Subject: [Tweeters] Snohomish County Big Day 5/4
Date: Mon May 7 22:35:17 PDT 2018
From: Josh Adams - xjoshx at gmail.com

Hello Tweets,
I'll add my late report to the pile. I did a Snohomish county big day on
Friday. I'd done one in 2014 and wanted to do it again, but vacations, work
and babies derailed my plans until this year.

I started at midnight looking for birds detectable at night around the
Snohomish area. Western Screech-Owl was my first bird of the night. I
picked up Virginia Rail, Sora, American Bittern, and a winnowing Wilson's
Snipe at the Fobes Road Wetlands. I fell behind schedule when I couldn't
locate a Barn Owl at any of my usual spots in the Snohomish Valley only to
give up and have one fly over my car over Highway 2. I also had a Barred
Owl on Lord Hill. Up in Sultan Basin I quickly picked up a couple Saw-Whet
Owls and had enough darkness left over to take a 45 minute cat nap before
dawn.

At dawn I continued birding Sultan Basin for a few of the less common
birds. I quickly picked up American Dipper and Hammond's Flycatcher, but
was thrilled when a Ruffed Grouse was heard near the road. Alas the weather
was not great to start the day and it was misting which seemed to keep bird
songs down more than when I'd scouted a couple days before. I did pick up a
MacGillivray's Warbler, Gray Jay, and Northern Pygmy-Owl, but missed Sooty
Grouse.

I birded along the road all the way to Crescent Lake/Tualco Loop and picked
up a few good species including Western Meadowlark and Golden-Crowned
Sparrow, both of which can be challenging in early May. My only Warbling
Vireo of the day was found here as well.

My next stop was Paradise Valley Conservation where I'd hoped to find any
missing songbirds before morning slowed down. I'd gotten a lot of what I'd
hoped to find here already, so this ended up being a bit of an
underwhelming stop. As I was leaving the parking lot I had an Evening
Grosbeak calling from the trees above, which made the time spent
worthwhile.

I moved on to open country, hitting Lake Tye and downtown Monroe in hopes
of getting Vaux's Swift, but missing. Lake Tye was absent of everything
besides a couple Mallards. The Snohomish valley was pretty slow, but when I
made it to Homeacres Rd and the quickly-drying wetlands which hosted the
Stilts last week my luck started to change. There I had a wide variety of
waterfowl including a large flock of Wigeon that included a male Eurasian
and three Greater White-Fronted Geese. A Western Kingbird was feeding along
the road nearby. The first of several Lesser Yellowlegs I'd have was here
as well.

The Everett waterfront was a bit slow with the only shorebirds being a
group of Dunlin and Western Sandpipers. A lingering Herring Gull was a nice
surprise though. In north Everett I was able to pick up a California
Scrub-Jay.

At this point I deviated from my itinerary in hopes of picking up the
Black-Necked Stilt that had been seen earlier in the morning at the
Stanwood Sewage Plant by Jeff Osmundson. The Stilt had moved on, but there
was a decent selection of ducks including both Scaup and a Common Goldeneye
(again, not easy in early May).

Eide road was a bit slow at first, but I rechecked all the ponds on the
entrance road on my way out and found the Black-Necked Stilt had come back
since my arrival. A large group of dabbling ducks was being chased between
locations by an eagle. It took me quite a while, but eventually they landed
within view and I was able to pick out a Cinnamon Teal and my first
Blue-Winged Teal of the year. Four Long-Billed Dowitchers were with the
ducks as well.

The weather had heated up considerably since my chilly morning, and Thomle
and Boe roads were both pretty quiet, although I did get a singing
Black-Capped Chickadee at the boat launch for species #111. I heard a
Yellow Warbler along Norman Road and found a couple more dowitchers and
Yellowlegs there as well. Unfortunately I couldn't find any Whimbrels in
the usual spots.

The tide was still completely out when I hit Tulalip bay so all the
shorebirds must have been somewhere else. I was shocked to find no
Black-Bellied Plovers. Purple Martins were all foraging somewhere else as
well. Gulls and marine birds more than made for it though and I added
Bonaparte's, Mew, and Ring-Billed for the day and Western and Horned Grebe.

My backup Martin spot, nearby Priest Point was also empty, but a quick scan
of a sliver of Puget Sound that can be seen between houses paid off big. I
had the red-trifecta of marine birds: Red-necked Grebe, Red-Breasted
Merganser, and Red-throated Loon. The loon seemed very late and flagged on
eBird.

At this point I knew I was doing very well on numbers, but I was way behind
schedule and needed to cut stops. Everett STP seemed like it was unlikely
to add any species as was a planned second visit of the Everett waterfront.
One bird was still on my list that I did not want to miss: American Coot. I
made a probably ill-advised detour to the only place I could think of that
might have one and shot over to Fobes Road where I found a single Coot.
According to my running tally in the eBird app this was the bird that put
me over the previous Snohomish County Big Day record of 122 set by Rick and
Tina Taylor a few years ago.

I cut a planned Mukilteo stop out of the schedule and headed for Edmonds.
At Oceans Ave I picked up Brant, Rhinoceros Auklet, and Pacific Loon before
a freight train killed my view. Sunset Ave was even more productive with
Pelagic Cormorant, Surf Scoter and a pair of Harlequin Ducks. I made a
desperate stop on the other side of the ferry dock, which paid off with 8
Purple Martins harassing an eagle. The marsh held a few peeps, but nothing
new.

The sun was fading fast at this point and I was worried I might end up with
some embarrassing misses. Unbelievably I was still missing Anna's
Hummingbird along with a few other common species. I found my Anna's on a
telephone wire and I'm certain that's the happiest I'll ever be to see that
species. I ran through Yost park quickly and was lucky to find Red-Breasted
Nuthatch, Pileated Woodpecker, and Bushtit, which pretty much took all the
embarrassing misses off the table. Alas no Hutton's Vireo or Ruby-Crowned
Kinglet could be found. A Swainson's Thrush was witting away by the creek
and eventually gave me confirming views to rule out the other whit'ing
species.

After poking around a bit, I eventually heard a Green Heron at Scriber
Creek Park and then rushed out to Monroe and caught the Wagner school
Vaux's Swifts as they gathered to roost.

I drove home and made one last attempt to hear a Great-Horned Owl, but at
that point I'd been up 38 of the last 40 hours so I retired to bed.

My goal going into the day was to hopefully break the previous record of
122 species set by Rick and Tina Taylor. My pie-in-the-sky hope was that I
might hit 130 species. My end total was 137 species which was way beyond
expectations. Only one real rarity (Stilt), but I did way better than I
could've hoped for on uncommon birds.

I was happy to not miss anything really common, but I did have a few misses:
American Pipit (probably drove by dozens in all the plowed fields I passed,
but none were evident)
Hooded Merganser (Seem to disappear this time of year. I made extra effort
to hit good spots for them, but no luck)
Ruby-Crowned Kinglet (getting late, but I had one in my yard the day
previous)
Hutton's Vireo
Nashville Warbler (I had one staked out for my last stop of the day, but
ran out of time)
Sooty Grouse (Same as above)
Great Horned-Owl (Another one that was in my yard the day before)

My complete species list can be found here:
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S45339940



Josh Adams
Cathcart, WA
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