Cinnamon vs Blue-winged Teal

This May, Erika and I found many Cinnamon and Blue-winged teal at the Billy Frank Jr National Wildlife Refuge. The drakes of these two species dramatically differ. The hens, however, are almost indistinguishable. Even the drakes seem to have a tough time, the two species often hybridizing. Female Cinnamon Teal have a slightly larger bill and usually have warmer brown plumage. In these photos, I suspect the pair of Teal are both Cinnamon, whereas the single hen in the last photo is a Blue-winged. She was in consort with a drake of that species.

The two teals’ ranges overlap across much of the western United States. Genetic research is somewhat confusing. The two species are very closely related. Blue-winged Teal, however, are more closely related to South American Cinnamon Teal than North and South American Cinnamon Teal are to each other (Gammonley 2020).

Vine Maple

“Those are odd maple leaves,” commented Erika as we strolled along the Kennedy Flats logging road on 3 June 2021. Google and iNaturalist had no hesitation identifying this bushy tree as a Vine Maple--Acer circinatum. This species is native along the American west coast, from southern British Columbia to northern California. Cultivated plants are occasionally found elsewhere. The shrub gets its name from its habit of sprouting from its tip if it gets bent over to the ground.

Marbled Murrelet

On 30 May 2021, Erika and I threw all caution to the wind (see sign in the image below) and birded the Bay Beach Access, at the Chambers Bay Golf Course in Pierce County. Alone in Puget Sound, swam a Marbled Murrelet, a species whose numbers have greatly declined. In North America they breed from the Aleutian Islands south to northern California. These seabirds breed in solitary nests in coastal old growth forests, an increasingly threatened habitat. Gill-net fishing and oil spills also threaten this species and its prey (Nelson 2020).

Chalk-fronted Corporal

Chalk-fronted Corporals are another dragonfly that Erika and I found on 2 June 2021 south of Olympia at the Darlin Creek Preserve. This species is found from southern Canada to the northern United States. This odonate’s name comes from the corporal’s bars on the upper side of its thorax. Chalk-fronted Corporals defend territories along the shoreline and in vegetation growing in ponds. Adults can be quite abundant, but their breeding reproductive life span tends to be short (Paulson 2009),

 

Yellow-breasted Chat

For the past two summers, Erika and I have heard a chat singing in an extensive bramble patch under the high tension power-line right-of-way that crosses the Kennedy Flats logging Road in nearby Mason County. This year, on 3 June, I heard it again. I made spishing sounds and, unlike previous years, the bird flew up, briefly checked us out, and then disappeared. Chats are found across most of the United States and southern Canada south through Central America. In eastern Washington, chats are relatively common breeding birds, but they very rare migrants and breeders in the western part of the state. 

Ornithologists traditionally considered Yellow-breasted Chats to be aberrant warblers—twice the size of other warblers. Other researchers placed them with the New World Blackbirds (Icteridae). The chat’s exact systematic status is still unclear. Recently researchers elevated Yellow-breasted Chats into their own family, Icteriidae, which consists of this single species (Billerman in Birds of the World 2020). It is not clear to me why Icteriidae is named so similarly to Icteridae (the family name for blackbirds). Perhaps the different spellings emphasize that the two families are closely related.

American Emerald

An American Emerald, another dragonfly found on 2 June at the Darlin Creek Preserve south of Olympia. Several made repeated flights up and down our path. The ones in flight were impossible to capture with our camera. This individual obligingly perched in heavy undergrowth along the side of the trail. Like the Dot-tailed Whiteface, this emerald is found from coast to coast, from our central states to southern Canada.

Western Tanager

A Western Tanager on 3 June 2021 at the suet feeder—how cool is that? This sighting initiated thoughts of spark birds—birds that inspire people to begin birding. I don’t think I have a spark bird. Instead I have a spark person. My seventh grade teacher, John Trott, opened a door for me to a whole world of birds and wildflowers. I asked Erika if she has a spark bird. I thought perhaps she would answer, “Western Tanager.” We saw these birds on the western trip when we first met and, when I first visited her parents, I gave them a watercolor portrait I painted of a Western Tanager. To my surprise, Erika replied, “White-headed Woodpecker. We saw it on a Fuzzy Mullen. I was describing the woodpecker, not naming it!” 

Dot-tailed Whiteface

An 80° F  2 June 2021 promised  a plethora of dragonflies, which Erika and I discovered at the Darlin Creek Preserve south of Olympia. The first of these were several Dot-tailed Whitefaces. You can easily see the yellow dot on the top of the abdomen on the male in the first photograph. The male and female in the “wheel position” in the second image are showing off their white faces. The species is widespread, found all the way across the central and northern United States and southern Canada.

Fledglings

On 31 May 2021, Erika and I banded several recently fledged Red-breasted Nuthatches (above) and Dark-eyed Juncos (below). According to the Burke Museum (Washington Bird Phenologies), the earliest egg laying date for the nuthatch is 19 April and the junco is 11 April. Typical incubation time is a day or two shy of two weeks. Thus these May records are not exceptional.

Red Crossbill

When Erika and I moved to Olympia just over two years ago, I predicted we would host Red Crossbills at our feeders. Finally, on 30 and 31 May 2021, a flock at least ten birds, red males and greenish females, descended from the surrounding forest and into our feeding station. The birds use their curiously crossed bills to open conifer seeds.

These crossbills showed no interest in our birdseed or suet, drinking, instead, at our water-feature. I’ve never given any thought to how crossbills drink. The process appears to be inefficient, considering that the crossed bills prohibit their tightly closing their bills. In some future post, I will write about the ten species of North American Red Crossbills—you tell then apart by their flight calls. Apparently they don’t interbreed. Unfortunately did not hear our visitors. The birds avoided our banding nets. Measuring a bird or two would have proved to be interesting.