Hello Tweeters:
On Sat, Oct 29, 2006, Steve Johnson led a group of us Rainier Audubon folks
on a field trip to parks and beaches in Pierce County and S King County. It
was a day of predicted rains, and after a thorough drenching in the early
morning at Des Moines, I showed up anyway at the P&R at I-5 and S 272nd St
near Federal
Way. The sky was clear. At 8am, a Vee of SNOW GEESE flew south overhead!
There were about 45 geese in the flock. They veared to the east in their
flight, and
we were hoping they'd land in the Green River valley, but they continued
south. All of our group got to watch them. Wow!
Our next stop was down in Fife. We drove south on I-5 to exit 137, and
turned toward Puget Sound on 54th St, driving past the Poodle Dog
Restaurant. We turned right just past the Milgard factory onto 8th St E.
At the last building. we turned left into the parking lot. There is a small
pond there in the corner with vegetation around it. A juv Sharp-shinned
Hawk flew. Toward the back of the parking lot, there is a gate in the fence
that looks locked but is not. You can walk down to the pond and view ducks
and small birds. You also can see this pond from the street. At the rear
of the parking lot, there is a large field. It is a restored area, and the
far side of it has a bluff and Hylebos Creek. I call the field Doris's
Field after Doris Erickson, a very-good birder and trip leader who recently
passed away. Her house is at the top of the bluff across the field, in an
area called the Fife Highlands. With the clear skies on Sunday morning,
Doris's Field was magic. A Song Sparrow and Lincoln's
Sparrow approached in the blackberries. Up over the bluff, a Sharp-shinned
Hawk
and a crow performed aerial combat for about 10 minutes. Some Cackling
Geese flew through. A bare tree half way up the bluff held 9 Band-tailed
Pigeons. A flock of Cedar Waxwings flew over the field. We also viewed a
flying Bald Eagle and a Red-tailed Hawk from that vantage point at the
parking lot.
Doris used to tell us that there are trails back by the bluff,
near Hylebos Creek. She used to have nesting Barn Owls in cavities in the
bluff below her house. It is an interesting area. The field is several
blocks long and probably 4 blocks wide.
>From there we traveled north on 54th until it met the jct w/ hwy 509. We
turned right on 509 and traveled north along the Hylebos Waterway. At 11th
St & 509, we turned left and stopped at the mudflats, at another restored
area, marked by the open 11th St bridge. You can walk down to the mudflats
and also out toward the bridge. We viewed the mudflats, and the tide was
coming in. There were a number of ducks and other birds including 9 Great
Blue Herons, and one SPOTTED SANDPIPER. The Purple Martins have flown
south. We walked out toward the open bridge, and looked up under the bridge
on the far side. Roger Orness had given us a heads-up before the trip, and
sure enough, an adult PEREGRINE FALCON was perched up near the top of the
underside of the bridge on the far side of the waterway. Roger said it
likes to perch there in bad weather (it was windy). He said there is a pair
in the area. He said to also look on the large red towers next to the
bridge, but the falcons could not be seen there.
We proceded north on hwy 509, and turned into a pullout that is just before
you head up the hill from the marina. You are looking out over the logbooms
on Commencement Bay.
We observed many gulls here including Mew Gull, California Gull, and
Ring-billed Gulls, lots of seals, and one Pelagic Cormorant. We couldn't
find any shorebirds on the logs, but had to continue on.
Up at Brown's Point at the light house it was quite windy, and there were
few birds to be seen. We continued north on hwy 509, around the bend
where the eagles sometime perch on the trees, and turned left onto Markham
Ave. This dropped us down to Dash Point Pier, a Pierce County park. We saw
a flock of 15 Bonaparte's Gulls, a few Western Grebes, 3 Red-necked Grebes,
and Horned Grebes here. Two flocks of Green-winged Teal flew by. 2 Common
Murre's flew by. It was just high tide. We couldn't wait to try to find
Ancient Murrelets, and never did see any.
We drove north on hwy 509 along the beaches of Federal Way, and stopped for
a bit at Dash Point State Park, at the upper campground (it's unoccupied at
this time of year), and then went the road to the beach. It was quiet on
the upper trails, but we saw a Cooper's Hawk and an Anna's Hummingbird in
the lower area.
We continued northeast on hwy 509 which is called Dash Point Road here. At
44th Ave, we turned left and drove down to Dumas Bay Park parking lot.
There were 2 EURASIAN WIGEONS in with the hundreds of Amer Wigeons on the
pond across the street. From the parking lot we took the gravel trail about
1/4 mile down to the sound. It was windy and there were white caps farther
out in the bay. Here we observed 2 Common Loons, hundreds of Amer. Wigeon,
2 DUNLIN, 5 BLACK SCOTERS, some COMMON MURRES, and a small flock of GREATER
SCAUP. There were 2 N. Shovelers, one Barrow's Goldeneye, and a few
Bufflehead.
As we walked up the Dumas Bay trail we had a DUCK FALLOUT! Suddenly lots of
American Wigeon were rapidly flying over our heads coming from the pond up
there, and we heard some
thumps. As we got to the top of the trail we saw many stunned and
unconscious ducks all around us in the fallen leaves. Apparently, a
predator such as a Bald Eagle had flown by, and the ducks rapidly took
flight from the pond which is down in a hollow across the road! Then they
hit the deciduous trees as they flew! We didn't
know what to do as some of the ducks were on their backs, and many appeared
dead. It took almost 10 minutes, but eventually they all revived and
waddled or flew off toward the pond. I estimate that we saw 20 or 30 ducks
fly up from the leaves and the woods, and return to the pond! None of us
had ever heard of such an occurence.
The weather had remained clear in our area, but we had seen huge black
clouds all around us.
As we drove north and approached Redondo Beach, a hail storm hit. Steve
decided to end the trip at that point, and we returned up the hill
from Redondo to the 272nd P&R. To quote Marv Breece (who we had met in
passing at
Dumas Bay), it had been a very-good day!
Yours, Carol Schulz
Des Moines
linusq at att.net