We just couldn't get over the lack of birds from Saturday so we decided to go out again after church. We wanted to stay local so we just went to a couple of places in Tacoma. I'd been wanting to go to Titlow Beach Park down by the Narrows Bridge because it is supposed to be a good place to see purple martins at this time of year. So we grabbed a Subway sandwich to eat at the park and headed out prepared for a purple mass of color. OK so maybe I should have checked details before getting my hopes up again but I can't cover everything can I? Titlow is one place that has put up special purple martin nesting boxes so why shouldn't I believe they'd be there? What I hadn't read is that the book I got the info from was back in 2003, there are only about 1,000 purple martins in Washington at the time and starlings like to take over purple martin nests. To top it off that book said in 2003 there were only 16 there at the park. Wow 1,000 in all of Washington and 16 at this spot. That is not many. Well the starlings had taken over every nesting box and there were zero purple martins at Titlow Beach Park in 2012. I should have checked out e-birds to see where they had been spotted but I hadn't. Titlow was humming with scuba divers, families, trains and people with dogs. It was a nice Sunday and many locals were out enjoying the day. What I didn't expect was the amount of cormorants we would find. There were about 18-20 and all three species. There were some double-breasted and then quite a few pelagic cormorants (#90) and one Brandt's cormorant (#91). He had white hair coming off his head reminding me of a balding older gentleman with hair only left around the bottom part of his head.
There were also quite a few pigeon guillemots swimming in the water and hanging out on the pier. We really hadn't seen them out of water before so that was fun. At times you could really see their bright orange feet. We also saw a red-necked grebe (#92) swimming all alone in the water. He was quite pretty in his mating colors but he was too far away to get any good video. I only hope a female grebe got to see his show.
There is a trail through some nice woods there so we took that after we had our al fresco lunch. It was quite nice with great vistas of the water. We came across an older gentleman gazing up in a huge fir tree. When we approached he asked if we'd see the eagles nest. We looked up and sure enough there was a gigantic nest and in looking closer--with binocs of course--we could see Mr and Mrs Eagle up there guarding the aerie. I tell you that nest was big enough to hold a family of four.
Oh yeah--he's real
Other than the eagles the forest was pretty quiet. I did see an Anna's hummingbird for a few brief moments and we heard some other birds but we could never get a good look. This is where knowing bird songs would really pay off. However, I'm having enough trouble recognizing a bird by sight--so I'll wait a bit before I tackle the sounds.
We decided to go home via the tide flats in Tacoma. I had printed up some information on some areas there for birding. We finally found Gog-Le-Hi-Te wetlands park. It's not terrifically easy to find but there is a small parking area and even a viewing blind. We both saw an American goldfinch (#93) so we finally got to add him to the list. There was a cute little killdeer making a bit of a racket and some yellow-rumped warblers and song sparrows around. But the highlight had to be the little mallard duckling swimming by himself in the pond.
Here's a little video of Nisqually and this day....
We went out with high hopes today. Rudy and I were finally home together after our separate travels, the bird migration up to Alaska was on and we had a Saturday to spend searching for migrants at Nisqually NWR. All reports were good, it was even supposed to be descent weather. Well gosh, about none of those things turned out to be true--other than Rudy and I were finally together. When we got there the swallows were in force so that was a nice reception. Cliff swallows (#81) and barn swallows (#82) were nesting around the visitors center. Swooping in and out like only swallows can do. In fact I think the word swooping was invented to describe swallows. We decided to try to get out to the mudflats as quick as possible--since the tide was right. Of course we were quite distracted on the way out. We checked out more swallows and saw the northern rough wing swallows (#83) by the twin barns.
tree swallow
We kept a watchful eye out for the owls--but no luck, again. Out to the boardwalk there was a red-tailed hawk feeding on the ground by the trail. Out toward the flats we saw a few Savannah sparrows (#84) a white-crowned sparrow (#85) and in the marsh some cinnamon teals (#86).
cinnamon teals
But where are the hundreds of migrating shorebirds stopping by to pick up nutrients on their way to Alaska? We walked out most of the way on the boardwalk but there was not much. We did see a few Caspian terns (#87) with some seagulls. They really are one of my favorite birds and one of them decided to perform for us, flying high and then dropping into the water to catch a bit of dinner. We also saw a few greater yellowlegs (#88) picking around in the mud. But other than those few birds there wasn't much. Of course there were great blue herons, mallards and some dabblers but not even many of those. It wasn't even that great of weather--for a few brief moments the sun would poke through the clouds and warm us up but then disappear and cool us down again.
