hi Tweets -

This past weekend a group of 11 of us spent Saturday and Sunday on the San Juan islands on a WOS trip - - It was a fun trip with lots of good sightings along the way. I knew we'd be sort of in the 'in between' period, with winter ducks largely not back, but many of the breeding birds not as easy to find -- but the potential for shorebirds and the first fall migrant surprises made it a promising time of year to visit....


Saturday August 24:

Saturday, after catching the early ferry from Anacortes, we arrived on Lopez Island. Our first stop at the airport field along Port Stanley road, a Cooper's Hawk came in and perched, as if by appointment. At Swifts Bay, the dulcet tones of begging Caspian Tern younguns greeted us. At the pond just behind the bay, we had our first shorebirds of the trip - several Least & Western Sandpipers and a Greater Yellowlegs. At Spencer Spit State Park, after enjoying the mobs of Cedar Waxwings and American Robins feeding on the berry trees, we headed out to the spit - it looked promising for shorebirds, but the mud seemed to only host gulls & more Caspian Terns. Out on the water, we were able to find a few Surf Scoters and Red-necked Grebe.

At Hummel Lake, we had hundreds of Barn Swallows overhead, joined by several Purple Martins. A Virginia Rail & a couple Common Yellowthroats were in the marsh as well. A Western Tanager taunted us and gave a couple brief looks, as did a Wilson's Warbler, and an Orange-crowned Warbler.

Before too long, it started sprinkling and we found ourselves birding in light to moderate rain for much of the late morning.
At the marsh along Fisherman Bay Rd., where viewing was hampered by rain, we caught glimpses of the trip's only American Coots, Wood Ducks, Hooded Mergansers, and Ring-necked Ducks.

Fisherman Spit had 20 or so Black Oystercatchers and another Greater Yellowlegs, along with more peeps and good looks at Heerman's Gulls.

At Agate Bay County Park, we decided the uncertain weather meant we shouldn't make the long hike to Iceberg Point - instead, we enjoyed the birds nearby in the bay including many Marbled Murrelets, groups of Common Murre, Rhino Auklets, a few Pigeon Guillemots and a couple Common Loons. On the short forest trail we picked up Pacific, House & Bewick's Wren, more Orange-crowned Warblers and more of our surprisingly regular Brown Creepers. We looped around Aleck Bay road, and found a field with many Wild Turkeys present - one of the more reliable spots to find them on Lopez.

Our last stop on Lopez was at Shark Reef Preserve. As we emerged from the short forest hike, we found over 100 Red-necked Phalaropes on the water just at the first overlook! They fluttered here and there in the channel, but generally gave us great looks.

We took the inter-island ferry to San Juan Island [on which a wedding took place, and Orcas obliged with a pass-by], and before calling it a day made a run out to False Bay.
The light was terrible, but we were able to find several Semipalmated Plovers, Western & Least Sandpipers and a distant Pectoral Sandpiper.


Sunday Aug 25:

En route to False Bay for a second visit, we started our day with a group of Western Bluebirds along Bailer Hill Rd - seemed to be an adult pair w/ 2 young flitting around. At False Bay, with better light today, our most enjoyable spectacle was a Peregrine who flew by, then perched in a visible snag. Visible to a Cooper's Hawk as well who did a lot of harassing and was not amused. At South Beach in American Camp, we caught glimpses of a few American Pipits along the road, then headed to the trail at the end of the beach. A particularly lively bush gave us our first Willow Flycatcher of the trip, and then a surprise Vesper's Sparrow popped up as well - not sure whether it was moving through or one of the small remnant of breeding Vesper's that might persist on the islands.

At Cattle Point we caught glimpses of the remaining Red-necked Phalaropes across the channel by Shark Reef on Lopez, as well as all 3 cormorants, good collections of alcids and our only Harlequin Ducks of the trip. Alarm calls from Barn Swallows alerted us in time to watch another Peregrine Falcon zoom past. At 4th of July beach, we got scope views of a small Red Crossbill flock, then out on the water studied Horned Grebe in varying plumages, and a large [but distant] flock of returning Surf Scoters.

We made one more trip to False Bay after lunch - it proved that repeat trips can be helpful - first, we were able to get good looks at at least one Semipalmated Sandpiper among the peeps. Then two Peregrine Falcons came through, chasing a Whimbrel! The Whimbrel flew for several minutes, and eventually escaped them, making it off to the south.

The final couple hours of our afternoon were fairly slow as we moved away from saltwater and checked out a couple lakes and inland spots.
Before long, we were on the 3:40 ferry and headed home.

For the trip, I think we ended up with about 96 species and a lot of great looks.

Good birding,

Matt Bartels
Seattle, WA