I decided it was time for a change from my unsuccessful seeking of Baird's
and solitary sandpipers and spent the morning pishing my way along a section
of the Foothills Trail on the hunt for black-throated gray warblers. It's
probably a couple of weeks too early for the main bulk of migrating
passerines, but I parked in the gravel lot by the wetlands 3 miles along the
Carbon River road, and early pishing produced a number of birds, including
several orange-crowned warblers and common yellowthroats. There were also a
large number of seen-too-briefly-to-identify vireos, but including at least
one red-eyed and a 95% sure Cassin's, along with less noteworthy species
such as Bewick's wren and song sparrow. Flycatchers were represented by a
number of willow and an olive-sided.



I made my way very slowly about a mile and a quarter west along the trail -
as it got to around 10.30, pishing became less successful, with mainly only
the chickadees still active and willing to be roused. There was a group of
common mergansers on the river where the path opened up to allow a glimpse.
At one point, I thought I had a black-throated gray warbler, but a cyclist
rode past and flushed it before I got my binocs on it. It was definitely
black and white, and my initial impressions of shape and movement didn't fit
a chickadee. Cyclists were rather the bane of the morning on this trail - I
hate to think what it must be like at weekends.



I pished my way back to the car with intermittent successes, and finally,
with less than a hundred yards to go, I found a tree with three or four
black-throated grays flitting around in the higher branches, giving me
intermittent but very nice views. Target bird achieved for the first time in
a week! Of course, I could have seen one with less hassle had I gone on the
Marymoor walk instead, but then I would have had to get out of bed earlier J



I stopped by the Boeing Ponds on the way home, which were rather quiet.
There were a small group of peeps on one mudbank, but they were flushed by
the arrival of a heron as I set up my scope, and flew off to the other side
of the pond where the vegetation is thicker, and I never relocated them. I
was left with a single black-bellied plover for a few seconds, before it
headed off after the peeps.



Thanks to Ryan and Matt for the tips, and to Charlie Wright for his lovely
detailed advice which I googled up. No thanks go to Pierce County for
telling me there's an official Foothills trailhead in South Prairie with
restrooms and an information kiosk but refusing to say where it is, nor for
leaving South Prairie Road unlabelled from the 410 in either direction,
despite it being a major intersection. Having missed it in one direction, I
had to assume which turning it was by default on the return.



Louise Rutter

Kirkland