Here are a few more marsh birds. Yellow-headed Blackbird, Common Goldeneye with a flock of babies, hatch year Pied-billed Grebe, Eastern Kingbird, a pair of Ring-necked Ducks, American Coots and Gray Catbird. We had a fair amount of rain that day but also some sun breaks.
As I watched and photographed the Virginia Rail family (see last post), there were other birds singing and foraging in the marsh. I heard the familiar song of a Willow Flycatcher and was delighted to see it out in the open where I could easily photograph the tiny Empidonax flycatcher. If it had not been singing, I would have struggled with the ID. Song Sparrows were hopping along on the algae mats, foraging for what, I don’t know. There were three or four of them and some were probably young of the year. A Spotted Sandpiper joined the group, also foraging on the algae mats. And last, but not least, a Common (not so common in my mind) Yellowthroat sang from a prominent perch, giving me great views. Most of these images are heavily cropped as the birds are small and not that close.
Winter birding is not for the faint of heart. The weather is generally not favorable for optics and cameras and the birds can be few and far between. Feeders have the most diversity. Here are a few I’ve seen in December and January.
On a recent camping trip, this Eastern Kingbird was very tolerant of me in my kayak and kindly posed for me most days. Kingbirds are flycatchers, catching their meals on the wing. They patiently wait on a good perch til they see a juicy morsel in range.
Sky and I went to an agility event in Skagit County recently and we found ourselves with some extra daylight Sunday afternoon and Monday morning so we went bird watching. I have always wanted to see the huge flocks of Snow Geese that winter in the area and I was not disappointed! The images I made are lovely but they don’t fully convey the spectacle of 1000’s of white birds constantly shifting around the landscape. They feed in the rich agriculture fields (formerly the Skagit River estuary, now diked and drained) during the winter. Flocks lift off and fly around, seemingly at random, forming bigger and smaller flocks during the day. I highly recommend a trip to see these birds on their wintering ground. I was lucky to have nice weather. That’s not always the case. In addition to the geese, you can see a variety of raptors (I saw a Short-eared Owl and a Northern Harrier hunting at dusk), Trumpeter Swans and a wide array of water birds.
My Everyday Photos 