April 8th - Early Spring Trip, Jefferson County

Can't even remember where - Kitsap County

Catching up

I woke up Monday morning. Not a shocker. I just got to thinking - what an interesting montage could be made of us waking up. Mine would include a few times where I had parked my car, fallen asleep, and then woke up not realizing that I was not driving my car. I'd pay money to watch that panic. Always funny once I realize that I did not, in fact, fall asleep at the wheel.

My montage would also include a physics class in college where a lecture finished up, and the sound of people exiting woke me up. It woke up the guy next to me too. That's how I met Sean. Over the years, we suffered through many late-night problem set efforts, did a fair number of labs together, and kept in light touch over Facebook as we went off, got jobs and started families. I'd last seen him over a decade ago but found out that he was living here in Bremerton. 

The guest apartment that he and his wife, Christine operate was my bed for the night. I have to admit - having a sink, a counter, and a microwave greatly improves the breakfast experience. I got my breakfast, and was sliding out to my car to start my birding day, but Christine and I saw each other through their kitchen window, and I was excitedly waved in. 

I don't need to tell anyone how nice it is to catch up with friends. Coffee with Sean and Christine was simply a joy. I'd overcomplicated things in communicating my "plans" for Friday... or maybe Sunday and/or Monday. So, it had not sunk in for any of us that they'd actually be back from their trip to get their boat serviced, and that I'd be there that morning to allow for this sit and sip. Very fun to remember the old stuff, and very good to catch up on the new stuff, both highs and lows.

And of course, I had to explain. . . that I was trying to find some birds this year (they knew this), and that some of those birds might just be too challenging for me to find. 

"Unless I knew someone with a boat. . . " :)

So... we shall see. It takes a lot of planning, skill, equipment, and knowledge to find birds. But gumption doesn't hurt either, and it may get me some birds this year yet.

Keyport

The rush of Monday morning
museum traffic

As I left Sean and Christine's (leaving my food bag behind...), I started towards Jefferson County, but had two quick stops to make. I'd not found any Surfbirds for the year and had scribbled something on one of many slips of paper: "Surfbird. Keyport sw park"

I've never been to Keyport, so it wasn't a park I'd heard of before, but . . .how hard could it be to find a park? I got into the little town and saw signs for the Naval Undersea Museum. For some reason, my brain was telling me I'd find people there at like... 9 in the morning on a Monday. And those people might be able to tell me where the park could be found. As I drove through town, I started getting very confused. How could a park on the Southwest side of Keyport have Surfbirds? The water was on the North edge of town? 

I arrived at the museum, which is adjacent to the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. I saw that the museum was closed, and then just looked back at my car's GPS map."South... west..." Then I left the museum parking lot, looked up and saw across the street: "Keyport Saltwater Park". 

S... w.... Saltwater. Not Southwest. Nicely done, two-days-ago Me. Nicely done.

Nice spot for some rockpipers

It was a quick stop, but it was easy to see where the shorebirds might congregate at the right tides. There was even a Greater Yellowlegs resting on the shore as I scanned the rocks, the water, and the beach. I left empty-handed in the end. 

Port Gamble

This is such an easy stop, and I keep missing the Black Oystercatcher(s?) that have been hanging out there this winter. I searched for a bit, and as I started to leave, caught sight of an oystercatcher flying along the beach, bird 98 for my Kitsap year. This code 4 bird, a couple of code 3 birds the day before, and a smattering of other birds (including surprising ones like Common Yellowthroat) had also been new life birds in the county. After the trip, I got a good chuckle as I saw I'd finally made it onto the Kitsap County all-time list on eBird. 

Oh yeah. ;) Tied for 99th. I'll take it! Still hoping to add at least 43 more birds to this list! Ideally, by the end of the year. I've added 17 so far, and am missing an awful lot of shorebirds, so it'll be interesting. 150 for the year is the bottom-line goal for the year in Kitsap, and I'm feeling good about that. Especially given the Needs Alerts for Kitsap that eBird just tossed my way - 17 species long!

And most importantly (I think), Kitsap is really growing on me. It'll be interesting at the end of the year to look back at my list of reasons for not really enjoying Kitsap County, if only to see how many have been debunked.

