Hello, tweets.

Netta Smith and I just finished a 3-day trip around parts of
Washington, and I wanted to mention two great birding spots.

I think the state Fish & Wildlife Dept. has produced a wonderful
freshwater wetland complex west of South Bend, Pacific County. We
drove by that on Sunday morning (4 May), turned around and ended up
driving slowly along the south side road shoulder, gawking at the
hundreds of ducks and shorebirds using the wetland. Nothing rare was
seen, just great abundance and diversity. Obviously there wouldn't be
as much in some seasons, but it was great this weekend. And it's an
obvious place to look for rarities, with that much activity. We saw:

Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser
American Coot
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Dunlin
Short-billed Dowitcher
Long-billed Dowitcher
Bonaparte's Gull

Most but not all of them were in large numbers. We didn't use a scope
(except for photography), just binoculars, and by no means did we
identify all the birds present. The biggest thrill to me was getting
to photograph both species of dowitchers feeding side by side along
the near shore at pointblank range.

The numbers of shorebirds we saw at the usual localities along the
south side of Grays Harbor and north side of Willapa Bay were
satisfying, although nothing like past years. We saw one Red Knot at
Bottle Beach, actually didn't see it, but there it was in photos we
took of a big group of roosting birds on Saturday afternoon. Thirty
years ago the Red Knots were estimated there in the thousands. I
think most of the common species have declined, although not as much
as the knots.

The other place was Brooks Memorial State Park, Klickitat County. The
caretaker there, Nancy Wallwork, is a birder and has put a feeding
station out next to her trailer that you see on the left not long
after entering the park. She has a great diversity of species
visiting the feeders, and you can stand or sit there not far away and
have great photo opportunities (I'll have to admit, for me birding =
bird photography). The park is a wonderful mix of east-side-Cascade
habitats and supports a great diversity of breeding birds. And it
just so happened it was a beautiful sunny morning, a real treat after
so much bad weather this spring.

Species that we saw or heard just while watching the feeders included:

Calliope Hummingbird
Rufous Hummingbird
Downy Woodpecker
Western Wood-Pewee
Steller's Jay
Violet-green Swallow
Mountain Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Western Tanager
Spotted Towhee
Fox Sparrow (Sooty)
Song Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Black-headed Grosbeak
Brewer's Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Pine Siskin
Townsend's Chipmunk

She had a White-throated Sparrow earlier in the morning that we
didn't see. She has seen many additional species, and others are yet
to arrive. She encourages birders to stop there while she is present
(until the end of May).

I told Netta we were likely to see a Eurasian Collared-Dove somewhere
along our route, and sure enough, there was one at the corner of
Island and Fort Roads, west of Toppenish. I don't know its status in
Yakima County, although there are more and more of them everywhere.
-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net



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