Subject: [Tweeters] Belfair today
Date: Mon Jan 22 15:42:07 PST 2018
From: Christopher Clark - cjbirdmanclark at gmail.com

Hey everyone, first of all I wanted to thank those who pointed out to me
where to park for Theler Wetlands. I always like to have the best idea
possible of where I'm going, where I can park, etc, before going, otherwise
I can end up stressing myself out pretty good. Needless to say I found the
wetlands no problem! Unfortunately it wasn't particularly birdy, but that
happens when you don't arrive until later in the morning I guess. However,
this was my first time in Mason County, so all birds were new county birds
for me!

At Theler Wetlands, we had a good mix of woodland birds, including AMERICAN
ROBIN, DARK-EYED JUNCO, both KINGLETS and a few others. Out on the marsh a
mix of MALLARD, GREEN-WINGED TEAL, and PINTAIL were seen, and as we were
leaving, a PEREGRINE FALCON caused quite a stir amongst the flock. The
falcon landed on the ground out of sight so may have caught a meal. A MARSH
WREN gave us a good scolding for getting too close to it's territory.

We had some more birds at Belfair State Park, including some probably less
common birds. Right as we arrived there were great numbers of gulls
roosting on the Union River mouth. Though there were some hybrids there
were plenty of pure GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULLS, with some MEW, ICELAND, and
HERRING GULLS mixed in as well. A GREATER YELLOWLEGS was heard calling
somewhere, but wasn't seen. Out on the water I saw what looked like an
island, but after getting my lens fixed on it I realized it was actually a
large raft of ducks! There were several hundred SCAUP consisting of roughly
a 50/50 mix of both species, SURF SCOTERS, BUFFLEHEAD, and 2 WHITE-WINGED
SCOTERS that I managed to pick out. Another large raft close to the
opposite shore appeared to be purely SCAUP, but was too distant for any ID
beyond that.

We had a sad number of species, at 29 total, but then again we didn't spend
a lot of time at either location. I'd like to spend more time at both next
time I go, maybe in Spring when swallows return and in fall when seabirds
and shorebirds are coming through. But it was a nice day with some good
birds seen!

Ebird checklists:

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S42164849
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S42165986

Photos from today posted on Flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/people/155731005 at N03/

Christopher Clark
Sumner, WA
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