I focus my spotting scope on a dozen gulls and two crows busily picking at the intestines of a halibut, its severed head nearby on the shore at Clallam Bay. An adult bald eagle stands eight feet from them, yet they ignore it, showing no signs of unease. Such scenes are among the rewards of birding, but I’m getting ahead of my story.

 

It’s the second Saturday in May, the day of our annual Birdathon. Birders are tabulating species and birds found throughout Clallam County for science and to raise funds for the Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society. The date this year (May 14) is the latest possible, good news in terms of finding late-arriving spring migrants, but bad news regarding departing water and shore birds.

 

After three years of finding increasingly higher species totals on Birdathons, reaching 125 last year, my wife and I have a different strategy this year. (Earlier Birdathon columns are archived on www.olybird.org.) I have volunteered to bird in poorly covered areas of the county, hoping to find species no one else finds. Our territory will be mostly along the coast of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, from the Elwha River Valley to Cape Flattery.

 

We head first to the upper reaches of Lake Aldwell, a reliable spot for Barrow’s goldeneyes, which we find. Their future as local breeders after dam removal is uncertain.

 

Woods near the Elwha River yield two dozen or so species whose voices I recognize. A cluster of newly arrived black-headed grosbeaks sings along with varied thrushes. A few unfamiliar voices tantalize us, but the birds stay hidden among the leaves.

 

We drive past a wetland that yields a common yellowthroat (warbler) and four swallow species: barn, cliff, tree and violet-green.

 

Despite calm winds and waters at the mouth of the Elwha River, few bird species are present. All the gulls appear to be Olympics (glaucous-winged x western hybrids). A small flock of Pacific loons swims by.

Three dunlins are in breeding plumage. Five Caspian terns fly by just offshore, heads down, looking for breakfast. I wonder where they will breed, as their nesting colony on the Dungeness Spit failed last year due to predation.

 

A pond near Freshwater Bay yields three gaudy male wood ducks. Harlequin ducks are numerous at Salt Creek and points west.

 

Our only horned grebe of the day, at Twin Rivers, dazzles me in its breeding plumage.

 

As the morning unfolds, most of the songbirds go quiet, yet nearly every stop throughout the day yields at least one singing Wilson’s warbler.

 

At Clallam Bay, I spot three Thayer’s gulls at the edge of a sizable flock of Olympic gulls. They are my first serious candidate for a unique species in the count, as most Thayer’s gulls already have flown north and few birders are experienced in identifying them. I also spot a lone black scoter, my second candidate for a unique species.

 

I check every cormorant roost along the strait, ultimately finding several dozen pelagics, but only one double-crested and one Brandt’s.

 

The highway through Neah Bay is lined with boats and trailers of halibut fishermen. Noisy powerboats create wakes in the otherwise sunny, calm harbor. Not surprisingly, water birds are few. We don’t find any new species here, unlike last year.

 

The Wa’atch Valley yields a few new species for us. I am excited to spot two black turnstones on a mud flat. I also find two greater yellowlegs, which I consider more common. Later I learn that the yellowlegs and Thayer’s gulls were the only species we found that no one else did during our Birdathon.

 

At Cape Flattery I find the requisite tufted puffins (four of them). The chatter of a black oystercatcher, our only one of the day, gives away its presence, but we try in vain to see it.

 

My spotting scope also helps me resolve the dark floating mass near Tatoosh Island into a raft of far more than a thousand common murres. They outnumber the combined total of all the other birds we saw during the day. The murres are as tightly packed on the surface of the water as on the cliffs on which they nest.

Our personal species total for the day was 80, a respectable amount, but well below our target of 100.

 

The overall countywide total was 170 species — missing regulars pied-billed grebe, sanderling and merlin — far short of the record of 193, set in 1999.

 

Send comments to Dave Jackson at editor@olybird.org or 360-683-1355. Olympic Peninsula Audubon meets at 7 p.m., June 15, at the Dungeness River Audubon Center. Details of the meeting and field trips are at www.olybird.org.