Author: Annette McClellan

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Alternately, A Post Without Photos

We had a busy week! Tuesday evening Marge arrived from California. She flew into Madison and rented a car to drive here. We had a late dinner of shrimp and Leek Potato Soup, my favorite. We had a nice evening catching up and got to bed a little late. After eating a Frittata for breakfast the next morning we took a tour of the lakefront. It was a nasty, drizzly, windy day and the lake was at it’s best! Giant waves were crashing everywhere, and whitecaps were visible as far as you could see. It was definitely a driving tour.

Downtown we stopped at the kitchen shop and of course the chocolate shop. Then we had lunch at Field to Fork. They have a new fall menu that included Gyros. I had mine served on spinach. After lunch we drove out to Kohler and checked out the fancy shops. There are always things we want at Woodlake, the grocery store, and I like to keep track of the little gift shops. After shopping we had some downtime at home. Finally we settled down for an early dinner at Trattoria Stephano. It was fun to sit and drink Negronis in a cozy restaurant and have a pleasant meal. By this time it was evident that Marge was losing her voice. She said she felt fine so we didn’t worry too much. By breakfast the next morning Marge decided she had a cold. What a shame to have to visit her friends in Madison when she’s sick. She had just come back from a solo trip to Istanbul, so maybe she was just worn out. She left shortly after breakfast.

Friday morning we took off for Chicago. We were going with Doug and Lisa to Symphony Center to see the renowned violinist, Maxim Vengerov, play Prokofiev. We left Sheboygan around 9:00 with plans to stop in Waukegan for Leno’s Subs. Dad had loaded the app on his phone. So on the way I was able to order the subs, complete with changes in the cheeses. The app has a long drop down menu-mainly because now every style of sub is also listed as a salad. After paying for the subs online all we had to do was pick them up. We got to Doug and Lisa’s around noon. We celebrated Doug’s birthday by giving him a pencil drawing of the Edmund Fitzgerald, and thanks to Roger, a six pack of Edmund Fitzgerald Porter. By 3;30 we were getting organized to go downtown. We wanted plenty of time to park, walk to Miller’s and eat before the concert. It all worked smoothly. The program started with works by Clara Schumann, Brahms, and Robert Schumann. These works really showed off the skill of the pianist, Polinas Osetinskaya. The children in front of us were restless and very distracting. But during the second half they had moved to different seats so it was much better for us. The Prokofiev pieces were both pieces I knew very well. It was so exciting to hear them done so beautifully by such a master. In the end the performers received a standing ovation. That resulted in an encore. In all there were four encores, all of them Russian. The drive home was easy. We had some of Lisa’s yummy pumpkin bread and called it a night.

In the morning Lisa was back in the kitchen, this time making squash hash. It was very healthy and filling. We relaxed rather than do any more Chicago activities. We got home in plenty of time to make dinner.

Stay warm everyone, we’ll see you all for Thanksgiving!!

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Our hotel here was the ‎⁨beautiful Royal Kona Resort⁩ in ⁨Kailua-Kona⁩. The lobby and restaurant were open air and right next to the ocean. Unlike Oahu, the coast here was composed of jagged lava and beaches were small and few. Most of the swimming was done in the pool. There were gigantic wooden carvings representing the ancient Hawaiian gods scattered around the common areas. The grounds were beautifully landscaped with a large fishpond and waterfall in the entrance.

So by 7:30am we left this lovely spot to see the water treatment plant, then the skate park and then the cement plant. We added a few new species at each site but they were all naturalized and not native to the islands. We did some roadside birding and finally made it to the Palila Forest Discovery Trail near the middle of the island. . Palila is the name of the bird you can expect to see here. It wasn’t cooperating that day so we missed it . But we did get to see the Hawaii Amakihi and the Hawaii Elepaio, both endemics. I had a few minutes to relax on the balcony after dinner.

We got up early the next morning so we could be at the harbor by 6:15. We were going on a pelagic tour! Little pig was prepared with his life jacket! I was prepared with sunscreen and ginger candy and a big hat. The birds we saw were listed in one hour segments. Each list has a unique location and shows up in your eBird report with a track. The map at the top of the page shows these entries as blue dots out in the ocean. The vessel was a small fishing boat, just big enough to hold eleven passengers and two crewmen. As it was a fishing boat there was also some fishing going on from the back of the boat. The crew has been taking our guides and company out routinely so they were adept at getting to where the birds were. There are very few gulls in Hawaii and it was odd to be on the water and not see and hear them. The big Wedge-tailed Shearwater was by far the most numerous bird. It is brown above and mostly white below and moves around in flocks. We saw a total of eleven sea bird species all day. There was a moment of excitement when one of the guides thought he had a rare shearwater. Careful study of the photos later showed it was just a very light colored Wedge-tailed Shearwater. The real find was good looks at a few whales. They turned out to be Cuvier’s Beaked Whales. The experts can identify individuals by their dorsal fin and the markings visible on their skin. Back on land we saw a lovely rainbow.

