Month: May 2010

Nisqually

After I took Skye for his daily walk Wednesday and played with Mira as long as she seemed to be interested in, I wanted to take advantage of the sunshine so I decided to visit Nisqually Wildlife Refuge for a couple of hours. I was lucky enough to hook up with one of the refuge volunteers I know who gave me a guided tour since I haven’t been there recently.

He managed to spot this female Yellowheaded Blackbird in the wetlands just as we began our walk. He said he hadn’t seen one there before and I’ve certainly never seen one there, either.

female Yellow-Headed Blackbird

There really weren’t many birds showing other than the swallows who were moving way too fast to get a picture of, but I was glad to see my first frog of the season,

Bullfrog

my first butterfly,

Butterfly

not to mention the first time Bushtit.

Bushtit

It’s hard to imagine a better way to spend a sunny afternoon, especially since I got to end it with a barbecued pork torta from my favorite Mexican bus.

Mother’s Day at Theler Wetlands

Leslie and I went to Belfair on Mother’s Day, and Leslie thought I should get a picture of this mallard and her flock. Unfortunately, I could never manage to get a picture with all of the ducklings in the picture, but here are most of them:

Mallard with Ducklings

Leslie also wanted me to get a shot of this Rufous Hummingbird, which turned out much better than I thought it would since the sun was behind it and it flew away before I get to the other side of it:

Rufous Hummingbird

While Leslie was looking up, I was looking across the creek at the far bank, where ducks tend to gather. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a picture of a Northern Pintail out of the water before. I was rather surprised that the color of the feet matched the beak:

male Northern Pintail

I know that if I were that beautiful I would be careful not to get my white feathers muddy.

Without a doubt, my favorite birds at Belfair this time of year are the Swallows. The barn swallows

Barn Swallow

and the Violet-Green Swallows

Violet-Green Swallow

have finally joined the Tree Swallows at Theler Wetlands.

Back to the Coast

Usually I post pictures I’ve taken the next day, but with the sunshine and bird migration I’m suffering from a sudden wealth of choices. To make matters worse, I find it nearly impossible to sit inside when the sun is out. So, I’m at least a week behind in posting photos. Today’s photos were actually taken at the beach last Friday.

Since I got up so early I stopped at the wetlands before heading out to the beach. There seemed to be a lot more bugs than birds, but the marsh was bursting with the sound of Marsh Wrens staking their claim:

Marsh Wren

Since high tide was relatively late in the day, I started birding from the south end of the beach, Tokeland, not from Bottle Beach. I was hoping to see Loons or Western Grebes here, but I ended up only seeing Greater Scaup, at least I could see them out in the middle of the bay with the doubler on my 500mm lens.

Flock of Greater Scaup

I really wasn’t sure what I’d seen until I got home and could put the photos up on the screen.

Surprisingly there wasn’t a Godwit in sight. Instead, there were a lot of small shorebirds that I would normally expect to see on Bottle Beach. I started by photographing the Dunlin:

Dunlin

But as I was watching a Dunlin foraging in the rocks, I saw a strange bird enter far right and quickly changed my focus:

Ruddy Turnstone and Dunlin

As I sat watching it turn over rocks and shells, I realized it must be a Turnstone, though it wasn’t until I got home and looked in my book that I realized it was the much rarer Ruddy Turnstone.

Ruddy Turnstone

I stayed longer than I expected at Tokeland taking shots of the Turnstones,

Ruddy Turnstone

a good thing, too, because the wind picked up considerably as the day went on and very few birds showed up as a result, though the pelicans obliged with an eye-level flyby in Westport.

Pelican

Birds and More Birds

If you’re into over-the-top parents

Canada Geese with Goslings

or cute kids,

cold duckling

this might be the right time to get out birding.

Goslings and ducklings are everywhere, though ducks seem to be outnumbered by songbirds who are at the height of their northern migration. The woods surrounding Lake Waughop were alive with small birds eager to be heard like this Song Sparrow,

Song Sparrow

birds willing to be heard but not seen like this Wilson’s Warbler,

Wilson's Warbler

and, thankfully, even birds willing to pose for the camera like this Yellow-Rumped Warbler.

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

I think I love Spring even more since I took up birding.