Oak Bay County Park

Properly inside Jefferson County, I made a beeline for Oak Bay County Park. Steve, from Port Townsend, had spoken so glowingly of the spot. Although I realized I was going in with no sense of the tides, I thought I'd have a chance at some kind of surprise. 

Gulls. How interesting that learning more about gulls has made them even more frustrating this year! Olympic Gulls... Short-billed Gulls... yep. That's all I picked out for the morning! I scanned farther out for new scoters or grebes. I listened to the hills above the water for the neighborhood California Quail. Nothing! Still a pretty stop, and I have no reduced belief in the potential of this spot for producing some good birds this year. 

I drove back up to the junction, taking Cleveland, with thoughts of coming across some quail, or maybe walkers to ask about quail. As I drove the road slowly, windows down, I picked up my first Bushtits in Jefferson for the year (species 102). This road took me to a campground - one I may use over the course of the year! But I felt the need to continue on to stops on Marrowstone Island. 

Morningtide - Jefferson Land Trust

I'm stumped on this one. I've tried to find out more about this spot. But the Jefferson Land Trust seems to be pretty active, so there's a lot of other lands that come up in my searches. Hopefully the link to the hotspot, and the map that can be found via eBird, will be enough to at least help you find it and see what species have been found here. It looks like a great spot, although I didn't explore it very thoroughly. I had seen that Virginia Rail and Sora had been found here recently, so I went in with some focus. The wind. . . I'll tell you what. . . for as windy as the day was, it was not windy here. The trees around this open area provided an excellent wind break. So even though the wind could be heard running through the tops of the trees, it was relatively calm around me as I walked. 

I got a lot of nothing at first. American Robin. Pine Siskins. Before I started getting closer to the marsh. At the marsh itself, I started by viewing from the small footbridge. Rufous Hummingbirds (103) could be heard around me. Claps and calls got no response, so I moved to the path along the marsh. Marsh Wrens chattered a little bit from the cattails, and I heard a warbler call from a tree. 

I swear, my memory of warbler calls must get wiped completely every winter. I had some excitement that I was hearing a Yellow Warbler, but after a little pishing and closer inspection, it turned out to be an Orange-crowned (104). All the better. Finding birds a few weeks before I expect them always makes me feel itchy. I tried again for rails and got grunting responses from multiple spots along the marsh (105). After getting some good looks at the warbler, I tried again, and additionally got some high rusty keek! calls from a Sora (106).

100 percent trying to get pictures of branches here, not that out of focus warbler

The trail continued on from here, but I did not. Passerines were not singing quite enough to warrant a stay, and I was curious about what might be found up at Flagler. 

Fort Flagler

Geese! Canada's up front, Brant in the back

The wind was not quite so guarded here! This led to quite a bit of chop out on the water, and I even occasionally got stung by bits of sand blown against my face as I walked the spit from the campground. More of the usual suspects: Horned Grebes, Red-breasted Mergansers, Brant, and Harlequin Ducks. I saw no shorebirds on my walk out, but then found a few Sanderlings on my way back. 

Harlequin Duck in even breedinger plumage

Sanderlings

All Horned Grebes today - no Eared!

Boy, was I excited to find a Sea Otter! 

But it was a River Otter. Just. . . in the sea.  

This was an interesting bit of reading for me. Sea Otters are not all that likely to be seen this far from the Pacific, and River Otters are not at all unexpected out on these beaches. 

My one add for this stop was Bonaparte's Gull (107), as several danced and dived past me in the wind. Additionally, on my return trip down Marrowstone Island, I spied a Band-tailed Pigeon (108). 

Lunch - Ajax Cafe

I'd hit about 1:15 and had hoped to make a visit to the Ajax Cafe. Off the beaten path, and it looked like a nice little place. I arrived dreaming of soup, but they were out of their soup of the day. Instead, I opted for the blackened chicken sandwich, and a pint of Haulin' Oats, an oatmeal stout from Rainy Daze Brewing in Poulsbo. Apologies for the bite I'd already taken from this! The menu highlighted the fact that the produce for the salads is all local from Chimacum. If I don't stop at a few farmstands in the months to come... I've lost my mind. 

