Dawn Chorus Update #11: On the Trail Again on Sumas Mountain

[Stephen Chase]

Hi Whatcom Birders,

This morning I was back on the Sumas Gold Mine Trail for another dawn chorus walk. I last visited this trail in the first week of April to greet the first wave of migrating passerines. Six weeks later, many more neotropical migrants have arrived and breeding territories have been established.

I arrived on site at 4:18am, 13 minutes before first light and almost two hours earlier than the first light on April 4, when I was last here. Usually robins are already in full song at this point, but this morning it was fairly quiet. I stepped out of the car to the dawn song of a Violet-Green Swallow, a distant Savannah Sparrow buzzing, soon followed by an even more distant White-crowned Sparrow...and yes, there's the robin song we all know and love! Since I showed up well before sunrise at 5:12, I brought a flashlight, but even in the deep understory, the full moon gave me all the light I needed for a unique nocturnal hiking experience, and it didn't take long for the light of dawn to take over.

After climbing the hill past the cow pasture, I was in the woods and the dawn chorus was in full swing! While the Sumas Gold Mine Trail doesn't have the right topography and botanical diversity for the symphonic overload I've been experiencing lately at lowland deciduous riparian forests, it does boast extensive breeding habitat for resident neotropical migrants. I counted singing males of at least 12 Western Tanagers, 11 Black-headed Grosbeaks, and 20 Swainson's Thrushes, with likely equal numbers of females nearby. Noise pollution is virtually a non-factor here, especially at such an early hour on a Sunday morning, so I picked up some nice audio recordings, including one of my best ever spectrograms of the dreamlike song of the Salmonberry Bird.

I completed the loop counter-clockwise, passing the mill site and mine first, turning east at Cocoa's Crossing, hugging the west slope of the mountain and then descending toward the plateau where the cabin is located. The best avian activity took place in that plateau area, which is thick with young alders and other deciduous trees. Wilson's and Orange-crowned Warblers were especially prevalent in this section. After completing the loop from the cabin down to the split-off, I had to be careful to avoid double-counting birds I had already identified, which means that my final totals for many of the singing males are likely undercounts. Once back at the car, I always make a point of walking down Sealund Road as well; it's often buzzing with various finches and swallows, and today was no exception.

Here's my checklist for this morning's walk, including notes about many of the birds I identified, and several other recordings of avian life early this morning here in Whatcom County.

In Everson,
Stephen Chase