Jefferson's Birds and Climbing Journal

This weekend I spent both days birding the Lummi Flats. I'd birded there once before, but it was super windy so we didn't see much at all. I had a couple of targets, northern shrike, snow bunting, and horned lark, but I was mostly excited to explore a new area. 

This is just a short post to summarize some cool birding experiences from the beginning of this year. The first cool experience was a combination of luck and perseverance. 

This weekend I attempted to climb the Northeast Buttress of Chair Peak with Preston. The peak is located in Snoqualmie Pass and is generally considered an approachable winter alpine route, although as with all winter alpine routes, the difficulty is highly conditions dependent. While it had been warm recently, we hoped with the current temperature just below freezing the route would still have enough ice to climb. Combined with clear skies and low avalanche danger, it seemed at least worth an attempt.

This summer I was invited to go to Hawaii with Emily and her family. This post will be a trip recap talking about what we did and all the cool plants and animals we saw on the Big Island.

Last week my friend Sam texted me photos of an area of cliffs he found. It was located downhill from Chuckanut Roof, along Chuckanut Drive. There were a few dihedrals that could make fun stemming or slabby arete boulder problems but the photo that drew my attention was a crack.

Last week I finally climbed a route to the summit of the Stawamus Chief in Squamish. I climbed it by arguably the easiest possible route, but it was still 12 pitches and 2000ft of climbing so it made for a great day trip to Squamish.

This past weekend I went to Washington Pass with Preston to do some climbing. Our main goal was the Southeast Rib of South Early Winter Spire, a classic 5.8 alpine route with a 5.10b fingercrack variation. 

I've been interested in ice climbing for a while, but it's a tricky thing to get started with. The gear is expensive, there's a lot of essential knowledge, and it's honestly kinda dangerous. So when my friend Spencer told me about the Lillooet Ice Fest and asked if I wanted to come, I didn't take much convincing.

This past summer, me and my climbing partner Forest had the itch to climb something big. We had both been trad climbing a lot lately and wanted to push ourselves in the alpine, so we settled on Mt. Stuart as a good objective. The complete north ridge is a sick line up the north face of the mountain. It's about 3000 feet of climbing with a 5.9+ crux low and another 5.9 on the gendarme close to the summit. It also holds a spot on the 50 Classic Climbs of North America, so with all that it felt like the obvious choice. We also wanted to do the direct start, which added about 800' of climbing to the abbreviated route. I thought it'd be cooler to climb the full ridge anyway. 

This week was one of the coldest weeks on record for Seattle. With over 9 inches of snow and temperatures never rising above freezing, it has been a very snowy week. I spent most of this week with family, sledding and watching movies, but I decided to journey over to Union Bay for some snowy birding.

Yesterday afternoon I saw an email posted to the Whatcom County listserv that there was an American White Pelican in Fairhaven. I had a few hours with nothing planned, so I decided to pack a bag and take a short bus ride down to Fairhaven.

This past week I had my first real birding trip since moving to school at WWU. I decided to make the trip to Semiahmoo Spit, a spit in the Strait of Georgia, less than a mile from the Canadian border. Coincidentally, as I was on my way I saw a report of an American Golden Plover at the spit the day before, which would be a lifer for me. I never found it, even though it was spotted that afternoon in a flock of 800 Black-bellied Plovers, but I doubt I would have missed a flock that big so they must have arrived later.

 Yesterday I climbed Mile High Club, a 7 pitch sport route in the Glacier Peak Wilderness, with Forest. We left Seattle around 6:30 am and after a few wrong turns left the trailhead around 8:45. The first portion of the trail was forested with several creek crossings and cool waterfalls.

 Yesterday I had planned to wake up before sunrise and head down to Union Bay Natural Area, my favorite birding spot in Seattle. I overslept however and woke up at 8:00, I almost decided to bail but I'm really glad I didn't.

I had seen reports of a Wandering Tattler at Alki Beach, so I made plans to head over there. I arrived at the south end of the beach around 6:30 am, right after sunrise. I climbed over the driftwood onto the beach and made my way to where the Tattler had been reported. As I walked down the beach I saw a pair of Harlequin Ducks, a county first, and a Great Blue Heron.

Last Friday I visited the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. My target birds were Semipalmated Plover and Cliff Swallow. It was a quiet start, aside from a flock of Barn Swallows in the parking lot. 

This April I visited Oahu with my dad and younger brother. Despite some hiccups (like my dad losing his wallet at Sea-Tac Airport) we got to Oahu fine. Unfortunately there was a bigger hiccup. In my rush to get going, I had left my camera sitting on my desk at home. I had all my lenses, batteries, and memory cards, just no camera to use them with. With a bit of searching, I was luckily able to find a rental for the week for a very reasonable price and we picked it up the next day. The first day was fairly tame for birds, we got in late and I had no camera so I wasn't very motivated. I did find a pigeon nest on our balcony however. I also saw Common Waxbills, House Sparrows, Common Mynas, Red-Crested Cardinals, Red-Vented Bulbuls, Warbling White-eyes, and the ubiquitous White Tern ( Native ).