Subject: [Tweeters] San Juan County WOS trip, May 31 - June 2 2014
Date: Jun 2 21:29:49 2014
From: Matt Bartels - mattxyz at earthlink.net


This past three days, I led our 5th annual WOS field trip to the San Juan Islands. 11 of us joined together for a great weekend filled with birds and lots of fun. 8 of made it into a three day trip this year, beginning with Saturday on Lopez, moving to San Juan Island for Sunday, and ending with Monday on Orcas Island. This year, I ran the trip about a month later than usual, a decision that allowed for more summer birds but many fewer water birds. As a result, even those folks who have gone on the trip before were able to see new San Juan species.

Saturday May 31:
We caught the early ferry to Lopez Island and birded until late afternoon when we moved on to San Juan. En route, we picked up one of only 2 Common Murres of the trip, along with the first of many Rhino Auklets and Pigeon Guillemots.
Our first stop was Hummel Lake, where we began to see the summer birds -- Black-headed Grosbeaks, Rufous Hummingbird, Yellow Warbler were all out right away. We heard our first Olive-sided Flycatcher, a bird that was so ubiquitous all three days that we tried to find a stop where we did not hear one -- almost impossible. Likewise, over the course of three days the density of Orange-crowned Warblers, White-crowned Sparrows, House Wrens and Pacific-slope Flycatchers was particularly notable.

Moving on to Iceberg Point, we got our first visuals on the above birds, and added water sightings of Rhino Auklet, Marbled Murrelet, Pelagic Cormorant, and Common Loon. A couple Black Oystercatchers on the rocks below the bluff proved surprisingly to be our only Black Oystercatchers of the weekend! Aleck Bay Rd. had Wild Turkeys, including a displaying male. An unplanned stop on Islandale Road produced one of only two heard only Willow Flycatchers of the trip [WIFL is a relatively tough bird on the islands, it seems]. Along Cousins Road, we heard then saw our first Western Wood-Pewee of the trip -- WEWP is a tough bird on the San Juans normally, but we ended up seeing at least one on each island this time around. Moving over to Shark Reef Preserve, we enjoyed looks at a raft of mostly male Harlequin Ducks, and had a small flock of Red Crossbills pass by. At Fisherman Bay, we picked up Caspian Tern, and at the Fisherman Bay Preserve we had Purple Martin overhead [nesting on Lopez?] and nice looks at a Belted Kingfisher. A marsh along Fisherman Bay Rd had at least two Cinnamon Teal, and a Northern Shoveler.

After catching the ferry to San Juan and eating dinner, a carload of us went out at dusk, dreaming of an early Common Nighthawk -- we didn't succeed in finding a nighthawk [give it a week or two], but along False Bay Rd., a Barn Owl and winnowing Wilson's Snipe were a great way to end the first day.

Sunday, June 1:
We met up early on Sunday and headed out for a full day on San Juan Island --en route to our first stop, we quickly saw Eurasian Collared-Dove & California Quail from the car. First stop was the wet fields along San Juan Valley Rd. A Sora responded immediately to our ipod and came zooming in for great looks. Virginia Rail and Wilson's Snipe were also around and heard by all. We stopped along Number 2 Schoolhouse Rd. at a couple spots and enjoyed a ton of bird activity -- Black-throated Gray Warbler was probably the highlight bird, but Hutton's and Cassin's Vireo, Townsend's Warbler, Hairy Woodpecker , Downy Woodpecke and Northern Flicker were all around, as were visible Swainson's Thrush, House & Bewick's Wren. At Egg Lake we watched a distant Pileated Woodpecker and heard bits of our second and last Willow Flycatcher 'fitz-bewing' from across the lake. After a quick stop at Sportsman Lake where we saw Ring-necked Duck and Pied-billed Grebe, we headed to English Camp.

Our first trek was the hike out to the English Camp cemetery on Young Hill -- Chipping Sparrow, Cassin's Vireo, Townsend's Warbler, and Warbling Vireos were in the area. On the way back towards the parking lot, Tim Brennan alerted us to an interesting song from the woods- - we listened a bit and it repeated: Wait a minute, that's not one of our regulars.... After a little consideration of alternatives, we were convinced we were listening to an OVENBIRD! The chase ensued -- it proved to be a very elusive bird. Every few minutes it would sing once or twice, repeating its "Teacher teacher teacher" song, increasing in volume and intensity along the way before fading. Then it would go utterly silent. We did our best to get looks but couldn't pull it out. We ended up spending more than an hour with the elusive bird -- Michael Hobbs stuck around the most, eventually getting close enough to hear it make other vocalizations that were also consistent with Ovenbird -- Though we never got looks, it was consistent and unique enough that we felt mighty good about the find.

