Subject: [Tweeters] Island and Jefferson County birding 9/14-9/16
Date: Sep 17 16:39:35 2011
From: Tim Brennan - tsbrennan at hotmail.com



Hey Tweets!

Our ninth grade made a trip up to Deception Pass State Park this week - I was able to kind of keep my eyes and ears open during the trip, and finished the trip by birding on my own down Whidbey Island and over to Port Townsend. We had good enough weather, and I got two counties closer to my goal: to see 39 species of bird in each of the 39 counties in the state this year.

We actually ended up at several different spots in the park during the three days, including Cornet Bay ELC (Hairy Woodpecker, Barred Owls, billions of Kingfishers and Herons), Cranberry Lake (Cooper's Hawk, lots of gulls, but not Heermann's this year), and North Beach (Marbled Murrelet, Pigeon Guillemot).

At the end of the trip, I made several stops on the way down Whidbey, including Dugalla Bay (Northern Pintails, Green-winged Teal and American Wigeon! I was just surprised to see the fall ducks back in good numbers), West Beach Road (Surf Scoters, Common Loons, Horned Grebes and Harlequin Ducks), and Penn Cove (Lesser Yellowlegs, Black Turnstone, and Ruddy Turnstone - a lifer for me!). I was in a little bit of a rush when I got to the ferry at Keystone, and didn't bring my boots, so I didn't really get to bird Crockett Lake as much as I wanted to, but still had Semipalmated Plovers fairly close in, and Heermann's Gulls on the rocks as the ferry pulled out.

On the ferry ride, the light wasn't great, but a Common Murre slid by the ferry a little over half-way through the trip. At Fort Worden and Point Wilson, things were a little quiet, but I did find a looot of Heermann's Gulls at the Marine Discovery Center, and quite a few Savannah Sparrows still around the lighthouse. Kah Tai Lagoon had some dabblers, but more surprisingly a Golden-crowned Sparrow - the first I've seen in many months! At Oak Bay County Park, I was able to get Jefferson County over 50 for the year with White-crowned Sparrows, Northern Pintails, Ring-billed Gulls and an Osprey. Wish I could have gotten back up to Fort Flagler... I guess that's the fun of all this. There are sooooo many places worth visiting all year long in the state! Just a few counties left - all ones I've visited briefly - Skamania, Douglas and Franklin - with a few months to go!

-Tim Brennan
Renton, Washington
www.39counties.blogspot.com