Steller’s Jay

Erika thinks this young Steller’s Jay is a bird only its mother could love. This is the first Steller’s Jay that I have banded. We ringed it on the evening of 13 July 2019 in our Olympia backyard. The strange thing is that this bird is only the second Steller’s Jay we have seen at our feeders. We had no clue the species was breeding in the vicinity. This discovery is especially puzzling, since these jays are usually relatively tame, common and noisy. This bird, as might be expected at this time of year, is molting into its basic, non-breeding plumage.

Spotted Sandpiper

Because of its gray crown and forehead, brown breast, and complete lack of spots, this Spotted Sandpiper is probably a young bird. We found several of these sandpipers at Lake Sylvia State Park in Grays Harbor County on 6 August 2019. This gorgeous park contains a long, narrow lake surrounded by rainforest. Spotted Sandpipers are easily identified by their stiff, jerky wingbeats and their habit of bobbing their backends up and down as they feed. This species breeds across most of thge United States and Canada, and winter south to southern South America.

Pacific-slope Flycatcher

Last Friday, 9 August 2019, Erika and I watched a Pacific-slope Flycatcher bathe in the garden birdbath. The bird’s bathing strategy was unlike anything I have seen before. From a perch on a nearby garden trellis, the flycatcher  made repeated dives into the center of the birdbath. After belly-flopping into the water, the bird did not dally, but returned to its perch. There the bird shook off the water and preened, only to repeat the performance several times. Lowther et al. in The Birds of North America (2016) write that, in the ornithological literature, bathing has not been described for Western Flycatchers.

Black-throated Gray Warbler

Yesterday, 9 August 2019, we observed about a dozen bird species at our backyard feeders in Olympia, Washington. The most interesting birds were two Wilson’s Warblers and two Black-throated Gtay Warblers. All appeared to be immature birds, like this Black-throated Gray perched on our garden sculpture’s head. The bird was attracted to our water feature, from which it repeatedly drank. These warblers both breed in the area, but have not been seen in the garden since last spring. Perhaps they represented the very beginning of the fall migration.

Cliff Swallow

On 1 July 2019, Erika and I were surprised to discover Cliff Swallows nesting under the eaves of a covered, wooden picnic kiosk along a boardwalk in the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. We usually find Cliff Swallows nesting under bridges. Turns out that these swallows used to be birds of the Rocky Mountains, where they nested under rock ledges. Only during the past century have these swallows moved east, through the Great Plains and into the East. At this time, land was being cleared and highway culverts, bridges and buildings were being constructed. Even today, Cliff Swallows are moving into new areas (Brown et al. 2017). These authors also write that now Cliff Swallow numbers are declining in the Northeast due to competition from House Sparrows that take over the swallow nests.

Pine Siskin

Pine Siskins visited our feeders all spring and summer. This photo is of a young bird in Olympia on 28 June 2019. The species breeds across the northern United States and southern Canada, and south through the Rocky Mountains into southern Mexico. But it is an unpredictable bird—it can be abundant one year and absent the next. Population size probably is defendant on the fluctuating abundance of the seeds the birds eat.

Sandpiper Search

An interesting eBird feature is their bird alert service, which is kind of like a bird-geiger counter. Assuming you entered your sightings into the app, you can sign up for hourly or daily alerts for species that other birders see but you lack. I signed up for hourly alerts for Thurston County, home of Olympia. As many of you know, despite this onslaught of species I need for my county bird list, Erika and I are not much for burning fossil fuel for chasing birds. We did, however, make four unsuccessful attempts to find a Red-necked Phalarope in a small puddle two miles from our house. Nothing is guaranteed in this birding business.

On 5 August, the pond did yeild a small mixed flock of Least and Western Sandpipers. The Least is recognized by its yellow-green legs and small bill. The Western Sandpiper has black legs, a longer and slightly down-curved bill, and lovely chestnut-chevroned shoulder feathers. We saw no phalaropes, but the Western Sandpiper was new for my county list.

Wood Duck

Wood Ducks are now common across most of eastern North America and along the Pacific Coast. They are resident in the West, and migratory elsewhere, many wintering in southeastern United States. They also occur across all of southern Canada, the northern Great Plains. and in scattered areas of the interior West.

In the 1800s, Wood Ducks were common. But their numbers plummeted due to over-hunting, deforestation, and loss of wetlands. Many people thought this elegant duck would be extinct by the early 1900s. The Migratory Bird Treaty of 1918 came to their rescue as did bans on hunting until 1941. Populations rebounded. Today hunters prize Wood Ducks, comprising about 10% of the ducks taken in the United States (Hepp and Bellrose 2013). These photos are of one male and two females taken on 17 June 2019. They inhabited a beaver pond at McClane Lake near Olympia, Washington.

Spotted Towhee

Spotted Towhees are found in Western North America south through Mexico. These noisy birds are one of the most common birds in our brushy backyard. Unlike the clear “Drink your tea” sung by eastern towhees, ours call a raspy “screee.” Birds in the northern Great Plains are migratory. Those in the Rocky Mountains show elevational movements, heading to lower elevations in the winter, but perhaps not longer distance travels. The birds here in the Pacific Coast resumably are year-round residents. It will be interesting if I get any recoveries from my banded birds. This male was photographed on 7 April 2019.

Blue Dasher

Except for the Northern Great Plains, Blue Dashers are common south throughout most of Mexico. They are found in a variety of wetlands. Many hunted among the berry vines along Capital Lake in Olympia on 29 July 2018. The dasher in the first photo is a male, the one in the second image is female. Unlike Western Pondhawks, they infrequently perch on the ground.

Although dashers eat smaller prey than do pondhawks, they are fierce predators, They take over 10% of their body weight in prey every day. They are aggressive towards competing males, often raising their blue tails at them. Females lay up to 700 eggs in only 35 seconds. Odonata Central maintains that Blue Dashers are largest in the spring, with subsequent generations becoming progressively smaller in the summer and fall.