Hi Tweeters:
Adele Freeland and I had to do some scouting of the parks and beaches in Federal Way. Some are in south King County, some in Pierce County. Usually these scouting trips are boorrring, but today it was warm, windless, and the birds (including some migrant warblers) came out. It was great.
My first stop on my way to Adele's in Federal Way, was at Dumas Bay Centre, which overlooks Dumas Bay. Even though the low tide was only moderately low, the tide was out quite far, and 200 Bonaparte's Gulls were on the beach. There were a few Mew Gulls. A Bald Eagle flew by. Up on the bluff at the centre, 3 Band-tailed Pigeons were perched on the tops of trees, and one did a display flight.
I picked up Adele and we headed over to Dash Point State Park. The park is closed for major sewer construction, but RAS nominated the park for the Great WA State Birding Trail, so they let us enter. The birding right by the ranger station was great. It was sunny and warm at 10:30am. At the park we had at least 3 BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLERS singing. We saw one of them. FOY for me. We also heard 2 or 3 ORANGE-CRND. WARBLERS singing. Never saw them. Audubon's Yellow-rmpd. Warblers were everywhere singing and calling. A Common Raven called, and we saw it later in the lower camping area. An adult Bald Eagle was soaring. Purple Finches sang in the camping area.
Down at the beach, the tide was out quite a ways, and there were 50 Bonaparte's Gulls near the water's edge. Some were flying about. Adele pointed out several DALL'S PORPOISES across the sound near Vashon Island swimming to the south. At the Beach at Dash Pt State Park we saw a Red-necked Grebe, 9 Wht-winged Scoters, several Surf Scoters, 9 Barrow's Goldeneyes, two Red-breasted Mergansers, and some Buffleheads. There were 20 or 30 Black Brant on the beach. All of these birds would have been visible from Dash Point Park and Pier, which is farther south, and is open to the public.
I dropped Adele off at her house, and drove south to Dash Point Park and Pier, a Tacoma city park in north Pierce County. The birding had got quiet by then, and I only saw a few of the birds that were in the area earlier.
>From there, I drove farther south on hwy 509, and turned off to Brown's Point Lighthouse Park. It is at the northeast corner of Commencement Bay. You can look across to Tacoma.
I was just getting mileage info, and wasn't going to bird, but heard some unusual bird calls, and decided to stay. Boy am I glad I stayed for interesting birds and bird behavior! There were 41 !!! STELLER'S JAYS flying back and forth to various tall trees around the point. They were making the oddest calls, kind of sounding like Caspian Tern cries. I had only seen this phenomenom one other time, when we were over at Vashon Island w/ Ed Swan. He explained that ST Jays are poor flyers, and tend to gather up at a spot, and try to get their nerve up to fly across the salt water. Back then, on Vashon we saw that behavior at Point Robinson (which also has a lighthouse, and juts out into the water). Those birds wanted to get over to the mainland. Today's Steller's Jays might have been trying to fly to Vashon Island. Their cries were really different.
Then I walked out on the point and viewed Puget Sound through my scope. Two Brandt's Cormorants were in the area. Out in the center, as I looked toward Quartermaster Harbor, there were two MARBLED MURRELETS perched on the water very close to each other. They were a brown color, and showed a bit of white on their wings. One of them had a tan, rather than a deep-brown head. Approx. 20 Bonaparte's Gulls were perched and flying.
It was a wonderful, truly-spring day, with great birds.
Yours, Carol Schulz
Des Moines
carol.schulz50 at gmail