Birds of the Notch and Beaver Ponds

 Outing to the Notch

May 10, 2008

Rhys Harrison

The Saturday May 10, 2008, Bird Walk on Notch Hill, Nanoose was attended by 10 hardy members. On an overcast but thankfully dry morning, we started at Link Place walking up to the south summit, down to the Fairwinds Drive car park, back up to the Enos Lake viewpoint on the far north side and down again to our start point.

The views were spectacular, especially at the Enos Lake viewpoint which was new to many of us despite having lived here for years.

In addition the the birds listed below, we saw several wildflowers including Western Trillium, White Fawn Lily, Common Camas, Pink Slipper-Orchid and Naked Broomrape.

The birds were, in taxonomic order:
  • Turkey Vulture
  • Bald Eagle - 1 very white possibly leucistic bird, whiter even than Sibley's 2nd year illustration
  • Glaucous-winged Gull
  • Rufous Hummingbird - also a nest but the female would not sit in it for us
  • Downy Woodpecker
  • Hairy Woodpecker - also 1 nest hole
  • Northern Flicker
  • Olive-sided Flycatcher - heard only
  • Pacific-slope Flycatcher
  • Cassin's Vireo - many
  • Hutton's Vireo - heard only
  • Northwestern Crow
  • Tree Swallow/Violet-green Swallow - one or the other far away
  • Chestnut-backed Chickadee
  • Red-breasted Nuthatch - annoyingly heard only
  • Brown Creeper - seen well
  • Winter Wren - heard only
  • Townsend's Solitaire - uncommon bird seen very well. This is a good spot to try for them.
  • Hermit Thrush - seen briefly on the ground
  • American Robin
  • Orange-crowned Warbler - many seen well
  • Yellow-rumped Warbler - two
  • Townsend's Warbler - the dominant warbler here at this time but hard to see as they like high
  • Wilson's Warbler - quite a few, early arrivals for this species
  • Spotted Towhee
  • Chipping Sparrow - a very cooperative bird on the ground and close
  • Dark-eyed Junco
  • Purple Finch
  • Red Crossbill - heard only, fly overs
  • Pine Siskin - otherwise known as ssskin because thats what they say

 

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