Category: Port Orchard

While I was walking to the Port Orchard Public Dock to look for Horned Grebes, a gentleman, seeing the large camera around my neck, said, “You’ve got to get a picture of a seagull with a huge starfish in his mouth.” Naturally, I couldn’t resist the chance for any kind of good shot.

It was, to say the least, quite amazing.

Unfortunately, it was so close that I could not manage to fit the whole bird in the frame.

A little maneuvering, though, allowed me to show just how content the bird seemed with a starfish crammed in his throat,

no matter how uncomfortable that seemed to me.

I thought I’d finished taking shots and headed down the dock, only to meet the bird a little later, with the starfish folded in half and so far down his throat that there was

a clear bulge in the back of his neck.

If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I’m not sure I would have believed it.

After last weeks trip to Theler Wetlands I went to the Port Orchard Public Marina to see if the Horned Grebes were in full breeding color.

They were.

Unlike the week before when most were in various stages of changing color, this week most were in full breeding colors.

I’m totally amazed by their transformation from a small, inconspicuous bird to this.

I’m pretty sure that if they had a Common Loon’s wail that people would be calling them demonic birds.

Amazingly, despite their brilliant stripes, they actually seem harder to spot in the water than in their white plumage.

After Friday’s trip to Belfair I went to Port Orchard to see what was there since I hadn’t been there for nearly a month. Specifically, I wondered if the Horned Grebes would be in breeding colors now since this is about the time of year they change colors.

The first one I saw at the foot of the entrance looked exactly like the ones I had taken pictures of in February.

I didn’t have to look too hard, though, to find others that were definitely beginning to change colors, like this one

that had not yet developed the “horn” that gives the species its name.

In fact, a lot of them looked downright mangy, like this one,

something I can identify with it since I’m in the process of letting my hair grow out again.

This was the closest I saw to one in full breeding colors,

but it’s obvious it is going to be at least another week or two before most of them are in full breeding colors.

Regular readers know I always follow-up a trip to Belfair with a stop at Port Orchard and last week’s trip was no different. I continued seeing lots of hooded mergansers,

though this picture is actually made up of three shots of the same bird. I’m so used to identifying birds by their profile that I’m sometimes surprised when I see them from a different angle. For instance this is the first time I’ve noticed the way the stripes run down the back of the merganser, and I’m always surprised by how thin their head is compared to its length. Do you suppose that’s an adaptation to help it dive?

I regularly see Surf Scoters at the Port Orchard Marina, so often that I tend not to see them at all even though I was originally fascinated by the colorful beak of the males.

Generally though I don’t see White-Winged Scoters. In fact, I only have a few shots taken at a considerable distance. They seem much more common in the Western part of Port Orchard.

I think I could’ve gotten even more spectacular shots if I’d walked further down the pier, but I stopped when I got half way down the runway and saw this great blue Heron standing on the dock.

Taking pictures of birds often disrupts their routines, but I still try to do my best to avoid spooking them, particularly in winter when there’s little energy to waste.