Subject: Stanwood Field Trip
Date: Feb 24 10:15:26 2004
From: Lynn Schulz - linusq at worldnet.att.net


Hi Tweets:
Ten of us from Rainier and Tahoma Audubon had a great trip on Sat, Feb
21 in the sunshine at Stanwood, WA. DeLorme pg 95. After meeting in
DesMoines at 7am, we traveled north on I-5 to exit 206 (Smokey Point).
We traveled west on SR 531(Lakewood Road) approx 6 miles to Marine
Drive near the water. (There was a brief stop at Wenberg SP, but the
restrooms were closed for the winter).
At Marine Dr, we turned north
for 1 1/4 miles, and turned toward the water at the Warm Beach
Methodist Camp and Conference
Center on 20800 Marine Dr. (From Stanwood it is 4 miles south on
Marine Dr. Website www.warmbeach.com ). Inside the huge area of
cabins,
lodges, and woods, we drove toward the water, and stopped at the large
bldg called Cedar Lodge. There are restrooms there, and an office
inside, and they gave us bird checklists, and maps of the area. They
told us there was a $5. charge per person, but since we didn't know,
they said we could enter for free. Later we gave them some money (but
not THAT much). But what a great place.
Lots of woods, bluffs, huge fields, dikes, beaches. Wow. Part of our
group walked down the trail behind the amphitheater by the Cedar
Lodge.
We drove two cars down to the stables to meet them. At the bottom
there are huge horse-grazing fields, a sewer pond that dumps into a
constructed wetland, and a little farther along the trail/road at the
bottom there is a small pumping station. You can walk out on the dike
there on Dike Road even though a sign says it is a private canoe area
for Warm
Beach. There are dikes and salt
marshes and a beach. We saw a GREAT EGRET very close to the trail in
that area.
There were RED-TAILED HAWKS, and an AMERICAN KESTREL, and small birds
in the bushes. There were TRUMPETER SWANS and a singing MEADOWLARK.
We apparently missed the flocks of winter sparrows. We could hear
singing BROWN CREEPERS. Back up at the top about 11:30 we saw and
heard singing HUTTON'S VIREOS and two of them chased each other
around. A trip around the nearby forest nature trail was wonderful.
The best nature trail I've been on recently, very natural. In there
we had several kinds of forest birds including 4 VARIED THRUSHES and
two Brown Creepers.
Then we traveled north to Boe Road where we saw accipiters, hawks
including a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK and a kestrel, and a small flock of SNOW
GEESE flying. We birded Stanwood but did not enter the Stanwood Sewer
Ponds, because they are closed to the public until August due to
construction there. After that we traveled the short distance north
to
Big Ditch. It was pretty quiet in the mid-day, but there was a huge
flock of SNOW GEESE in the fields.
It was afternoon, and we went to Thomle Rd, south of Stanwood. We
observed a gorgeous, singing MEADOWLARK in the top of a 140 foot tree!
Pretty interesting. A ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK was silhouetted in a small
tree on the dike. We couldn't get any color, but you could see that
the legs were feathered all the way to the toes. The very-large eagle
nest that can be viewed from Thomle had a perched adult BALD EAGLE in
the branches near the nest as we left. We had heard that this nest
had been abandoned, so that was neat.
Then we went back over to Boe Road and drove into the Nature
Conservancy Pt Susan Bay Refuge. We had permission to enter in the
afternoon (w/ no more than 12 people). The contact person for the
area is Liz Merriman lmerriman at tnc.org I had wanted to be there as
the tide came in, as the bay really dumps out in that area. Even
though we were there 2 hours! before high tide, the tide was up into
the grass. It was there that we saw a beautiful phenomenom of flying
DUNLIN. There are supposed to be 40,000 wintering Dunlin in Pt Susan
Bay. The flocks were lit by the setting sun, and as they did their
evasive flight they formed columns or as someone commented
"tornados", which would rise and fall. Wow.
At one point a Dunlin flock flew past us preceded by two BLACK-BELLIED
PLOVERS. As we started walking out on the dike, several of us
observed a NORTHERN SHRIKE. There were several species of ducks in
the ponds including RUDDY DUCKS going into breeding plumage. There
were swans swimming nearby backlit by the setting sun. We kept
watching for falcons but did not see any. Finally as the last car
left the area at 5:15, a MERLIN flew across over the end of Boe Road.
We did not see the two Short-eared Owls that had been in the Stanwood
area a week earlier. But we had a wonderful, spring-like trip in the
sun. Seemed hot even though it was only 50 degrees all day.
Here is our list of species:
Common Loon
Dbl-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret - 1
Snow Goose
Canada Goose
Trumpeter Swan
Tundra Swan
Mallard
Northern Pintail
Northern Shoveler
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Greater Scaup
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper?s Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Rough-legged Hawk - 2 at least
American Kestrel
Merlin
American Coot
Black-bellied Plover
Killdeer
Dunlin
Mew Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Rock Pigeon
Band-tailed Pigeon - 1
Mourning Dove - 1
Belted Kingfisher
Northern Flicker
Northern Shrike
Hutton?s Vireo
Steller?s Jay
American Crow
Common Raven
Blk-capped Chickadee
Chestnut-bk?d Chickadee
Bushtit
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Bewick?s Wren
Winter Wren
Marsh Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
American Robin
Varied Thrush - 4
European Starling
Spotted Towhee
Fox Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Brewer?s Blackbird
Purple Finch
House Finch
Pine Siskin
House Sparrow
Total species - 69

Yours, Carol Schulz
DesMoines, WA
mailto:linusq at att.net