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July 23, 2022

2022)

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July 23, 2022

Little Pend Oreille NWR Field Trip
Leaders: Bea and Jim Harrison
Written By Bea and Jim Harrison

Red-naped Sapsucker (Photo by Chris Peele)

Located 70 miles north of Spokane, Little Pend Oreille National Wildlife Refuge, (LPO), is a special place that has become an annual destination for one of our Spokane Audubon field trips. With 42,657 acres, an elevation range of 1,800 to 5,600 feet, and numerous water features, this National Wildlife Refuge provides a great variety of bird habitat. It was peaceful and quiet, except for bird calls. Also, the camping is free.

This year we had a great group of folks join us, some new and some very experienced birders, including Chris Peele, Sharon Lindsey, Alice Moravec, Fran Haywood and Lisa Langelier and her husband, Bruce. It was great having Lisa there since she is a former LPO refuge manager. She shared her extensive knowledge of the natural and historical features of the refuge, and some fun stories. We all enjoyed some outdoor together time, after two and a half years of Covid-19 social distancing and isolation. Jim especially enjoyed meeting Lisa’s husband, Bruce and swapping fishing “lies”.

After all these years of birding, it’s the mystery birds that make it interesting. We were slowly birding our way down the trail to MacDowell Lake, and we began hearing a woodpecker drumming. We were all speculating on what it was but could not see the bird high in one of the numerous dead trees. We had 180 years of birding experience standing around in a small group debating what that little bird was. With that volume and rhythm, the common consensus was it had to be a Pileated Woodpecker. The loud hammering echoed through the forest, with a haunting vibration. Finally, Jim spotted something high in the trees. The hammerer had a black back and some white, but it was too small for a piliated. Lisa said she saw some red on the throat and deduced it was a sapsucker, a red-naped. This Red-naped Sapsucker had found a hollow tree with the acoustics of a Tyco drum and he had fooled us completely.

The first day we had nice weather but cloudy which sure made identifying the little dark silhouettes in the top of the trees tough. Overnight rain lingered into our second day. Overall, the bird activity was slower than in past years. Perhaps our cooler weather this Spring? Some of the birds we commonly see, like MacGillivray’s Warblers, couldn’t be found.

We saw and heard about 50 species.

We will see what happens next May.

Common Goldeneye (Photo by Bea Harrison)

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November 22, 2021

Skagit County Field Trip (10/27-28/2021)

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November 22, 2021

Skagit County Field Trip
Leaders: Bea and Jim Harrison
Written By Bea and Jim Harrison

The last week of October, five brave souls embarked on a mission: to experience the phenomenon that is the Skagit delta during the Fall bird migration. Burdened with copious quantities of bird books, apps, scopes, cameras, binoculars and most importantly rain gear, we rose to the occasion.

Our first stop of the morning would have made the whole trip worthwhile. We arrived at daylight at Fir Island management area, (also known as Hayton Farms). The tide was very low, exposing acres of mud flats. Perfect conditions. The next hour was wonderful. Thousands of snow geese were roosting in the nearby bay. As the morning progressed, flight after flight came over us as they headed for inland ag fields. Bald eagles swooped through the geese, keeping them on the move, each flight starting with a cacophonous roar of geese calling, distracting us from the hundreds of dunlin and other shorebirds circling overhead and arriving to feed on the wetlands before the tide returned. We recorded 23 species before moving on.

Next, we visited Wiley Slough at the Skagit Wildlife Area, just a few miles away. This site has wetlands, a good riparian habitat and a nice walking trail along a levy. We saw a variety of birds from purple finches, a pileated woodpecker, a peregrine falcon to Wilson’s snipe.

We moved on to Lone Tree Point on Skagit Bay. We were looking for the black oystercatchers that hang out there, but the tide had come in and covered their normal shell flat. Luckily, 18 of them flew by as we were leaving. A raft of hundreds of double-crested cormorants was seen just offshore. We also picked up Eurasian wigeon there.

Next stop was Deception Pass State Park Cranberry Lake site. We parked and broke out the scopes. This is a good spot to get pelagics. We saw a variety of gulls including Heermann’s and short bill. Some highlights were Harlequin ducks, surf scoters and pigeon guillemots in their winter plumage. We missed seeing the marble murrelets, which are often seen there.

We moved on to Ship Harbor Preserve, close to the Anacortes ferry. This park is a well-kept secret. Purple martins nest there in the summer. American wigeons always seem to be feeding at a fresh-water runoff area, providing amazing views and photography opportunities. We got a great look at three Anna’s hummingbirds, golden-crowned sparrows eating apples in a tree and a variety of riparian and water birds. We watched a bald eagle attack a family of river otters. For that matter, during the trip we saw eagles attacking loons, ducks, geese and we saw one eagle catch and eat what looked like a coot. No shortage of bald eagles in that area. Speaking of eating, it was great to go out to dinner in a real restaurant again! Which we did each night.

The second day of our trip, we started at Fir and Wiley slough again. It was a beautiful morning, considering we had a 100% chance of rain predicted. The morning light over the slough was awe-inspiring, and everyone got some beautiful shots. Once again, snow geese were abundant and we picked up a few peeps.

At Wiley Slough, only Bea got to see the resident black phoebe, fleetingly, but everyone got to see some savanna sparrows, Northern shovelers, and some green-winged teal.

