Hello Tweets,

This weekend my mother and I enjoyed two days of CBC's,beginning with our area on the Tacoma CBC on December 20th that covers areas from the Titlow-Day Island area extending east along 12th Street to the south end of City Waterway along Dock Street. We encountered a total of 83 species with 6,838 individuals on the Tacoma CBC within three separate parties and several notable highlights among several species that were tallied in good numbers. We encountered only a few scattered rain showers during the Tacoma CBC,but overall species numbers within our personal areas that were good with the most noteworthy sightings within our area to follow below:

10 Wood Ducks
9 Northern Shovelers
7 Sharp-shinned Hawks
2 Peregrine Falcons
1 Ring-necked Pheasant
4 Virginia Rails(noted at the Adriana Hess Audubon Center wetland with one bird observed at close range)
1 Western Gull
10 Anna's Hummingbirds
1 Red-breasted Sapsucker
2 Pileated Woodpeckers
60 Steller's Jays(unusually good numbers observed in the western portion of our area in the Fircrest to Day Island areas)
3 Marsh Wrens
2 Hermit Thrushes
3 Hutton's Vireos
14 Townsend's Warblers
115 Song Sparrows
2 Lincoln's Sparrows
1 adult tan-striped White-throated Sparrow(observed at the Tacoma Community College natural area)
81 Golden-crowned Sparrows
11 Purple Finches
94 American Goldfinches

Today we were rewarded with another exceptional day of CBC counting within our areas of the Grays Harbor CBC,which covers areas west from Pt.New to the Hoquiam River at Hoquiam(including the Hoquiam STP, Bowerman Basin,and "K" Street at Hoquiam). We began the day off at "K" Street at 7:30am,where our first two species of the day were the 2 Pink-footed Geese and 2 Greater White-fronted Geese,as both birds were observed resting in the flooded fields at that location. We returned back to the location to do additional counting at 12pm and again observed all 4 birds in better lighting conditions,as we watched them amongst a scattered flock of Canada Geese before all the geese were flushed by 3 roaming dogs and flew off to the south over the mouth of the Hoquiam River. We watched the 2 Pink-footed Geese and the 2 Greater White-fronted Geese separate from the flock of Canada Geese(that continued off towards Bowerman Basin)until the 4 geese landed off the west end of Rennie Island. We continued along the outer dike trail at "K" Street that borders the Hoquiam River and made a "loop" back to our vehicle and ran into 2 other birders with one of which had previously observed the 2 Pink-footed Geese. Upon walking with the other birder we observed the 2 Pink-footed Geese and the 2 Greater White-fronted Geese flying back from the Hoquiam River over us as we stood before finally landing in the wet grassy fields at 1pm. Along with getting our main "target" bird of the day we encountered several other highlights within the 86 species with a total of 7,746 individuals we tallied in our route for the day,which may be due to fairly good weather,despite drifting fog at times. We greatly enjoyed covering additional areas compared to our last year's participation on this count and look forward to next years count,as well despite much of our route being done solely by foot. Additional highlights encountered within our area of the Grays Harbor CBC included the following:

1 Red-throated Loon
1 Eared Grebe
8 Pelagic Cormorants
72 Gadwall
72 Canvasback
1 male Redhead
48 Common Goldeneyes
104 Buffleheads
14 Hooded Mergansers
9 Ruddy Ducks
10 Northern Harriers
4 Merlins
3 Peregrine Falcons
8 Virginia Rails
4 Spotted Sandpipers(observed at 3 locations along the Hoquiam River)
9 Western Sandpipers
45 Least Sandpipers
28 Wilson's Snipe
342 Mew Gulls
6 Ring-billed Gulls
21 California Gulls
4 Western Gulls
1 Short-eared Owl(observed at the west end of Rennie Island along the Hoquiam River)
1 Anna's Hummingbird
1 immature Northern Shrike
1 Hutton's Vireo
2 Hermit Thrushes
1 Orange-crowned Warbler
80 "Sooty"Fox Sparrows
127 Song Sparrows
7 Lincoln's Sparrows
1 Swamp Sparrow(heard only in an extensive wet bramble path on the other side of a fenceline at the eastern edge of the Hoquiam STP)
9 White-crowned Sparrows
82 Golden-crowned Sparrows
13 Western Meadowlarks


Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
godwit at worlnet.att.net