January 5 - Grays Harbor Christmas Bird Count

I got up with the alarm to a 41° overcast morning at 4:30 a.m., and left for Aberdeen for the Grays Harbor Christmas Bird Count.  I met Mary O’Brien and her friend Jerry at the mostly-empty Riverside Mall, and we drove to the "suburbs of Markham" at the Johns River WDFW boat ramp to meet Judy Taylor and Renee Koval-Huenuqueo at daybreak to begin the count for Section 9 of the CBC.  We are at the south side of the Count Circle, between Johns and Elk Rivers.

The five of us walked out on the paved pathway at the Johns River Wildlife Area, where an ‘elk pasture’ is diked off from the estuary.

Johns River Wildlife Area

A party of kayakers were launching, and a party of waterfowl hunters had decoys out in the rain-flooded fields, but didn't disturb the birds too much, & we started the day with 21 species.

We all went over to the Bottle BeachState Park to catch the incoming tide, but slightly mis-judged the water level, as the sand flats were pretty well flooded, and no shorebirds were seen!  We did have a stunning view of the snow-covered Olympic Mountains across the Harbor.

Weak Sunshine on the Olympic Mountains - great way to begin the day!

A pair of Peregrine Falcons harried a Bald Eagle out of “their” area

and we returned to the cars on the dike trail, where Jerry’s sharp eyes picked a White-throated Sparrow out of a flock.  This was a “Nemesis Bird” for Renee, who was giddy for the next half-hour about her “Lifer”.

White-throated Sparrows are fairly uncommon on the Left Coast

Leaving the State Park, it began to rain.  Mary and Jerry and I drove west to the Elk River, poking in and out of side roads and driveways, and through the neighborhoods, picking up several more species for the day.

We met with Judy, and with the tide about to turn and ebb, we decided to try again at the Johns River Wildlife Area.

Since several hours had passed and the tide was radically different it was unlikely we would double-count any of the birds, except for the song sparrows and such along the dike trail.  The waterfowl hunters were just leaving, so we walked all the way out on the dike to get views of ducks and shorebirds.

Then, with the tide dropping

Maybe we waited a little too long on the ebbing tide?

Judy, Mary and I hurried back to Bottle Beach, and were rewarded with several thousand shorebirds, including over 500 Marbled Godwits feeding on the beach.

The brown 'dots' are some of the 550 godwits feeding on the beach

The day finished, we headed into town for the Countdown supper at the Pizza Hut on Wishkah, and heard about all the cool birds seen on this, the last day of the 2018-19 Christmas Bird Count season.  Christmas Bird Counts are a great way for a person to begin their “Bird Year”, and I ended the day with 93 species, so far, for 2019.

Morning Johns River eBird Checklist is Here

Morning Bottle Beach eBird Checklist is Here

Driving route to the west eBird Checklist is Here

Bayview Road eBird Checklist is Here

Whalebone neighborhood eBird Checklist is Here

Afternoon Johns River eBird Checklist is Here

Afternoon Bottle Beach eBird Checklist is Here