Subject: [Tweeters] Washington State Big Day, 15 May 2010 (long)
Date: May 16 19:17:39 2010
From: Charlie Wright - c.wright7 at comcast.net


Hello All,
On Friday night Michael Woodruff, Ryan Shaw, Ryan Merrill, and I set out from Tacoma to test a brand new and ambitious Big Day route for Washington State. We had very little idea of what to expect as none of us is intimately familiar with much of the route and we did exactly zero scouting!

The route: Owling from Rimrock Lake to Bear Canyon starting at midnight, then dawn chorus at White Pass, Rimrock Lake, Tieton River. Then we blasted to Toppenish NWR, birded along 97 going south in the cottonwoods/riparian, Satus Pass, and Brooks Memorial Park. Then through Goldendale to the Lyle-Balch Lake area. We then left the eastside and headed for Ridgefield NWR. From there, we went up I-5 to Chehalis and Hwy 6, with a quick stop at Rainbow Falls State Park. Then it was on to Raymond, Tokeland, Grayland, and finally as light disappeared, Westport. We owled again in the Westport area, finally ending at Johns River Wildlife Area at midnight for a very full day.

To begin, we started owling up Tieton Reservoir Road. We heard a Long-eared Owl at the marsh near Tieton Airport. Great Horned Owls were calling at several places, and we finally heard one extremely distant Flammulated Owl a ways up Bethel Ridge Road. We tried Bear Canyon for poorwills, but there was very localized strong wind here, so no luck. At dawn we arrived at White Pass, where we heard Gray Jay, Townsend's Solitaire, Varied & Hermit Thrush, and Townsend's Warbler. The shores of Rimrock Lake gave us Williamson's Sapsucker, Northern Pygmy-Owl, Red Crossbill, and Sooty Grouse. A return visit to the airport marsh was a great idea, as it was loaded with Sora, two Barrow's Goldeneye, our only Cedar Waxwing of the day (they seem on the late side this year) and in a small grove of Ponderosas a pair of White-headed Woodpeckers! Back out on the highway, Shaw's able eyes spotted two pairs of Harlequin Ducks and Woodruff got us on a dipper, all in the Tieton. Bear Canyon had a few warblers and Western Wood-Pewee.

After a very quick stop at Andy Stepniewski's house for Black-chinned Hummer (thanks Andy!) we then drove to Toppenish NWR, arriving at 8am. First checked Zimmerman's where we had our only Virginia Rail of the day. I also saw a Sage Thrasher (clearly an out of place bird here) along one of the entrance roads, unfortunately it evaded us after my initial view. Other birds on the refuge included Ring-necked Pheasant, Black-necked Stilt, American White Pelican, Long-billed Dowitcher, Wilson's Phalarope, Loggerhead Shrike, Long-billed Curlew. A few miles south of the refuge we had Golden Eagle, Grasshopper, Sage & Vesper Sparrows and Gray Partridge.

We had Yellow-breasted Chat and Lazuli Bunting singing in a nice strip of cottonwoods east of 97. Satus Pass was very slow as the temperature had risen considerably. Brooks Memorial Park produced Calliope Hummingbird and our only Downy Woodpecker of the day. Driving through the Columbia Hills we picked up Rock Wren, Lesser Goldfinch, and Swainson's Hawk. In the cliffs east of Lyle we had Canyon Wren, Prairie Falcon and several White-throated Swifts - the latter possibly uncommon in Klickitat County? We then drove to Balch Lake Road area. Ash-throated Flycatcher was found calling around here. We succeeded in very quickly finding two Acorn Woodpeckers at the traditional granary tree, with Wild Turkey calling at the same spot.

It was then westward to Ridgefield, crossing over to the Oregon side from Hood River to Bridge of the Gods to save a bit of time. We briefly paused at Skamania Landing Park where there was a Western Kingbird, uncommon in Skamania. At Ridgefield we did the auto tour route at River 'S.' American Bittern was heard all over Rest Lake. On the loop we picked up Blue-winged Teal, Lesser Scaup, Common Goldeneye, and Redhead. Our next stop was Rainbow Falls State Park, where we quickly picked up two male Hermit Warblers and Olive-sided & Pacific-slope Flycatchers.

As we rushed out to the coast, we knew it would be hectic trying to get everything we needed on the saltwater before usable light faded. But we didn't quite realize how productive the birding would be! We made a quick stop at the Raymond STP where there was a pure white immature Glaucous Gull. Willapa Bay had huge numbers (3000-4000) of Brant. We checked the pastures just south of the Tokeland turn-off and quickly found the 4 Pacific Golden-Plovers (2 male, 2 female) found here by Tom Aversa a few days ago. Also a Greater White-fronted Goose with Canadas in the same field. At Graveyard Spit we scoped Red Knots, Short-billed Dowitcher, and a Red-necked Phalarope. At the marina we found Greater Scaup, White-winged Scoter, Marbled Godwit, and Purple Martins. Next at Grayland Beach (Cranberry Beach Road) we scanned offshore and found several thousand Sooty Shearwaters, some Brown Pelicans, Bonaparte's Gulls, Black-legged Kittiwakes, Red-throated and Pacific Loons, Common Murres, Rhinoceros Auklets, and various others. Racing the sun to Westport, we picked up Brandt's and Pelagic Cormorants and Wandering Tattler on the jetty. After it got dark, we listened for shorebirds migrating. That's how we finally got Greater Yellowlegs and Least Sandpiper. We made an owling attempt around Westport, but all we could find was a Barn Owl at Johns River before midnight.

Final tally, 197 species! We drove 755 miles in 24 hours of birding. We look forward to revisiting this route in the future, next time WITH scouting.

Big Misses - and they were BIG:
Tundra Swan (staked out at Ridgefield), Cackling Goose (same as swan), Ruddy Duck, Common & Hooded Merganser, Caspian Tern (should have been common on C. River and coast - ???), Semipalmated Plover, Western Screech-Owl, any Accipiter, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Mountain Bluebird, Swainson's Thrush, Pygmy Nuthatch, Hutton's Vireo, Bushtit, Say's Phoebe, Gray Flycatcher, Golden-crowned, Fox & Lincoln's Sparrows.

Cheers,
Charlie Wright
Bonney Lake, Washington