[Birdtalk] Holiday birding - Washington State and points between

[Ryan O'Donnell]

This week I celebrated Christmas by visiting my family and a few old
friends in Seattle, plus a few special visitors from the North Pole that
only visit this time of year but don't come down the chimney. I drove
from Logan to Seattle to visit my family last week and squeezed in as
much birding as I could, which wasn't much. 

On the way to Seattle, I stopped to twitch a GLAUCOUS GULL that had been
reported at Lake Walcott State Park in Idaho, my first visitor from the
North Pole. I got great looks at this juvenile; two digiscoped photos
are here:

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n105/Tsirtalis/LiferGlaucousGull.jpg

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n105/Tsirtalis/LiferGlaucousGull2.jpg

In Seattle, I caught up with many old friends from when I used to live
in the area, including northwestern and coastal specialties (to varying
degrees) such as PELAGIC CORMORANTS, SURF SCOTERS, GOLDEN-CROWNED
SPARROWS, a "SOOTY" FOX SPARROW, ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRDS, MEW GULLS, WESTERN
GULLS, and GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULLS. On two rare sunny days bracketing
Christmas, I even saw ROCK PIGEONS and ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRDS performing
courship displays.

Most of my observations were just from my family's and friends' yards,
but I did manage to spend an hour or so birding along Alki Beach, which
includes both sand and rocky shores around West Seattle. There, I found
three lifers that I had somehow missed in previous time spent in the
area: a SURFBIRD, several PACIFIC LOONS, and a RHINOCEROS AUKLET, along
with 20 or 30 other species. Here is a photo of the surfbird. The bird
was within 4 feet of me at times - this photo was taken with a
point-and-shoot digital camera:

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n105/Tsirtalis/Surfbirdedited.jpg

On the way back to Utah I stopped to twitch an ARCTIC LOON that has been
seen in NW Oregon for the last few weeks. The bird was well-behaved and
showed up right were it had been reported, on a slough that connects to
the Columbia River. Here's a poor but identifiable digiscoped photo,
note the extensive white flanks that distinguish this from a Pacific
Loon:

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n105/Tsirtalis/ArcticLoonCropped.jpg

For those of you that are less ornithocentric in your wildlife
interests, I also saw SEA LIONS, a BEAVER, PRONGHORN, MULE DEER, ELK,
and a RIVER OTTER in my travels.

Happy birding in the new year!

Sincerely,
Ryan
 
Ryan P. O'Donnell
Department of Biology and the Ecology Center
Utah State University
5305 Old Main Hill
Logan, UT 84322-5305
 
http://home.comcast.net/~tsirtalis/