Two County Lifers

My first Pierce County Clay-colored Sparrow Spizella pallida

While I was birding in Neah Bay on Thursday, , about a 4-hour drive from my home, our text message group of Pierce County birders got a text from Will Brooks that he had both a Clay-colored Sparrow and a Rusty Blackbird at the end of 134th Street in Puyallup. I had never seen either of these species in Pierce County, and hoped that they would stick around until Friday.

This Trumpeter Swan Cygnus buccinator flew so closely overhead that I got this one photo of just the head and neck.

I had a little work to do first thing Friday morning, and was scheduled to work in Puyallup in the afternoon, so I planned to wait and try for these two birds in the late morning. About 9 AM Bruce Labar called to tell me that had relocated both birds. I quickly got ready and headed to 134th. When I got there Bruce was just leaving, but gave me the details on where he had seen the birds. Marv Breece was also there and helped too. After they left two other birders showed up, and we looked for about 90 minutes, and as the rain got heavier, and as we chased a flock of sparrows around the muddy fields, I finally saw the Clay-colored Sparrow in the same blackberry bramble that Bruce and Marv had found it. It is an elegant little sparrow. Even in poor light it seemed much more brightly marked than the other birds nearby.

Zonotrichia sparrows, Golden-crowned and White-crowned Sparrows Zonotrichia leucophrys like this one were the primary birds in the mixed sparrow flocks where we found the CCSP.

After this we started to look for the Rusty Blackbird. Wayne finally located a flock of blackbirds that was flushed by a train up into a tree right at the end of 134th. We spent about a half hour scoping the flock, looking up into the rainy sky and getting mostly obstructed difficult views and very poor photos of the RUBL.

This is a digiscope photo with my Kowa Scope and iPhone from today, as my photos from Friday were very poor.

I called it a day, worked the afternoon, and last night contacted Ken Brown and arranged to take him for looks at the birds today. We met at 8o AM at my place, and got to Puyallup about 8:15. When we got there we walked to the place where I had the bird yesterday, and quickly located the Clay-colored Sparrow. Again everyone got great looks, and Ken got another FOY Washington State bird, and a Pierce County lifer.

The Clay-colored Sparrow today in denser fog early in the morning.

After this we started looking for a blackbird flock. Eventually the Rusty Blackbird, in a mixed flock of about 20 Brewer's Blackbirds, several European Starlings gave us great looks in perfect light in the muddy field on the other side of 134th. Washington State bird #299 for 2018 for Ken, and satisfactory looks at my Pierce lifer.

This Mourning Dove Zenaida macroura was on a wire at the sparrow site in Sumner.

We spent the rest of the day trying for a Swamp Sparrow in Sumner, and for an Ancient Murrelet in Tacoma, without luck, and finished the day by 2 PM.

This Brown-headed Cowbird Molothrus ater is a common breeding bird in our area, but most have migrated south by this date.

Another great 2 days of local county birding.

Good birding. Steem on!