August 5th - I Try to Find Birds, and Get Burned

After a day out with Mom, and getting back to Yakima, I admittedly had no immediate plans. The assumption was that I'd go home, and that may have made some sense, but . . . I was also sitting at 119 species in Walla Walla County, with time ticking away! I got onto Highway 12 out of Yakima, got to the exit for I-82, and turned south. 

I had no reservations, no plans - just a full tummy from dinner in Yakima, food packed in a bag, and some vague ideas about where I should do some birding the next day. The Tri-Cities were my best bet for lodging for the night. Right up against Walla Walla County, they'd give me an opportunity to bird right out the door the next morning. I made one stop, got turned away from a full hotel, got some phone numbers, called one and got a quote, then beat it by $50 dollars next door to that quote. Pasco would be my home for the night!

I spent some time on the computer, confirming my hunches. Yes... if I got out the door early and drove into the Blues, I could add some good Walla Walla birds. But I had my eye on all of the shorebirds, most all of them sitting right across the Snake River from me. I had a few other birds in mind, but shorebirds would be the focus!

Hood Park

After a late sleep-in, I bee-lined it for Hood Park. Nothing to stop and see here! All I had to do was drive the loop. I needed Western Wood Pewee for my year list, and I had this vague recollection that I had heard one at Hood Park, when doing the drive-swap with Mom. I rolled the windows down and drove the loop, listening to at least five of the flycatchers calling from the trees as I drove - (120 for my Walla Walla year - something I'll track parenthetically). 

My next stop was one that had just never been on my radar. 

Donangelo Overlook

This is a birding spot in McNary National Wildlife Refuge, along Burbank Slough. I've been to Burbank Slough many times during the year but had no idea that there was a second viewpoint into the slough. I found a little parking area, with wide open water to my left, and a busy little marsh to my right. I did something that I almost always seem to regret - walking out with just my binoculars "to see what the situation was". I always end up walking too far, finding good birds, returning to my car for my camera, then walking back never to see them again. 

It was par for the course on this particular morning. The most interesting missed photo opportunities being a Common Nighthawk (121 for the year), and a Black-crowned Night-Heron (122). What a strange place, I figure, to find a nighthawk! But I heard the peent call, turned back to my car and saw it circling low, white wing patches clearly visible. At the marsh, I had clapped, hoping to get a response from a Virginia Rail, but got the BCNH flying out from the embankment right below me - the last one I would see for the day!

After returning with my camera, I did get some return calls from some rails (123), but none from the Soras that had been reported. Without playback, I was just going to have fewer birds than many observers. There were a lot of ducks. That is exactly how much I can confidently report about the waterfowl in the pond! At this time of year, most of the Cinnamon and Blue-winged Teal have changed plumage, leaving them not easily distinguishable from one another. 

Deeper back, I found some shorebirds. At first, just a Black-necked Stilt, and a Greater Yellowlegs (124). Then, looking closer at some of the shoreline, I found a handful of Long-billed Dowitchers (125) and Least Sandpipers (126). In this general area, there had been other less common counterparts for all three of these shorebirds seen in the last few days. Lesser Yellowlegs, Short-billed Dowitchers, Western and Semipalmated Sandpipers had all shown up on different lists. For that matter, even the Killdeer I saw at this pond had their fancier cousins, Black-bellied Plovers, sighted in recent days. 

And here starts the burning. It was a sunny August day... and I was looking at birds for extended periods of time. Facing the same direction and juuuuuust looking. My birding days are so often drive-look-drive, or maybe a hike, where I am deliberate about putting sunscreen on before I go. But hey... if I'm just stepping out of the car? The car that's just a short walk away? In my head, that is not a sunscreen situation. Add to this - I was feeling extra stubborn with all of these other shorebirds out and about. Today I would be the Good Birder who gives every bird the once over!

Casey Pond

This was a part of McNary NWR that I had never visited. The big draw for me? Forster's Terns. I have seen this species exactly three times, over a decade ago, along the Columbia. These sightings were all in the same year - July and August of 2014. I was excited to see some again! 

I knew I would be sorting through some Caspian Terns. Arriving at the pond, I found plenty of gulls! Most appeared to be Ring-billed, but there were likely some California Gulls mixed in. Caspian Terns quickly announced their presence as well. I gave each of them a long enough look to see bill color. Others were sitting with head tucked in - cap showing, but nothing else. 

And hey. . . after a dozen years, I admittedly blew it here on two simple facts: Caspian Terns are about the size of a Ring-billed Gull. Forster's Terns are much smaller. This may have kept me off of this endless scanning through the flock of gulls. . . but ignorance always has a price! 

