Month: January 2011

Nisqually

With rain predicted the rest of the week, I headed to Nisqually Monday after I took Skye for his morning walk, thinking that a recent Seattle Times article on the new boardwalk would mean that part of it was now open. Unfortunately, that turned out to be untrue. Apparently the boardwalk won’t be open until hunting season has ended.

It was too great of a day not to take advantage of the sunshine, though, so I stuck around. Birding wasn’t much better than Sunday’s trip, but the ice was just as beautiful here as it was at Belfair. I was particularly fond of the Hoar Frost:

Hoar Frost

I also sighted a lot of raptors, including several Bald Eagles and a pair of Peregrine falcons, but the only one a managed to get a good shot of was this female Marsh Hawk that flew right past me.

female Marsh Hawk

The best bird of the day was obviously this Western Meadowlark, a bird I haven’t seen since I was in Colorado, and never managed to get this good shot of even there.

Western Meadowlark

I also sighted this Downy Woodpecker on my way out, a bird I haven’t seen since they closed the 5-mile trail down

Downy Woodpecker

It felt great getting out for a longer walk. Perhaps with the rain returning I’ll get a chance to finish the poetry book I started this weekend.

A Sunny Winter Day

We’ve had some cold, but sunny days here in the Pacific Norhwest, but until Sunday I was too busy with the holidays to get out. So, even though it was rather frigid, Leslie and I went to Belfair and Port Orchard.

For most of the morning I wished I’d brought a different lens because there weren’t many birds in sight but the ice seemed quite beautiful:

Reeds covered in ice

Since I had brought my birding lens, I focused on the few birds that were out, mostly song birds because they seem relatively indifferent to the the shot guns shots surrounding the refuge:

Song Sparrow in Frosted Weeds

Near the end of the walk, though, there were several Common Mergansers, like this male in transitional plumage:

Common Merganser in Transitional Pllumage

I seemed so warm by the end of the walk that by the time I spotted this Robin it almost seemed like a Spring day:

Robin