Seattle trip Feb 4-7
----- Original Message -----
From: Harrison, Bryce
To: bryceharrison at optonline.net
Sent: Monday, February 09, 2009 12:55 PM
Subject: Seattle trip Feb 4-7


I recently returned from a birding trip to the Seattle area from Feb. 4-7. Although many of the areas we visited have been covered in other recent posts, I thought I would give a quick report on what we saw, with emphasis on the birds of interest to visiting east coast birders.

Feb 4 Tacoma Area: We hit a couple of spots in the afternoon not too far from the airport

Gog-Le-Hi-Te wetland and vicinity: Lots of Olympic Gulls and Glaucous-winged Gulls, but no Thayer's Gull. Perhaps there are other places for Thayer's or maybe we just missed them, but we couldn't come up with this target bird.

Brown's Point: Pigeon Guillemot, Rhino Auklet, Bewick's Wren, Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Dash Point Pier: Mew Gull, more Pigeon Gullemots

Feb 5 Kitsap County

Kingston Ferry Terminal: Western, Red-necked, and Horned Grebes, Pigeon Guillemots, Barrow's and Common Goldeneye, Brant on the way back


Kitsap Memorial Park: Varied Thrush (6) under the big conifers right by the parking lot, Red-breasted Sapsucker (a very cooperative bird), a mixed flock of kinglets, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Chickadees, and sparrows that was good for the day list. The water was heavily fogged in, but we had common loon, goldeneye, etc.

Salisbury Point: Also lots of fog, but we had White-winged Scoters as well as White-crowned Sparrows

Buck Lake Park: Fairly quiet, but added Ring-necked Duck and Pileated Woodpecker to the list, as well as another Varied Thrush

Point No Point: We spent the afternoon after the fog burned off at Pt. No Point scoping from various spots. The outgoing tide produced a good assortment of alcids and seabirds including Marbled Murrelet, Common Murre, Rhino Auklet, Pigeon Guillemot, Common, Pacific and Red-throated Loons, and Pelagic, Brandt's, and Double-crested Cormorants (all three in the same scope view down by the Hansville Store).

Feb 6 Fildalgo Island and Fir Island

Washington Park and Green Point: This area was fairly quiet, but we did have Winter Wrens hopping around on the trail.

Rosario Head: A really beautiful spot. Had Varied Thrush, Common Raven, California Quail (on the headland), Harlequin Duck, Common Loon, and Black Oystercatcher (a nemesis bird vanquished!)

Anacortes Telescopes: A quick stop to browse the binoculars and scopes turned up Golden-crowned Sparrows at the feeders.


Fir Island: Lots of Trumpeter Swans and Bald Eagles, Peregrine Falcon (on the road to the Game Headquarters), Northern Shrike, Brewer' Blackbird, Dunlin, Short-eared Owls (active at 2:30 pm at the North Fork Access), and finally a huge flock of Snow Geese in the air after being stirred up by an eagle.

Feb 7 Seattle Area: We had a morning to bird locally before catching our flight home


Montlake Fill: Lot's of dabbling ducks, Cackling and Canada Geese, Hooded Merganser, more Trumpeter Swans, Anna's Hummingbird, Marsh Wren, and Yellow-rumped Warbler.

Magnuson Park: Ring-billed Gull, Eurasian Wigeon, and Lesser Scaup

West Seattle: Black Turnstone, Surfbird, Pigeon Guillemot, Red-throated Loon

Thanks to everyone for their posts to Tweeters which were invaluable in planning our trip. We had a great time and enjoyed all the wonderful birds of the Pacific Northwest.

Bryce Harrison

Hamilton, NJ





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