Subject: Mason County Birding
Date: Mar 23 16:16:37 2004
From: Terry A Sisson - tpsisson at centurytel.net


Monday, March 22nd, I did some birding in Mason County, driving south on
Hwy 101 along Hood Canal. It was a beautiful sunny day and the tide was
out, so there was a lot of beach exposed.

I stopped at the Hamma Hamma estuary to see the Great Blue Herons, who
had returned to the rookery on the west side of the highway. I counted
26 nests and almost every one of them had a Heron standing on or near
it.

There were 150+ Brants feeding along the water?s edge in Hood Canal.
While I was there, a Peregrine Falcon picked up a thermal over the
highway, soared for a while, and then stooped on something on the
beach. A fantastic sight!

I then used the wide pull off just south of the Hamma Hamma Oyster Co.
(a great place to get seafood, by the way) to check out the water
birds. There were Surf and White-winged Scoters, Common and
Red-breasted Mergansers, Western, Red-necked, Eared and Horned Grebes,
Common Loons, Pigeon Guillemots, and 5 or 6 Harlequin Ducks, including a
1st year male.

Just north of Lilliwap, at another large pull out I found a pair of
Marbled Murrlets.

At the mouth of the Skokomish River (See the Summer ?03 issue of the
Washington Birder for directions to this location), there were a lot of
ducks, including Mallards, Scoups, Wigeons, Buffleheads, Gadwalls, and
one male Northern Shoveler.

I saw a Turkey Vulture over the Purdy Cut-off road.

When I got to Shelton I found a horned Lark (the 1st one this year for
me) at the airport. It was in the grassy area between the east end of
the runway at Sanderson Field and Hwy 101. The best viewing is from the
access road for the Mason County Fairgrounds.

On the way home, I found a pair of Western Bluebirds on Highland Road,
just north of Cloquallum Road. There was also a Townsend?s Solitaire in
that location a week ago, but I haven?t seen it since then.

See you in Mason County!

Terry Sisson
Star Lake
Mason County