Once again, a business trip landed me right in the middle of a birding
hotspot, so Noel and I spent the weekend birding western Washington on the
company nickel. My trip was originally scheduled in February, so Ive been
monitoring Tweeters and the WA hotlines for the last two months, salivating
at the great birding prospects.

Unfortunately, timing is everything, and my trip was postponed until March
15th. By the time we got to Washington, most of the rare bird reports had
dried up. If the trip had indeed been in February, there were 9 potential
lifebirds being reported that we could have reached. By mid-March, we only
found 1 lifebird. The current WA excitement was a Northern Mockingbird, rare
to Washington, but not much of a thrill for a Louisiana native.

Still, we had a great time, and loved to get the opportunity to know western
Washington better. Absolutely beautiful terrain, and a lucky weekend with
prodigious sunshine. We counted 80+ species, logged over 1300 road miles in 4
days, and had some great coffee.

Special thanks to the Tweeters and Chatters who let us eavesdrop, and to
those individuals who provided great tips and thoughtful notes, especially
Michael, Burt, Steve, Alan, Bill & Nancy, Richard, and Russell. Great area -
we look forward to making many return trips.

If anyone would like specifics on anything in this report, a full trip list,
or a summary of the relevant Tweeter and BirdChat notes we collected in
preparation for this trip, let me know.

Thu 3/14: 9-noon, Seattle to Yakima. Flew in to SeaTac, business in Yakima.
Binoculars in the front seat as I commuted to work. Some fun birds along
the way: GOLDEN EAGLE just past the Snoqualmie Pass. ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS every
now and then. Roadside ponds were fun, including: TUNDRA SWANs at Ellensburg
(couldnt find any Trumpeters). A flotilla of 8 WOOD DUCKs south of Yakima.
COMMON MERGANSER, RING-NECKED DUCK, etc here and there.

Thu 3/14: 6pm, Moses Lake. Drove to Moses Lake for a dinner date with some
Snowy Owls. I checked every sprinkler head and irrigation wheel in the area -
but they were no where to be found. Warm weather, and a lot more plowing had
been done. Snowy Owl season must be over. As a consolation, Princeton did
beat UCLA in the NCAA basketball tournament on the radio during the drive
home.

Fri 3/15: 2-4pm, American Lake & Nisqually. Killing time before Noels flight
arrives. Decided to scout these two spots (cant count the birds until Noel
is with me, but at least I can find out whats there). American Lake is
beautiful, but only a small handful of BONAPARTEs GULLs at any of the
lookout points. No Little Gulls for my eyes. At Nisqually, no flock of gulls
in the fields. Just a couple GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULLs circling over the tree
line.

Sat 3/16: 5-8am, Ovenell Road. Picked up Noel at SeaTac last night (great
dinner at Ettas). Were out here hoping for a Great Gray Owl. Awful lonely
out here - I guess the traffic jams of owl-watchers abandoned this place
weeks ago. Hope the radio-taggers know where the Great Gray has gone to - he
sure wasnt anywhere visible for us. Am. ROBINs rule the dawn chorus up here.
Kiting and jousting ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKs were a fun show. We found the first of
many female HOODED MERGANSERs on the day - curiously, we didnt come across
any males the whole trip.

Sat 3/16: 8-10am, La Conner. Swan hunt. We crisscrossed the back roads,
admiring the daffodils and regretting we were too early for the tulips. We
scoped several pockets of TUNDRA SWANs and SNOW GEESE before we finally
caught on to where all of the overhead swans were flying. We crested a levee,
and found a large field covered in white along Bradshaw Road. Here we found
several TRUMPETER SWANs (our only life bird of the trip) mixed with the
Tundras. Our best surprise was back on the levee, where we found a
WHITE-THROATED SPARROW, not a bird a expected.

Sat 3/16: 10-noon, Samish Flats. A slow cruise scanning every low tree, post,
or mound of dirt hoping for a Gyrfalcon. No luck. Plenty of good BALD EAGLE
looks. Too many MALLARDs (wheres a Duck Hawk when you need one), with a
pleasant sprinkling of GREEN-WINGED TEAL to break the monotony.

Sat 3/16: noon-2pm, Whidbey Island. Sea duck extravaganza. We pulled up to
the water at Hastie Lake Road to find KING EIDER, HARLEQUIN DUCK, OLDSQUAW,
and SURF SCOTER all very close in. The Eider was great in sunlight, as his
rose-peach breast was a magical color, and touches of blue were starting to
come in on the head. Other ducking around Whidbey found COMMON and BARROWs
GOLDENEYE, WHITE-WING SCOTER, both SCAUPs, etc. The ferry ride to Port
Townsend added RHINOCEROS AUKLET, COMMON MURRE, BRANDTS CORMORANT, BRANTs,
and more.

Sat 3/16: 4-5:30pm, Point No Point. Under increasing clouds and darkening
skies, we searched in vain for Little Gulls. They may have been out there,
but there were too many BONAPARTEs GULLs, milling about too fast, in too bad
of light for us to make any good positive IDs.

Sun 3/17: 9-noon, Ocean Shores. We headed this direction with great Brambling
hopes. But Rex in Naselle told us the little lady Brambling had departed only
a week ago. Nicest guy - was very proud of the visitors who had come to see
his guest, and that he had put out over 750 lbs of seed to make her stay
since November comfortable. Instead, we spent our morning at Ocean Shores
battling bad weather and high seas (could we really have misread that tide
chart that bad) looking for Rock Sandpipers. Even these cant miss birds
eluded us in the poor conditions (a few BLACK TURNSTONES were all that braved
the jetty with us). The sand dunes were full of kids and dogs instead of
Snow Buntings. The weather depressed us, so we gave up on Westport, and
headed back inland.

Sun 3/18: 2-4pm, Nisqually and American Lake. Back again, with the same
results as my scouting trip on Friday. We did find a large number of gulls
circling over the landfill south of Nisqually, but they wouldnt let us in
without an appointment and escort. Noel liked American Lake, too. A lot of
delightful birds, but merely pleasant, not rare. The COMMON MERGANSERs were
quite elegant, and we were thrilled to watch a COMMON GOLDENEYE courtship
display just a few feet from our shore.

Sun 3/18: 5-6:30pm, Tacoma Narrows. More breathtaking scenery, and a
beautiful park at the end (forgot its name). No great bird news, but a nice
way to end the weekend.

In hindsight, playing connect the dots between somewhat stale hotline
reported sights had its ups and downs. Great way to see many spots, enjoy
varied birding habitat and plenty of good local birds, and feel the aura of
the great bird that had been there. On the other hand, kind of frustrating,
with hopes artificially elevated, to strike out again and again - realizing
that news stays fresh for only so long. My tailbone is a little sore, too.
But thats part of the game, and all in all, we had a great weekend. Hope to
see yall again soon.

P.S. We checked every K-Mart sign we could find, but didnt see any Spotted
Owls. Thought youd like to know.

Jeff & Noel Perkins
San Rafael, CA
jefperki at aol.com