Winter Washington Trip II

Our big year of Washington exploration continued on Sunday when we drove to the central coast, site of a great Snowy Owl invasion.

On the way, we visited the Curt Cobain memorial along the Wishkah River in the very blue-collar town of Aberdeen.

Next, we arrived in the not-so-blue-collar town of Ocean Shores and checked into our hotel.

We then drove south to Damon Point in Gray's Harbor.

We hiked a mile down the grassy peninsula and found several birders clustering around some very cooperative owls.

We kept a respectful distance from the eight or nine snowies we encountered and settled for some distant photos.

After some quality time with the visitors from the north, we took one last photo and began walking back to the parking lot. We thought we had seen out last owl of the day when another landed square in our path on the beach.

Fine, we'll take your picture too.

Warm, sunny weather and snowy owls dropping from the sky. What more could you ask for during a Northwest winter?

How about a Yellow-billed Loon a day later?

After several years of scanning the surf, we finally hit pay dirt 90 miles south of Ocean Shores in the the boat basin of Ilwaco, Washington. The pale-plumaged Yellow-billed was swimming with a Common Loon, the dark bird facing right.

We toasted our birding success with a sampler of stouts at the Fort George Brewery in Astoria. Another successful outing north of the Border!

Our count of Washington bird species is now well over 100 and I hope we end the year with more species from Washington than Oregon, just to mix things up a bit.

Winter Washington Trip

Sarah and I just returned from a big trip to Northwest Washington that featured amazing sights and near-perfect weather.


We hoped to learn more about the birds spending the winter in and near the network of saltwater bodies known as the Salish Sea.


We spent our first two nights in Port Townsend, one of my favorite places in Washington.


I love the town's Victorian buildings and the views of boats and snow-covered peaks in almost every direction.


The Olympic Mountains and North Cascades were illuminated during sunrise and sunset, respectively.


Around Port Townsend, we found loons, grebes, ducks, geese, murrelets, and gulls floating in Dungeness Bay, the Straight of Juan De Fuca, Admirality Inlet, Rich Passage, Rosario Straight, Deception Pass, Crockett Lake, and other pieces of water.

We spent the next two nights in the Skagit Valley town of La Conner, another great discovery.


La Conner is a small waterfront on the Swinomish Channel with great restaurants and quirky shops. And more boats.


Not far from La Conner, we found large flocks of Trumpeter Swans in farm fields,


Dozens of Bald Eagles,


and a Short-eared Owl hunting a tidal flat. The Short-ear had long been a nemesis bird for Sarah. She gave it thumbs up.


A stop in Stanwood, Washington produced three more Short-eared Owls (one above, flying to the right) along with two Snowy Owls which were far from us on the other side of a slough, but identifiable. Stanwood turned out to be quite the birding hotspot, as we also found Rough-legged Hawks, a Black-crowned Night Heron, a Black Phoebe, and many species of sparrows in the area.


We birded around Seattle and dined with friends during the final two days of our trip. Tired but satisfied after six long days of birding, we returned to Oregon with a greater understanding of Washington birds in winter and 100 species for the state. We are now reheating our house as we wait for a snow storm that may or may not strike Portland.

2011 Birding By County

As Sarah and I traveled through Oregon this year, we compiled a list of the bird species we observed in each county.


We visited 20 of the 36 counties, most of which were in the western and central portions of the state.


Number of birds per county ranged from 147 in Tillamook, the coastal county we visit at least once per month, to three in Josephine, which we drove through on our way to Ashland. Our home county of Multnomah came in second and Washington County, our neighbor to the west, was third. Polk county squeaked into fourth thanks to our participation in the Dallas Christmas Bird Count.

We will continue to compile lists as we visit the remaining 16 counties and revisit the 20 we birded this year. Though I do not have a numerical goal of species per county, I do hope to generate a list of birds from every one. This will require a lot of travel on the dry side of the state.

A Christmas Bird Chase and a Christmas Bird Count

Portland did not see a White Christmas this year, but Sarah and I compensated by finding a snow bunting on Christmas Day.

After brunching at her grandparents' house, we drove to the north side of the Portland Airport.

We pulled into a small parking area, rolled down our windows, and watched the Snow Bunting (possibly a Snow x McKay's Bunting hybrid) eat weed seeds for several minutes. Easiest bird chase ever! The bunting is in the lower right corner of the photo.

Two days later, we woke at 5:30 am and drove to the Willamette Valley town of Dallas, Oregon to assist their Christmas Bird Count.

With the help of a semi-local birder, Sarah and I drove our Subaru around our assigned sectors, which consisted of upland fields,

foggy hilltops,

and a few streams with nice bridges.

We found a friendly donkey and 53 species of birds. Of these species, two-thirds were songbirds.

Our songbird success pushed the overall count total above 100 species, a nice feat considering the stormy weather and relatively low number of participants.

Solstices 2011

Lately, the solstices, especially the winter one, are my favorite times of the year. I now consider holidays such as Christmas and New Year's Eve to be components of a month-long solstice celebration. I guess this makes me some sort of a Judeo-Christo-Pagan. Whatever I am, I like to watch the sun rise and set during astronomical milestones.

On June's summer solstice, I watched the sun rise while I counted birds at Killin Wetlands.

Many hours later, I watched it set from our from yard.

I missed today's winter solstice sunrise (my body insists on hibernating through the mid-morning hours), but I would not have seen the sun anyway because of the thick morning fog.

In the afternoon, the sky cleared in time to see sunset colors over the Village.

We then went out for pizza and dark beer, the perfect combination to kick off the long night.

Though only Wednesday, it has been a long week of cabin fever down in our holler. We look forward to good times with friends and family this weekend, in houses warmer than our own.

Solstice Season Prep

As the shortest day of the year approaches, we are almost ready for the celebrations that will follow.

During the last two weeks, I carved, sanded, and painted some new ornaments for our tree, inspired by creatures from Oregon and New Mexico:

a common kingsnake in the foreground and a sockeye salmon in the background

a glossy snake

a quillback rockfish

a tiger rockfish

a spawning chum salmon

This morning, I visited our local Farmers Market to pick up some contributions to holiday meals.

The winter offerings included this slice of orange-fleshed squash

and a fabulously fractal cauliflower.

Another day of gift-finding, a few more days of work, and I will be ready to cook, relax, and enjoy the season.

December skies

After many days of heavy rain, we now have clear skies in western Oregon.

Down in our holler, it is still pretty dark. This morning, a black cottonwood (the orange tree in the background) east of our yard had the sunlight all to itself.

At sunset, the cottonwood was still illuminated.

To our west, the sky was a wintry shade of purple. Welcome to December!