Washington and British Columbia Trip ~ September 14, 1986

I drove to the Seattle airport where I boarded a plane to Houston and switched planes to one headed to Newark, New Jersey. Just after takeoff from Seattle, I got excellent looks at Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens in Washington, and Mount Hood in Oregon. On the way to Houston, we passed over the Great Salt Lake and Pike's Peak. On the way to Newark, I got to see Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, the Delaware Bay, and the Cape May peninsula from the air. It gave me a birds-eye view of what migrants see when passing over the area.

Bomaby Hook National Wildlife Refuge from the plane over Delaware.

The Cape May peninsula (the strip of land extending out from just above left center) from the plane over Delaware.

Before landing, I got a good view of New York City and its Twin Towers.

The Twin Towers in New York City (left) and the Bayonne Bridge (right) from the plane over New Jersey.

Mammals seen on the trip included Hoary and Olympic Marmots, Golden-mantled Ground-Squirrels, Black-tailed Mule Deer, Red Fox, Western Gray Squirrel, and Chipmunk.

For the trip, I identified 133 species, which included 41 life birds.

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Washington and British Columbia Trip List

1) Common Loon
2) Pacific Loon*
3) Red-throated Loon
4) Red-necked Grebe
5) Horned Grebe
6) Pied-billed Grebe
7) Black-footed Albatross*
8) Northern Fulmar* (both "dark" and "light" phase birds)
9) Flesh-footed Shearwater*
10) Sooty Shearwater*
11) Pink-footed Shearwater*
12) Buller's Shearwater*
13) Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel*
14) Brown Pelican
15) Double-crested Cormorant
16) Pelagic Cormorant*
17) Great Blue Heron
18) Mallard
19) Gadwall
20) Redhead
21) White-winged Scoter
22) Surf Scoter
23) Harlequin Duck
24) Common Merganser
25) Red-breasted Merganser
26) Hooded Merganser
27) American Black Oystercatcher*
28) Semipalmated Plover
29) Killdeer
30) Whimbrel
31) Wandering Tattler
32) Northern "Red-necked" Phalarope*
33) Ruddy Turnstone
34) Black Turnstone
35) Surfbird*
36) Sanderling
37) Western Sandpiper
38) Least Sandpiper
39) Pectoral Sandpiper
40) South Polar Skua*
41) Pomarine Jaeger*
42) Parasitic Jaeger*
43) Long-tailed Jaeger*
44) Heermann's Gull
45) Bonaparte's Gull
46) Ring-billed Gull
47) Mew Gull*
48) Herring Gull
49) California Gull*
50) Western Gull
51) Glaucous-winged Gull*
52) Black-legged Kittiwake
53) Sabine's Gull*
54) Common Tern
55) Arctic Tern
56) Caspian Tern
57) Common Murre*
58) Pigeon Guillemot*
59) Marbled Murrelet*
60) Cassin's Auklet*
61) Rhinoceros Auklet*
62) Tufted Puffin*
63) Turkey Vulture
64) Golden Eagle
65) Northern Harrier
66) Sharp-shinned Hawk
67) Cooper's Hawk
68) Red-tailed Hawk
69) American Kestrel
70) Blue Grouse* ("coastal" race)
71) White-tailed Ptarmigan*
72) Band-tailed Pigeon
73) Rock Dove
74) Mourning Dove
75) Black Swift*
76) Vaux's Swift*
77) Belted Kingfisher
78) Northern "Red-shafted" Flicker
79) Lewis's Woodpecker*
80) Williamson's Sapsucker*
81) Downy Woodpecker
82) Western Wood-Pewee
83) Eurasian Skylark*
84) Horned Lark
85) Tree Swallow
86) Violet-green Swallow
87) Barn Swallow
88) Steller's Jay
89) Gray Jay*
90) Clark's Nutcracker
91) Black-billed Magpie*
92) American Crow
93) Northwestern Crow*
94) Common Raven
95) Black-capped Chickadee
96) Mountain Chickadee
97) Chestnut-backed Chickadee*
98) Red-breasted Nuthatch
99) Winter Wren
100) Golden-crowned Kinglet
101) Ruby-crowned Kinglet
102) Western Bluebird
103) Swainson's Thrush
104) Hermit Thrush
105) American Robin
106) Water Pipit
107) American Dipper*
108) Crested Myna*
109) European Starling
110) Hutton's Vireo
111) Orange-crowned Warbler
112) Nashville Warbler
113) Yellow-rumped "Audubon's" Warbler
114) Black-throated Gray Warbler*
115) Townsend's Warbler
116) Wilson's Warbler
117) Rufous-sided "Spotted" Towhee
118) Vesper Sparrow
119) Savannah Sparrow
120) Song Sparrow
121) Field Sparrow
122) Brewer's Sparrow
123) Dark-eyed "Oregon" Junco
124) White-crowned Sparrow
125) Western Meadowlark
126) Red-winged Blackbird
127) Brewer's Blackbird
128) Western Tanager
129) House Sparrow
130) Pine Siskin
131) American Goldfinch
132) Rosy Finch* ("Gray-crowned" race)
133) House Finch

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