There were a couple of different highlights here. An Osprey nest had two young - tended to by at least one parent. And this pond had fish! At one point, I caught a picture of a Caspian Tern, fish in its bill, and there were many jumps from the water during my time at the pond. Great Egrets and American White Pelicans were roosting here and there on the islands and sandbars in the pond. 

And dowitchers. So many dowitchers. Eighty or more, and I could find none that gave me the flat-backed look of a Short-billed Dowitcher. This was just one field mark of many, and not the one you'd use to diagnostically identify dowitchers, but a good start. Additionally, I took pictures of some of the dowitchers, hoping that the images might do better work than my scope in pulling out more diagnostic details. But the lighting was pretty bad.

Unrushed, I thought over my options. . . there were other stops ahead that could have some shorebirds for me. I was looking south, and the sun would be moving westward, giving me better sun here later. So, off I went!

Tyson Ponds

Nothing. Correction - there were some Killdeer. But other shorebirds? Nope! Just lots of cryptic ducks. 

Walla Walla Delta

Gulls from a bazillion miles away... pelicans... and one pleasant surprise! A Black-bellied Plover (127). 

I was surprised to see the bird so easily at this distance. They are, to be fair, pretty distinct looking birds!

With no sign of Forster's Terns, or any other birds of note, I figured it might be time to return to Casey Pond. 

Casey Pond

The return trip was worthwhile! I found not only two Black-bellied Plovers, but some smaller peeps, including both Least and Western Sandpipers (128). I found my attention drawn to a yellowlegs. I had some inkling that it might be a Lesser Yellowlegs but never got to hear a call. I did get pictures and decided in the end that this was very clearly a Greater Yellowlegs. It was interesting to poke around and find out more about identification. There were numerous differences, all of which helped to identify the bird. Some of them shifted as the posture changed but pointed at Greater in most images. 

I'd known of the rule of thumb with bill length - you look at the length of the bill and then continue back from the base of the bill to the back of the head. In a Greater Yellowlegs, the bill will be longer. In a Lesser Yellowlegs, they will be about equal. 

But new for me in the searches were two other points, both connected to the longer neck of the Greater Yellowlegs. They often keep that longer neck tucked down, kind of like a swan. This gives a neck/back angle that is a bit more pinched in a Greater, and more obtuse in a Lesser. On the front of the bird, you end up seeing a bit of a forward bulge on a Greater, from the neck. Lessers will have a smoother curve from chin to belly.

Again, posture matters. Different pictures may have pointed me towards Lesser on this bird if I just picked one of the field marks and one picture! But looking at many pictures of the bird, the field marks for Greater Yellowlegs show up again and again. Worth noting - the bill length is not going to depend on posture! This is what makes it such a nice field mark to use. It's still nice to add to the tool kit and find multiple marks to piece things together. 

The dowitchers. . . some of them were in better lighting now, but man, these still looked like Long-billed based on the posture, and few of the images clarified the barring/spotting question for the flanks (let alone any information about the tertials). I had to just call them all Long-billed Dowitchers, pack it up, and call it a day at Casey Pond! It gave me at least some comfort to see that other checklists from the same location and same day had come to the same conclusion!

Donangelo Overlook

One more time! I wanted to see if lighting, distance, or shift changes were going to bring any new birds to me. I got two!

First, the yellowlegs here helped me by giving clear calls for Lesser Yellowlegs (129). A simple tu-tu, and with a slightly different quality than Greater. I got some pictures that showed at least one of the yellowlegs clearly enough to confirm some other field marks, including bill length. 

And while looking at the pictures later, I found something I had completely overlooked. A phalarope, swimming next to the yellowlegs! No smudginess to be seen behind the eye, so this was a Wilson's Phalarope (130). 

There is still so much work to be done in Walla Walla County! And I really do have dreams of adding some species to my Columbia year list (which stands at 155). Additionally, I do want to be mindful of my life lists in both counties! I want to have all counties to 175 someday, so it behooves me to make those life birds a priority. In Walla Walla, the Wilson's Phalarope was one of five new life birds for the county. My life list there is at 161. Funny to see that there are over 30 birds that I've seen in other years that I just haven't seen this year!

In Columbia, it's a very different story. My life list there is at 158 - only three different from my year list! The only birds I've seen in the county that I've not seen this year? Common Nighthawk, Caspian Tern, and American Coot. Nighthawks are the only code 1 bird I have not had this year. The tern and coot are both code 2 birds. The only other code 2 bird I'm missing is Barn Owl. So, beyond this short list of birds, every one that I'm trying to find is going to be code 3 or higher. 

It will be difficult, but maybe this will at least be the last time I get a good sunburn? We shall see!