Summer bird check-in
We’ve made it to August, somehow, so I figured now was a good time to do a check in on the birds here at the house and around the region. Summer is the slow time for birding — everyone is settled in to their place so there’s no migration going on, and by July, nesting is finishing up and the chicks are out and about. Late July showed the first sign of migration, and those are the shorebirds, but there’s not a lot going on right now.
What I’ve been doing the last few weeks is trying (and failing) to chase some rarities. One very unusual summer visitor here in Kitsap has been an Arctic tern, which moved in in July and has been hanging out, on and off, at one spot on Bainbridge Island. I’ve gone after it five times so far, and missed it every time — it tends to be a morning sighting, and later in the day it heads elsewhere, and is sometimes seen in the evening as well — all depending on low tides exposing some mud flats where it hangs out with a group of Caspian terns. Best I’ve done so far is miss it by 30 minutes, and the last ten days the tides have been wrong, but we’re about at the point where I’m ready to make another visit and see what happens. Arctic terns should be, right now, on the northern shores of Alaska and Canada, not here in Washington, although there are individuals seen around the state fairly regularly. It’s been here long enough I feel it’s likely to still be around somewhere, and when the tides cooperate, also likely to return to it’s favorite spot, so I’m going to keep trying. There have been two unusual tern sightings seen elsewhere in the county in the last week while the tides have been unhelpful, one for a Common Tern (it and Arctic are easily confused, and this Arctic was originally reported as Common until detailed examination of photos made it clear it was the rarer bird), and also a distant view of an Elegant tern — which I’m guessing might well be the Arctic Tern, which at a distance would be easily confused as well.
There have been a couple of other rarities around the region this summer — up in Snohomish, we had a Terek Sandpiper show up for two days, then disappear, then two days later, show up again — for two days. And hasn’t been seen since. Such is life with many true rarities; this is an Asian bird far away from where it should be. Rare enough that I started looking at making a trip to chase it, until it disappeared for the second time.
We also had a Ruff, another Eurasian shorebird — it’s been an interesting year for Ruffs, which is known as highly migrant and a few birds are seen around North America every year, but this year, there have been at least 40 birds seen across the country, so I guess it was inevitable we’d get one here in Washington — and when it showed up, it was at a place I bird a few times a year, about 90 minutes away near Sequim. When it was seen two days in a row, I decided to chase it the next day, so I got up, got going, and proceeded to spend a fun two hours looking at — some Greater Yellowlegs, Long-Billed Dowitchers, and a couple of Least Sandpipers. It was, it turned out, to be a two day wonder and it left and hasn’t been seen since. And, of course, to get there I have to cross the Hood Canal Bridge, and it happened to be a day where a truck decided to die right at the entrance to the bridge, and I got to spend over an hour sitting in non-moving traffic until they got things unstuck and moving again.
That, some days, defines chasing rarities. On the plus side, while sitting and watching the traffic not move, I had a nice turkey vulture (uncommon around here) fly by, which was a nice consolation prize.
One rarity I probably should chase but haven’t is a White Wagtail, another Eurasian bird that arrive in Neah Bay and has been happily being seen more or less reliably there since — but this is an almost four hour drive each way, and honestly, I just can’t convince myself to drive eight hours for an hour seeing a bird I’ve never seen before. I have my limits, I guess.
Birding around the house
One of the things I wanted to do this year was watch the house property more carefully and try to understand more of how the birds are using this place. That has been a lot of fun, and my hopes have been well exceeded. In May, last in migration and as birds are settling down to nest, I did an extended wander of the four acres here and tallied up 31 species. Two weeks later, I did it again and found 27. I’ve been doing that circuit around the property on and off since, and near the end of July, I was still finding 20 species. I consider those numbers rather amazing. We are in a rural area, about 500 feet in altitude above Silverdale on the way to Seabeck, on 4.5 acres of land that is mostly Pine, Cedar, Fir, and Hemlock, with some Alder and a few Madrone trees scattered about. There’s also some other species such as big leaf maple, but most of the forested areas are coniferous. This land is unplanted, so it’s a native mix, mostly mature trees but with a fairly open underbrush with younger trees growing in. Lots of wild rhododendrons in and about as well. We figured it was good bird habitat when we bough it and we have not been disappointed.
So far this year we have confirmed successful breeding by these species:
Stellar’s Jay
Black-capped Chickadee
Spotted Towhee
Red-breasted nuthatch
Song Sparrow
Anna’s Hummingbird
Purple Finch
American Finch
Dark-eyed Junco
Pileated Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
American Robin
Mourning Dove
We identified five Junco nests and three Towhee nests, although I don’t spend much time looking for nests; I’d rather leave them be and not disturb them. One Junco nest was built right under our front deck, a thing I learned when I got too close and flushed the female off it, where she went in a tree and yelled at me until I left; after that, I gave that part of the yard wide distance when I could.
There are some species we believe have done so, but haven’t found nests or seen chicks. These include Western Tanager and Black Headed Grosbeak, both of which we have confirmed breeding here in previous years (and being August, it looks like the Tanagers, who are almost always the last species to show up in Spring, are again the first one that seems to have started heading south again on migration).
There are also birds I consider likely breeders, but ones we haven’t proven by finding nests or seeing young. They include Hairy Woodpecker, Western Flycatcher, Chestnut-Sided Chickadee, Brown Creeper, Bewick’s and Pacific Wren, American Goldfinch, and Song Sparrow.
It’s likely some or all of our other summer residents — like Violet-Green and Tree Swallows, might also be breeding but it’s more speculative.
The only disappointment for me is that this year, for some reason, we haven’t had Swainson’s Thrush here on a regular basis; it’s normally a bird we hear calling in the evenings, but this year, I have only heard a single bird on one evening, so it seems it might have been a visitor, not a resident.
Since moving here in 2026, we’ve logged 86 species here on the property, the only new one so far in 2026 is Olive-Sided Flycatcher. In comparison, out place in Santa Clara logged 63 species over 12 years.
Personally, I have logged 152 species this year, compared to 149 at this time last year. My life list stands at 319 species, with one new species added in 2026 (Glaucous Gull) and one species from the ancient past added as I recognized it while reviewing some ancient photography (Broad-Billed Hummingbird from a trip to Tucson in the early 1990s). Here in Kitsap county my list is at 158 species, with three new species (California Quail, Redhead and Least Sandpiper) new in 2026. I’m at 121 species for the year, where I had 122 total in 2025. And for Washington state, my list is at 195 with California Quail, Redhead and Glaucous Gull being the additions).
So it’s been a fun and good year for me birding. As I learn more about this property and how successful it is as bird habitat it helps me understand how to best take care of it and look for ways to sustain and further improve it. One thing I’m starting to consider is shifting more towards native flowering and berry plants, although we’ve been doing at lot of that as we rehabilitate various parts. I did spend some time talking to a forestry expert about whether we should be more active in managing the unimproved acreage forests, and came away with the suggestion that it’s in good shape and best left alone.
As we shift from July into August, I expect the birding to pick up again; it’s been a really quiet six weeks or so, other than not finding that stupid Arctic Tern. But for me, this region is at its best in the winter, and so I’ve mentally marked November as when things will start getting really interesting for me again. Until then, it’s looking for opportunities to chase rarities and starting to bird areas I don’t bird in summer, because nothing’s really happening there. And looking for places to discover and birds to learn about as I wait for the winter prime time…
