Greetings all,

Yesterday I participated in a Pierce County Big Day/Birdathon with 6 others - Bruce LaBar, Peter Wimberger, Wynne Brown, Annie Meyer, Ryan Merrill, and Charlie Wright.? It was a great overall and despite the very wet and drizzly conditions, we managed to blow away last year's record of 131 species, ending up with 137 species for the day for Pierce County!

Charlie, Ryan and Annie met me in Fife at 3:00AM where we started off owling; finding Western Screech Owl and Barn Owl.? We continued on to Point Defiance park where we encountered a Northern Saw-whet Owl.? We then picked up Bruce at 4:30 and met over at Peter and Wynne's place where we all piled into their van.? Thanks for driving all day Peter!

We started at first light at the Purdy spit.? We had a good movement of waterfowl here, encountering many Common Murre, Common Loons, Red-breasted, Western and Horned Grebes and a few Surf and White-winged Scoters.? The biggest surprise were 3 Harlequin Ducks still in the area.

Next stop was Titlow Park and beach.? Pickups here included Black-throated Gray and Wilson's Warblers, Cooper's Hawk, Purple Martin and Marbled Murrelet.

Driving through Tacoma towards Point Defiance gave us our only Western Scrub Jay of the day.? Point Defiance was productive; yielding Red-breasted Sapsucker, Band-tailed Pigeon, Black-headed Grosbeak, Hutton's Vireo and Pacific-slope Flycatcher.

We took off for Ruston Way picking up Barrow's Goldeneye among the pilings on the water then stopped at Gog-le-hi-ti hoping for some shorebird action.? Only shorebirds around were Least Sandpiper and Killdeer but we did get our first Green-winged Teal, Cliff Swallows, Marsh Wrens, Yellow Warblers and our only Western Tanager of the day.

The Marine View Drive log booms were full of Cormorants, but pretty much only Brandt's.? Surprisingly no Pelagic, I checked them several times during the week and pelagic were always there.? We did pick up a few Spotted Sandpipers among the log booms.

We then headed towards Lakewood stopping at the Mountain View Cemetery on Steilacoom Blvd to check out the marsh and ponds in the very back of the cemetery.? They were very productive, yielding Cinnamon Teal, Gadwall, Northern Shoveler, Greater Yellowlegs, Virginia Rail, Pied-billed Grebe and an awesome look at an American Bittern flying in and landing in the reeds very close to us.

The rain chased us out and our next stop was Fort Steilacoom Park.? Pickups here were Bullock's Oriole, House Wren, Ring-necked Duck, Wood Duck, and Ruddy Duck.

Spanaway Marsh was next and it too was good to us and a break in the weather was helpful, too.? No Dusky Flycatcher this year but we did pick up Mourning Dove, Hammond's Flycatcher, Cassin's Vireo, Hermit and MacGillivray's Warbler, Varied Thrush, Pileated and Hairy Woodpecker.

The 13th Division Prairie on Fort Lewis was slow as it was pretty drizzly at this time so we didn't pick up a few targets we were hoping for.? Western Meadowlarks were singing which was new for the day.? Heading back towards Mountain Highway we stopped at another spot just outside Fort Lewis and picked up Chipping Sparrow and a Lincoln's Sparrow.

The Ohop Valley and Kreger Lake was our next stop and we added Turkey Vulture and a Sora calling from Kreger.?

A few lucky observers in the back of the van picked up Gray Jays flying over the car as we were driving towards Elbe.? We stopped at the Nisqually River Bridge in Elbe and observed a foraging American Dipper.? Just outside of Elbe, Ryan Merrill spotted an interesting bird in a tree on the side of the road.? We turned around and it turned out to be a Townsend's Solitaire, a good pickup for the big day!

We ended up at Longmire in Mount Rainier National Park.? It was really dark and drizzly and snow was still covering many areas here.? We didn't go any farther up the mountain and after a quick stop at the bridge, where we observed a pair of Harlequin Ducks, we decided to head back towards Tacoma.

We stopped at a few locations in the Puyallup Valley.? The Riverside Disc golf course was quiet, being fairly late in the day.? Our last stop was at the 66th Avenue bridge where it crosses the Puyallup River.? Last year I had a Green Heron nest at this location and this year was no different.? The nest was in a slightly different location but we ended up spotting it.? There were three adult Green Herons in the vicinity, so possibly another nest close by.

Well that's about it, an excellent and exhausting day of birding Pierce County!

If you would like a complete list, feel free to e-mail.

Cheers and good birding,

Ryan Shaw
Tacoma
rtshaw80 at hotmail.com