Nisqually Wildlife Refuge

Northern Pintail


Northern Shoveler



Cackling Geese

April 9, 2011 Nisqually Wildlife Refuge, near Tacoma, WA

Montlake

This is one of my favorite and also one of the closest places to where Max and I live, to go birdwatching. It lies just to the East of the UW stadium and practice fields. There is a nice loop trail that starts out in an open meadow, skirts around some small ponds and takes you past the marshes of Union Bay. In the distance you can see almost all of Lake Washington, the 520 bridge and depending on the season people sailing, canoeing and sometimes Stand-up-Paddling. Any season is great, but Spring is particularly fantastic for birding! Here are some pictures from the last year or so at Montlake.


Great Blue Heron surrounded by some turtles and ducks. In the background is the 520 bridge.


House Finch (male)


Green-winged Teals all in a row


Brewer's Blackbird


Ring Necked Duck


Wood Ducks and American Coots




Max looking out at one of the small ponds

Discovery Park in April: Bald Eagles, Sparrows and Pesky Crows

My mother and Sister came to visit and while they were here I was able to take my mom to Discovery Park. One of my favorite places to birdwatch, especially the Southern Loop out to the water. While we were walking along we saw a few fully mature Bald Eagles, one immature Bald Eagle, a Savannah Sparrow, a Song Sparrow and some pesky crows who were bothering one of the Bald Eagles.










Crow dive-bombing the Bald Eagle.


Song Sparrow


Savannah Sparrow

Sequim and the Olympic National Park

Max and I went on a trip to Sequim and the Olympic National Rainforest back in March. Due to a lot of laziness and some computer problems I'm just getting them up now.
We chose to venture the 3 hours out to Sequim for one place in particular, the Dungeness Spit. This 5.5 mi long spit of land, mostly sand, tall grasses and plenty of driftwood, is the longest natural sand spit in North America. Due to the location and length of the spit, walking along you are able to see many sea birds and sea life at a closer range than normal. For us this was the case indeed, we saw several new sea birds and a couple of Harbor Seals. Hopefully you will enjoy these pictures, sorry they're not the best, the birds were still far enough away to still be a bit blurry.


Nonbreeding Pacific Loon on left and a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers on the right.


Peregrine Falcon, the fastest bird in the world, swooped down right in front of us. Hung out for a bit, then flew off.


A group of Harlequin Ducks, really beautiful coloration on both male and female.


I think this may be a Glaucous-winged x Western Gull hybrid. He is eyeballing that starfish.


He went for it.




Some nice pictures of the surroundings.

The next day we went into the Olympic National Rainforest and hiked around this beautiful glacial Lake Crescent. The lighting was too dark to get any good pictures of the birds we saw.

Pair of Flickers: Male Display Contest

Today I saw around 5 or 6 Red-shafted Flickers in my yard. What's more is that the males were having a display contest consisting of head swaying and tail-fanning while giving out a wika-wika-wika calling, then freezing and staring at the other. I was able to record it all but I can't figure out how to get it on here, sorry. I was also able to get some amazingly close and detailed pictures. I hope you enjoy!

The female Flicker foraging for food

The female Flicker

One male showed up.

Then the second male showed up.

They have their first display contest. (That I see at least)

One of the males approaches the female (who is walking to the left) after the first display contest.

The male then forages for food.

And the second display contest between the two male Red-shafted Flickers.

Gray Jays

We went on a hike up Mount Walker, and at the top there was a very social and brave group of Gray Jays. My boyfriend Max, our friend Tom and I got silly and took pictures of them on our hands and heads.

Pair of Flickers

There is a pair of Red-shafted Northern Flickers that visit my front and backyard often. I got a few good pictures of them. The female flew away right as I was going to get them both in a shot. The one with the red under the eye is the male (the one on the roof) and the one with no red is the female (in the tree).