For the summer of 2011, I got a position as a biological intern conducting avian point count surveys in the National Parks (mostly backcountry areas) of Washington state. Karen and I were able to both get the same position and be partners for the summer; we were based out of Mount Rainier National Park. Mount Rainier is the highest peak in the state at a height of approximately14,400 feet. In order to be out there on time to begin training, I took my exams at WCU a week early. After tripling up on exams on a Thursday, I left immediately after to Chicago where I would meet up with Karen and from there we would drive the rest of the way to Washington. A 12 hour drive from Cullowhee after an exceptionally long and taxing day of exams was not the most fun thing in the world, let me tell you. The drive to Washington was relatively quick and uneventful- we drove pretty much straight through from Chicago to Port Angeles, WA, a drive of about 35 hours. I picked up three life birds on the cross-country drive- Prairie Falcon in MT, Ring-necked Pheasant in MN, and most surprising of all, Whooping Crane in WI! Two were foraging in an ag field in Monroe County, WI just off the interstate. If traffic wasn't close to horrendous then I would have definitely pulled off and snapped a few photos.
We were scheduled to meet up with the rest of out field crew at Elwha Campground in Olympic NP on Monday, May 2. We arrived absolutely exhausted about 3AM Monday morning. After having to drive in about 15 minute shifts (damn, we were tired!) during the last hour and a half of the long and twisting highway 101 to Port Angeles, setting up a tent in the pitch black was the last thing we wanted to do. The next morning, a slough of lifers were easy to find around the campground- Townsend's Solitare, Golden-crowned Sparrow, Varied Thrush, Sooty Grouse, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, the newly-split Pacific Wren (a good choice, AOU!), and others.
During the course of the summer, our field crew traveled extensively through Washington. We conducted point counts on San Juan Island for about a week in late May, what an amazing place! A Rock Wren that two other crew members and I found on a point count here provided a rare record for the San Juans. They have been documented as very rare and sporadic nesters on the island in previous years. Although Karen and I were based at Mount Rainier National Park, we traveled back and forth to North Cascades National Park and Olympic National Park several times in order to help conduct counts. Twice, we, along with the rest of our field crew, took the ferry up Lake Chelan, the third deepest lake in the US if I'm not mistaken, to the remote village of Stehekin, which is only accessable by boat or float plane. Stehekin represents the southernmost tip to North Cascades National Park, and is home to several bird species that are more typical of eastern or northeaster Washington. Veery, Red-eyed Vireo, and American Redstart are species that all birders in eastern North America are very familiar with, but are extremely localized breeders in Washington. Stehekin represents one of the few places that is reliable for all three.
The summer in it's entirety was challenging in several ways. Extremely heavy snowpack across the mountains of western Washington lingered far longer into the summer than usual, and became a prominent obstacle for Karen and I, along with the rest of our field crew, to overcome. Several transects at each park that were to be sampled were not able to be because of treacherous conditions off-trail at higher elevations caused by snow and ice, even into the end of July. We all found ourselves hiking and conducting transects in deep snow on more than one occasion. One of the last transects that Karen and I surveyed in late July still had upwards of seven feet of snow covering the ground. It was also a challenge communicating with our crew leader and boss, since internet access was hard to find for all of us and the range of cell service in the state of Washington is one of the worst in the country!
During days that we were not surveying, I (along with Karen, most of the time) would usually drive over to the east side of the Cascades mountain range in search of birds that were restricted to the east side of the state. California Quail, Brewer's Blackbirds, Western Meadowlarks, and Lazuli Buntings were all widespread in open landscapes. Common east side riparian species included Wilson's and MacGillvary's Warblers, Bullock's Oriole, Western Tanager (although these were common in a variety of forested habitats throughout the state), and Black-headed Grosbeak. White-headed Woodpecker quickly became somewhat of a mini-nemesis species for me- I visited well-known locations for them in stands of Ponderosa Pines 4 times before I was finally able to bump into a pair. They are a much more inconspicuous species than I originally thought they would be. An adult Northern Goshawk that flew over my truck that same day caused the quickest exit of a vehicle ever witnessed. Even though I was able to slam on the brakes, put my truck in park, and fling the driver's door open in T minus two seconds, the Gos was long gone. Later that morning, I got word of a Black-backed Woodpecker, a very uncommon bird in much of Washington, that was seen 15 minutes earlier in a stand of dead, burned trees about 3 miles up the road (a steep, gravel forest service road that climbed Bethel Ridge). I was easily able to find the exact spot, and was joined by two other birders for a while, also in search of the BBWO. I roamed back and forth through that several acre stand of burned, dead snags for an hour and a half before finally spotting the bird, quietly tapping on a small log on the ground. It then called once and promptly flew down the hill and out of sight.
I had decided before I ever arrived in Washington that I was going to go on a pelagic trip out of Westport, WA before the summer was over. Westport is a well known departure point for the company Westport Seabirds, and usually hosts some species of pelagic birds that are hard to find anywhere else along the west coast. I knew that I could get around 10 lifers if I went on one, even though summer is not the best time. To summarize---The trip left at 05:30, and I was promptly seasick by 7. Since we weren't due to arrive back at the dock until about 16:00, I knew that I was in for a long day. I spent most of the day inside the cabin with my head down, occasionally looking out the window to see numbers of Black-footed Albatrosses, Northern Fulmars, and Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels constantly hanging out right beside the boat. Those Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels gave me the impression of jewels with wings, and immediately became one of my top 10 favorite birds. I was aroused from the cabin periodically to come out on deck for a various new bird, such as a few flyby Cassin's Auklets, a couple handfuls of Pink-footed Shearwaters that came and went throughout the day, or an AMAZING view of a Tufted Puffin that hung out about 10 feet from the boat for several minutes. I so desperately wanted a picture, but knew if I looked through the viewfinder of my camera that I would immediately puke my guts out (for the fourth time). I had seen Tufted Puffins at Cape Flattery, WA (the westernmost point in the lower 48) where they breed in small numbers about two months earlier, so it was not a lifer for me on the pelagic trip but still an absolutely jaw dropping experience being so close to one. The pelagic trip that ran the day before mine found a HORNED PUFFIN, a species that breeds in Alaska and winters (sparingly, I believe) off the coast of WA. This was one of very, very few summer records from WA, from what I was told. The boat soon reached deep waters, where we promptly found our main target species for the trip- LEACH'S STORM-PETREL. This is a bird that is usually one of the last species that big-time Washington birders pick up in state. Even though they can be found in the Atlantic as well, it was a lifer for me, showing my lack of real experience on Atlantic pelagics.
I left Washington having seen 237 species in the state, and as far as "misses" are concerned, there weren't that many. Species (would-be lifers) that I "missed" out here were for the most part uncommon and localized within Washington. This included a handful of game birds, most of which are quite localized in the state. Hermit Warbler, Spotted Owl, Flammulated Owl, and White-tailed Ptarmigan also turned out to be misses for me. Despite some challenges along the way, it was a great three months. I learned a lot this summer, met some cool people, and had a great experience in the Pacific Northwest.
