As we did last year, my wife and I meet Bob Boekelheide, director of the Dungeness River Audubon Center, and his teammate Jerry Freilich on the outskirts of Sequim at 3:30 a.m. Saturday, May 9.

The occasion is Birdathon 2009, a major annual fundraiser for the Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society, which includes identifying as many different species as possible in a 24-hour period.

Our first goal is to find 100 species and our second goal is to exceed our personal record of 107 last year.

We're also looking, at double the stakes, for the three "money" birds we didn't find last year: a pileated woodpecker, bluebird and harrier. (My Gazette article on Birdathon 2008 is on our Audubon Web site: www.olybird.org.)

Bob first hoots for owls. Our highlight is a barred owl that hoots without prompting at one of our stops. Bob sees it fly over us and with his flashlight soon finds it perched in a nearby tree.

The owl sits motionless, tolerating the flashlight beam while staring at us. We stare back until minutes later, Jerry sets up his scope for a close-up view. This seemingly spooks the owl and it silently flies away.

Three species of thrushes rule the dawn chorus. Robins are first to sing, well before

5 a.m. on this cloudless morning. Varied and hermit thrushes soon join in.

We work our way downhill, picking up a variety of new birds, mostly by knowing their voices. We skip detouring to seek dippers on the Dungeness River, figuring we will find them later on the Elwha River.

Around 7 a.m. I marvel that we have the back roads to ourselves. More than 41/2 hours after teaming up, we

encounter our first car. We soon part company with Bob and Jerry and later determine that we had 57 species at this point.

After finding an unexpected whimbrel at John Wayne Marina, we find a western bluebird near Carrie Blake Park, the first of our money birds.

Next, on a tip from a former student, we see cliff swallows in her neighborhood. At Railroad Bridge Park, I tote my scope a quarter-mile to see an Anna's hummingbird atop his regular perch. At the dike along Towne Road, we hear a yellow warbler in his breeding territory. En route to the strait, Julie spots a harrier, our second money bird.

Around noon, we encounter Bob and Jerry and rejoin forces to scour the strait and nearby ponds. While Bob is scouting ponds, Jerry and I collaborate to identify a merlin. Teamwork at its best. At 1 p.m. we visit the home of another Audubon member, Les Jones, who will drive while Bob and Jerry bird all the way to Neah Bay. From Les' rooftop balcony, we identify another half-dozen species.

After parting company with Bob's team, we work our way west. While I drive, Julie totals birds found. Our count is past 100, and our target of 107 is within easy reach.

Whimsically, I wonder what species will be the tying and record-breaking ones. I hope for really cool birds. Reality exceeds my hopes.

We find the tying bird in Port Angeles harbor at 4:15 p.m. A year ago, I lost 11/2 hours here searching for a harlequin duck, our Audubon chapter's mascot. I am determined not to make that mistake again.

Squelching the urge to bypass the inner harbor, I stop at the harbormaster's building. I only see three birds but take the time to view each one in my scope. The "obvious" common loon has a problem in that its bill isn't dark as expected. On closer look with the scope, I realize it is a yellow-billed loon, a bird we've never seen before - our first life bird during a Birdathon event.

Our record-breaking bird is a harlequin duck. We find it while driving out to Ediz Hook seeking, but not finding, a Brandt's cormorant.

The rest of the day is somewhat anticlimactic. No dippers on the Elwha River. After finding an expected wood duck, we backtrack to revisit good birding spots near

Sequim. We find our last new bird, a Eurasian collared-dove, in Dungeness, bringing our total to 116.

After Birdathon is our monthlong Spring Fling fundraiser, which benefits River Center education programs.

Please sponsor my birding efforts. A penny per species (max of $2) is all I ask. For details, visit our Web site (www.olybird.org), click the link for Spring Fling and the "About" link under Penny a Bird.



Dave Jackson is "Our Birds" series editor and Web master. Send comments to him at editor@olybird.org or 683-1355. Olympic Peninsula Audubon meets at 7 p.m. today, May 20, at the Dungeness River Audubon Center, 2151 W. Hendrickson Road, Sequim. Details of Spring Fling and field trips are on Web site www.olybird.org.