Observations of the passing seasons |
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2003 - April - March - February - January - Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge visit, March 2001
- Insiders' Guide to the Olympic Peninsula - Creeping with Utah Nature Study Society - Tidepool - Association for the Study of Literature and Environment
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Natalie and I weren't looking forward to spending our day selling and signing books at the Grays Harbor Shorebird Festival in Hoquiam today because we were both tired and a bit stressed with the knowledge that we need to get some serious writing done in the coming weeks to complete the bulk of our new book, Birding Washington. But the day turned out to be invigorating. We sold just six books, but we had the chance to talk to a bunch of well-informed nature-loving people, some who were energized after viewing thousands of shorebirds in Bowerman Basin and others who were waiting for field trips to start. We also thoroughly enjoyed talking with people from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department, from the national wildlife refuge system, and others. Oddly enough, even though we were in Grays Harbor during the peak of the shorebird migration, due to the fact that we were selling books during the time of the high tide, when we left the festival headquarters around 4 p.m. we didn't go out in search of shorebirds but instead decided we would do some birding on our way home. Our only stop was at Brady Loop, and it turned out to be a great stop. Despite a rain squall that shortened our birding visit, we managed to see our first Hairy Woodpecker of the year - a male/female pair in the southwest corner of the route - along with a group of shorebirds including Dunlin, Black-bellied Plovers, Western and Least Sandpipers, and a Long-billed Dowitcher. We drove home through a pouring rain, tired and excited after stimulating conversation and birding... On a cool and drizzly spring day there is nothing better than catching a glimpse of a surprise bird in the yard. That was the case for me earlier this afternoon when I looked over from my stare at the computer monitor to see a flash of yellow all by itself in the roses in our front yard. Since we have seen so many Goldfinches in the yard this week, I knew it could have been just another finch, but something told me it wasn't. Of course, by the time I rushed into the living room and grabbed my binoculars the bird was gone, but I caught a glimpse of yellow on an azalea in the neighbor's yard and had a fleeting view of the first Orange-crowned Warbler in our yard this year. Yep, the spring migration is underway!
They're here! Natalie and I spent about 40 minutes watching a male/female pair of Purple Martins down at Titlow Beach today. Mostly they just rode out the cold and gusting breeze as they sat on power lines that overlook the piling that holds 20 nest boxes, but they did make one fly by of the boxes before returning to their perch on the power lines. Hopefully they will be joined by more birds soon!
I joined Natalie on her native plant class's nature walk through the Breezeman Forest in Spanaway and through some private land down in Roy, and along with the host of birds and plants we observed was the dainty Purple Orchid in the photo above. The only sight more amazing than these early spring flowers today was seeing so many ant hills on this private land, including one ant hill that was as tall as me. Standing next to it, you could hear a munching sounds emanating from the hill. Amazing!
A relatively low -2.9 foot tide at Titlow Beach drew Natalie and I to head down this afternoon for a walk along the tidal line. It turned out to be a useful visit, as, along with seeing Starfish, Sunfish (like the one shown upside down in the photo above, before we righted it and placed it back into a pool), numerous crab and a Decorator Crab, we also found a small patch of eel grass growing just offshore. Eel grass is an important plant for young fish, especially salmon, and much of it has been wiped out in Puget Sound, so I made sure to report this to our contact with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Still no Purple Martins, despite the fact that they have arrived down south near the mouth of the Nisqually River, but I am sure they will get here soon...
Who would have thought that in the shadows of a football stadium is hidden some of the best birding in Seattle? Natalie and I ventured north to the area widely known to the birding community as the Montlake Fill, an old landfill site that is now recovering from its past to host swallows, waterfowl, and other birds like the American Pipits we found along one of the ponds this afternoon. This is one of the urban birding sites we are including in Birding Washington, so we were in search of details about the site as well as some good afternoon birding, and the day was definitely a success.
