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Thursday, June 20, 2024

 

My old friend, Chris, who I went to high school with, was visiting from southern California, and we went out to the Snoqualmie Valley to look for American Dipper and get a sandwich at the Carnation Market.  We also looked for other birds along the way, and I took some pictures of birds.

 

There were a few swallows at Sikes Lake, and I ended up getting four swallow species for the day list - Barn, Tree, Cliff, and Northern Rough-winged Swallows.  At the river crossing at Chinook Bend, there were two adult Ospreys and at least one chick in the nest.

 

There were three Band-tailed Pigeons in a tall tree at the original feeder house in Carnation, but not much else.  At the "new" feeder house, the flowers in the front yard are high enough now that they obscure some of the feeders, but I saw some birds and got some pictures there.  Here is a Mourning Dove across the street on a wire.

 

There were several male Brown-headed Cowbirds coming and going, and here are a couple of pictures.

 

 

The only Dark-eyed Junco we saw all day was a recently fledged juvenile.

 

Here is a female Red-winged Blackbird.

 

A Mourning Dove flew in and posed on a wire.

 

After that, we picked up sandwiches at the deli counter of the Carnation Market and took them to Valley Memorial Park in Carnation and enjoyed them at a table in the shade.  When we finished lunch, we stopped at the Tolt River bridge just south of Carnation, but couldn't find a dipper there.  So, we drove down the west side of the river, but there were very few birds around.  In Fall City, we drove along a short stretch of the Raging River, again looking for a dipper, but had no luck there.

 

At Tokul Creek, on Fish Hatchery Road, we finally found our American Dipper.

 

We tried Neal Road in Fall City, but found nothing interesting there.  Back in Carnation, there were again birds at the "new" feeder house, and I got more pictures.  Here is a female Black-headed Grosbeak.

 

A White-crowned Sparrow showed up briefly, so I took its picture.

 

Band-tailed Pigeons are usually in groups, but a single one flew in and perched on a wire up close.  I usually like to show the whole bird in pictures, if I can, but in this case, I thought a close up of its head was more interesting.

 

It flew down and perched on one of the feeders briefly, and I got a pictures of the whole bird.

 

We saw a few American Goldfinches, all males, and here is one of the colorful beauties.

 

After that, we headed for home.  There was one last good bird, a male Lazuli Bunting in a spot along 100th where I have seen that species in previous years.  I didn't get a picture because the bird was on Chris's side of the car, but he got a binocular view of him.

 

We didn't see many birds today.  I had 28 species, two of them only heard, not seen - Northern Flicker and Common Raven.  June is the worst month locally for finding birds, for some reason, so it wasn't surprising that the count was that low.  We had a great time rambling around, though, and I'm pleased with my pictures.