Subject: Olympic National Forest and the coast 7/18-20th (late report)
Date: Jul 23 11:15:11 2003
From: Charlie Wright - charlie at birdwright.com


Hey Tweeters,

Sorry about the late report: I helped lead a small Audubon group in
Grays Harbor County last weekend, along with Carol Schulz. We saw a few
birds of note at certain locations, but generally numbers were not huge. We
did have excellent weather for the three days, only feeling a little bit of
mist on Sunday morning while camping in the rainforest. A total of 104
species for the weekend. First of all, several of us stopped at Hoquiam STP
and viewed the Bowerman Basin from there. Just a few adult Western
Sandpipers were on the mudflats, roughly 250, and a few scattered Leasts. A
very ratty-looking first year Bonaparte's Gull was also noted here, with its
black cap nearly completely worn off. We all camped at Ocean City State
Park.

Around the park in the morning on Saturday I heard the usual Hutton's
Vireos, Black-throated Gray Warblers, and Swainson's Thrushes. One
Swainson's was gathering food for a nest in a robin-like manner on the
lawns. In a wet area of the campground a Virginia Rail called, and two
Green Herons were seen. I did a short seawatch from the beach here in the
early morning during incoming tide, and saw quite a bit of activity
offshore. Flocks of Pacific Loons and a few Red-throated Loons were
present, as well as numbers of Sooty Shearwaters. Several Harbor Porpoise
were in the surf just offshore. As I was scanning, I found a pair of
BAIRD'S SANDPIPERS flying in from sea. They gave us a nice fly-by, then
landed with a nearby flock of gulls loafing on a sandbar for quite a while.
This was one of the few times I have seen adult Baird's Sandpipers in
Washington.

We then drove north to Point Grenville, where we were able to meet with
Mike Mail who would lead us to the area to view nesting seabirds. We spent
a lot of time here viewing the spectacle of huge numbers of nesting murres,
cormorants, and other birds. The murres and cormorants were highly vocal.
The conditions couldn't have been better; from our raised viewpoint we could
see out well over a mile over the glass-like ocean where there were very
large flocks of scoters. It was also 80 degrees! The mammal watching was
just as exciting, with a great concentration of Harbor Porpoises. There
must have been some very large schools of fish in this area while we were
there. While viewing the southern grassy island, Gary Wiles and I spotted
the first TUFTED PUFFIN flying around about 50 feet in the air. Soon more
were found, a total of four, and two were seen landing on the island and
eventually running into burrows. We had great views of this entertaining
alcid on the water, in flight, and on land. Mike said that this was the
first he's heard of them here this year. We were also captivated by a young
Peregrine Falcon, one of two fledged from this site this year. The bird,
which I thought was large enough to be a female, was practicing its flying
and aiming skills on the beach. It landed on the rocks, and would swoop
down and pick up small pieces of driftwood from the ground, taking them up
in the air before dropping them again. After a few hours we moved on to
Lake Quinault. There were no birds on the water, though several Common
Loons were noted here last week. We visited the largest Sitka Spruce in the
world, and had a bit of lunch or dinner before heading up to our camp at
Campbell Tree Grove. We searched for owls in the old growth here, but had
no luck. A Blue Grouse was displaying up the slope in the wilderness area,
at some distance. It gave its last series of very low, resonant hoots at
10:30pm, when it was getting rather dark.

In the morning, I woke up to the Blue Grouse pumping from the same area
as before from about 5:20am on. At sunrise (about 5:40) I began hearing
Marbled Murrelets overhead. They were flying over in pairs until about
6:25am. They seemed to be flying west, up the valley, so perhaps these
birds were headed for fishing in the Hood Canal or other areas of the Puget
Sound rather than the ocean. Later in the morning we walked on the West
Fork trail nearby. I got a RED-EYED VIREO in a scope in a large cottonwood
briefly before it flew off, and we all had great looks at singing Hammond's
Flycatchers. We left the Quinault area a bit after noon. Later we
attempted to do a bit of scoping from the Point Brown jetty, but the thick
fog made seeing birds more than about ten yards away impossible. Instead,
we headed to Bill's Spit. The only shorebirds were Least Sandpipers, some
flocks of Westerns flying by, and a single Whimbrel with the large gull
flock. That's about all.