Before departing English Camp, we also enjoyed looks at the Osprey nest [park rangers have a scope set up trained on the nest for easy viewing].

Reluctantly moving on, we headed south down the west side -- at the small lake below Dallas Mountain, a Hooded Merganser mom was tending seven chicks. A female Wood Duck was not so encumbered but great to see as well. after a fruitless stop at False Bay where the tide was waaay out, we moved on to the southeast corner of the island. At Eagle Cove, we enjoyed looks at a beautiful breeding plumage Pacific Loon and a scruffy Surf Scoter. American Camp offered another scope set up by rangers, this one trained on a Bald Eagle nest with young in it. we also enjoyed comparison looks at Western Wood-Pewee and another Olive-sided Flycatcher, and many got to finally see Western Tanager [we heard them in multiple stops, but barely saw them this weekend].
From Cattle Point, we watched more Harlequin Ducks, more breeding plumage Pacific Loons, one Brandt's Cormorants, several Rhino Auklets & Pigeon Guillemots and a fly-by Common Murre.
We dropped the three two-day participants at the ferry dock before continuing on our way for a bit more late-afternoon birding.
No luck on finding Western Bluebirds, but we enjoyed a stop at Fourth of July Beach where we watched Purple Martins at great distance, several more Pacific Loons and Surf Scoters, and one Red-throated Loon.

Monday, June 2:
Over dinner the night before, we decided as a group to make another try for the Ovenbird. To do this, we met at 5:00 and headed directly to English Camp. We figured early would be the best time to hope to hear it singing again, and we were willing to catch a later ferry to Orcas Island if it allowed us time with the Ovenbird. alas, we heard no Ovenbird in the dawn chorus. After giving it a good try, we zoomed back and made the 6:10 ferry to Orcas.

On Orcas, our plan was to drive to Moran State Park and work our way back. As we passed the Rosario Turn-off, we heard a MacGillivray's Warbler -- a brief stop brought it out for killer looks. Nice! Another stop by the group camp turned up our first Hammond's Flycatcher of the trip. Moving up to the top of Mount Constitution, we listened to and watched multiple bright Townsend's Warblers, tried in vain to turn swallows into swifts, and were taunted by unseen Red Crossbills. A flyby of two Pine Siskins was notable given their near absence this year from the state.

Partway down the mountain, we stopped at a pull off and were finally able to get decent looks at a flock of Red Crossbills, including some that may have been young ones of the season. During our walk by Cascade Falls, we got good looks at Evening Grosbeaks another finch we'd been hoping to see eventually. We drove into Olga, where a stop on Mountain Access Rd near a house with a great feeder set-up turned up Band-tailed Pigeons & Eurasian Collared-Doves, Evening Grosbeaks, Black-headed Grosbeak, our first Steller's Jays of the trip & Hairy Woodpecker. Returning to the cars, we came across a Red-breasted Sapsucker working its sap wells -- that's the tough 'regular' woodpecker on the island, and we were happy to finish off the quad-fecta.
A brief stop in Eastsound finally allowed us to get definitive looks at an Anna's Hummingbird -- they are around in decent numbers on the island, but we had failed to find them until this late stop.
We spent an enjoyable hour around Killebrew lake where Western Tanagers finally showed themselves to almost all of us, as did another Western Wood-Pewee and several more warblers.
Richardson Marsh was noisy with Red-winged Blackbirds, but we didn't find much else to look at. And with that it was time to head for the ferry.

Back on the mainland, we all stopped briefly at Wiley Slough where we ticked the Least Flycatcher, right where advertised [thanks all for the reports].

For the weekend on the islands, we tallied 106 species -- the sheer quantity of birds singing away was excellent, and the ideal 70-degree max sunny weather kept our spirits high despite three long days of birding.

Happy to pass along trip maps to anyone interested.


Good birding,

Matt Bartels
Seattle, WA