Hi all,
The first piece of good news was that I still am able to do insanely stupid
whirlwind trips and live to tell about it. Haven't tried such a trip in a
year or so, but yep still have got it. With my wedding approaching on Friday
and 3 really good birds in the state (1 a potential lifer and 2 for state) I
needed to cram it in on Sunday and Monday. Oh, whoops, I was already going
hiking Sunday morning at Melakwa lake with a friend. Not too worry, I'm
young, should be able to do all in 2 days. Left Yakima at 6 Sunday morning
and headed for Snoqualmie pass to start my Sunday off with a nice 9 mile
round trip hike into the lake (trail accessed from Denny creek trailhead).
Beautiful hike, nothing really amazing but was able to find a calling pygmy
owl just south of Hemlock pass and call it in for decent views and enough to
give just a view nuthatches near heartattacks...well you try being a
nuthatch and not freaking out with 2 pygmy owls around you....(especially
when one is over 6 feet tall and looks nothing like any pygmy owl you've
ever seen before).
Got done with hike about 1:30 and off to Kingston to meet Nancy Ladenberger
for a nice evening run to Port Angeles for the eider. Yes, like everyone
else has commented, this bird is just a little too easy. Step out of car,
big duck with some Hermann's, hmm, yep, tick and nice looks! Back to
Kingston for the night and off to North Cove in the morning. Arrived to the
location for the gull about 10:20, a couple of quick scans of the resting
gulls produced a bird likely to be the black-tailed, smudgy back of head and
bill very suggestive, long yellow with a distinct black band and blood red
tip. Moved in for a better look, just about then a couple decided that the
sandbar leading to nowhere was an excellent spot to walk to. Birders not
happy...yup, flock flushed. Oh how convenient, they all flew even closer and
most are now standing up. Another quick scan, got it! I'd like to echo
previous comments on how striking this bird really is, yes the tail was a
nice clincher but really not needed. Between bill, eye color, back color
etc.. most of the group was able to get great looks at the bird by the time
I left around noon. I had only seen brief looks at the tail in my entire
viewing time.
****On a non-black-tailed gull note. When I was initially scanning after
having arrived, there was an odd adult mew gull in the river and while I
neither have any experience with Kamchatka Mew Gull or was able to study it
for prolonged periods, here are a couple of items to note on this bird.
Body size and shape, quite large for a mew. It was standing next to a
ring-billed gull, and noticed little or no size difference. Head shape, not
rounded at all, rather almost blocky, similar to a herring head shape. The
bill while yellow and unmarked seemed slightly larger and longer than a
typical mew, though I don't have much faith in this as there wasn't a nearby
mew to compare it to. I'm curious to know if others may have seen a bird
fitting this description out there? I studied it for about 2 minutes and
then went back to scanning for the black-tailed. I could not refind this
bird later. Something to at least keep an eye out for...
Back to the whirlwind saga....
left north cove at noon and drove the long and winding roads of hwy.8 and 12
back to Yakima, and then on to the tri-cities, arriving at the delta a
little after 5:30 with no one around. With a little effort I did locate the
stint on the western end of the delta. Only other birds to note that I
haven't seen mentioned were 2 semi-palmated plovers and a semi-palmated
sandpiper in mostly full alternate plumage, I counted 4 semi-sands, but this
was only bird that looked to be bird retaining some alternate plumage.
Finally arrived back in Yakima at 8 this evening. 38 hours, sea level to
6000 feet birding and a little over 700 miles. 3 state birds and 1 life
bird. Yep... I think I've got birding out of my system enough this week that
on Friday I won't say :
" I do....see a Black Swift flying over".
If anybody is offended at this rather long email filled with numerous
punches, please look at the clock on the incoming message (12:30 AM) and the
above stats and grant me just a wee bit of a reprieve.

Thank you and a good night and pleasant dreams of more rarities to come,
just please not on this week.

Scott Downes
downess at charter.net
Yakima WA