December 30 2018 - Vashon Christmas Bird Count

It was a clear 41° morning when the alarm went off at 4:15.  I ate a quick breakfast, then drove up to Point Defiance to catch the 6:45 a.m. ferry, which cost $19.60 to cross to Vashon Island for the Christmas Bird Count.  I arrived at the Vashon Ferry parking lot as it was getting light at 7:30, and walked out to the terminal at the end of the dock, and then back to meet Alan Warneke and Michelle Ramsden.

The weather today was cool and partly cloudy, 39-4F°, with a light south breeze.  Not a cloud in the sky by sunset.  It seemed difficult to get many sparrows to "pish up" from their cover in the Himalaya blackberry brambles.

There were also hardly any berries remaining on Madroña trees, but appeared to be lots of fruit still on the cotoneaster and hawthorns, some late apples still on trees.  High tide cycle revealed very little "beach" at our access points.  We missed a few spots, due to lack of time, but got some good birds where we were.

Our first stop was at Wingehaven Park, which is a great little out-of-the way property in a wooded ravine and maintained by the Vashon Parks District.  There’s a steep walk-in down to the water, where we scanned for salt-water birds and had a great view of Puget Sound.

Point Beals from Wingehaven

The place has quite a history: It had been an early post office for a ‘town’ called Aquarium, with a Captain Fish as the postmaster!  Later it was a vacation home development, a fish farm and a private estate variously known as Cowley’s Landing, Twickenham, Twickenham Estates, Wingehaven, Northeast Vashon Park, and since 1995 as Wingehaven Park.  At this site we had good views of Horned Grebes out on the Sound, and the morning woods were alive with the calls of Song Sparrow.

A Song In His Heart!

Wingehaven eBird Checklist Here

Next, we walked the Dolphin Point neighborhood, including part of the Bunker/Vashon Point foot trail.  A lot of folks live down on the beach, and have a several hundred yard walk down the hill to their residences.  What a great way to live!

This Mailbox Was Heavily Guarded

Dolphin Point eBird Checklist Here

We birded our way over to Glen Acres Road and dropped down to Glen Landing to scan the salt chuck, and did the same at the Dilworth community at Point Beals.

Point Beals from Glen Landing

Point Beals was named for one Artemus Beals, one of Lt. Charles Wilkes’ Quartermasters during the United States Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842. The Dilworth name was for the Reverend Richard B. Dilworth who was a pastor here in the 1880s.  This is an eclectic island community, with interesting yard art

Original Pacific NW Rust

Old Jimmy

and nice people passing by on a Sunday drive

There were a fair number of birds in the neighborhood

Bald Eagle surveying the 'hood

Golden-crowned Kinglet sporting its crown

There were birds, too, in the Sound, including some nice views of one of the prettiest waterfowl around - the Harlequin Duck

Drake Harlequin

and birds were not the only creature in the water

A California Sea Lion checked us out

Besides the birds, we found on the beach at Glen Landing the carcass of a knot-head buck deer.  Its hams had been preyed on a bit, but we couldn’t tell whether that was the proximate cause of death.  There are a lot of coyotes on the Island that may have preyed on it, and deer have been known to drown while swimming between the mainland and the islands.

Nature Isn't Pretty

Glen Landing eBird Checklist Here

Point Beals eBird Checklist Here

Leaving the water, we drove up to the Ridge Road to scan the Madroña trees and the canyon.  There were lots of chickadees and kinglets feeding in the forest of trees that keep their leaves, but lose their bark every fall.

Wait?  The trees lose their bark, but keep their leaves?

We also noticed that the wild hazelnuts were blooming.  The hazels have catkins (male flowers) similar to alders, but their female flowers are a tiny, bright magenta blossom, and is one of the earliest flowers of the coming Spring.

Catkins and flowers of Hazelnut Corylus cornuta

Ridge Road eBird Checklist Here

The daylight was waning while we hit up a couple more neighborhood spots at the south end of our section, and we called it a great day of birding.  We ended up with 52 species seen in our area, plus a half-dozen "other forms", unidentified gulls, etc.

Cemetery and Beall Roads eBird Checklist Here

Soper and 90th & Trail eBird Checklist Here

I really enjoyed spending the day with Michelle and Alan, and we finished the day by attending the Countdown Gathering at the Vashon Land Trust Office.