06 May Spring in a Brave New World
posted from Seattle WA by Ed Newbold on May 6 2026
On May 3 Delia and I went out and birded the Snoqualmie Valley including the Tolt MacDonald Park and the Stillwater Wildlife Management Unit and we took the long way home that goes by the Piano Ranch.
At Stillwater we found this Bullock’s Oriole. This Birds is considered a Cottonwood obligate I believe but it was holed up in a huge Bigleaf Maple. He accounts for the next four shots, a series that got me the most hearts I’ve ever gotten on the Social Media Platform Nextdoor. That’s the only one I can figure out how to get on other than FB.
We were pretty sure we heard a Lazuli Bunting on the wire as we drove along a field near the Piano Ranch. We stopped and strangely, got the shot. My camera will almost never focus on a blue Bird but the dark background confused the algorithm enough that the Bird was in focus.
Delia and I have never had a Chipping Sparrow in our yard in the last 40 years. But this last week we’ve had our first, and then two came by.
This Western Tanager showed up at a neighbor’s Maple on May 7.
And this Yellow Warbler came in for a bath this morning, writing May 9 2026.
We left midday May 7 for Gray’s Harbor to catch the shorebird migration. Here two Marbled Godwits, our largest shorebird, forage right by the Pt. Brown Jetty at Ocean Shores.
We found Ruddy Turnstones at many locations. This was distant and in bad light at the end of the day May 7 at Bottle Beach but because it showed the ability of a Ruddy Turnstone to make a beach look like a million bucks I’m putting it up.
Dunlins forage with one Black-bellied Plover standing and resting.
We found Red Knots at a few places. Here is one between two Black-bellied Plovers. The other foraging birds are Dunlins, which were there in force along with Sanderlings on the outer beach.
Western Gulls are in my opinion the best-looking of the large Gulls, it’s not even a contest. This one was Graveyard Spit yesterday.
This Bald Eagle was eating a Dungeness Crab at Graveyard Spit yesterday the 8th of May.
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