From there we drove around March Point south of Anacortes where we found white-winged scoters. Next, we checked the bay behind the Swinomish casino. The rain prediction proved true, as we drove to the beach at Padilla Bay State Park. We decided to persevere and drove to the overlook on Samish Island. This was another opportunity to break out the scopes as we tried to keep the optics dry enough to scan the bay. Alan found a Pacific loon and Bonaparte’s gull. Our last location for the day was the driving loop around Washington Park in Anacortes. We stopped to glass the straight and we were attacked by chestnut backed chickadees and sparrows. One chickadee landed on Jim’s hand! Obviously, someone had been feeding the birds at this spot. It was a good opportunity to get some close-up photos of chestnut-backs. We also got good looks at more harlequin ducks and a brown creeper caught our eye near the car.

Wearily, we headed back to town. Final total 79 species, but the best reward of the trip was the opportunity to witness one of mother nature’s special migration events in one of the most beautiful areas of the state.

We crammed a lot of nature viewing into two days. It was especially fun with great folks like Sharon, Alan and Marc.

We missed the swans this year, but there’s always next October……

Meanwhile, enjoy the pictures below, all taken by our trip participants.

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June 8, 2021

Little Pend Oreille NWR Field Trip (5/25-26/2021)

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June 8, 2021

Little Pend Oreille NWR Field Trip
Leaders: Bea and Jim Harrison
Written By Bea and Jim Harrison

Evening Grosbeak (Photo by Bea Harrison)

Bea and Jim Harrison along with Jenny Michaels and Sharon Lindsay traveled north for a bird excursion to the Little Pend Oreille National Wildlife Refuge. For many years this was an annual SAS trip. The refuge is famous for its habitat and bird diversity. Base camp was at the McDowell Lake campground. The weather was nice except for some showers overnight.

Jenny immediately recognized the call of Evening Grosbeaks in the campground, and we located them in the top of the tallest trees! Sharon is an avid photographer, and she enjoyed shooting while we birded. We slowly walked the trail to McDowell Lake, which includes a boardwalk over a wetland, where we saw and heard Red-winged Blackbirds, Common Yellowthroats, Song Sparrows, Yellow Warblers, Warbling Vireos, etc. An Osprey was sailing over the lake under billowy white clouds.

Next, everyone piled into Jenny’s Cherokee and we birded our way around the driving loop down Rookery Road, stopping at the beaver pond. Next stop was Bailey Lake. There was a variety of ducks there and a few coots. Heading back north we found bluebirds, a meadowlark, and a mystery bird that we photographed at Berg lane and finally identified as a female Western Bluebird. We also stopped at Bear Creek campground and Cottonwood campground. Yellow warblers were singing everywhere. After stopping at the trail by the headquarters we drove our weary bodies back to camp. After dinner we had a nice evening swapping lies and solving world problems.

Sunday morning brought another walk to the lake, where we glimpsed a calling MacGillivray’s Warbler and saw Spotted Sandpipers and heard a Sora calling. Then again, we piled in Jenny’s car and headed north up Blacktail Road into a higher elevation area that was new territory to us all. Sharon was hoping to find her first dipper to photograph, and sure enough, at the bridge over the Little Pend Oreille River, we found it. There was an adult with a hungry youngster interacting right below us in the river. This was the highlight of the trip for all of us.

After driving into the refuge interior, we headed back. It was a great overnight trip with good weather and fantastic company. Our final total was 50 species. As an added treat, butterflies were abundant, especially in the upper elevations and near the lakes.

Hopefully, we can make this trip an annual Audubon event again. Little Pend Oreille NWR is a special treasure in our backyard and we need to utilize it when we can.

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February 23, 2020

Banana Belt Field Trip (1/25/2020)

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February 23, 2020

Lewiston/Clarkston Valley Field Trip
Leaders: Keith Carlson and Rick Welle
Written By Alan McCoy

There were no bananas to be found down in Lewiston or Clarkston this January. We did, however, find some ducks, lots of ducks, which of course were inevitably on the other side of whatever body of water we were peering over. They didn’t seem to mind the rain or cold at all. And we were pretty sure we heard them laughing at all 14 shivering birders, fumbling with their gloves while attempting to wipe their lenses and focus through their fogged optics.

Did I mention that there were ducks? Ring-bills, bufflehead and scaup, oh my! A couple dozen Wood Ducks graced the limbs of pond-side trees. What a fantastic sight! The one duck we were most interested to find was a Long-tailed Duck and, with Keith Carlson as our guide, we saw at least a couple.

Probably the coolest sighting for many of us was a Cooper’s Hawk chasing a Eurasian Collared-Dove. The hawk persevered at some length until, wham, it scored! We were thrilled to have witnessed the drama; the dove not so much.

Lindell’s fondest memory of the trip was the voice of an early Western Meadowlark. She also got a lifer as her group spotted a flying Gyrfalcon. That would have been a lifer for yours truly as well, but we had split into two groups for logistical reasons. Our team went to the landfill in search of a Lesser Black-backed Gull, while the other team ventured off to locate the Gyrfalcon. We saw the gull but when we switched places we missed the falcon. The other team got both! Such is the birding life.

The sun finally peeked out towards the very end of the day as we searched the cliffs for, and once again found, Gray-crowned Rosy Finches. Despite the cold and wet we had a great day birding with friends. Now we just need to come up with a better name for this trip.