April 17th - Fairweather Birding Trip, Day One

Clear skies

Trip prep! Flauta filling

I really do plan on getting out once a month to Jefferson and Kitsap Counties. More than that in a normal month threatens my sense of balance. But my daughter had set off on a band trip, we were in between batches on projects. . . and the weather. Oh goodness. 

I'd been running over to the peninsula in the crummiest weather, time and time again this year. But this window was looking absolutely gorgeous. I had some high hopes for spring birds rolling in and singing their way onto my year list. 

Peninsula no Peninsula

I had considered a clockwise (up Hood Canal, through Port Townsend, into Kitsap) run through the area, or counterclockwise. I did reach out to a Kitsap County birder, who helped make this an easy decision by inviting me to do some birding with him on his property up on. . . yaknow. . . that one peninsula with Point no Point on it? 

This bugged me. I kind of get the geography over here, but I'll still tell people I'm heading to "the Olympic Peninsula" for ease. Kitsap Peninsula still seems like a broad term, as it includes a few peninsulas itself. I knew the name of some of the peninsulas I've been visiting this year, but. . . why not this one? So, I dug a little, and this is as far as I got: 

1. Miller Peninsula - between Sequim Bay, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and Discovery Bay.
2. Quimper Peninsula - between Discovery Bay, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and Port Townsend. 
3. Toandos Peninsula - reaching out into Hood Canal, and separating Quilcene Bay from the Canal.
4. Tahuya Peninsula - defined completely by Hood Canal as the fjord arcs around it. 
5. Key Peninsula - bordered by numerous named passages and inlets, because of its size, and all of the islands around it - but largely between Carr and Case Inlets, and reaching down into the Nisqually Reach.
6. The Manette Peninsula - including East Bremerton, Tracyton and the like, between Port Orchard on the east and Dyes Inlet on the west. 

But the one with the ??... I couldn't find a thing. So from now on, in this blog, I guess it'll just be called the Peninsula no Peninsula. Ridiculous name, but it's their own fault for not handling this before now. 

It did surprise me a bit, given how well it fits in with the other peninsulas on that map. Some are smaller, some are bigger, but they are all, as this one is, pretty well defined. Most sites seem to dodge the question by just referring to the area as "the north tip of the Kitsap Peninsula", but. . . something similar could have been done with the other ones in this list. 

Birds with George

Farmland from the main road - Peninsula no Peninsula

Stopping along the dirt-and-gravel drive at George's place, I picked up one new year bird - Savannah Sparrow (99). I continued up the driveway and met up with George. This was a treat. Not only was the setting amazing (including pastures, temporary flooded fields, and a thick bit of forest surrounding it all), but George was a great tour guide of the property for the morning. I'd gone with shorts for the day but was encouraged to boot up as we stepped out into the muck to look for our first target, a Solitary Sandpiper. 

Kaching! Solitary Sandpiper (100)

Not a bad 100th bird for the year. George asked if I wanted to try to get closer for a better picture. I explained that I blog... and the picture quality had to stay at a certain level. Otherwise, people might start to get elevated expectations, and then. . . it'd just be so much work from there! 

Still, it was nice to get good scope views to see the delicate spotting on the breast, the olive-yellow legs (as opposed to the bright yellow legs seen on a yellowlegs), the distinct eye ring and straight, medium-length bill. Enough of those features did show up, even in my photos, so I was happy. The bird stayed in full view for us the entire time. I listened and picked up a lot of birds around us, most of them ones I'd seen previously during the year, Orange-crowned Warbler, Purple Finch, White-crowned Sparrow, Ruby-crowned Kinglet all standing out with their bold singing.  

Barn and Violet-green Swallows flew and called overhead (101, 102). George noted that Cliff Swallows also become quite common once spring and summer get into full swing- birds that should be conveniently found even from Hansville Road, honestly. At one point, we stopped to listen to. . . I mean, I didn't get a recording, but if you wanted to hear the sound: First, go to Fred Meyer. Next, get yourself something nice. A pair of shoes, a bottle of good gin. It needs to have the electronic theft detectors on it, regardless of what the item is. If you next attempted to step out of the store without paying... you'd hear the weeeyooweeyooweeeyoo sound that we heard. 

Osprey nest at top

It puzzled us for a bit, and our best guess was the right one - Greater Yellowlegs. Apparently, in situations where tu-tu-tu is not enough, they pull out this call. I don't recall hearing it before, and that's always a treat. Almost like getting a new life bird. 

I stepped through some of the birds I needed for the year list, and George thought it might be good just to take me on a quick run around Peninsula no Peninsula. "But I need to ask first", he told me with a wry grin - heading in to ask his wife. He got permission, in exchange for some lawn-mowing upon his return. Not a bad deal, by his estimation. 

Our first stop was in Hansville. Parking at the waterfront, and turning around, we could see a pair of Ospreys (103) starting a nest. I was surprised. I'm so used to seeing massive nests sitting on platforms, but this nest was tucked inconspicuously into the top of a tree. I had to look in the scope to see the female on the nest. 

On the water, it was pretty quiet, although we did get some nice looks at a Bonaparte's Gull zipping by. 