October 6 was the last guided day of the tour. We had seen a lot of great birds except for the most sought after honeycreepers. They lived at high elevation in hard to reach and strictly protected areas. We headed out at 8:00 am, driving to the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge. It was a long drive from the hotel and the last ten miles were unpaved and extremely rough. It was very slow going. Finally we arrived There is no public access but there are a few local guides that have permission to access the area.

Excerpt from the website:

“The Hakalau Forest Unit was established in 1985 to protect and manage endangered forest birds like the Hawaiʻi ʻākepa, ʻakiapōlāʻau, and ʻiʻiwi, and their rainforest habitat. Located on the windward slope of Mauna Kea, Island of Hawai‘i, the 32,733 acre unit supports a diversity of native birds and plants.” “Hakalau Forest (NWR) is currently closed to self-guided activities because of concerns about a disease called Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death, which has killed thousands of acres of mature ʻōhiʻa trees in forests and residential areas in Puna and Hilo Districts of Hawaiʻi Island.  The disease can be transported on contaminated soil found on vehicles, tools, shoes and clothing. Protocols are being developed to ensure that visitors to the Refuge will not spread the disease. ”

We were required to spray our shoes with sanitizer as soon as we got out of the van. This part of the trip was described as cool and wet, and they suggested we wear jackets and even gloves. The guides were surprised and dismayed to find that it was as warm and sunny as the lower altitudes, presumably a result global warming. The main threat this poses to the birds is mosquitoes carrying avian malaria. The mosquitoes normally avoided the higher altitudes due to the cooler temperatures. But as the temperatures rise, the mosquitoes are spreading higher. The preventative plan is for the Division of Forestry and Wildlife to release male mosquitos exposed to the naturally occurring bacteria Wolbachia. Eggs from the female mosquitos that mate with those males introduced into the bird habitats will never hatch, and wildlife officials say that should suppress the population of insects carrying avian malaria.

We spent over five hours in the forest and managed to find most of our targets. We were excited to see these rare species but they were a challenge to find. Our guide did not resort to “playback”-the practice of playing a recording of the song of the target species, hopefully causing the birds present to come in. Instead she did a lot of loudly smacking her lips on the back of her hand. Most of the birds were busily feeding on insects or nectar from flowering trees. But the sound did attract some of them. One of the challenges was a matter of communication between birders. Most birds had names that were Hawaiian and difficult to pronounce. I referred to them by size and color. In all we had nine native Hawaiian birds. I couldn’t get photos of the Hawaiian Hawk as we saw it only briefly flying through the trees.

We were all ready to get back to civilization, including bathrooms, after the 5 plus hours at the preserve. At dinner we celebrated what was essentially the end of the guided tour. The next day we were on our own for checking out and eating breakfast. I spent sometime with another birder as I waited for my evening flight. I also had some quality time with Little Pig, exploring corners of the resort and the shoreline.

October 7th-Aloha!

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October 1st I was still in Waikiki, but preparing to leave for Kauai. This is when I had to leave Dad and continue with the group for the rest of the tour. Our hope that Dad could rejoin was. in vain, given his need to quarantine even after testing negative. I had Little Pig with me for company. After we were seated on the plane he made some new friends.

It was a very short flight. We landed at Lihue International Airport. It is a very small airport and completely open air. Our guide Mandy had her van already there so it was an easy trip to the Sheraton Kauai Resort in Poipu where we were staying.

By 2:15 that afternoon we were at the Kīlauea Point NWR. It was a scenic spot where we could look down on 75 Red-footed Boobies roosting in the trees. Among them was a Brown Booby, Red-tailed and White-tailed Tropicbirds and Great Frigatebirds. Later at ‘Ohiki Rd. we saw the Hawaiian Goose and the Hawaiian Duck. The duck species tend to hybridize with Mallards so you need an expert to separate the hybrids from the pure Hawaiian Ducks.

