September 26, 2019 - Theler Wetlands

I drove out to Belfair today to join the group of birders at the Theler Wetlands.  This site is owned by the North Mason School District.

Or "Distirct", I'm not certain which.  Do they teach speling, there?

Every second and fourth Thursday we have the opportunity to bird there, led by volunteers Faye McAdams Hands and John Riegsecker of the Advanced Birding Club of Tahoma Audubon, for a walk through this great estuary on the Union River in Belfair.  The route we take includes the trails and boardwalk on the Theler property, as well as part of the WDFW Union River Wildlife Area Unit and the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group’s ‘Salmon Center’.

Who says Birding and Art don't mix?

Today, a dozen of us enjoyed the walk, seeing 53 bird species.  It was a rainy day, but was 10-15º warmer than it was for me last week in Alaska, so I was quite comfortable.

Cross Spider Araneus diademata web in the dew

It is autumn now, and the effects of insects on the deciduous forest are becoming evident.

The nitrogen-rich alder leaves are an excellent food source for invertebrate shredders, and those inverts draw in the warblers.

Townsend's Warbler taking advantage of the bounty

We noted the Lungwort:  This is a large, bright green, leaf-like lichen that grows on tree bark and mossy rocks.  It has lots of ridges and lobes, creating a lettuce leaf or lung-tissue appearance.  The green algae give lungwort its bright green appearance.  The underside of this lichen is pale with pockets of cyanobacteria (also known as blue-green algae) that are dark in color.

Lobaria sp. - I think it's Lobaria pulmonaria

The cyanobacteria fix nitrogen, so that when these lichens fall to the ground after a storm or wind event, they decompose into the forest floor, contributing their nitrogen reserve to the soil.

Sharing the limb with a species of Usnea

The Salmon Center has a garden and quite the zoo, with a small flock of chickens, and several alpacas.

Bird-watching at its best:  A Chicken Crossed with Bill the Cat!

'Pacas at the Farm at the Water's Edge

Expert birder Diane Yorgason-Quinn always takes a photo of the group each time, and posts it on her Flickr page.  This is a great group of folks to go birding with!

Stolen from Diane's Flickr site

On the way back to Olympia after the walk, I stopped to get a mushroom burger for lunch at Big Bubba’s Burgers in Allyn, then went down to the Port of Allyn’s Waterfront Park to eat the meal.  I ended up talking to a gentleman by the name of Dwight G---, who was feeding some perch carcasses to the gulls and crabs off the end of the dock, and found out that he was quite the anti-Trump-conservative!  I always appreciate the diversity of opinions that I find in rural western Washington. 

Glaucous-winged X Western Gull hybrid - the most common gull in Puget Sound

Theler Wetlands eBird Checklist is Here

Allyn Waterfront eBird Checklist is Here

"Rock Pigeon" with no rocks around . . .

December 13 - North Mason County

It was raining steadily as I arrived at the Theler Center parking lot, too late to start out with the five ‘regular’ birders (something about windshield wiper troubles).  This bird walk is led by Faye McAdams Hands and John Riegsecker every second and fourth Thursday & sponsored by Tahoma Audubon.  I caught up with them on the estuary boardwalk, and we continued the ‘usual’ route out the River Estuary trail, and back past the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group’s Salmon Center, finishing our walk a little after 11 a.m.

Theler Wetland Trails Map

There was a 12.68-foot high tide at 9:30 a.m., so the estuary marsh and restoration area were inundated.  Afterward, the tide ebbed toward a 6.11-foot “low” water at 5:11 p.m., but we had high water the entire morning.

High Water in the Estuary Reclamation Area

Between the rain and the flooded marsh, the birds weren’t as conspicuous as they might have been.

There are Seven Zonotrichia sparrows in the photo - can you find them?

Probably the highlight of the day was the large number of Purple Finches feeding with flocks of American Robins on the crab apple and hawthorn berries.  The soggy group ended the day having seen 32 species of soggy birds.

Soaking wet Golden-crowned Sparrow

Surprisingly, we did not see a Crow this morning!

On my way back to Olympia, I usually stop at Allyn for a hot lunch, and take it down to the Allyn Waterfront Park, which is a little gem on the shore of the North Bay of Case Inlet operated by the Port of Allyn.  There is usually an assortment of gulls here to sort through the myriad of plumages for the large “pink-footed” gulls.

Allyn dock

Besides the usual Glaucous-winged Gulls,

Adult Glaucous-winged Gull

and the hybrid Glaucous-winged X Western gulls,

Darker mantle, not-quite black wing-tips, dark eye, 'dirty' head

there was this putative Glaucous-winged X Herring Gull, which showed a lot of pale in the eye and dark primary feathers;

Lots of yellow in this bird's eye

Darker wing-tips, kind of like a Glaucous-wing X Western gull hybrid

the Glaucous-wings pretty much have dark eyes and pale gray primaries. 

Of course, there were crows at the beach at Allyn.  Dave Slager at the University of Washington is in the process of publishing a scientific article that suggests that our crows in Puget Sound are likely hybrids between American and Northwestern Crows.  With any luck, this is a first step toward re-“lumping” the two species . . . as they were determined to be a single species since 1910 until the 1931 A.O.U. checklist split the taxa again.

Northwestern/American Crow (or, is it a hybrid?)

Rock Pigeons are resident here, usually around two dozen or so birds

Rock Pigeons are feral non-native species here, but kind of pretty

And, just to spite the DNR and the Port, the Scamper is still afloat

A Great Blue Heron uses the Scamper for a perch

I left as it began to rain again.  I’d recommend this as a birding stop for anyone who’s travelling on Highway 3.

Theler eBird Checklist Here

Allyn Waterfront eBird Checklist Here