Ken Knittle and I birded 3 days and slept under the stars over Memorial Day Weekend.

5.22
Our first bird of note was a WESTERN SCRUB-JAY in Shelton (9th and RR Streets). This bird was reported by Evan Houston and Matt Bartels.

We birded our way north, stopping at Crocker Lake in Jefferson County. There we saw YELLOW WARBLER, YELLOW-RUMPERD WARBLER and COMMON YELLOWTHROAT. Also a late TRUMPETER SWAN.

At Discovery Bay were WHIMBREL (9), and a SPOTTED SANDPIPER.

We continued into Clallum County, turning south onto Deer Park Road (east of Port Angeles). We drove until a locked gate forced us to stop and camp for the night. The drive up was full of birds. The highlight was when Ken woke me up in the night to the sound of an owl vocalizing. A LONG-EARED OWL carried on for more than half an hour.

5.23
Next day we drove thru Port Angeles where we saw several CEDAR WAXWINGS. On the road to Hurricane Ridge we had TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE, SLATE FOX SPARROW, GRAY JAY, PINE GROSBEAK and NORTHERN PYGMY-OWL. At the top we enjoyed watching and listening to an ALPINA HORNED LARK. A COMMON RAVEN followed us around, begging a handout.

Back down the hill we saw a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK at Kitchen Dick Road near Sequim. Dungeness Marina had some shorebirds for us including BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER, DUNLIN, WESTERN SANDPIPER, RUDDY TURNSTONE, RED KNOT (7) and a MARBLED GODWIT.

At Three Crabs restaurant, we first heard, then spotted on a wire above us, an adult male PURPLE MARTIN. At the ponds down the road from Three Crabs we saw PECTORAL SANDPIPER (12), LB DOWITCHER (6)
a BLUE-WINGED TEAL and a EURASIAN WIGEON.

Next we turned south on Palo Alto Road near Sequim and followed FS 28 into higher country. At Milepost 3 we had our second of 4 PYGMY-OWLS for the trip. Also GRAY JAYS. Also along this road we had SOOTY GROUSE, RUFFED GROUSE, TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE and PILEATED WOODPECKER. Our efforts to locate a pure HERMIT WARBLER failed. We saw quite a few hybrid HEWA X TOWA's. One hybrid looked very good until we got a close look and saw a trace of yellow on the breast. We camped our second night in Clallum County near Lords Lake.

5.24
We retraced our steps north to Hwy 101 and on to Port Townsend, where we visited Kah Tai lagoon. Pretty quiet. Oak Bay was also quiet. We noticed a female COMMON GOLDENEYE.

Stopped again at Crocker Lake and this time found a male WOOD DUCK.

Traveled up Dosewallips Rd where we saw EVENING GROSBEAKS in one of the several places we had them on this trip.

Hamma Hamma (Mason Co) was our next birding place. After traveling thru pretty quiet forest, we came to a power line opening. This is where the birds were. OS FLYCATCHER, MacGILLIVRAY'S WARBLER, HAIRY WOODPECKER and WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW (pugetensis singing and one quiet gambelli observed).

On to Skokomish Valley Road and FS 23. Here we saw a few BREWER'S BLACKBIRDS, another PYGMY-OWL, and RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER. We drove as far as we could on FS 23, finally giving in to snow on the road. We camped at about 2600 feet. The stars, oh the stars. We heard a GREAT HORNED OWL. Sometime in the night a singing NASHVILLE WARBLER woke me up. I think this is a first county record. Go figure.

5.25
On our way back down, we encountered our 4th and final PYGMY-OWL. And we finally got a nice look at a pure HERMIT WARBLER. And a surprise HOUSE WREN singing relentlessly along the road.

Our last stop of the trip was George Adams Salmon Hatchery. An AMERICAN DIPPER walked along the spillway, unconcerned of our presence. Our only WESTERN WOOD-PEEWEES of the trip were at this location. Also RED-EYED VIREO. And a pair of nesting RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKERS.

A great trip!


Marv Breece
Seattle, WA
mbreece at earthlink.net