New year, new lists.

For New Year's Day, Jacob had the idea to drive up Larch Mountain (the Clark County one) to watch the first sunrise of the year.  Though we dipped on owls the sunrise more than made up for it.


The view we picked was perfect and well over 3000 feet in elevation.  First bird of the year?  Common Raven.


My new county ain't so bad.

I also decided to kickstart my new motorless list this week with a walk to Meadowbrook Marsh Park, aka my new patch.  It was a frosty grey morning but the birds were out in force.

Chilly Pac Wren

 Chilly towhee

Common birds were all showing up as they should and even some uncommon ones decided to make appearances.

 Merlin!  Never reliable. 

Tundra Swans!  Biggest surprise of the day. 

The clouds got weird.

I walked to where I decided the westernmost side of the park is at NE Andresen Road and remembered that there was another pond to check.  I picked up Ring-necked Duck, Hooded Merganser, Gadwall, and Great Egret here, plus Marsh Wren in the cattails next door. 




On the walk back the familiar chip sound of a Yellow-rump drove me nuts till I finally located the bird flying across the trail.  Interestingly it appears to be a Myrtle with, as Sibley describes, dark auriculars outlined by pale supercilium and a pale throat that wraps around back of auriculars. .


I finished my walk there with 37 species and an increased appreciation for this spot.  I've only had 44 species total there so far but I know come spring this place will blow up.  Can't wait!

With the new year I also feel the need to see ALL the birds in Clark County, and quickly!  It's silly, but you know how that goes.  I knew that folks were still seeing the Snowy Egret near Vancouver Lake so I went out there to nab the rarity plus some more county year birds. 

Year birds and St. Helens over Vancouver Lake

 Hunter habitat

The Snowy Egret was one of the first birds I saw, easy peasy like they say.

Mallard decoy buddy

The bird was super flighty and took off several times while I walked the dike trail.


After adding some more year birds to my list I abandoned the land of fake duck calls to make my way towards home.  At the last minute I decided to stop at Wintler Park for my year goldeneyes and scaup, all of which were accommodating.

Nice mix of Greater and Lesser Scaup

Reliable Barrow's Goldeneyes

Overall it's been a good start to the year!  Good times!!

Comments

  1. Playing with a new format again eh? U r so brave

    What's up with that wren growing a stick out of its supercilium?

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    1. They fixed the things I didn't like about the format- now the sidebar can hold all the labels and blog lists and stuff that it didn't do before. Gotta keep it fresh.

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  2. I like the new layout and I really like the new list.

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  3. My first bird of the year was a Common Raven too. I am pretty sure that means we will both be geniuses by the end of the year! I hope you're getting settled into your new home - I thought maybe you had done a big move like me, but Google taught me that Portland is close to the border of Washington. Look forward to keeping up with your 2018 adventures! -Laura

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    1. Ha, geniuses for sure! Nope, no big move for me. A whopping six miles that happened to be in a different state. Happy New Year!

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