Monday morning, October 2, was another warm, sunny day! After picking up a few non-native birds at a ball field we drove up into the hills. Our first stop was the ‎⁨Waimea Canyon State Park⁩. There were beautiful views of the canyon that reminded me of the Black Hills.

Next we stopped at the Kōke’e State Park–Pu’u O Kila Lookout. There was a beautiful view but we were looking in the trees and bushes for birds. We found the Kauai Elepaio, the Apapane and the Anianiau. The Kauai Elepaio is a small flycatcher of forested habitats on Kauai. Although it’s population is increasing it is still rated as vulnerable. The Apapane is a Hawaiian honeycreeper found on all of the larger islands. It is not an endangered bird. The Apapane is usually seen feeding on the ōhi’a Lehua. The Anianiau is a small Hawaiian honeycreeper of high elevation native forests, only found on Kauai. It is also listed as vulnerable.

We ended the day at Salt Pond Beach Park. This was a nearly dry pond surrounded by reddish mud. The local Hawaiians were making salt in the center using an age old method. The mud attracted shorebirds. We got back to the hotel in time for an octopus dinner and some relaxation by the fire.

October 3rd.

By 7:30am we were in the Nounou Forest Reserve on a wooded trail. We saw 14 naturalized birds and only 2 native birds. Through-out our tour we were seeing many naturalized birds. EBird descibes them:

Naturalized: Exotic population is self-sustaining, breeding in the wild, persisting for many years, and not maintained through ongoing releases (including vagrants from Naturalized populations). These count in official eBird totals.

What we were most interested in was Hawaiian endemic birds.

Endemic: Native to or limited to a certain region.

But you take the good with the not so good. After lunch we went to Poʻipū Beach Park and found more naturalized species as well as a Great Frigatebird. By 5:20 pm we had boarded our plane for the Big Island.

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Dad and I began birding in Honolulu on September 26th. Our last report was September 28th at 4:30 pm. We had a total of 13 birds, 3 of these were wild and the rest were introduced to the island. 9 of these species were life birds.

On Friday morning, September 29th I joined the Wildside tour and Dad continued to bird locally on his own. We were hopeful that he would soon test negative and join the tour.

The red and blue “flames” are birding locations we visited. Blue flames are incidental reports and red flames are designated eBird hotspots.

The Wildside tour recapped many of the birds that Dad and I had already seen. The first thing on the 29th we headed up into the hills to Manoa Cliffs Trail.

Here we saw 12 species, including our first Hawaiian honey-creeper. Here is an excerpt from Britannica:

Hawaiian honeycreeper, any member of a group of related birds, many of them nectar-eating, that evolved in the forests of the Hawaiian Islands and are found only there. Recent evidence from osteology, behaviour, plumage, breeding biology, and genetics has led to a consensus that the Hawaiian honeycreepers are closely related to the cardueline finches, which include birds such as goldfinches, canaries, siskins, and crossbills. Most of the species are called by native names (see amakihi; apapane; iiwi; mamo). Habitat destruction and the introduction of foreign birds and mammals have led to the extinction of at least 8 of the original 23 species; most of the survivors are endangered. Numerous subspecies are known.

The native names are very confusing! In the field I simply called out their size and color. This one, the Oahu Amakihi, is a small yellow bird with a down-curved bill. This was our only sighting of this bird and I failed to get a photo. Here is one from the web. Scroll for more birds!

We drove back to Honolulu and watched some of the local birds near the city center.

The preening of the terns was a mating ritual and not long after this shot the birds were mating. The slide of the roadside shows dense undergrowth. Our guide, Eddie told us that none of the vegetation on Oahu is native, it has all been brought in one way or another.

On Saturday, 9/30, the tour took off bright and early. Dad stayed behind again but went out and did some birding on his own. He got some nice photos in the park very near the hotel.

Meanwhile, the tour group traveled up the east side of the island. We stopped at various spots for specific birds. We enjoyed the scenery along the way.

Stay tuned for more exciting episodes!

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Part 1

We had a great start to the trip thanks to Doug and Lisa. We spent Sunday afternoon and night at their house and had a fabulous dinner. Doug offered to watch our car for the duration of our trip. All we had to do was to take a limo to the airport in the morning. Our flight was at 9:30am so there was no rush.

Click on the photos- each one is actually a slideshow.

In the morning we got up early and walked out on a pier near the hotel. There were early morning swimmers and surfers here and there. We checked out the local park and ticked off some local birds, most of them introduced species, and then found ourselves near the Honolulu Aquarium. It was nice, compact building, with very nice displays of local sea life. Little Pig really enjoyed it!

