Vagrant: one who wanders without a permanent home; one who lives on the streets and is a public nuisance; a vagabond, a drifter.
Vagrant: A single bird that rarely can be found outside of that species’ known range.
The second definition was a hot topic recently on a birding forum, www.scn.org/tweeters, with reports of the tropical kingbird, a flycatcher, spotted in Bellingham. Several experienced birders, including an Everett man, identified the vagrant in downtown Bellingham on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1.
This flycatcher is extremely common in South America and much of Central America, with its northern range creeping into southern Texas and Arizona. But Bellingham?
The editors of “Birds of Washington: Status and Distribution” found only a couple of dozen reliable records of tropical kingbirds in Western Washington, a few from 1916 to 1954 and the rest from 1984 to today.
Lest we rush to judgment about reasons for increasing frequency, remember that the human population west of the Cascades and the number of experienced birders with excellent equipment has exploded since 1916, increasing the chances of seeing a vagrant bird.
Caveat: There is a very similar Couch’s kingbird and the two kingbirds were considered the same species for almost 100 years. Identifying Couch’s usually requires the bird-in-hand approach.
Pre-Bellingham tropical kingbird sightings in this century have occurred in Ocean Shores, Tokeland, Bay Center, Stanwood, the Samish River flats and Elma, all in the fall.
Finding a tropical kingbird is big time for birders, and it’s part of the joy of fall migration, when typical migratory patterns are occasionally tweaked by storms and wanderlust.
Not all bird sightings have to do with migration. Last week a birder spotted two western scrub jays in Everett at 24th Street and Baker Avenue.
These jays are common along the California coast and Oregon. Some jays will disperse beyond the established range, sending them into Western Washington.
All sightings are starting points when deciding where to go for your next outing. But don’t get so hung up on not seeing a particular species that you forget the entertainment value of the birds that are there.
Here are a few reports from a birding forum. With recent storms, both out in the Pacific and in Western Washington, you never know what might be blown our way.
About 100 ring-necked ducks were spotted on open water at Rosario Beach at Deception Pass State Park, and from Rosario Head, birders saw a common murre, common and red-throated loons, pigeon guillemots, rhinoceros auklets and a black turnstone.
Dugualla Bay on Whidbey Island hosted dozens of American wigeon, hooded mergansers and gadwalls. On shore, western meadowlarks, trumpeter swans, a short-eared owl and a northern harrier were spotted. Deer Lagoon’s bottom was exposed at low tide and thousands of foraging ducks and shorebirds were feeding.
Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge never disappoints. A birder reported more than 100 greater white-fronted geese, a yellow-headed blackbird, a northern shrike and a sharp-shinned hawk. On another date, birders saw great egrets and Virginia rails.
Huge numbers of migratory birds were seen off Bottle Beach in Grays Harbor County. One experienced (and trusted) birder reported serious numbers of birds, including 2,500 dunlin, 250 western sandpipers, 150 black-bellied plovers, 2,000 brown pelicans feeding offshore, 1,000 northern pintails flying in, and 200 American wigeons.
She also saw, around Tokeland Marina, 800 marbled godwits, 200 brown pelicans and more than 800 Heermann’s gulls. About 3,000 dunlins were seen in the Grayland State Park area.
Counting birds in the hundreds or thousands is not an exact science, but the above numbers make the point of abundance.
Remember, you can’t be delighted, surprised or wiser (ornithologically speaking) if you don’t get out there.
Columnist Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468-3964 or www.songandword.com.
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