We gave up on the mudflats and decided to try our hand at the woods so back along the river we traipsed. We did see quite a few yellow-rumped warblers (#89), both Audubon and Magnolia.
see the yellow rump?
But other than those we didn't see much. So we called it a day, disappointed in the amount of birds that weren't there but happy that we added nine to our count. That's the point anyway, isn't it?
So I was in Peru from April 1-17. I was visiting jungle lodges. It was for work so Rudy didn't get to go with me. Then when I got home Rudy had to depart for his work to North Carolina and won't be home until late on April 26. So we haven't had any chance to go out birding together. I did see 125 different species of birds in the Amazon but they won't count. Rudy went east of the mountains to see our son and daughter in law over Easter and saw white pelicans, magpies and such but they don't count because we didn't do it together. I went out yesterday and saw an osprey and a goldfinch but guess what--it won't count. We hope to go out Saturday so we'll see what happens then.
We had a couple of mourning doves (#79) visit this morning. Also, a bunch of house finches (#80) including one that was orange instead of red. By searching the web I found out it was an adult "yellow-phase" male.
Woke up with lots of bird songs outside. What would we find today? Looking out and seeing for the first time this year a beautiful evening grosbeak (#74).
Evening Grosbeaks
Oh yeah, it starts with one but then go away for a few minutes and look again and a whole flock of them are sitting on the feeder singing away in a raucous chirping concerto. We had bunches of birds today but there was another bird we didn't know off-hand. Looking closer we saw it was a white-throated sparrow (#75). I'd never seen one of these ever so it was nice to add him to the count.
We decided to go out in search of wood ducks today. There had been a report of a couple in Deep Lake at Nolte State Park--not far from where we live. So we headed out there. First it was closed for the winter--really? Well we did like everyone else and parked on the road and walked in. There is a trail that appears to go around Deep Lake but it's a small lake and we could see most of it from a floating platform--no ducks. Disappointing. Oh well, let's go to Federal Way to the Weyerhaeuser campus pond. There were some hopeful reports from there. It's also a small lake with a trail around it. Even though it's right next to I-5 it has a wide assortment of waterfowl and we did find two new ones. First, the comical ruddy duck (#76) and then the classic beauty redhead (#77) and then a lesser scaup (#78) but no wood duck.
Redhead
So over to West Hylebos Wetlands. We hiked the trail but hardly any bird activity. I think I saw a Huttton's vireo but it was a bit of a quick peak so I'm not going to confirm that. So no wood duck but it was still a nice day--we added five--that's a good day at this point.
After the currents started to bloom, I knew the hummers would soon be coming. I put out fresh nectar in the feeder a few days ago and waited and today was the day. One lone rust colored rufous hummingbird (#73) at the feeder. Soon there will be many more.
So we spent two days driving hundreds of miles, braving the cold and wet and only came up with four new birds. Today after work, at home, what did we see? Four more new birds! No driving, no putting on rain pants and jackets, just look out our window and take in the view. At our suet feeder a nice looking female hairy woodpecker (#69).
Add to that a pine siskin (#70) showed up at the feeder. I really don't remember ever seeing one at our feeder before. Then the little red-breasted nuthatch (#71) decided to come back for the season. It was nice to see him for the first time this year. But we almost missed the pièce de résistance. There were some purple finches that showed up but there was one that looked very different. After closer examination we realized we had a pair of red crossbills (#72). Neither one of us had ever see them before and for sure never at our feeder. It made us very happy.
Oh yeah--he's real