Later that afternoon we walked south along the row of hotels and shops. There were hawkers along the way for everything from face cream to cruises. We stopped at one spot offering tours of Oahu. It was with smaller buses than the Greyhound size that you saw a lot of but more substantial than the little trolleys that gave an overview of the city area. So we booked a full day tour for the next day. Our guide, Eddie, took us on a very informative tour around the island. He is one half Hawaiian and grew up in the area now being developed as multi-million dollar mansions. He pointed out Jackie Chan’s home, visible from the street, and others, like Barak Obama’s home, which were more secluded. He was especially fond of pointing out the famous surfing locations and included stories of famous surfers and their adventures. He offered surfing lessons to anyone who would show up at the beach at 5:30am- only 1$ per hour! The tour included stops at the Dole Pineapple Plantation (we saw mostly the gift shop) and later the beautiful Waimea Botanical Garden.

What’s a visit to Waikiki without a glass-bottomed boat tour? This was a one hour spin out into the ocean looking for sea turtles, dolphins, fish and anything else of interest. Again, the guide was informative and there were lots of references to Gilligan’s Island and Magnum, P.I. We saw some fish and turtles, no dolphins. The other tour we passed was a group of snorkelers. Another highlight was lunch after the tour. The guides recommended a few Hawaiian restaurants that were not geared toward tourists. We walked to the restaurant and took the bus back to the hotel.

We got back to our hotel and switched rooms to the one that the tour had booked for us. We relaxed before going to “The Deck” for the dinner with the other tour participants and our guides, Chris and Mandy. We knew Chris from a tour we did last year. Mandy is the Hawaii bird expert that we were meeting for the first time.

Stay tuned for more episodes!!!

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We couldn’t have done it without you!

Dinner at Trattoria Stefano

Jim and Donna, Mom and Dad

Fun at the Beach

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We had a great time visiting Jessica, E, Max and Briana. We arrived on Thursday afternoon. We had a nice chili dinner and then went to watch E play softball. It was a beautiful evening.

Friday morning Dad, Jessica, Nola and I took a walk through the neighborhood. We ended up at the edge of a stone quarry. Old equipment was parked there and looked like it hadn’t been used in years. We had a nice bird list, including hearing the Prothonotary Warbler. Dad went back again the next day and found it and took a picture.

Dad and I took a trip to the World Food Market (formerly Sahara Mart). We found all sorts of goodies. They had a great selection of gluten-free items and NA beer. I was excited. That evening we ate at the Trojan Horse and then walked down the street to The Comedy Attic. They had a great show-I’m not sure I had ever been to a comedy club before. It was nice that Briana could join us.

We got home in good time and all climbed into bed so we could be ready for the big day. Max had to be at school by 9:00 but we came later, getting in our seats in the gym for the 9:30 start. Just think Pomp and Circumstance.

Briana came over with her cat Gigi and we relaxed for the rest of the day. Jessica put out a tasty charcuterie board at lunchtime and later we had a serious cook-out with all the trimmings. We spent a lot of time lounging in Jessica’s front yard watching for hawks. We got Turkey Vultures, Black Vulture, Red-shouldered Hawk and Red-tailed Hawk.

We had decided to drive home on Sunday, thinking we would miss some traffic. Our strategy worked. There were many fewer trucks and less traffic in general. Before leaving Jessica made some awesome Dutch Babies for breakfast. Great with blueberries!!

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The morning of the 14th was standard Washington weather-cool and foggy. Our first stop, at 7:40 am was La Push, located along the coast, within the Quileute Indian Reservation. The scenery is beautiful, with huge rock formations rising from the ocean floor.

We walked about a mile, seeing the expected birds, including this Bald Eagle.

We stopped at other spots along the coast, finding gulls, scoters, loons and cormorants. At the Kalaloch Campground we got good looks at the Surf Scoter.

Alex had promised some sight-seeing today, so he turned off the highway and took us to see the world’s largest spruce tree.

At about 1:30 we stopped at the Hoquiam Sewer Treatment Plant to view the ponds. Alex set his scope down, looked through it to adjust it and found he was on the bird of the day, the Eurasian Wigeon. It is much like the American Wigeon but is a rufous overall rather than having a green and cream-colored head. This individual seems to stay with his American cousins.

We made a few stops here and there and finally arrived at Westport Marina.

Here we found 650 Marbled Godwit. These are sandy brown shorebirds with very long pink and black bills. They do everything together. Alex was hoping to find a similar bird, the Bar-tailed Godwit, among them but it wasn’t there.

