September 21st - Lazy Morning, Port Townsend to Kingston

Port Townsend sunrise

No rush for me this morning. I'd had some good birds over the last couple of days, and I just needed to get to Wenatchee by evening. My son, a music major at Central, had done an arrangement of a song that was going to be performed by the artist, accompanied by an orchestra, for a film. It's a lot of layers, but needless to say, I had no intentions of missing it!

The first steps out of bed were the roughest part of my entire day. Plantar fasciitis barks loudly at me after intense days like the ones I'd had backpacking around Marmot Pass. But I was hungry enough to find motivation. I stopped at the Bayview Restaurant for breakfast. There was a lot of the standard fare on the menu, but I went to my go-to, a Denver omelet. It's right there with a BLT for my diner standards. 

Deer through the window at breakfast.
This may have surprised me nine 
months ago!

Food tastes good when you're hungry. Simple fact. This food was ten-star delicious. And it's one of those places where the waitress knows people as they come in and can already guess who is going to have the blueberry hotcakes. 

I spent a lazy hour or two at Point Hudson looking at the saltwater. I could have run other places, but many of them may have involved like. . . 50 meters of walking, or something outrageous like that. I had no intentions of anything that rigorous today. The Heermann's, California, and Olympic Gulls on the little spit ensured that I wouldn't even have to handle any new identifications for the morning. 

I take crap-tastic pictures when I'm chatting :D
Harlequin Ducks, at any rate, have returned!

Birders can spot birders. There's field marks. But I was admittedly confused when I spotted someone with binoculars around her neck, and a trash picker in hand. Had I known it was International Coastal Cleanup Day, I'd have been quicker on the uptake. She was a recent transplant from the east coast, and she immediately wanted to clarify what the gorgeous sooty-toned gulls on the spit were. 

It was nice to go through the IDs on the other gulls - most of them a completely different set from the regulars on the other coast. She'd also not heard about the Red-footed Booby in Port Townsend, so I pointed at the building a mile or two down the beach (all the instructions needed for finding this cooperative visitor!). Before I left, we exchanged contact information, and I was told to tell her when I'd be in town next. "We'll go birding!"

Big tangent time. Strap in, fearless reader. Ten to fifteen years ago, an excellent birder dropped into the Seattle area to be closer to family. Being an east coast native, he introduced himself on the local listserv (Tweeters), and just kind of expected someone to grab him and say "Come on, let's go birding." It took a mildly frustrating amount of time for anyone to say that to him, and as luck would have it, I got him first. I'll blame my birth state - New Jersey - although my parents are the more likely influence here, since I only spent a year of my life out there. 

There were a lot of road trips and birding walks and explorations with Pete, but not near enough, as we lost him almost ten years ago. So, it's such a small thing, but that invitation brought back a fond memory of Pete. 

I made stops at Kah Tai Lagoon, looking for an Eared Grebe (no, but yes on a Eurasian Wigeon! Not new for the year, but always a good bird), and a stop at Oak Bay for a Sabine's Gull (nope, although others have seen it out there), then headed for the Kingston Ferry. I didn't really expect anything new for the year at the ferry terminal but landed one more species - a Heermann's Gull - 146 for the year in Kitsap!

Sitting at 190 in Jefferson and 146 in Kitsap. . . it's really feeling like the home stretch, although I'm going to need some luck in Jefferson to hit the goal of 200. It's going to be fun to try for it either way!

Slipping into Kitsap over the Hood Canal Floating Bridge

October is a month where I've organized "blanket trips" in the past (see Mason and Chelan). It's a little spin on the usual field trip format, with people meeting at a central location in the morning, heading off in different directions in three separate cars, and basically blanketing a county, hitting quite a few good spots between them. Meeting up for lunch, people have a chance to share sightings and to head home. . . or use the afternoon to chase the odd birds that were found! 

Although my legs still hurt from that hike, the calendar tells me that October's not far away. It might be nice to get a little blanket trip together. Date and time TBA, but feel free to contact me through here if you're interested! If you haven't birded much in Jefferson County, it might especially be fun to get out. If you've birded the county a lot, you might be a good candidate for navigating one of those cars. 

Let's go birding!

The end o' September tally!