Wednesday, Ed Pullen, Ken W. Brown, Will Brooks and I roamed all over the lowlands of Pierce County in hopes of finding as many species of birds as possible. May seems to be the best month for this endeavor. With many of the waterfowl thinning out but still with a few left, plus all the neo-tropic's arriving, we were hoping for a great count.

We started owling at 4:00 a.m. with only Barred Owl recorded. With the lack of knowing where to find other species in Pierce County, our owl count often is very low. Our day route was the following: Fox Island, Titlow Park, Chambers Bay, Fort Steilacoom Park, Mountain View Cemetery Marsh, McNeil St. Trail, Spanaway Marsh, JBLM (various sites), Riverside Drive by Sumner, 134 st. near Puyallup, 56th St. storm water ponds, Middle Waterway in Tacoma, Dickman Mill Park and finishing at Point Defiance Park around 6:30 p.m. This was kind of a new route as we used to try to get up towards Mt. Rainier Park. We decided that there was more possibilities by staying in the lowlands.

The weather worked out for us with just a few sprinkles and light wind. With the great ears and eyes of our young recruit, Will Brooks, and the experience of the rest of us grizzled older birders, we had a remarkable day!

At the end of the day, after re-finding the Wandering Tattler at Point Defiance marina, we finally peeked at out day's total. 133!!! , all in the LOWLANDS! We were very excited but pretty spent. As we were leaving the park, we saw a group of Canada Geese feeding on the lawn. I said let's check them. Sure enough, our first Cackling Goose of the day. We thought this was 134, however after rechecking our totals, the final count was 133! A incredible day!

The highlights include the following: a nesting Cooper's Hawk, with it's tail sticking out, Townsend's and Hermit Warbler, 2 Western Kingbirds, Northern Bobwhite, 2 Vesper Sparrows all at JBLM, Lesser Goldfinch at Riverside Drive and the Wandering Tattler. Of course many of the new arrivals were also the highlight for all of us.

I started doing big days and birdathons in Pierce County in 1998. With the exception of missing 2005, 2007 and 2016, we have averaged around 113 species on these big days. Our previous record was 137 species on May 7, 2011. This was achieved by going all the way to the mountain and having some amazing help, which included: Ryan Shaw, Ryan Merrill, Charlie Wright, Annie Meyer, Peter Wimberger and Wynne Brown.

Bruce LaBar
Tacoma

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20180510/58c4c39c/attachment.html>