Bonaparte's Gull

Point no Point

The next stop was Driftwood Key. As with so many places I'd been, both in Jefferson and Kitsap, the spot where we stopped to look at birds was not a spot that I would have found and/or immediately recognized as a place it was okay to stand. "As long as you're clearly birdwatching, it's fine" is a not-uncommon phrase. I can't say that you can just apply this to any old spot in Kitsap County. Great way to learn about the second amendment, I'm sure! Reaching out to local birders (perhaps on Tweeters?) is not a bad way to start, at any rate. Kitsap is more birdable than it seems to be on a first pass. Or tenth.

Savannah Sparrow

More swallows were seen from here, and I did pick out one new year bird, waaaay out, first in binoculars, and then in George's scope - a Black-bellied Plover! (104) Not super rare, but it was still nice to catch it sporting the black belly, unlike the plain-Jane plumage I saw them wearing in January in Jefferson County. 

Our last stop...I'm just not posting here. It was a spot that is restricted access. The people restricting the access, presumably, were there, and had absolutely no problem with George and I stopping to look at birds there. But, it's not my place to advertise it as a birding spot on a blog. 

George and I did talk about a couple of other spots in the county - a couple of them falling into that restricted access category. Both of them are easier to describe here. 

One: Restoration Point on Bainbridge Island. This is like... the gem of Kitsap County in many ways. I'm not even going to look up the species totals from the hotspot, because I'd cry. :D But it is in a gated community, and there is no lack of clarity on this: they have exactly three people that they would like to come in and record species at the point. Those kinds of access rules are much easier to follow! George is one of those three people, and the specialness of that birding spot is not lost on him at all. 

The other: Gold Mountain. Here, George and I have had different experiences, and I think we sorted out the source of those differences. Many eBird checklists from Gold Mountain note that it is restricted access. A permit is required for access to the areas birded by people making those lists. These are free permits and can be procured online from a company called Rayonier. Not a bad system. They don't mind people visiting - not at all. They just have rules, and if you've got a permit, you have seen those rules. 

Gold Mountain *can* be accessed through a gate on the south side of the mountain (actually in good old Mason County!), using one of these permits. By George's description, it's quite a haul to the top. 6 miles in all. 

Or... you can get there from the Green Mountain Trailhead, taking the Tin Mine Trail, and getting to ... the top? Something close to it?... in just 4 miles. On the one hand... 4 miles is less than 6! But, to be fair, the lists others have posted from the other route often include Mountain Quail, a species I have never found on my approaches. 

There you go! I really should collect *all* of this information and put it in a single post at the end of the year. Maybe maybe. 

George and I had our goodbyes as he headed back to his lawn duties. I made a beeline for Oak Bay County Park in Jefferson County. 

Oak Bay County Park in Jefferson County

Caspian Tern

I was looking for a lot of birds on this trip, but one bird in particular, Cinnamon Teal, was one I thought I might be just savvy enough to find on this trip. It was the right time of year to expect them coming through, and Oak Bay has been one of the spots they've shown up over the years. 

The new year birds I *did* find were Caspian Terns (117 - switching now to the Jefferson year tally!), roosting with some Short-billed Gulls in the little lagoon. One of them popped up and circled overhead, giving its coarse calls.

Looking out... okay, I'm just lumping things in my head, to some extent. I'm looking at water so much this year, and over the course of this three-day trip, some of the experiences blurred. High probability for any stop at all during the trip that I had: two Canada Geese, three Horned Grebes, 6 Red-breasted Mergansers, a dozen or so Buffleheads, and more gulls - more Short-billed Gulls, more Olympic Gulls. Add to that: White-crowned Sparrows. So many of them. Singing. At all hours. It just starts to blur, I'm telling you!

East Beach

This was a must-stop stop. Reports had been rolling in for some Whimbrel and a Marbled Godwit. I asked Steve about them and was told to try when the tide was a -1, and that the best spot for East Beach was about a half-mile south of the entrance. I'll pass that advice along, as I'm sure it's good! But I ended up finding these guys just a short walk north of the entrance. Not sure what the tide was!

Whimbrel

Marbled Godwits

The tide was, at any rate, far enough out for me to be able to walk to the birds along the beach without getting too close. In addition to the Whimbrels (118), I found a pair of Marbled Godwits (119), working on the beach. 

Bonaparte's Gulls

Short's Farm

I had a goal of reaching Dosewallips State Park in time to set up camp, but I realized that it still wasn't too far to drive. In my continued hunt for Cinnamon Teal, I made a stop in at Short's Farm. This habitat looked great for them, and there was no shortage of ducks to pick through! But none of them had the bright cinnamon coloring I was looking for. Swallows were on the way in, and some patience got me Violet-green (120) and Barn Swallows (121). Shovelers, Gadwalls, and Pintails were among the ducks found. There were some Canada Geese on the far edge of the pond, but no Greater white-fronted or Snow Geese. A Wilson's Snipe flushed from the path - a nice surprise - and a few Greater Yellowlegs were found out in the mud. 

Off to camp

On the road, I put away some of the flautas that I'd packed for the trip. Between these and the other packing I'd done (bagels, oatmeal, chips, bananas), I really ended up pretty good on the trip. Before hitting Dosewallips, I stopped at Quilbilly's in Quilcene. Reliable wifi is such a good sell, and I've found a couple of tables that work well. I checked in with work and tackled some ACT practice test items. Shifting from birds to momentum and kinetic energy was hard on the transmission! 

This left me time for a leisurely drive to camp. I set up my tent and did a little walk to the Dosewallips River. Red-breasted Sapsucker, Belted Kingfisher, and (surprise) White-crowned Sparrows were found along the way. 

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Across Hood Canal