We called it a day and went to the small grocery store to buy snacks for tomorrows pelagic tour. We were all a little nervous about getting seasick so we were buying all of the ginger products we could find. I even made ginger tea to put in the water bottles. Dad had a prescription motion sickness patch that he applied well in advance of our early morning departure.

Sep 15, 2022 – Westport Seabirds Pelagic to Grays Canyon

We arrived at the docks promptly at 6:00 with our snacks and ginger products. The pelagic tour leader, Bill Tweit, wrote such an accurate summary I decided to include it here. I will insert photos that we managed to take. Even with calm seas the boat was in constant motion so photos are imperfect.

Westport Seabirds Pelagic
Thursday September 15, 2022
Summary written by Bill Tweit

Great birds, great marine mammals and smooth waters added up to a highly memorable Westport Seabirds pelagic trip onboard the Monte Carlo on September 15. Most of the participants were on a Wildside Nature Tours, led by Alex Lamoreaux and Chris Brown, and a few other birders joined. Numbers in parentheses are the totals for the day.

Birds were generally numerous all day, beginning with large strings of Common Murres (1433) a few miles offshore, mostly still flightless adult males and chicks drifting north after the young had fledged from their Oregon colonies. Two Common Terns (5) were being harassed by a Parasitic Jaeger (32), giving us a preview of the abundance of jaegers for the day.

We also saw the first of many Humpback Whales (28), while we were still in the nearshore area. After the trip, we learned that one of the Humpback Whales was CRC-19155, of the Hawaiian breeding population. Many groups of Red-necked Phalaropes (134) flew past our bow heading south. We saw migrant waterfowl in flocks all day, mostly Northern Pintail (172).

Further offshore, as we neared the 50 fathom line (300’ depth), the first large groups of Sooty Shearwaters (5180) appeared and Sabine’s Gulls (245) began to be seen frequently. They were accompanied by numerous Parasitic Jaegers and a few Pomarines (16), by the end of the day we had recorded near record numbers of Parasitics. In this area, as we watched a dark bird harassing a Sabine’s Gull, we realized that this dark bird was not another jaeger, but instead was a Peregrine (2) trying to capture a Sabine’s Gull. The pursuit, with amazing dives and twisting evasions, moved closer to us as we watched, and eventually was directly over us for a few moments before moving off to an unknown end since we lost track of them. Pink-footed Shearwater (331) numbers began to increase at this point, and the first Short-tailed Shearwaters (607) were detected.

We were headed for the area where the shrimp trawlers were fishing, and as we neared them three South Polar Skuas (13) made an appearance providing good views of both light- and dark-bodied birds.

Although the trawlers were not attracting many birds, we enjoyed the numbers of birds in the area.

The first Black-footed Albatross (8) and Northern Fulmars (24) were also found in this area, just south of Grays Canyon. Single Buller’s Shearwater (11) and Arctic Tern (3) appeared briefly. The numbers of marine mammals in the area kept us scanning the horizons for telltale splashes and blows. Four species of cetaceans were in this one area: 1 Humpback Whale, 7 Dall’s Porpoise (38), 20 Pacific White-sided Dolphins (982), and a large but distant group of about 150 Northern Right-Whale Dolphins sped past us (170).

As we turned to catch up with them, a single alcid on the water caught our eye, an immature HORNED PUFFIN. A very cooperative bird, it sat for us as we circled it, with cameras frantically clicking. Unfortunately, stopping for the puffins meant we lost track of the dolphins. This is the first Horned Puffin for Westport Seabirds since 2011!

Since we were already south of Grays Canyon at this point, we headed southwest into deeper water, going from 400’ depth to almost 2000’ in just a few miles, to see if we could catch up with the speedy dolphin gang, no luck on that score. Small groups of flying Cassin’s Auklets (96) began to appear over the deep waters of the canyon, and one pair on the water afforded good views, which the Red Phalarope (1) that flew past did not. Once we were well over the deep waters south of the canyon, we stopped to chum but the little bit of wind that we noted when we stopped quickly dissipated, so the effectiveness of the chum was low as success depends on a breeze to carry the scent. It did attract a Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel (20) and a couple of albatross circled us, attracted either by the chum or the crowd of birders. Even still, we enjoyed watching the passing birds as we drifted silently without the boat engines running. A nearby Northern Fur Seal (2) seemed relatively undisturbed by our presence. Our attention was drawn to a Parasitic Jaeger engaged in aerial acrobatics, when we realized it was after a small passerine, likely the American Pipit we had heard overhead just a few minutes earlier. Soon up to three Parasitics were chasing the poor passerine, and an Arctic Tern began chasing one of the jaegers!

