Friday July 17, 2009 Tom Mansfield and I birded Wahkiakum County beginning on Little Puget Island where a Eurasian Collared-Dove was sitting on the wires and then flew to a large tree and began calling. On Puget Island 1 Anna?s Hummingbird female was seen and a female Bullock?s Oriole was coming to the same hummingbird feeders. The Beaver Creek Road proved very worthwhile bird-wise. On an old clear-cut we had 1 Ruffed Grouse, Varied Thrush, and not far away a Red-breasted Sapsucker. And just up the road was Olive-sided Flycatchers, and a Sooty Grouse vocalizing later a hen Sooty Grouse was observed along the road?s edge. That evening again up near the top of Beaver Creek were Common Nighthawks chasing each other and once a bat that was encroaching on the nighthawk?s feeding area. This was close to sundown. The nighthawks dive-bombed the I-pod and always pulled out of the dive at the last moment. It was dark as we descended down the hill where we stopped once and enjoyed a pair of Western Screech-Owls. This spot was 2.8 miles east from the jct. where Elochoman and Beaver Creek Roads. join. The next morning one more visit to Beaver Creek Rd. produced a Hammond?s Flycatcher and a pair of MacGillivray?s Warblers were in the same spot as 3 weeks earlier.

After Beaver Creek birding we headed for Silver Star Mountain by way of L-1000 off of Dole Valley Rd in eastern Clark County, where in an old clear-cut with small 20 ft. young trees were a pair of Hairy Woodpeckers, 1 Dusky Flycatcher-a rare bird for western Washington, a House Wren, and tons of Winter Wrens. Lots of noisy hikers were at the trailhead. A few Rufous Hummingbirds, a few flocks of Red Crossbills, but just too warm. The parking lot was close to 3100 ft. elevation. Other birds seen were Hermit Warbler and lower down Olive-sided Flycatchers.

At Ridgefield NWR we found just a few shorebirds on Rest Lake. We couldn?t see them very good from the blind so went around to the other side where we scoped the small flock of them. They included 4-Greater Yellowlegs, Long-billed Dowitchers, a handful of both Western and Least Sandpipers and 1 Baird?s Sandpiper. At the flushing channel on Vancouver Lake was a beautiful Clark?s Grebe with the Western Grebes.

Sunday morning on Willow Grove west of Longview we had 2 Lazuli Buntings. Checked the Ryderwood Pond for shorebirds. None yet except for 2 Killdeer.


Ken Knittle
Vancouver WA 98665
mailto:washingtonbirder at hotmail.com
Washington Birder online
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