Bald Eagles and Salmon

Erika and I must be becoming Washington residents—we went birding in the rain. Curiously we did not see much on our 9 December 2020 walk up Kennedy Flats. Overlooking Kennedy Creek, we listed about a dozen Bald Eagles flying up and down the creek valley. Several eagles perched in the tree-tops along our logging road. Such a concentration should not be unexpected—the creek, like this side tributary, is full of dead Coho Salmon. Eagles are opportunistic feeders—they will actively hunt live prey or steal from other predators—and eagles regularly feast on dead fish and other carrion. 

Townsend’s Warbler

A Townsend’s Warbler visited Erika’s garden on 6 December 2020. This species breeds from Alaska, across British Columbia, south to the Olympic Peninsula, the Cascade Mountains of Washington, and the Rocky Mountains of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and western-most Montana. Birds winter from Vancouver Island, Puget Sound, and south along the Pacific Coast to Baja California and from southern Arizona south through much of Central America. Playing with eBird range maps, I notice an odd thing about this bird’s distribution in Olympia. They are often found in the urban area of the city during December and January. But in June and July, although found in the forests surrounding the city, they are absent from urban areas. This pattern does not seem to hold in other areas of Puget Sound (like in Tacoma or Seattle).

American Wigeon

When Erika and I visited the Billy Frank Jr. National Wildlife Refuge on 4 December 2020, the tide was high. Many of the waterfowl we listed, like these two drake along with a hen American Wigeon, were asleep. The high tide may be a good time for sleep. Mammalian predators may not be easily able to approach the birds—and the birds may have more limited foraging opportunities in the deep water.

Review: All the Birds of the World

All the Birds of the World. Josep del Hoyo, ed. 967 pp. Lynx Ediciones: Barcelona. Hardbound. $125. 

This book is amazing. If you are interested in birds, or if you need a gift for someone who is, take a look at this volume. This 967-page book contains a series of excellent color illustrations of all of the 11,324 known bird species of the world. For each species, both sexes are illustrated, if they differ, and many races are included—20,865 illustrations in all. 

The sample page below gives you an idea of the book’s layout. Each species is framed in a section that includes a range map, a notation of the bird’s conservation status, a red circle that indicates if ornithologists disagree about the taxonomic status of the bird, and alternate common and scientific names. There are checkboxes for your own lists. Even the approximately 150 species known to have become extinct since 1500 are included in an appendix. The book also includes a 37-page world atlas with details of interest to amateur birders and ornithologists. This book may strike you as fairly expensive at $125, but, as the publishers proclaim, it is the “easiest and most enjoyable way to browse through all the birds of the world.”

But it gets better! Included with each illustration is a QR code that, when read by your cell phone, links you to that species' account in eBird’s collection of videos, photos and sound recordings. The result is a mega reference book that can be enjoyed by anyone interested in birds. You can get more details or order through this LINK, (https://amzn.to/3q6gzvq). (If you buy through this link, I receive a small commission.)

Bufflehead

Two female Buffleheads greeted Erika and me at the Nisqually national wildlife refuge on 4 December 2020. The ducks fed in a large, shallow pond in a field near the refuge headquarters. What seemed odd was that the Buffleheads dabbled in such shallow water—so shallow that only the ducks’ heads went below the surface. Gauthier (2020) writes, in Birds of the World, that Buffleheads (except for the downy young) feed by diving in shallow water (up to ten feed deep). Gauthier, makes no mention of Buffleheads’ dabbling from the surface. He writes “all food acquired solely through diving.” These Buffleheads are apparently an exception to that rule.

Green-winged Teal

The handsome Green-winged Teal is North America’s smallest duck. They breed across northern North America, Asia, and Europe. Old World teal lack the white line on their sides but usually have white-lined green facial patches. The breeding range of the Eurasian birds extends into the Aleutian Islands, so I am always looking for one to appear in the winter here in Washington—so far without success. Erika and I took images of these male Green-winged Teal at the Billy Frank Jr National Wildlife Refuge on 4 November 2019 (top) and 4 December 2020 (bottom).

American Crow

Rain started falling on 24 November 2020. I was birding in West Bay Park in Olympia. I thought the light was interesting and took this photo of an American Crow. Feathers resist water, which rolls off the bird without being absorbed. In really heavy rain, birds can flatten their feathers, increasing their water resistance. Note the water droplets in the enlarged second photo.

Trumpeter Swan

Erika and I visited the less human-frequented south end of Capitol Lake. I am therefore fairly sure that  the two Trumpeter Swans we saw on 2 December 2020 were recent arrivals. After centuries of commercial harvesting, in 1935 only 69  Trumpeter Swan remained in the contiguous United States. With rigorous conservation and restoration management, numbers reached over 63,000 in 2015—and there are certainly even more birds today. In our part of North America, these swans breed from Alaska through British Columbia and Albert and winter along the Pacific Coast south to Washington and Oregon. The species has been reintroduced to many locations in the northern United States and southern Canada.

Each month, eBird issues challenges to its users. December’s challenge is to submit 50 photographs or sound recordings. If nothing else, this activity will provide me a bunch of blogging material. As I took this swan picture, I realized the neck reflection had possibilities for an interesting image.

Peregrine Falcon

If you look closely at this photo you can see a baffle in this Peregrine Falcon’s nostril. Such baffles are almost unique to the falcons. Conventional wisdom is that these baffles regulate airflow, which would be handy if you dove at speeds up to 200 mph.  Other hypotheses are that the baffles measure air speed or in some way help with the sense of smell.  Curiously hawks, which also dive, lack these baffles. The dark sides of this bird’s head are typical of western Peregrines. Eastern birds tend to have much thinner facial markings. This difference, however, has become muddled as birds have been reintroduced in the East or the West without regard to where they originated. Erika and I photographed this Peregrine Falcon at the Billy Frank Jr Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge on 1 December 2020.

Common and Barrow’s Goldeneye

Female goldeneyes are harder to tell apart than the drakes. This first photo is a Common Goldeneye that Erika and I found on 13 December 2019 on Capitol Lake in Olympia. The second we photographed on 17 December 2019 Woodard Bay, near Olympia. Identifying these hens is a lot like telling the drakes apart. The duck in the first photo has a gently sloping forehead and its relatively large bill has a yellow base, but is mostly dark. Look at the second image. That bird has a shorter bill that is mostly yellow. The forehead leaves the bill at an acute angle. All these field marks add up to the second duck being a Barrow’s Goldeneye.

Now for a quiz. What is the goldeneye in the third photo, taken on 20 November 2020 at the Nisqually national wildlife refuge? Although the bill is mostly yellowish, the bill is not particularly stubby. The forehead is not acutely angled. I think these field marks all add up to Common Goldeneye. But, if I am mistaken, it would not be the first time. The yellowish bill leaves me wondering if this might be an immature bird.