Anderson Lake State Park

I'd only been here at night, back in February to find a Great Horned Owl. Today, I was hoping for Wood Ducks. The first thing that caught my notice was the jumble of swallows on the south end of the lake. They were too far to hear, but I could see the blue/green coloring. From a distance, I followed swallow after swallow, expecting that at least one might show a white rump patch, but all I found were clean-backed. I called them Tree Swallows (109), but there were undoubtedly other swallows mixed in that I just couldn't identify. 

Gardiner Beach

I'd not made a trip out in this direction before. It's getting a little closer to the Pacific... a little closer to the rainshadow... As far west as east Jefferson County gets, so to speak. Along the way, I could see Turkey Vultures (110) circling over farm fields. I stopped at one of these fields on Gardiner Beach Road, and found a nice surprise, a pair of Cackling Geese! (111)

I still need Snow Geese and Greater White-fronted Geese for the year, but there is some comfort in knowing that if a pile of geese looks like Canada Geese, I don't need to hunt through for the little one. These other two geese stand out pretty well in those situations! So, it's a very helpful find. 

From the beach itself, there wasn't much! There's a nice little pond just off-shore that held a nice mix of dabbling ducks, including Gadwall - a duck I'd found earlier in the year, but not necessarily an easy one to find on the peninsula. I eventually hung it up and tried exploring some of the side roads. This proved to be productive, as I ended up finally finding some Brewer's Blackbirds (112), and my first Savannah Sparrow (113) of the spring. 

South

"Fixer-upper" Leland Valley Road

At this point, I could return to the Port Townsend area. . . a Mountain Bluebird had been seen near Point Wilson, but not for several days. Wood Ducks were another possibility, but they could also be found if I turned South. South it was!

more Wood Ducks - Quilcene Fish Hatchery

As I got closer to Leland Lake, I turned off on Leland Valley Road. This is a road I'd been on an age ago. It just felt extremely familiar! It started with some nice farmland, and then shifted to deciduous swamp. It was here that I found my Wood Ducks (114). Swallows in the fields all had that similar problem with distance - none of them could be confirmed as anything but Tree Swallows, as several of the blue-green birds banked and showed off blue-green backs. 

Continuing down the road, I stopped at the Quilcene Fish Hatchery. My target here was American Dipper. It took a few strolls up and down the riverside near the hatchery before I started hearing the ringing calls from a dipper. It took a bit of peering through chainlink fences to get my first peekaboo view, but I did eventually find the source. 

A second dipper called from farther up the river, not a surprise as this has been a good spot for them all year. 

Mount Walker

The road up Mount Walker was open, so I decided to make the four-mile drive to try for Sooty Grouse and Canada Jays. It was a beautiful drive but got a little cloudy as I got higher up the road. I did scare up a Hermit Thrush (116) as I drove. At the top, I enjoyed a lot of silence, broken occasionally by raven calls. I'd had Canada Jays here in the past, after reaching the top the hard way with a hiking group. If I remember right, I'd had Sooty Grouse on the way too. But nothing was going on up here, besides the quiet rolling of clouds past the summit. 

I drove back down and parked at a pulloff to get some pictures. 

And then I hit Quilbilly's in Quilcene to plug in, come up with some kind of plan, and get some food. I'd ideally hoped to just buy one meal on the road but had left my food bag back at Sean and Christine's in the morning. 

I got the special here, which included some great brisket. I ordered the IPA from Rainy Daze, and was asked by the waitress, "Could you tell me the name of the beer, Hon?" 

"... Only the Tip..."

"Bwahahaha! I love making people say it." 

These folks were about as refined as one would expect in an establishment called Quilbilly's. I'm sure I'll be back. 

It was also, to be fair, one of the more convenient spots for plugging in and connecting to wifi. I looked at the list of birds I could go after for the next day, and considered the places I could potentially sleep that night: A campground, a hotel, Sean and Christine's, or. . . the winner in the end: my very own bed.

This trip had thinned out my needs alerts. Most of it was now early spring birds like swallows and warblers that I could find later in the year. That, or nearly unchasable birds like Cooper's Hawks. Sometimes there's a Cooper's Hawk. Be outside. Pay attention. 

So, I called this trip short! It gave me a chance to recover from the hikes, to get back to work more quickly, and to save a little gas and food money for another trip. 

116! I'll take it.