Yesterday and today I birded in Pacific and Wahkiakum Counties.

Yesterday (06.21.10) started out with a porcupine walking along the road to the Nemah Fish Hatchery (Pacific County) off of Hwy 101. At the hatchery was a family of 5 AMERICAN DIPPERS atop the fish weir. They soon scattered as another family of 5, this time River Otters, appeared one by one from either a den or a culvert. Later in the day, off of Beaver Creek Rd near Cathlamet (Wahkiakum Co), I was hearing a WESTERN BLUEBIRD. While trying to find the bird (which I never did), 2 HERMIT WARBLERS came into view. In the evening, as I was about to hit the sack at the end of Elochoram Rd, I heard a COMMON NIGHTHAWK overhead. I was lucky to see 2 of them in the waning light.

Today (06.22.10) there was a YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT along Brooks Slough Rd, 1/2 mile from Hwy 4. This is at the edge of Julia Butler National Wildlife Refuge. While birding near Skamokawa, I heard the song of a GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW. As I looked for the bird, I came across a perched male WESTERN BLUEBIRD in my scope. Fortunately, the sparrow continued to sing, and I soon had stellar views of a singing GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW on June 22nd in Wahkiakum County. This is either a very late migrant, or a bird attempting to breed here in Washington, which would be a rare event.

If anyone is interested in following up on this Golden-crowned Sparrow, please let me know and I will provide detailed directions to the site.


Marv Breece
Seattle, WA
mbreece at earthlink.net