A skua flew by, cast a casual eye at the commotion, and kept going. We don’t know how it ended, but it went on for long enough that it can’t have been a positive outcome for the passerine. Heading back east, as we neared the Continental Shelf, we encountered a massive herd of 800 Pacific White-sided Dolphin and 20 more Northern Right Whale Dolphins. Both dolphins came in to ride our bow wave for a few minutes, while others performed somersaults and other acrobatics nearby.

Once we returned to waters over the shelf, we continued to see smaller groups of dolphins as we headed first for a few more shrimpers that were fishing east of the end of Grays Canyon. Again, we found them relatively devoid of birds but large numbers of shearwaters and Sabine’s Gulls were feeding on bait just inshore of the trawlers, with more dolphins and a couple of lunge-feeding Humpback Whales. A few more Buller’s Shearwaters were with these flocks, providing better looks than in the morning, and we found one area that held large numbers of Short-tailed Shearwaters with great comparisons with Sooty. Amidst all of this abundance, one area held skua, numerous Parasitics, a few Pomarines and one adult Long-tailed (1), giving us the “jaeger slam” in quick succession. This was also the area that held the largest numbers of Rhinocerous Auklets (63) and California Gulls (563), which we had been seeing in small numbers throughout the trip. Three Herring Gulls (3) here were our first of the fall, aside from a lone bird in August.

The excitement didn’t drop off as we headed back to the harbor. First, a group of 9 Pomarine Jaegers on the water marked the end of the great jaeger show we had been enjoying all day. About a half hour out, we came to an abrupt halt to watch a pod of approx. 8 Orca, apparently transients (Bigg’s Killer Whales) of the T-38 group (the matriarch is T-38, born in 1980), as they surfaced and lob-tailed. Reluctantly leaving them, we spotted the last skua of the day much closer to shore than is normal for this species. Then, we were entertained for a few moments by a Savannah Sparrow that came aboard and hitched a ride back to shore. The excitement wasn’t over though, as we neared the end of the Westport jetty, we checked the gulls perched on a log floating less than a mile off the jetties, and were stunned to see a BROWN BOOBY sitting among them. More pandemonium as we circled the log, while the booby sat and posed for pictures.

Finally, back into Grays Harbor, a couple of Harbor Porpoise (2) made it a seven cetacean species day! The last excitement of the day came after we tied up but before we disembarked, as a Peregrine cruised in low and fast, flushing all of the Marbled Godwits (800), which helped us ascertain that the godwit flock held a Willet, but no Bar-tailed.

Our second Peregrine of the day, not a typical pelagic trip! This was a trip that most of us won’t forget anytime soon. As usual, we had the privilege of the superb skippering by Phil Anderson, and his wife Chris as a great first mate. Spotters for the trip were Scott Mills and Bill Tweit, with credit to many of the sharp-eyed birders on board, especially Alex Lamoreaux, Chris Brown, Bob Archer and Eric Heisey.

Marine Wildlife:
“Bigg’s” Orca/Killer Whale
Humpback Whale
Northern Right-whale Dolphin
Pacific White-sided Dolphin
Dall’s Porpoise
Pacific Harbor Porpoise
Pacific Harbor Seal
California Sea Lion
Steller’s Sea Lion
Northern Fur Seal
Blue Shark
Ocean Sunfish/Mola mola

I will add a few more photos of unidentified marine mammals. Keeping the bird ID’s correct was all we could handle!

We had a great day and nobody got sick!

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And then we were Nine

We met our tour guides and the five other participants in a crowded hotel lobby near the airport. This hotel caters to cruise guests also so the lobby was full of luggage and people waiting for transportation to their ships. The birders could recognize each other because we were all using the neon green tags that were sent to us in advance. I stayed there with the luggage while Dad returned the rental car. Finally the guides, Alex and Chris, showed up and we piled into a van. Thanks to us the luggage area in back was full to overflowing. We left the city of SeaTac and drove to Seattle.

Our first stop was Alki, an urban area that juts out into Puget Sound. Our stops are indicated on the map by red flame symbols.

To get there we passed the industrial district at the south end of Elliott Bay. There we saw giant cranes on the docks. In the channels and bay were huge container ships, cruise ships and fishing boats. We parked in a neighborhood and searched for local songbirds. We found a cooperative Rufous Hummingbird and the expected songbirds and warblers.

