Subject: [Tweeters] East Snohomish County Birding
Date: Jun 26 14:21:12 2014
From: Josh Adams - xjoshx at gmail.com


Hello Tweets,
I took the opportunity of a slow week at work to go out and do some birding
along the Highway 2 corridor yesterday.

The WDFW parking lot along Mann Road in Sultan had a couple singing Lazuli
Buntings. I'm only aware of one known breeding spot for this species in
Snohomish County so I was pleased to find another place to look. A Red-Eyed
Vireo was singing away deep in the woods.

The road to Johnson Ridge was closed for logging, which was a
disappointment. It appears to be open on the weekends starting Friday at
noon. The top still looked heavily snowed in so I don't think it will be
reachable for a few more weeks anyway.

The road to Evergreen Mountain Lookout was in surprisingly good shape for
this early in the season. A female Sooty Grouse and at least one tiny, tiny
chick were along the roadside. I suspect there were more chicks, but I
decided to give mom her space. Sooty Grouse were heard hooting from nearly
every stop I made, although I only had one other visible bird on my drive
out. The usual suspects such as Band-Tailed Pigeon, Western Tanager,
Townsend's Warbler, Hermit Thrush, Varied Thrush, and large numbers
Warbling Vireos were singing away. Eventually I was happily surprised to
hear my FOY Pine Siskins. Truly a lesson in "you don't miss it until it's
gone." As Michael Hobbs mentioned, Pine Siskins were in standard breeding
abundance in the mountains with one or two being found at most stops.

As an aside, I have seen several eBird reports this year of Mountain
Chickadees in Snohomish County. It doesn't flag as a rarity (The Snohomish
county filter is very permissive and needs to be tightened up, but I'm not
sure who the contact person is for that) and none of the comments have
included photos or comments. In my experience all Chickadees in the
mountains west of the cascade crest have been Chestnut-Backed. I'd love to
hear if anyone has encountered reliable Mountain Chickadees whose species
has been confirmed visually. I'm wondering if there's not a bit of "it's a
chickadee, and its in the mountains" assuming going on.

At the parking lot for the Evergreen Lookout hike I had a small flock of
Red Crossbills fly in front of my car. Later a dozen or so Evening
Grosbeaks flew over as well. I had a couple of singing Fox Sparrows which
were presumably slate-colored, but I never got a look. The big miss of the
day was Townsend's Solitaire, which has been present on most of my visits
in the past.

Later in the evening I went out to look for Common Nighthawks outside of
Sultan. At my first stock along Sultan Basin Road I immediately had five
birds overhead. Further stops produced at least five more individuals. The
highlight of the evening was several males doing their "booming"
territorial display. I've seen Nighthawks dozens of times, but never
witnessed this and it was pretty incredible.

Josh Adams
Lynnwood, WA
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