Month: March 2012

Birding Westport

It’s a good thing I got so many photographs I liked during our California trip because the weather has been marginal since we returned, so bad last week that I could not get out for even a short birding/photography expedition. My exercise for the week was limited to working out at the YMCA. If this continues, my blog entries may soon go “live” again.

For now, at least, I continue to live in the past. These shots were taken February 23, the day I went to Ocean Shores to take pictures of the Snowy Owls. As I noted then, I wasn’t content to drive that far just to see even as rare a bird as the Snowy Owl. I ended us spending nearly 16 hours at the beach, driving from Ocean Shores to Tokeland then home, covering 260 miles for the day.

I especially wanted to go to Westport to check on the loons, the one place I consistently see them close enough to shore to get good photographs. It didn’t take long to spot this one, he was floating at the foot of the dock.

Common Loon

Still, when I get this close I’m amazed at how large they are, 32 inches long with a 46” wingspan.

As I sat there photographing the bird, I was amazed to see it’s leg pop out at what seemed like a weird angle to me as it stretched and preened.

Common Loon

That leg led me to The Loon Preservation Community, where I found: “The placement of a loon’s legs at the far back of the body means that loons can not easily walk on land. This difficulty is one reason why a loon’s nest is built right next to the water.”

I was disappointed that they weren’t in breeding colors, but this one that I spotted further out in the harbor was beginning to change colors.

Common Loon

By now I’m sure there would be some birds in full breeding colors. If the weather breaks, I’ll try to get back soon.

I also managed to get a “first” this trip, no, not the Snowy Owls, I’ve seen them before in the distance, but I’ve never seen this strange bird before. I was actually trying to photograph the Pelagic Cormorant on the left, but the bird on the right suddenly emerged from under the water.

cormorant and murre

I’ll have to admit that I’m not entirely sure what it is, though it’s size relative to the cormorant and it’s colors suggest it’s a Common Murre.

possible Common Murre

If it is, it must have it’s head tucked down because all the online pictures of a Common Murre show a longer neck. It also looks a little like a Short-Billed Murre, but my best guess is still a Common Murre.

My favorite bird of the trip, though, turned out to be Western Grebes,

Western Grebe Pair

which must have been my “bird of the year” since I got great shots of them at Malheur with chicks and then later in New Mexico. The best shots of them this trip, though, came at the next stop on my beach trip, Tokeland.

A Siege of Night Herons

We ended the birding portion of our California trip on a high note when we discovered a siege of Night Herons on the backside of the Colus NWR as we were leaving. I startled a flock of them as we headed back to the entrance.

Since I had never seen Night Herons in a flock, I didn’t recognize them when they flew off and dispersed. Luckily several members didn’t leave with the rest of the flock and once I looked at them through my telephoto lens I quickly recognized them by their distinctive shape and color.

Strangely, some of those that were the closest didn’t scatter, and I was able to get the best close-ups I have ever managed to get:

Night Heron

Of course, the heron’s tendency to freeze when spotted makes it relatively easy to get great shots.

Night Heron

Since it was against the rules to get out of your car on this part of the refuge, I had a hard time getting shot of this immature night Heron because it, unlike the adults, seemed determined to hide.

immature Night Heron

If I had recognized it as a Night Heron, I might not have tried so hard to get a shot of it.

Further down the road, we ran into an even more amazing sight,

Nigh Herons in Bushes

though photographically it leaves something to be desired. At first we couldn’t decide what was in the shrubs across the creek. When we finally recognized they were herons we could not believe how many there were, and this is just a small sample of what was there.

What a delightful way to end our trip to California. Birding was so good that we spent much longer than planned and paid for our fun when we hit Siskiyou Pass around ten at night. Our day of delightful sunshine turned to a chains-required near white-out at the Oregon border. Luckily we had taken the All-Wheel-Drive Honda Element for precisely that reason and were able to cross the pass without too much stress.

Colusa National Wildlife Refuge

After we left the San Pablo Bay NWR, we headed for the Colusa NWR, a few miles south of the Sacramento NWR since I had never been there before. I’ve already posted my favorite shot from our visit, Leslie’s White-Fronted Ibis, but we saw a lot more than that there.

I’m not sure there were more Snow Geese at Colusa NWR than at the Sacramento NWR, but the amount of feathers in the water

White Feathers in water

certainly suggests that there were more per square foot than there was at the Sacramento NWR. In fact, they were so thick that it was impossible to take a picture of a single bird, though the single Greater White-Fronted Goose in the middle of the flock caught my attention.

single Greater WhiteFronted Goose with Snow Geese

I’m not sure if the tight quarters was beginning to fray tempers, but there was an awful lot of goose talk going on, particularly among the Greater White-Fronted Geese,

Greater White-Fronted Goose

and it didn’t sound, or look, particularly friendly.

It wasn’t until we left the main “lake” at the visitors’ center that we began to see other kinds of ducks, but there were plenty of other birds to see, like this personal favorite,

male Northern Pintail

a male Northern Pintail.

I think Leslie saw her first Cinnamon Teal at the Sacramento NWR and kept telling me to get a shot of one. Either they were too far away or the sun was behind them when I was there, so this was the first place I was really able to get a good shot of one.

male Cinnamon Teal

There’s certainly no doubt where this guy got his name from though, is there?

Kestrels and More

I remember thinking the Mare Island Preserve was relatively desolate, particularly in comparison to the number of shorebirds we’d just seen at the San Pablo Bay NWR. There were certainly a lot fewer birds, but the raptors were quite active.

Right after we saw the Kite and Northern Harrier encounter, we saw a number of kestrels sitting on the fence surrounding the restricted area, and just plain whizzing by:

Kestrel

We were event treated to the hovering act that first drew my attention to kestrels many years ago:

Kestrel hovering

This is the first time I’ve ever managed to capture a shot of the kestrel mid-air as it dove

Kestrel mid-dive

as I have always found it impossible to pan fast enough to keep the bird in the frame. Luckily this kestrel was hovering higher than I’ve ever seen before, which gave me a longer reaction time.

Driving out the gate we even flushed a pair of Red-Tailed Hawks that flashed by.

Red-Tailed Hawk

No wonder the tiny salt marsh harvest mouse that lives in the pickleweed is endangered. It needs all the shelter it can find to escape this kind of onslaught.