May 3 - Capitol Peak and Grays Harbor

It was cloudy again when we got up on this 46º morning.  The radio was playing a number of Pete Seeger songs, because this is the 100th anniversary of his birth.  It’s sad that there are no more real Liberals in this country . . . 

A True Liberal telling the Right Wing that Liberals are True Americans!

It dawned on me that I am leaving on Monday for Ohio, and that I’ve pretty well missed the shorebird migration this spring.  So, I decided to go over to Grays Harbor to see what might be around.  En route, I drove up to Capitol Peak, as I think I would be foolish to travel to Ohio’s Magee Marsh to see the warbler migration without spending some time to see the Townsend’s and Hermit Warblers in my ‘back yard’.

I usually drive up Waddell Creek and to the C-Mainline, then across to the peak, which has numerous cell towers to service the South Sound area.

A few years back, I noted that there were Purple Martins here on top of the mountain.  I am used to seeing this species in loose colonies - usually in nest boxes - along the shores of the Sound, so seeing them away from water always surprises me.

As I started up the road toward the towers, I heard the zeedle-zeedle-zee call of a warbler, and it turned out to be a male Townsend’s Warbler.

On top of the peak, there was a flock of “Zonos”, the name of the Genus for White-crowned and Golden-crowned Sparrows is Zonotrichia.

An Orange-crowned Warbler kept to the dense cover.

Orange-crowned Warbler playing peek-a-boo

Then, I heard the call of another warbler, and it turned out to be that of a male Hermit Warbler, whose call is very similar to that of the Townsend’s (at least to me).  I birded a bit longer on the mountain, enjoying seeing the suite of birds and flowers atop the peak.

Audubon's Yellow-rumped Warbler

A Rufous Hummingbird teed-up on a noble fir branch

Evergreen violet - Viola sempervirens

Finally, it was time to drop down the hill and head west toward Hoquiam.

View from the top

I didn't take the time to walk up to the top of Little Rock Candy Mountain, where there is another cluster of cell towers.  This walk is one that I often enjoy, but today it was not to be.

Little Rock Candy Mountain

My first stop was at the town’s wastewater treatment facility ponds, where I was greeted by a curious Song Sparrow.

The ponds were pretty full, and t

he few shorebirds here were up to their belies in the water.

She stepped in a little deeper than she thought?

Swimming Short-billed Dowitchers

I hadn’t realized that this was the weekend for the Grays Harbor Shorebird and Nature Festival, sponsored by the Grays Harbor Audubon Society.  Each spring, hundreds of thousands of shorebirds stop to rest and feed along the Washington Coast and in the Grays Harbor estuary during their migration northward.  This event draws birders and nature lovers from across the country.

I once again mis-read the tide tables, as I’d wanted to be on the other side of the Harbor at  Bottle Beach State Park for the incoming tide.  But, I thought that I’d still have a bit of time there so drove back through Aberdeen and along the south side of the estuary to the park as the tide was ebbing.

There were still quite a number of people from the Festival there, scoping and photographing the sandpipers and – especially – the Red Knots.

A hefty percentage of the West Coast’s declining Knot population stops at Grays Harbor to feed and rest on their long-distance migration from the southern latitudes north to breeding grounds in Siberia’s Wrangel Island and Alaska’s North Slope.  A Least Sandpiper watched the commotion from the cover of a mat of seaside plantain Plantago maritima.

Finally, it was time to return home to a supper of leftovers

Besides the Hermit Warbler, which was new for my ‘year list’, other ‘first-of-years’ were Semipalmated Plovers, Red Knots, and the Band-tailed Pigeons seen at Bottle Beach.

Capitol Peak eBird Checklist is Here

Hoquiam Treatment Ponds eBird Checklist is Here

Bottle Beach eBird Checklist is Here