The beach had a nice selection of west coast birds, including Black Turnstones and Surfbirds.

We traveled north through the city to Discovery Park, a 534 acre natural area. Situated on Magnolia Bluff overlooking Puget Sound, Discovery Park offers spectacular view of both the Cascade and the Olympic Mountain ranges. But all we cared about was birds. We found a lot of land birds, some gulls and a Western Grebe.

After the Seattle tour we drove back south to the airport hotel we started at. This was a good starting point for the next day’s route on the west side of the sound.

Sep 12, 2022 – West Puget Sound & Salish Sea Hotspots

We traveled north from SeaTac, stopping at a few places and only getting the expected land birds and waterfowl. We finally got to the northern two hotspots (flames) shown on the map. Point No Point was named so because this bit of land was hard to see from the deck of a ship and was too shallow and muddy for anchorage, therefore did not qualify as a “point”. The spot included a historic lighthouse and the remaining lens described below.

“On January 10, 1880, the fifth-order Fresnel lens arrived and was installed in the Point No Point Lighthouse. Fresnel lenses capture and direct light by prismatic rings to a central bull’s-eye where it emerges as a single concentrated beam of light. A fifth-order Fresnel lens, used mainly for shoals, reefs, and harbor entrance lights, is one foot, eight inches high, has an inside diameter of one foot, three inches, and weighs approximately 300 pounds. The light at Point No Point, illuminated by a kerosene lamp and 27 feet above grade, was visible for about 10 miles.”

Birds seen at Point No Point included Pigeon Guillemot, Bonaparte’s Gull and Parasitic Jaeger.

The Parasitic Jaeger above is being harrassed by Bonaparte’s Gulls. The Jaeger is a kleptoparasite, stealing food from other species rather hunting for its own. Worse than that, during breeding season on the Arctic tundra, it preys mainly on birds and their eggs. Even when it appears in Waukegan the gulls are on high alert. This bird will harry another bird that has just swallowed prey, forcing it to regurgitate it’s meal. In this case the jaeger finally left, unsatisfied.

The Pigeon Guillemot dives and swims underwater, flapping its wings for propulsion. It catches fish, worms, and crustaceans.

We also had some interesting land birds.

We carried on, stopping here and there at spots the guides had chosen ahead of time. We found more expected birds. We spent the night in Port Angeles.

Sep 13, 2022 – Hurricane Ridge, Neah Bay, & Cape Flattery

The next morning we only had to travel three miles south from the coast to enter Olympic National Park. This first stop was simply a trailhead where we stopped to listen for owls. We were probably too late, at 6:35 am.

By 7:22 am we were in the Olympic Mountains, on Hurricane Ridge. We parked at the Visitor’s Center a spent a while admiring the Olympic Marmot on the slope below us.

We had fun with the Canada Jays, with our guide Alex feeding them weed seeds out of hand.

On the way down the mountain we had to stop for some road work. The flagman was able to tell us right where to stop to see the Sooty Grouse.

From Olympic National Park we headed back north to the coast. We stopped at beaches and jetties along the way. Some of them were familiar from many years ago, however we did not walk out very far on any of them. The highlight was the Wandering Tattler at Neah Bay.

Our last stop of the day was Cape Flattery, “Located in the Makah Reservation, outside Olympic National Park near the town of Neah Bay. The short (¾ miles/1.2 km each way) trail leads through the forest to a viewing platform, perched on a cliff with a dramatic view overlooking the Pacific. Cape Flattery is the Northwest most point on the contiguous United States.”

Actually, after the pleasant walk in the woods there was a very steep and unforgiving staircase down to a small look-out still high above the rocky shore. By now it was getting very foggy and cooler. We were here to see the Black Swift, roosting the nearby sea cliffs and caves. The swifts never appeared but we did get Black Oystercatchers, Surf Scoters and a Pacific Loon, among other species.

Finally, at 6:30, Alex agreed to call it a day. After a supper in a little cafe we drove inland to Forks, WA , to our motel. I was proud of myself for climbing the steps at Cape Flattery and more than ready for a rest.

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Part I

Thursday 9/8/2022

At 8:45 we were getting into the limo on our way to O’Hare. It was a push to get everything squared away with the real estate ladies and leave the house ready for showing. We had Rachel and Matt lined up to check on the house after showings (a commitment made after a nice dinner at Sushi Kushi). We were ready to roll.

