2016 - A Long revisit via a few photos . . . .
Before 2017 gets to far along, let's to take another look-back at some of 2016's birds and
share a few shots of the newbies and others.
Let's start
with this one, cuz it's without-a-doubt the best-of-the-best posted photos to a
CC eBird checklist of all time. Unbelievable! And the ID characteristics are pure Sibley and totally diagnostic. Comparative sizes of the two birds is obvious, and the flare of wing-tips of the bird following is an auto-give-away! Photo is from Bahokus, Neah Bay [NB] as the birds flew E down the Strait of Juan de Fuca. So . . .
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| Two white splotches of pixelation against a grainy blue background! |
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| Tufted Duck / Neah Bay / STP |
There seemed to be a
plethora of TUDU sightings at NB. And that's odd since the first county record came only last year at the same location. 2016's first one was found in January. Altho it seemed to hang out at the STP, it was also recorded several times up on Hobuck Lake. Then in the fall there
appeared to be x2 males and a female - possibly more - that showed up. The STP kept a female/male
combination off-and-on; while a male was seen regularly on the Bay.
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| Lesser black backed gull / Neah Bay / on the docks |
Hope
Anderson found this Lesser black backed gull on the docks at Neah Bay in late April. It hung for four or five days giving a few a chance to chase it in the crappy Wx that came raining and winding nastily throughout the area.
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| Tropical kingbird, in the village of Neah Bay |
For two years running now not a single Tropical kingbird has been found on the OlyPen anywhere except at Neah Bay. Dungeness, 3 Crabs, Clallam Bay used to tick them - but not lately. It seems that these noisy, aerial bug-chasers really like Neah Bay. This past year there may have been as many as x11 individual birds seen from the Fish Hatchery to Cape Flattery and E to the Greenhouse Seawatch.
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| Scripp's murrelet / off shore Clallam county |
The Scripp's is one damn hard bird to tick in Clallam county. They don't come easy. Why? Well first, you gotta be way off shore, then have good water, be there at the right time of year, and should know what you're looking at as these water-flitters plunge or fly-off as you come up on them. Ryan Merrill found the right conditions. A total of x45 were tallied over three surveys in mid-September. That simply knocks your socks off!
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| Prothonotary warbler / Neah Bay / 1st CC record |
Thank you, Mike Resch [a visiting Birder fm Massachusetts]. He noted in his eBird checklist paraphrased here: '...spotted at 8:10am in blackberry brambles on west side of excavation near NW area of Ba'adah Loop.' It was later relocated by Dan and Brad Waggoner. It was a one-day wonder, tho. Nice photo, Brad. Again in Neah Bay!
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| White winged dove / Neah Bay / Butler's motel / "thank you Nancy!" |
When the facets of being in the right place at the right time come together and a camera is at the ready and you look up and the OMG magic goes "BOINK!" This is what you get: one White winged dove [4.16]. Where? At Nancy's seeder-feeders of course / Butler's motel in Neah Bay. There were well over a hundred Eurasian collared doves there and he picks this bird out of the herd and takes a very nice photo. The dove was re-seen later in the afternoon and again the next morning.
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| Red napped sapsucker / Crescent Lake |
Alex Patia found several good Clallam county birds at Lake Crescent this past summer. This Red napped sapsucker was just one.
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| Dickcissel / Wa'atch River Drive, Neah Bay |
When Jon Scordino looked out the sliding glass door that faces his back yard along the Wa'atch River, Neah Bay, he saw a bird that just didn't fit the normal birds at the feeder scene. Then when he 'pinged' me telling me he'd seen a Dickcissel, but hadn't photographed it yet, I just thought . . . . oh shit! As the Boekelheide mantra goes: "You get a photo?" If not, don't bother. But he did, and it was. and it stayed. This was in late spring. Then in mid-October Hope Anderson got a Two-Fer. Hanging out at Butler's watching feeders when a Dickcissel graced her binocs along with a Rose breasted grosbeak! One code 5 and one code 4. Nice score, Hope!
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| Rustic bunting / Boom road, Neah Bay |
Cara Borre's Rustic bunting was the frosting on the cake for Neah Bay; as well as scoring the 299th tick for the county [12.06]. Tiny as it is, and foraging with juncos and other sparrows moving up and down Boom road, it gave many chasers both a thrill as well as creating some dips. It did hang along the road tho for over a week.
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| Ruff / 3 Crabs marshes |
Jeanelle RIchardson was heading to Neah Bay in early May to go pelagicing on the M/V Windsong when she stopped at 3 Crabs to see what might be out-and-about. And a Ruff was what she found out-and-about The next day when all of the locals came out to their local patch to relocate the Ruff - they did just that - and then Dow Lambert looked around and found this Sharp tailed sandpiper at the other end of the marsh. That was definitely a TwoFer! Then a day later out at Neah Bay a 2nd Ruff was seen wandering the beach near the Warmhouse Restaurant. Both Ruffs hung for a while; but the Sharpy stayed for only a few days.
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| Sharp tailed sandpiper / 3 Crabs marshes |
This
is what Ryan Merrill had to say about the photo posted at the top and [again] here [checklist
S29408743]: "County and/or patch bird
for most. Brad [Waggoner] spotted flying east down the strait while following a
gull, in view for ten minutes or so until it was beyond Wa'adah Isand. Huge
white bird that you could just see black flight feathers on and a couple times
glimpses of the huge yellow bill through the haze. As measured on Google Earth,
Brad spotted it initially when it was 1.6 miles away and it was still in view at
3.6 miles distance. I don't think this takes into account that we were 1000
feet above it so viewing distance would have been a little farther than
that." To me, if you stand on Bahokus, and look down and
out onto the Strait, and see this lone White pelican at almost two miles and take a gnarly, grainy pixelated digit and then post your photo of two white splotches against a blue background to your checklist as ID, then that's damn good
feather grabbing, eh?
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| American white pelican [left] & gull ssp. |
Ohhhh K, one last bird. Once again, the infamous Wurdemann's heron returned to the 3 Crabs area in mid-October / almost to the same day as past years / hunkering in the marshes of Dungeness Farm. We've submitted photos and descriptions several times to WRBC with only a tentative agreement that the species official occurence will be taken up at the 'next meeting.' But they've been telling us that for years. Surprisingly, a posting only appeared once on Tweeters this year re a sighting of the heron's occurrence. In past years the heron's made it several times into Tweeter posts; creating some chasing but no eBird vetter has vetted the species on any checklist - yet! Is it still in the area? Yes, it was relocated just the other day!
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| The 3 Crabs Wudemann's Heron as seen on Dungeness Farm, October 2016 |
That's all . . .
Good feathering!!
