Subject: Turkey Vultures and much more in SW Washington
Date: Mar 17 09:28:34 2003
From: Rob McNair-Huff - rob at whiterabbits.com


Natalie and I had a great weekend of birding in Southwest Washington, as
we made a swing out to Westport, down to Tokeland, then south from
Raymond to Naselle before heading up the Columbia River to finish the day
birding at Julia Butler Hansen National Wildlife Refuge for the Columbia
White-tailed Deer. I will submit a more complete trip report in a short
bit, but I thought I would mention that we saw good numbers of TURKEY
VULTURE moving through SW Washington, including two near Tokeland, four
in the vicinity of Julia Butler Hansen, and eight kettling over the
highway near the Cowlitz County line along the Columbia River.

Also of interest, the BLACK PHOEBE remains at Julia Butler Hansen, and we
were happy to find one remaining ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK in the area as well.
Tokeland held good numbers of MARBLED GODWIT, along with one WILLET, and
we enjoyed seeing hundreds of shorebirds on the beach just south of the
jetty at Westport, including two SNOWY PLOVER. Also at Westport was a
stunning COMMON LOON in fresh breeding plumage in the boat basin. Another
enjoyable sighting on our coastal swing Saturday was a group of 25
intermediate plumage BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER in the freshwater wetlands
along Octosa Third St. near Bottle Beach.

Since we haven't been out birding a lot during the last few weeks, we
were happy to see swallows out in force this weekend as well. We first
saw VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS flying over the wetland along I-5 just inside
Pierce County near the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, and we saw
many more Violet-Green Swallows at Ocosta Third St. and at Julia Butler
Hansen NWR later Saturday. But we hit swallow heaven yesterday at the
River S Unit of the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. We had four
swallow species here: VIOLET-GREEN, NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED, BARN, and TREE
SWALLOWS. Violet-green were by far the most numerous, followed by Tree
Swallows, while there were just a few Northern Rough-winged and Tree Swallows.

Things we didn't see this weekend: We couldn't find Great Egret in
Willapa Bay or any other location we visited, nor could we round up a
Red-shouldered Hawk at JBH NWR or Ridgefield. We also couldn't find any
Sandhill Cranes, though this is not a huge loss since we will be heading
east to the festival in Othello next weekend to see the cranes and other
birds in that great part of the state!

Here are the numbers and what we saw over our weekend:

Saturday (64 species)-

Along Wenzel Slough Road near Elma: (made a very short visit...)
- Song Sparrow
- Red-winged Blackbird
- European Starling
- Greater Scaup
- Marsh Wren

John's River:
- Ruby-crowned Kinglet
- Dark-eyed Junco
- Black-capped Chickadee
- Canada Goose
- American Crow
- Common Raven
- Steller's Jay
- American Robin
- Great Blue Heron

Ocosta Third St.: (didn't visit Bottle Beach due to high tide)
- Canada Goose
- Green-winged Teal
- Mallard
- Marsh Wren
- Violet-green Swallow
- American Coot
- Long-billed Dowitcher
- Black-bellied Plover (25)
- Merlin (chased off the plover while we watched, but no catch today...)
- Northern Pintail
- Great Blue Heron
- Brewer's Blackbird
- Brown-headed Cowbird
- American Wigeon

Westport:
- Pelagic Cormorant (in breeding plumage)
- Common Loon (in breeding plumage)
- Surf Scoter (15)
- Western Gull
- California Gull
- Red-throated Loon
- Black Scoter
- Horned Grebe

Westhaven State Park:
- Sanderling (100)
- Dunlin (250)
- Western Sandpiper (50)
- Snowy Plover (2)
- Song Sparrow
- Bald Eagle

Tokeland:
- Marbled Godwit (250)
- Dunlin (200)
- Western Sandpiper
- Willet
- Red-throated Loon
- Horned Grebe
- Belted Kingfisher
- Trumpeter Swan (8 in the bay north of Tokeland)
- Bufflehead
- Gull sp. (appeared to be a Herring Gull, but we are not sure...)
- Mew Gull
- California Gull
- Western Gull
- Turkey Vulture (2 flying high to the west of Raymond)

Julia Butler Hansen NWR:
- American Kestrel
- Turkey Vulture (3, including an immature bird sitting in a tree along
the road near the Columbia River)
- Pied-billed Grebe
- Mallard
- Bufflehead
- Rough-legged Hawk
- Great Blue Heron
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Belted Kingfisher
- Northern Harrier
- Merlin
- White-tailed Kite (4)
- Black Phoebe
- Canada Goose
- Hummingbird sp. (4, sounded like Rufous, but couldn't make a visual ID)
- Red-tailed Hawk
- Bewick's Wren
- Common Merganser (3 in breeding plumage)
- Common Raven
- American Robin
- Marsh Wren
- Golden-crowned Sparrow
- Song Sparrow
- Ring-necked Duck
- Green-winged Teal
- Great Blue Heron
- Yellow-rumped Warbler
- Winter Wren
- Wood Duck
- Hooded Merganser
- House Finch

West of Cowlitz County line:
- Turkey Vulture (8 kettling over the highway)

Sunday (58 species) -
Near Longview:
- Scrub Jay
- Steller's Jay
- Red-tailed Hawk
- Green-winged Teal
- Turkey Vulture
- American Crow
- Double-crested Cormorant (500 on the Columbia River, feeding along with
Bald Eagles and gulls on smelt)
- Canada Goose
- Starling

Dike Access Road:
- Rock Dove
- Glacous-winged Gull
- American Kestrel
- Northern Harrier
- Great Blue Heron
- Trumpeter Swan (6 flying)
- American Robin
- Northern Flicker
- European Starling
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Brown-headed Cowbird
- Brewer's Blackbird
- Song Sparrow
- Common Merganser (20)
- Mallard
- House Finch
- Pied-billed Grebe
- Wood Duck (5)
- Black-capped Chickadee
- Canada Goose
- Steller's Jay
- American Crow
- Red-tailed Hawk
- House Sparrow
- Dark-eyed Junco
- Greater Scaup
- Lesser Scaup
- Horned Grebe
- Western Grebe
- Ruddy Duck
- Barrow's Goldeneye (showing breeding behavior)
- Red-breasted Merganser
- Mourning Dove
- Western Gull
- Mew Gull
- Bald Eagle
- Scrub Jay

Ridgefield NWR River "S" Unit:
- Steller's Jay
- American Robin
- Winter Wren
- Rock Dove
- Canada Goose (Aleutian, Common, and Dusky sub-species)
- European Starling
- Lesser Scaup
- Ring-necked Duck
- Mallard
- Great Blue Heron
- Northern Shoveler (large numbers throughout the NWR)
- American Wigeon
- American Coot (even larger numbers that the shovelers...)
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Pied-billed Grebe
- Violet-green Swallow
- Tree Swallow
- Northern Harrier
- Marsh Wren
- Northern Rough-winged Swallow
- Barn Swallow
- Green-winged Teal
- Eurasian Wigeon
- Bufflehead
- Cooper's Hawk (circling over the viewing blind)
- Yellow-rumped Warbler (a dozen or more near the blind)
- Golden-crowned Sparrow (8)
- White-crowned Sparrow
- Fox Sparrow

We also saw a rabbit near the parking area for the viewing blind...

Great birding! In all we saw 79 species for the weekend.

Rob McNair-Huff ---------- mailto:rob at whiterabbits.com
White Rabbit Publishing -- http://www.whiterabbits.com/
Mac Net Journal ---------- http://www.macnetjournal.com/
The Equinox Project ------ http://www.whiterabbits.com/weblog.html