Cheers and good birding,
--
Charlie Wright
Sumner, WA
charlie at birdwright.com

Friday 7/18 --
Hoquiam STP & Bowerman Basin

Saturday 7/19 --
Ocean City State Park & beach access
Cyber Lake trail
Oyhut beach access
Pt Grenville
Lk Quinault

Sunday 7/20 --
Campbell Tree Grove & the West Fork trail
Rainforest trail near Lk Quinault
Pt Brown Jetty
Bill's Spit

Red-throated Loon: (15 in alternate plumage)-Ocean City beach; (10)-Oyhut
beach; (5)-Pt Grenville.
Pacific Loon: (70)-Ocean City beach; (10)-Oyhut beach; (15)-Pt Grenville.
Common Loon: (10)-Oyhut beach; 20-Pt Grenville; (1)-Pt Brown jetty.
Western Grebe: (12)-Pt Grenville.
Sooty Shearwater: (60)-Ocean City beach; (10)-Oyhut beach; (90)-Pt
Grenville.
Brown Pelican: (1)-Ocean City beach; (30)-Pt Grenville.
Brandt's Cormorant: (3)-Ocean City beach; (500+)-Pt Grenville.
Double-crested Cormorant: (100+)-Pt Grenville; (5)-Pt Brown jetty.
Pelagic Cormorant: (250+)-Pt Grenville.
Great Blue Heron
Green Heron: (2)-Ocean City State Park.
Canada Goose
Mallard
Northern Shoveler: (fem. w/4 chicks)-Hoquiam STP.
Greater Scaup: (6)-Hoquiam STP; (100's of scaup, spp)-Pt Grenville.
Surf Scoter: (70)-Ocean City beach; (20)-Oyhut beach; (1000's)-Pt Grenville.
White-winged Scoter: (50)-Ocean City beach; (35)-Oyhut beach; (100's)-Pt
Grenville.
Bufflehead: (3)-Hoquiam STP.
Hooded Merganser: (2)-Cyber Lake.
Osprey: (2 around nest)-Lk Quinault.
Bald Eagle: (2)-Lk Quinault.
Cooper's Hawk: (1 hunting starlings)-Hoquiam STP; (1)-Pt Grenville.
Red-tailed Hawk
Peregrine Falcon: (1 adult)-Cyber Lake; (1 ad, 2 juv)-Pt Grenville.
Ring-necked Pheasant: (2)-Ocean City State Park.
Blue Grouse: (1 hooting)-upslope from Campbell Tree Grove.
Virginia Rail: (1 heard)-Ocean City State Park.
Semipalmated Plover: (14)-Ocean City beach.
Killdeer: (2)-Lk Quinault.
Black Oystercatcher: (6)-Pt Grenville.
Greater Yellowlegs: (11)-Cyber Lake.
Whimbrel: (1 ad)-Bill's Spit.
Western Sandpiper: (250 ad)-Bowerman Basin from STP; (50)-Ocean City beach;
(70)-Bill's Spit.
Least Sandpiper: (10 ad)-Bowerman Basin from STP; (25 ad)-Bill's Spit.
Baird's Sandpiper: (2 ad)-Ocean City beach.
Bonaparte's Gull: (1 first summer)-Bowerman Basin.
Heermann's Gull: (3)-Hoquiam STP; (30)-Ocean City beach; (100)-Pt Grenville.
California Gull
Western Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull: including many fledglings at Pt Grenville.
Caspian Tern: (20)-Bowerman Basin; (30)-Ocean City beach; (15)-Pt Grenville;
(75)-Bill's Spit.
Common Murre: (80)-Ocean City beach; (40)-Oyhut beach; (1000's)-Pt
Grenville; (10)-Pt Brown jetty.
Pigeon Guillemot: (2)-Ocean City beach; (25)-Pt Grenville.
Marbled Murrelet: (1)-Ocean City beach; (6)-Pt Grenville; (12+)-heard a bit