We made another check for the arrival of Purple Martins at Titlow Beach today, but they haven't made their way this far north just yet. There were plenty of other birds around though, like the Belted Kingfisher in the shot above that we watched fishing in the pond in Titlow Beach Park. This area is reliable just about year-round for seeing kingfishers, and sometimes we have seen a couple at a time chasing each other out over the saltwater toward the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
By a stroke of dumb luck, Natalie and I wandered upon an interesting scene at Titlow Beach this afternoon. We weren't aware that it was going to be a pretty low tide when we showed up at the site to check for the arrival or Purple Martins, and instead of finding martins we found much of the beach exposed and a purple starfish along with other sea life exposed to the overcast and cool afternoon. We meant to just spend a few minutes at Titlow but with the low tide we couldn't resist taking some photos and wandering to the edge of the water to get a new perspective on the number of rotting piling off the shore here where boats once landed.
Add some new birds to our yard birding list. This morning, while I was working with my laptop and sitting on the couch, I caught a glimpse of a bird flying across the street and landing on the side of a birch. I recognized that it was something out of the ordinary, and sure enough when I looked with the binoculars it was a female Downy Woodpecker. It didn't stay long, just a few seconds before flying off to the west and elsewhere in the neighborhood. The real fun happened later in the day, when unfortunately I was on a conference call. First there were three Northern Flicker in the yard, one of which flew down to feed at our new feeder for a bit before flying off and leaving a male sitting on top of the neighbors' chimney again. This time it decided to start hammering on the top of the chimney to try and call in a female. A few minutes later the flickers were gone, but I started hearing a horrible bird cry from the yard. I had a feeling what I would see when I got up from the couch - while still on the conference call. A step toward the window confirmed my suspicions. Right below the window was a Sharp-shinned Hawk on top of a European Starling, trying to get the damned thing to shut up and die already. The hawk was pouncing on the starling over and over in an attempt to impale it (since this is how accipiters like the Sharp-shinned and Cooper's Hawks kill their prey), and the whole time the starling was putting out these horrible sounds like a stuck pig. All that noise drew the first of the hawk's obstacles to lunch - the pain-in-the-butt orange cat that roams our yard so often, catching birds when I don't see it first and chase it away. This time the cat startled the hawk and forced it to pick up the screaming starling and fly over the fence into the dog's part of the back yard. As all of this was happening I was still on the phone, but scrambling to grab the camera and try and get a close up shot of the hawk on top of its prey. Thanks to the orange cat, while I had the camera in hand and was trying to focus, the hawk was flying away... Of course, the dogs' part of the back yard still wasn't safe enough, since all of the squawking bird calls from the distressed starling woke up our dog Abe and also brought the next door dog Sierra running to his yard, which startled the hawk again. This time when the hawk started to fly away with the starling it lost its grip, sending the starling flopping against the chain link fence where it was able to regain its composure and scramble into a shrub before the hawk could grab it. The hawk left the yard a few seconds later. No lunch here... Since I didn't have a shot of the hawk drama, I took a shot of the amaryllis flower that is at the peak of its second blooming session in our living room for the photo above. At least the damned orange cat can't scare that away... Before heading to our monthly board meeting with the Tahoma Audubon Society last night we made a quick and cold swing down to Titlow Beach to see if we could find any Purple Martins making an early appearance at the nesting houses and tubes. Under dark, heavy clouds and with temperatures hovering around the upper 30s, all we found around the nesting boxes were European Starling. But we did enjoy watching a trio of Common Goldeneye close up, including a male that was periodically throwing its head back and making the odd honking sound that they do in their typical mating behavior. It is always good to be able to spend a few minutes observing how a bird species acts. It imprints those behaviors in my mind much more than simply reading about it in one of our growing number of bird books.
What a cold way to start the new month. This morning Natalie had some of the heaviest frost of the year one the car when she left for work, as the temperatures dipped into the upper 20s, and as the day progressed it didn't warm all that much. The skies alternated between short periods of sun to blustery winds and rain squalls that included dark clouds, hail, and a cold rain-and-snow mix. If this keeps up there is little chance that I will get out and work in the garden much this week. The photo above shows the silhouette of a Northern Flicker that was sitting on top of the neighbors' chimney... |
