Bowerman Basin Field Trip (4/23/05) Highlights

We started with a Red-tailed Hawk at the Park & Ride meeting place. An Osprey was at the Renton nest site as we headed for Vance Creek Park and Wenzel Slough Road. We saw a number of both Audubon's and Myrtle's Yellow-rumped Warblers and Brown-headed Cowbirds at the park. Along the road we saw two Turkey Vultures fly over, 2 Bald Eagle and an Osprey were at a nest sites. We were treated to seeing and hearing Wilson's Snipe doing their aerial display and winnowing sound. A beautiful male American Kestrel showed off its hovering ability a number of times.

Golden-crowned Sparrows were common and a few White-crowneds were with them. Two Common Ravens were calling back and forth. Just before Wenzel Slough Road crosses over a bridge there is a grove of mixed trees. We saw over ten Band-tailed Pigeon in deciduous trees and a few Red Crossbills feeding on pine cones. A Purple Finch was heard singing. We next went to Brady Loop Road. Along Foster Road we saw Black-bellied Plover and Greater Yellowlegs in the wet fields. In a large puddle beside a farmhouse driveway there were 8-10 Western Sandpiper and, surprise, one Solitary Sandpiper.

We got to Bowerman Basin about 12:15 and walked out to the viewing deck to eat our lunches while watching the shorebirds. We had timed the tides just right. We were a little over a hour before high tide and were able to watch the thousands of shorebirds come closer and closer as the tide came in. They ended up packed in like sardines on the few grass humps available to keep them out of the water. Western Sandpipers and Dunlin were predominant, with a number of Semipalmated Plover, Short-billed Dowitcher, a few Least Sandpiper, one American Avocet and at least three Red Knot. A few Caspian Terns were in the water and sometimes flying overhead with their raucous call. Although, the birds flew up en masse a few times, we did not see any falcons chasing them.

We checked out the Hoquiam Ponds on leaving Bowerman and saw five species of swallows among the hundreds flying or perched on fences. Many of the common waterfowl were on the ponds. Scoping the bay south of the ponds resulted in Western Grebe, one Horned Grebe and a long line of Double-crested Cormorants flying downriver. We ran into MaryFrances Mathis' group, who said that they had see a Pacific Golden-Plover with the Black-bellied Plovers. We decided to go back and see if they were still there. They weren't - only a Greater Yellowlegs left. But in a secluded pond we saw a pair of Wood Ducks just before they went into the grass. We headed back to Bellevue pleased with the good birding we had for the day.

There were 16 birders and 70 species sighted.