Those sightings are starting points when deciding where to go for your next outing. Birds are on a journey and even ones that reside here in the winter are on the move. Don’t get so hung up on not seeing a particular species that you forget the entertainment value of the birds that are there.
The following are reports by birders on their finds in the last few weeks. With recent storms, both out in the Pacific and in Western Washington, you never know what might be blown our way.
• Huge numbers of birds are being spotted off Bottle Beach in Grays Harbor County. One experienced, trusted birder reported serious numbers of birds, including 2,500 dunlin, 250 Western sandpipers, 150 black-bellied plovers, 2,000 brown pelicans feeding offshore, 1,000 Northern pintails flying in, and 200 American widgeons.
She also saw, around Tokeland Marina, 800 marbled godwits, 200 brown pelicans and more than 800 Heerman’s gulls. About 3,000 dunlins were seen in the Grayland State Park area.
Yes, counting birds in the hundreds or thousands is not an exact science but the above numbers make the point of abundance.
• A few red-necked phalaropes were seen in a pond near the end of Jetty Haul Road in Westport. South of town, Leach’s storm-petrels, red phalaropes and shearwaters were sighted.
• The Port of Tacoma turned a landfill into the nine-acre Gog-le-hi-te Wetlands, home to more than 100 bird species. A birder reported snow geese, green-winged teal, mew gull, Northern flicker and Bewick’s and marsh wrens.
• The Woodard Bay Natural Resources Conservation Area in Olympia produced buffleheads, common goldeneyes, several dozen horned grebes and more than 100 surf scoters.
• About 30 white-fronted geese (winter residents) were seen in Coulon Park, Renton.
• Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge never disappoints. A birder reported more than 100 greater white-fronted geese, a yellow- headed blackbird, a northern shrike and a sharp-shinned hawk. On another date, birders saw great egrets and Virginia rails.
• About 50 Myrtle yellow-rumped warblers plus cedar waxwings and ruddy ducks made the list around Tukwila Pond south of Southcenter Mall.
• On Riffe Lake in Lewis County, birders saw common loons, horned and Western grebes, Clark’s grebes, American pipits, greater yellowlegs, Wilson’s snipe, lesser scaups, an American dipper and a large raft of Western grebes.
• Dumas Bay, near Dash Point State Park, was a resting stop for hundreds of American widgeon, surf scoters, green-winged teals, Bonaparte’s gulls, white-winged scoters, red-necked grebes and the less-often seen eared grebes.
• Large groups of snow geese have returned to their regular wintering grounds in Skagit Valley, including flocks at Hayden Snow Goose Preserve. Also spotted in the flats were rough-legged hawks, merlins and a yellow-headed blackbird.
Remember, you can’t be delighted, surprised or a little wiser (ornithologically speaking) if you don’t get out there.
Fireflies revisited: Dave Pehling of the Washington State University Extension, read the fall firefly column and a reader’s comment taking exception to my words about glowworms (firefly larvae) in the Pacific Northwest.
“While none of our native Lampyrids have ‘batteries’ as far as I know, the larval forms of a couple of species do glow. Pterotus obscuripennis LeConte, in particular, occurs from Western Washington and Oregon to northern Baja California.
“The best info I’ve found on this and a similar species is at www.wonderquest.com/ fireflies-west-coast.
Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468-3964 or www.songandword.com.
