Month: May 2018

On to Bottle Beach

Even though I reached Bottle Beach two hours before high tide, I realized I should have been there at least an hour before when I was greeted by this Western Sandpiper

up on the sand. It turned out to be an extremely high tide — a reminder just how critical tides are in seeing birds.

Although there were lots of Western Sandpipers, there seemed to be an unusually high percentage of Black-Bellied Plovers

and I was able to get closer to them than usual.

I particularly liked this shot showing Black-Bellied Plovers in winter plumage, in the back, full-breeding colors, on the left, and in an intermittent stage.

I would love to have had more of a chance to get shots of the brilliantly colored Dowitchers,

but I did like this shot of them resting on this little “island.”

A Day at Ocean Shores

Since the sun refused to quit shining after our return from Hawaii, we decided to take the camper on this year’s inaugural trip this year and stay overnight at Ocean Shores. We couldn’t have asked for better weather, but — considering this was the big Shorebird festival — we saw surprisingly few shorebirds.

This small flock of Western Sandpipers were the only birds I would call “shorebirds” that we saw while in Ocean Shores.

I wouldn’t have been at all happy if that had ben all the birds we saw on our eight miles of walking, but a couple of Common Terns

did a flyby, and we saw a small flock of Greater Scaup.

The best sighting of the day, though, was this Osprey that flew directly overhead and looked me straight in the eyes

before continuing up the coastline looking for the day’s meal.

Having lived in Aberdeen for six months many years ago, I wouldn’t have complained about a sunny day at the beach even if we hadn’t seen a single bird.

Back to the Grind

So, what do you do after a week-long trip to Hawaii if you get tired of sitting at your computer processing shots you’ve taken? If you’ve managed to bring the sunshine back with you, like we apparently did, then you head out Sunday to Theler Wetlands to see what has changed since you were last there.

We discovered that a few Barn Swallows

have joined the Tree Swallows

on the boardwalk railing.

There’s at least one Great Blue Heron that hasn’t started nesting yet.

When we checked the Port Orchard marina we discovered a single Horned Grebe in breeding colors

despite my fear they would all be gone before we got back again.

A Golden Plover

Though I’ve spent considerable time looking for Golden Plovers in flocks of shorebirds, I’ve never seen one until our trip to Hawaii. While talking to the biologist at the Botanical Garden she mentioned that there were two birds that I could find nearby. One of them was the Golden Plover, a bird that I associate with the beach. Luckily, she told me to look for them on the well-groomed lawns or I would never have seen them.

It didn’t take long to see one emerging from the hedge that lined the resort .

Luckily, it seemed indifferent to people so I managed to get a few good shots both coming

and going.

It was definitely an unexpected treat.