after dawn over Campbell Tree Grove.
Rhinoceros Auklet: (20)-Ocean City beach; (5)-Oyhut beach; (60)-Pt
Grenville.
Tufted Puffin: (4)-Pt Grenville, 2 perched on southern island.
Rock Dove
Mourning Dove: (1)-along I-5 at Ft Lewis 7/20.
Vaux's Swift: (8)-Hoquiam STP; (30)-Lk Quinault area.
Rufous Hummingbird: (1)-Campbell Tree Grove.
Belted Kingfisher: (3)-Lk Quinault.
Downy Woodpecker: (1)-Ocean City State Park.
Hairy Woodpecker: (2)-Campbell Tree Grove.
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker: (1)-drumming at Campbell Tree Grove.
Olive-sided Flycatcher: (2)-Cyber Lake; (1)-Bill's Spit.
Hammond's Flycatcher: (6)-Campbell Tree Grove; (2)-Rainforest Nature Trail.
Pacific-slope Flycatcher: (4)-Ocean City State Park; (12)-Campbell Tree
Grove.
Hutton's Vireo: (1)-Ocean City State Park; (1)-Pt Grenville.
Warbling Vireo: (1)-Campbell Tree Grove.
Red-eyed Vireo: (1)-West Fork trail at Campbell Tree Grove.
Gray Jay: (family group of 4)-Campbell Tree Grove.
Steller's Jay: (1)-Campbell Tree Grove.
Crow, spp.
Common Raven
Tree Swallow: (5)-Hoquiam STP.
Violet-green Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch: (3)-Campbell Tree Grove.
Brown Creeper: (1)-Pt Grenville; (4)-Campbell Tree Grove.
Bewick's Wren
Winter Wren
Marsh Wren: (1)-Bowerman Basin.
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Swainson's Thrush
American Robin
Varied Thrush: (25)-Campbell Tree Grove.
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Orange-crowned Warbler: (4)-Pt Grenville.
Yellow Warbler: (1)-Ocean City State Park.
Townsend's Warbler: (2)-Campbell Tree Grove.
Black-throated Gray Warbler: (10)-Ocean City State Park; (1)-Pt Grenville;
(3)-Lk Quinault.
Common Yellowthroat: (1)-Pt Grenville.
Wilson's Warbler
Western Tanager: (1)-Campbell Tree Grove.
Spotted Towhee
Savannah Sparrow: (5)-Pt Grenville.
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow: (4)-Cyber Lake.
Dark-eyed Junco
Black-headed Grosbeak: (1)-Lk Quinault.
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Purple Finch: (1)-Ocean City State Park; (2)-Cyber Lake; (1)-Bill's Spit.
House Finch
Red Crossbill: (25)-Ocean City State Park; (12)-Cyber Lake; (1)-Pt
Grenville; (50)-Lk Quinault; (40)-Campbell Tree Grove; (3)-Bill's Spit.
Pine Siskin: (4)-Campbell Tree Grove.
American Goldfinch: (2)-Pt Grenville; (4)-Bill's Spit.
Evening Grosbeak: (15)-Campbell Tree Grove.
House Sparrow

Mammals:
Harbor Porpoise: (5 or so)-off Ocean City beach access; (150+)-covered the
waters at Pt Grenville, a magnificent sight.
California Sea Lion
Harbor Seal
Northern Flying Squirrel: (roadkilled)-Lake Quinault.
Douglas Squirrel
Townsend's Chipmunk
White-tailed Deer