Tacoma City Limits Birdathon: A Tahoma Audubon Fund Raiser and Big Day

A flock of about 25 Band-tailed Pigeons, our native large pigeon, seeming to be gathering mud, maybe for nests? at the Place of Circling Waters in Tacoma yesterday seen on my "Birdathon."

Each year I do one "thon." Mine is not a marathon, but rather a birdathon. This is the biggest annual fund raiser for my local Audubon Society, and birders who are members solicit donations from friends and other Auduboners to donate to Tahoma Audubon in support of their big-day of birding, i.e. a "birdathon."
My challenge this year was to see how many species I could find all inside the city limits of Tacoma. I did this for several reasons, the primary is that I moved to the city of Tacoma from a suburban area nearby this year, and am coming to realize how many good birding locations are right within the city limits. In addition I wanted to do a trip not requiring a huge amount of travel, and that was a new and fresh challenge. No others chose to join me this year, so I headed off by myself at 6:15AM.
First stop was at Titlow Beach, where the water was pretty slow, but I managed to see a pair of breeding plumage Marbled Murrelets, along with expected Pigeon Guillemots, Brandt's Cormorants, Purple Martins, one Mew Gull, and a few other common birds.
At the land part of Titlow Park I caught the dawn chorus, adding American Goldfinch, a pair of Downy Woodpeckers, several singing Wilson' s Warblers, two Warbling Vireos, two calling Swainson's Thrushes, two Hooded Mergansers, and a variety of other common birds.

At China Lake I added a single Band-tailed Pigeon, making me very happy as this can be a tough species to find, not knowing I'd see 25 at a later stop.

Ruston Way, where I expected to find Barrow's Goldeneye, Surf Scoter and a variety of salt water birds yielded nothing, a sign of a tough day for finding birds on the bay. At Puget Park I did add Black-throated Gray Warbler but not much else.

I missed the nesting Peregrine Falcon from Thea's Landing and other vantage points in the city,and never recovered that miss the rest of the day. At Middle Waterway there were no shorebirds despite a good amount of mud showing. The 11th Street Bridge yielded little of interest and I started to wonder where I was going to find ducks and shorebirds.

Gog-li-hi-ti was next, a large mitigated wetland that I had planned on as a good place to find a number of species. Luckily on the way a Green Heron flew across the river and road right over me. I managed 33 species at the Gog, but not a lot new. I did add both an Osprey and a Bald Eagle, as well as Green-winged Teal, Red-tailed Hawk, Least Sandpiper, Belted Kingfisher, Marsh Wren, Common Yellowthroat, and Savannah Sparrow.

At the Place of Circling Waters overlook I managed to find a single Spotted Sandpiper, and the aforementioned 25 Band-tailed Pigeons seeming to be collecting mud on the mudflats.

At the base of the Hylebos Waterway Bridge on 11th Street I looked for Golden-crowned Sparrow without luck, but did find a Common Goldeneye and this very bright House Finch.

The wind and waves picked up as I got to the Brown's Point Lighthouse, and the water was both tough to find birds on, and apparently void of birds. I added nothing here.

On the drive back on Marine View Drive I stopped to pick up a Lesser Scaup near where the old log booms used to be and headed across to the end of Alexander Ave hoping for shorebirds. Killdeer was the only shorebird there, and little else still needed was found on the rest of the stops on the tide flats, though I did find my only American Coot and Northern Rough-winged Swallow at the small pond off Taylor.

Swan Creek Park was my last planned stop of the day, and the biggest forested area I birded today. I spent about 90 minutes there, covering it pretty well, and did add most of the expected species, but nothing startling. Best bird may have been a calling Hammond's Flycatcher, along with a single singing Hutton's Vireo, two Common Ravens, a Golden-crowned Kinglet, and Purple Finches singing all over the place. I had hoped for a Cooper's Hawk, or at least a hummingbird, but no luck

I finished the day with one more try for Puget Sound water birds, adding a nice flock of Bonaparte's Gulls (no Black-headed or Little Gulls) and a small flock of Surf Scoter. I called it a day here because Marcus today spotted a White-tailed Kite on Fort Lewis, and I picked up Will and raced out for that at the end of daylight, but no luck there.

A pretty good day overall, totaling 76 species despite lots of misses. Note the lack of photos? Somehow I messed up the download from my camera and lost them last night. Trying to do to much when too tired I think.

Good birding. Steem on!