Ruddy Duck

On 23 January 2022, Erika and I photographed a pair of Ruddy Ducks on Capitol Lake in Olympia. In the winter we occasionally list this species, but only at this location. The bird in the foreground is a female and the back one is a male. Both are in Basic Plumage. Wahl et al. (2005) write that Ruddy Ducks are locally common migrants and winter visitors and rare or uncommon breeding birds in Washington.

Canvasback

Twice, Erika and I encountered a very large flock of Canvasbacks at Olympia’s Capitol Lake. We counted 43 individuals on 17 January 2022 and 75 on 23 January. These ducks are not rare in Washington, and eBird had no problem with our identification. Another feature of eBird is that it flags unexpected numbers of birds, which is what the app did on both of these occasions. I assured eBird that the birds were carefully counted. Knowing that our report was being questioned, I also attempted to take photos of the flock, although I could not capture all of the ducks in one frame. It never occurred to be to try a video clip, which I will remedy if we find the Canvasbacks in anywhere near these numbers in the future.

Hair Ice

Something completely new to us—Hair Ice. On 27 January 2022, Erika and I explored Nisqually State Park, about 40 miles southeast of Olympia. When we left foggy Olympia, temperatures stood at 39° and steadily fell to 30°—perfect conditions for the formation of Hair Ice. But this story is more bizarre. Although Hair Ice has been known for a century, only in the last decade have scientists realized that this ice forms only in contact with a fungus—Exidiopsis effusa—which grows on dead wood. The fungus appears to release chemicals from the wood that cause the ice to form hair-like crystals instead of normal ice. I am not sure why other fungi do not produce similar results. In any event, Exidiopsis effusa occurs in the Pacific Northwest, the eastern United States, parts of Central America, Europe, and Asia. My sources for this tale include Sciencealert.com and iNaturalist.

Wood Duck

One of the joys of our brand of birding is that every year our list begins anew on the first of January. By the 17th, Erika and I had a respectable species count. We lacked a Wood Duck, a bird that is “always” around, but turns out to be common in the winter in western Washington but becomes uncommon in the winter. The McLane Lake Nature Trail is our go-to location for seeing Wood Ducks, so we made a special trip there. We found one female Wood Duck loafing on a grassy patch in the middle of McLane Lake.

Golden-crowned Sparrow

Speaking of preening and feather care, on 18 January 2022 at the Nisqually national wildlife refuge, Erika and I encountered a fluffed up Golden-crowned Sparrow. The bird looked almost comical, sort of an avian Jabba the Hutt. The sparrow ignored us and returned to feather care.

Rough-skinned Newt

 

This Rough-skinned Newt surprised Erika and me on 20 January 2022 along the Challis Bike Trail near Olympia. January seemed early to find an amphibian. In fact, they breed from December through July along their western range from California to Alaska. These newts are common west of the Cascades in Washington. They are Washington’s most poisonous newt. They only cause mild skin irritation, but can be deadly if eaten. They have the same neurotoxin as pufferfish. This tetrodotoxin interferes with sodium flow and blocks nerve impulses, and can result in paralysis and asphyxiation.

Northern Saw-whet Owl

On 21 January 2022, Erika and I found ourselves looking for a Northern Saw-whet Owl that was reported in the Billy Frank Jr National Wildlife Refuge. We did not hold out much hope for success, since we only knew the general area in which to search. Despite being one of the most common owls across southern Canada, the United States, and the mountains of western Mexico, the owl’s distribution and biology are not well known. (eBird rates them as not rare, but seldom reported.) The problem is that they are our smallest owl, about the size of a robin, and finding their roosting perches is difficult. In fact, we walked right by this owl once before Erika found it. She said that she noticed the white spots above its wings.

Saw-whet owls hunt at night, taking mostly Deer and White-footed mice. These owls have asymmetric ears, which enable them to locate prey at night only by hearing (Rasmussen et al. 2020). They hunt from low perches, which they also use for daytime roosting. At the roost, they can be quite tame. Sometimes you can find these owls at their roosts by watching for “whitewash.” This sign, however, was not present under this bird.

Red-throated Loon

Erika and I witnessed some interesting Red-throated Loon behavior on 18 January 2022 at the Billy Frank Jr National Wildlife Refuge. The photo of the loon on its haunches appears to be an aggressive behavior called Penguin Posture. Most loons show similar behavior. I suspect, however, that this loon is drying and fluffing after feather maintenance. The loon then rubbed its head across its back, a preening behavior.  Loons often spread oil from their uropygial gland across their back feathers (Rizzolo et al. 2020). 

Pacific and Red-throated Loons

Erika and I photographed these loons 14 and 18 January 2022 at the Nisqually national wildlife refuge. Clearly both are belong to one of the three smaller loon species. Neither bird shows a large white splotch at the tail end, so neither is the very similar, but much rarer, Arctic Loon. Examine the image of the more distant loon. The bill, although held above the horizontal in this individual, is straight, not appearing curved upward. The back is barred, not spotted. The front of the throat is not uniformly white and there is a dark pattern of the base of the neck. Last, but possibly not least, the back is relatively black, although a close look will reveal white bars (rather than spots). The closer loon has different field marks, most clearly not like those I just listed for the first. Therefore, I conclude that the distant bird is probably a Pacific Loon, whereas the close one is a Red-throated Loon.

Anna’s Hummingbird

Clark and Russell (2020) write that male Anna’s Hummingbirds “turn their heads from side to side as they sing, flashing the brilliant iridescence as a signal to other hummingbirds.” Erika and I suspect this male, which we happened upon along Olympia’s Capitol Lake on 17 January 2022, was defending his territory. Notice the aggressively raised head feathers in the first image. The bird, at one point flying up to a more exposed perch, refused to yield his space to us. All the while, he flashed his iridescence at us. We did not hear any song, nor did we see any other hummingbirds in the vicinity.