Surf Scoter

At high tide on 14 November 2019, Surf Scoters filled Woodard Bay near Olympia. These sea ducks are common in most of Puget Sound. In any plumage, bill shape is a good field mark. Male bills sport clown-like colors. I’m not sure what is happening with the explosion of water in this photo. Synchronous diving, where a bunch of ducks dive together to better locate fish schools, is known for Surf Scoters. Perhaps this bird is driving fish towards its companions; or is this bird alerting its companions to our presence along the shore? Or is the bird simply quickly swimming to a new location? In any case, Surf Scoters eat a wide variety of bottom-dwelling invertebrates and small fish.

Northern Pintail

Drake Northern Pintails are handsome ducks. Erika and I found this one on 25 November 2019 at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. These ducks are abundant across Alaska, Canada, and much of western North America. In the fall and winter, pintails eat grain, marsh plants, and invertebrates.  Clark et al. (2014) assure us that, through prudent wildlife management, pintails “should have a secure future in North America,” despite threats from predators, farming and agricultural development, water shortages, environmental contamination, and urbanization. Population numbers, nevertheless, have fallen form six million birds in the early 1970s to 3.3 million now.

Horned Grebe

23 November 2019 found Erika and me watching about a dozen Horned Grebes feeding along the Bremerton, Washington, ferry dock. Although this grebe is known to feed cooperatively in groups, our birds appeared to be individually hunting. In the winter they consume fish and crustaceans. The birds swallow small prey under water, but bring larger items to the surface, where they manipulate, pinch and disable their catch (Stedman 2018). The grebe in the second photo carried what appears to be a crab, which seemed dead. The grebe made repeated dives with its crab, returning with it to the surface—until the last dive, when the bird reappeared without the crab. Presumably the crab was eaten under water.

Pacific Wren

For most of my birding career, ornithologists considered Pacific, Winter and European wrens to be a single species. These populations, however, prove to sing distinct songs and have significant differences in their genes. Where Pacific and Winter wrens overlap, they do not interbreed. Pacific Wrens breed along the coasts of southern Alaska and the coasts and western mountains of Canada and the United States. Isolated populations breed in South Dakota, Utah, and Arizona.

Pacific Wrens, although common in Washington, are cryptic and elusive. These tiny wrens skulk about forest undergrowth and prefer old-growth habitat. In the Pacific Northwest, they are often found along streams enriched with “salmon-derived nutrients” (Toews and Irwin 2012). Clear-cutting and other forest fragmentation pose threats to these wrens. I have, nevertheless, seen several Pacific Wrens in our Olympia backyard. This image is my first of these wrens I’ve banded—on 21 November 2019.

Peregrine Falcon

A distant Peregrine Falcon on 19 November 2019 at the the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. These falcons are famous for their 200 mph dives, often knocking prey out of the air with their clenched talons. Breathing must be difficult at such speeds, and may explain the presence of baffles, barely visible in this photo, within falcon nostrils. See also my previous blog on these baffles.

High speed stoops are not the bird’s only hunting method. This bird made several low passes over marshland, repeatedly returning to its initial perch. Peregrines are bird -specialists—birds constitute up to 99% of their diet—eating songbirds and other species up to the size of small geese. Peregrines also occasionally take small mammals, amphibians, fish, and insects (White et al. 2002).

Rhinoceros Auklet

 

Erika and I surprised a Rhinoceros Auklet at the end of a dock in Olympia on 14 November 2019—finally a half-decent photo of this odd bird. I have previously written that auklets are related to shorebirds and gulls and not to penguins, which they superficially resemble. Although they are adept divers like penguins, but auklets are also excellent fliers. Rhinoceros Auklets are found on both sides of the North Pacific. Most North American birds breed on islands in British Columbia, nearby Washington, and southeastern Alaska. These birds winter along the Pacific coast from Southwestern British Columbia to almost the tip of Baja California.

Barrow’s vs. Common Goldeneye

The first photo is a male Barrow's Goldeneye that Erika and I listed on 14 November 2019 at Woodard Bay Natural Area near Olympia. The second is of a male Common Goldeneye we found in Olympia on 16 November. The two goldeneyes are similar. Compare the sicke-shaped head spot on the Barrow’s. This spot is round on the Common Goldeneye. The white spots on the back indicate that we have a Barrow’s Goldeneye. I have only recently learned that the head shape helps separate these ducks. In both sexes, the forhead of the Barrow’s Goldeneye comes off the bill at a steep angle, whereas the head of the Common Goldeneye is much more gently rounded.

Barrow’s Goldeneye

Erika and I found a small flock of Barrow’s Goldeneye on 9 November 2019 in Budd Bay off Olympia. These ducks breed along freshwater lakes in the mountains from Alaska into the northwestern United States. They wnter in coastal bays or estuaries or freshwater mountain lakes that do not freeze. The species also breeds in Iceland and winters in eastern Canaca and the far northeastern United States. The duck is named for John Barrow (1764-1848), a British Arctic explorer. The bird with with bright bill is a female.

Pileated Woodpecker

This Pileated Woodpecker worked dead wood near the tip of a large tree at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge on 8 November 2019. This species is found in Eastern North America, across Canada, and down the northern Rockies and the Pacific coast to central California. Erika commented that this bird seemed to be darker than the Pileated Woodpeckers we fed in our Minnesota backyard.

Despite its extensive range, only two races of Pileated Woodpeckers are recognized by ornithologists. Dryocopus pileatus pileatus is found in the southeastern United States. from Kansas to Maryland, south to the Florida Keys. Florida birds may be slightly darker than more northern ones. Northern and western birds, D. p. abieticola, are similar but slightly larger. Pileated Woodpeckers along the Pacific Slope often have relatively unbarred underparts, which would might account for Erika’s observation that our bird looked dark. Bull and Jackson (2011), however, note that over 50% of western birds have identical plumage to eastern ones and both eastern and western Pileated Woodpeckers are the same size.

Ring-necked Duck

Ring-necked Ducks on 5  November 2019 at Olympia’s Capitol Lake. Erika and I did a double-take when we saw the single female in the first photo. The extensive white streak behind the bill made this duck look a bit like a Blue-winged Teal. The white band on the bill argued to the contrary. Despite being vulnerable to over-harvesting and prone to ingesting lead shot, continental poluations of Ring-necked Ducks appear to be stable or increasing (Roy et al. 2012). The species is abundant on Capitol Lake.