Greetings
With the strong weather fronts of this past week, and southerly winds, I
thought this might be a good time to scour some nearby places. So Carol
Schulz and I headed down this afternoon to the Foothills Trail below my
house. We parked at the beginning of S Pioneer Road just east of the Carbon
River and walked about 1.6 miles towards South Prairie. We noticed all the
rivers and creeks we saw were very high and swiftly flowing, some of them
even flooding.
The trail was pretty hot! Best bird was a Northern Waterthrush in a ditch,
full of water due to the rains and creating classic waterthrush habitat. It
was right at the only spot where you can see the RV's in the park across the
creek. Apparently this was a first county record. If you didn't want to walk
a mile and a half, you could park along S Pioneer Rd somewhere in this area.
But walking and stopping to spish gives you the opportunity to find a huge
number of migrant passerines. Going by previous years' results, this
corridor of lush deciduous cover near South Prairie will be productive
through September.

FOOTHILLS TRAIL (2:30-5:30):
Intermittent light to heavy rain; SW wind 10mph; 64-68?F.

Wood Duck (3)
Gadwall (1)
Turkey Vulture (1)
Merlin (1-2): caught either a swallow or a swift and carried it off.
Spotted Sandpiper (5)-new mitigation ponds.
Band-tailed Pigeon (30)
Mourning Dove (8)
Vaux's Swift (25)
Red-breasted Sapsucker (3)
Hairy Woodpecker (1)
Northern Flicker (2)
Pileated Woodpecker (2)
Western Wood-Pewee (1)
Willow Flycatcher (6)
Pacific-slope Flycatcher (1)
Warbling Vireo (60): flock after flock dominated by this species + YELW.
Red-eyed Vireo (19)
Steller's Jay (6)
Common Raven (2)
Violet-green Swallow (30)
Barn Swallow (60)
Northern Rough-winged Swallow (3)
BANK SWALLOW (1)-over South Prairie Ck.
Black-capped Chickadee (25)
Chestnut-backed Chickadee (25)
Brown Creeper (1)
Bewick's Wren (2)
Winter Wren (1)
Swainson's Thrush (23): most migrants + two local juvs.
American Robin (45)
Cedar Waxwing (20)
Orange-crowned Warbler (2)
Yellow Warbler (50)
Black-throated Gray Warbler (14)
NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH (1): in a flooded, vegetated ditch adjacent to RV Park.
MacGillivray's Warbler (1)
Common Yellowthroat (9)
Wilson's Warbler (12)
Western Tanager (1)
Song Sparrow (12)
Lincoln's Sparrow (2)
Red-winged Blackbird (5)
Purple Finch (1)
Evening Grosbeak (2)

VOIGHT'S CREEK FISH HATCHERY (5:45)
Band-tailed Pigeon (20)
Black Swift (22)

ALDERTON MITIGATION SITE (6:00):
Greater White-fronted Goose (10): flying south above the Puyallup R.
California Quail (1)
American Kestrel (1)
Black Swift (6)
--
Charlie Wright
Bonney Lake, Washington