanks for reading!