I Used to Hate Birds

This month has been packed with birding for me, much more than normal.  It's been great.  Let's catch up on all the birds I haven't yet blogged about. 

Clark County

I've been hitting all the hotspots as well as the not-so-hot spots trying to get my county year list over 100.  Success and then some.  One morning I planned to walk the trails at the Ridgefield NWR Carty Unit but as I drove into Ridgefield it started pouring.  The auto tour sounded far more appealing in the bad weather and it turned out to be a good choice.

First bittern of 2018

In the forested section of the loop I heard a chip note I couldn't identify and drove myself nuts trying to locate the bird.  Finally I got my bins on a Swamp Sparrow, only my second time seeing one in Clark County.


I had another banded Cackling Goose on that day also.


And the gentleman's info:


One day I took Jake for a walk at Lacamas Lake for my year American Dipper with a bonus confiding Varied Thrush.



A chilly walk at Ste…

Let's wrap up this whole 5MR thing.  Last year I decided to keep track of the birds seen within a 5 mile radius of my home in Portland.  You know this.  You probably also know that at the end of the year I moved out of that radius to Vancouver.  By November I had mostly lost interest in trying for new 5MR birds so this was not exactly my best effort. 

I ended the year at 155 species 156 species (American Dipper!).  Here are the highlight:

Burrowing Owl


January 1st.  This was far from a bird I had expected to be in my 5MR, but this one showed up at Broughton Beach in December of 2016 and kindly stuck around into the new year.  This was not the only fantastic bird Broughton Beach produced either.

Sabine's Gull/Parasitic Jaeger


September 20th.  County bird combo!  This was a dream come true, and two birds I had been ITCHING for in Multnomah.  Thanks, Broughton Beach.

Bohemian Waxwing


January 13th.  A few days after it snowed a foot I made the sketchy drive to Mount Tabor to search…

Birding underbirded places has always been the most fun for me, and as it turns out Clark County is kind of underbirded.  I never realized how much so until I moved here.  A quick check of eBird confirms that despite being the 5th most populous county in Washington, Clark is way down at #24 (out of 39 counties) in number of eBird checklists submitted. 

Good thing I'm here to help.  Heh. 

I've been birding a ton since the month began, attempting to reach 100 species in the county in January while also exploring both old and new places. 

My patch, Meadowbrook Marsh, has continued to offer me motorless (and year) birds such as this pleasant Purple Finch blending in perfectly:


Intergrade flickers seem to be as common as pure flickers in these parts.


On that day I also had a Red-breasted Sapsucker at the park, which was the first one reported in the county in 2018.  When I noticed that is when I realized that this county is not as heavily birded as I had thought. 

One day Jacob an…