Saturday, January 3, 2015

Although it wasn't raining this morning, it was definitely colder than yesterday. Mid-morning we decided to head back to Ediz Hook despite the cold, hoping to find the Snow Buntings. I wasn't overly optimistic, since last year I made several trips to look for a pair that was reported there but never found them. Once again, though, we had incredible luck. As we approached the area where they had been reported yesterday, we were scanning all the logs between the road and the harbor, looking for anything that moved. The first pullout I considered had deep ruts in the sand where it looked like somebody got stuck earlier, so I decided to drive on to the next pullout. Looking ahead I saw two birders, again with one scope and one pair of binoculars. We parked and quietly made our way towards them, and saw the two buntings foraging on the ground about 20 feet away. They were picking seeds off dried grasses and very tolerant of our intrusion.

Snow Buntings; Ediz Hook. 1/3/2015

What beautiful birds these are! During breeding season their bills turn black, as do all the non-white feathers. Dawson, in his 1909 publication, The Birds of Washington, lists the Snow Bunting under the name Snowflake, a term still sometimes used when people see a flock of them.

Snow Bunting; Ediz Hook. 1/3/2015

If you look closely you'll see that the bird above and the bird below are not the same bird. There are slight differences in the pattern and color intensity of the feathers.

Snow Bunting; Ediz Hook. 1/3/2015

We spent a pleasant 20 minutes visiting with the couple and taking pictures, before continuing on hoping to find the Ruddy Turnstones that had been reported there. Unfortunately, our good luck did not hold. We found Black Turnstones on the logs under the Coast Guard pilot house, but could not make them into Ruddy Turnstones.

Bird of the Day

January 3, 2015

Once again I'm wondering if the rare birds that showed up in a particular location last year are the same ones that showed up this year. Elsewhere in these pages I've written about the Tropical Kingbird that might have returned for a couple years to the same trees and power lines on 3 Crabs Road. Now I'm wondering about the two Snow Buntings that we saw at Ediz Hook today. The first time I saw and photographed Snow Buntings was on January 3, 2011, at Ediz Hook, within a hundred yards of where I photographed a pair today.

Snow Bunting at Ediz Hook; 1/3/2011.

I believe this pair, like today's birds, had been seen for several days before I found them. But it intrigues me that I photographed the two pairs exactly four years apart in the same location. Snow Bunting is still a Code 4 bird in Clallam County, although it seems like we've seen one or two every year for at least the past four years, so it might soon be downgraded to a Code 3. Given its rarity, why have a couple shown up at the same time and in the same location at least three of the past four years? Just coincidence? Perhaps. Snow Buntings live between 8-9 years in the wild, according to one source I found. So it is certainly possible that these are the same birds.

Snow Bunting at Ediz Hook; 1/3/2011.