The experience of getting from our front door to the SeaTac Rental Car Center went smoothly, with front row seats on the plane and beautiful views of the mountains. At the car rental center they pointed us to a Honda SUV and said “Have a nice time”. We were out of the facility and around the corner before realizing that the smell in the car was not something we could tolerate for three days. Back we went to the rental facility to trade it in for a different car. This was a Kia SUV. Not as nice but not smelly either. Off we went with the rest of the traffic, east and south toward Mt. Rainer National Park and Packwood WA. We got off the interstate and things thinned out considerably. We realized we needed to stop for groceries while there was still a supermarket available. We stopped at the Fred Meyer in Maple Valley. It was a giant store that included everything from groceries to clothing and garden supplies. We got our groceries and planned to go the the B&B for supper. “Do you have the key? Where’s the key?” “There it is, on the front seat!” Oh, boy, we were locked out! Our Toyota doesn’t allow that sort of thing to happen. We assumed all modern cars were so smart. So we called the Avis Road service. In the meantime we sat at a table outside the store and ate grocery store sushi. Finally a guy came and unlocked the car. Back in business. We drove another hour and a half and managed to find our “Cozy Cabin” near the Cowlitz River, in a neighborhood where every other house had a similar A-frame on the property. It was on a very quiet cul-du-sac and we really looked forward to three quiet nights of listening for owls.

Cozy Cabin was named for its tiny space and efficiency. It had everything you needed but nothing extraneous. Everything was condensed into a small space without being overly crowded. There was a queen size bed and we had a very quiet night’s rest. There was no stove top but in the morning Dad made perfect soft boiled eggs in a countertop electric kettle. He planned to repeat the menu for the next morning.

Friday, 9 9 2022

After breakfast we headed back north into Mount Rainier National Park. It was cool and sunny; a perfect day for sightseeing. We stopped at a trailhead parking area and grabbed the last spot. “Wonderland Trail” took us up and over a beautiful slot canyon.

We continued on to the Paradise Visitor’s Center. The trail from the visitor’s center was Dead Horse Creek Trail. It was a popular trail and we saw many hikers geared up for back-country hiking and camping. We took a paved trail that wound through scattered evergreen trees. We gained elevation and found ourselves in an alpine meadow full of flowers. Another hiker approached us, pointing excitedly and crying “Bird!”. It took us a moment to find a grouse foraging in the dense ground cover.

The bird was oblivious to our presence and allowed us to take a lot of photos. We finally realized that it was a Sooty Grouse, a target lifer for the trip!!

We had a picnic lunch at the visitor’s Center and decided to head back to the cabin. It was a long ride and we were ready for a little relaxation after we got there. The Kia we were driving seemed to have an alarm for everything, the most frequent one was the lane monitor. At one point there was a much louder alarm and I couldn’t figure out what it was. Then I looked at my phone.

We hurried to our B&B through the curvy roads. As we passed the turn-off to go east the road was closed and there were six large army vehicles waiting there. As we got closer to the B&B we could see, and smell, clouds of smoke.

We got to the cabin and packed up as fast as we could. We could smell the smoke coming through the neighborhood. There weren’t many people on the roads so we made good time. But where do we go now?

The fire was east of us so we went west to the base of Puget Sound. There was a national wildlife refuge there that could have a lot of shorebirds. We ended up right off Interstate 5 in Lacey, WA, minutes from the refuge. Lacey is the home of Joint Base Lewis-McChord. From the website: “Joint Base Lewis-McChord provides state-of-the-art training and infrastructure, responsive quality of life programs, and fully-capable mobilization and deployment operations for Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines.” It occupies a huge area in Lacey.

We had a nice room and looked forward to birding the preserve in the morning.

Saturday, September 10, 2022

We started at the parking lot and walked past some shallow ponds on a boardwalk. The climate here is temperate rain forest. All of the trees had lichens growing on them and there were ferns everywhere. We didn’t find any interesting birds in the water. Further north in the refuge a boardwalk juts out a mile over a vast mudflat. We walked about three quarters of the way. There was not much variety but we did see a lot of Bald Eagles.

We were hoping that this mud would have a lot of shorebirds but all we found were six Greater Yellowlegs. Nisqually Wildlife Refuge was not very productive so we went into town a little ways to Farrell Marsh Park. There was only a tiny place on the side of the road in a neighborhood so we parked the car there and went in. There was a network of narrow trails through dense vegetation. We got a good look at Chestnut-sided Chickadees and I saw a Bewick’s Wren.

This was our last chance to bird alone. Tomorrow we were to join the Wildside Bird Tours group.