Subject: [Tweeters] Rival King County Big Day Birdathon, May 6
Date: May 7 07:02:11 2006
From: Eugene and Nancy Hunn - enhunn323 at comcast.net


Tweets and May 5 challengers,

Our second annual head-to-head King County Big Day Birdathon challenge with the Michael Hobbs, Matt Bartels, Brian Bell, MaryFrancis Mathis, et al. team confirms the hypothesis that the weather can be too good.

Friday, May 5, was a record high 77 degrees in Seattle with full sun. The May 5 effort produced 111 species, just one shy of last year's 112, with which both 2005 teams tied in rather nasty weather.

Saturday, May 6, threatened showers, cloudy and cooler weather foreboding an incoming frontal system. The result was a new King County Big Day record of 124 species! The cool, cloudy weather was perfect for viewing and kept the birds active longer through mid-day. However, neither day benefited from the migratory fall-outs that some had reported around the region.

The May 6 team was 13 strong in four vehicles, including two intrepid observers who did back-to-back King County Birdathons, Ollie Oliver and Leigh Bell, who provided some critical intelligence with respect to our competition. Other team members included Grace Oliver, Matt Dufort, Hilary Bolles, Kate Turner, Paige Warren, Tom Fegnan, Scott Ramos, Meghan McMackin, Cliff Villa, and Brien Meilleur.

We met at 3:45 AM for owls on the Red Town Trail on Cougar Mountain, having decent success with fine views of an excited Barred Owl -- frustrated by there being no saw-whet behind the recorded calls -- and a confiding Western Screech Owl, our only owls for the day.

Our strategy was to devote quality morning time to quality locations close at hand: First, the Montlake Fill, then Discovery Park. We had tallied 55 species by 7:30 at the Fill and 85 by 10 AM when we left Discovery Park for Kenmore and Carnation. Highlights included actual visual studies of a Virginia Rail and a Sora, the elusive Yellow-headed Blackbird, and a lingering Cackling Goose, a stray Northern Pintail, and both Cinnamon and Blue-winged Teal mated pairs at the Fill. We had a bit of migratory fall out at Discovery Park in addition to a nice sampling of coniferous forest species, including an in-your-face Pileated Woodpecker. Our sole Evening Grosbeak flew in at the visitor center and teed-up for the scopes. West Point was productive with two distant Pacific Loons, alternate plumaged Red-necked a distant Horned Grebe, and a single Marbled Murrelet, not to mention a couple of Harbor Porpoises cruising up the channel.

The Purple Martin's had returned to Log Boom Park and the Bank Swallows had returned to their bank at Stillwater on the Snoqualmie River, for a seven swallow day. The Stillwater Western Bluebird pair was at home as well. The open fields along the Snoqualmie River produced Ravens, Turkey Vultures, Ospreys, Bald Eagles, Cooper's and Red-tailed Hawks, and a Northern Harrier, but no American Kestrel, one of our misses for the day. Plus we enjoyed clouds of Vaux's Swifts, great views of Wood Ducks, glimpses of a Western Tanager and a Black-headed Grosbeak, as a single Yellow Warbler.

By 1 PM we had tallied 107 species. But then we hit the wall, as they say, struggling to locate our first Winter Wren, #108, at 3 PM on Tiger Mountain. Through the late afternoon we birded the wet spots between Auburn and Kent, adding bit by bit to our shorebird list. Some flooded fields were now quite dry, but the Boeing Ponds featured Least and Western Sandpipers, a crippled Dunlin, Spotted and Solitary Sandpipers, and our only Ruddy Ducks. The last wet patch of swampy woods on 204th St. offered two Wilson's Snipe and a totally unexpected last-chance Hairy Woodpecker. The 216th St. mitigation ponds produced a single Lesser Yellowlegs, but no Greaters anywhere.

We finished our Big Day working the West Seatlle Shoreline at low tide, adding Sanderlings, Harlequin Ducks, Brants, a Common Loon, two non-breeder Pelagic Cormorants with Brandt's Cormorants on the channel bouys, and a little group of Mew Gulls. Done and done-in by 8:30 PM, too exhausted to try to add a Marymoor owl stop at dusk, we called it a day, a fine day.

Thanks to all for their contributions to Seattle Audubon.

Gene Hunn.
18476 47th Pl. NE
Seattle, WA 98155
enhunn323 at comcast.net