February 28, 2014

Duration of Visit: 9:30am-2:30pm
Weather: Sunny and beautiful. I believe it got up to 60 and I really couldn't have asked for a better day.

Map of Union Bay for Reference: CLICK HERE

Species count was 40: White-crowned Sparrow, Golden-crowned Sparrow, Robin, Spotted Towhee, Junco, Black-capped Chickadee, Brown Creeper, American Goldfinch, Tree Swallow, Double-crested Cormorant, Bushtit, Virginia Rail, Mallard, Green-winged Teal, Ring-necked Duck, American Coot, Bald Eagle, Red-tailed Hawk, American Crow, Steller's Jay, Northern Shoveler, American Wigeon, Bufflehead, Pied-billed Grebe, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Pacific Wren, Bewick's Wren, Marsh Wren, Northern Flicker, Song Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, Anna's Hummingbird, Wood Duck, Canada Goose, European Starling, Red-winged Blackbird, Belted Kingfisher, Gadwall, GBH.

New Arrivals: American Goldfinch, Tree Swallow, White-crowned Sparrow, Bushtit

Notes from the day:

No less than a few minutes into my walk down the trail to Yesler Swamp, I was greeted by close to 10 different species. It was the first time this year that I've seen either a white-crowned sparrow or a brown creeper so it was a surprising start to the day. The last few times I've seen creepers, they've been tagging along with flocks of black-capped chickadees or golden-crowned kinglets. This time it was was all by itself.

Yesler Cove was really quiet this morning. Aside from a few gadwalls and green-winged teals, nothing else was on the water. Except for the turtles, they were out sunning on every available log. There must have been close to 50 of them throughout the cove.

The teals were alarmed by something and took off in a hurry out onto the lake. The funny thing is that the gadwalls didn't seem to be concerned at all. They just went about business as usual. If they would have taken flight along with the teals, I probably would have been more inclined to investigate the cause of the alarm. I had been standing completely still observing them for some time before the teals took flight so the alarm probably wasn't caused by me.

As I moved along the fence line trail at Yesler Cove, I noticed the Steller's jays were unusually quiet. They've been obnoxiously loud over the course of the last month, so it was kind of strange. As I moved closer to investigate, two crows came from the direction of the greenhouses and began to mob a red-tailed hawk. They repeatedly dive-bombed it until it took flight and escorted it out of the area towards the lake. I came back to the same spot in the afternoon and the Jays were obnoxiously loud once again. It makes me wonder why the crows aren't afraid to mob the hawk but the jays are, being they're both corvids. I think maybe Steller's jay was on the menu for the hawk sometime in the not so recent past. What do you think?

As I exited Yesler Cove into the meadow, I was greeted by song in almost every direction. I walked towards the Stained Glass Booth and I was greeted by flocks of both yellow-rumped warblers and bushtits moving through the mid to lower canopy. The bushtits passed through the area in a large flock and were gone before I knew it. They were feeding on insects in the catkins while the warblers would take off from their perches to catch insects on the wing. Even though the encounter was brief, it was nice to see the bushtits for the first time in awhile. Here is a photo of one of the warblers that got within 5 feet of me.

The Anna's hummingbirds were all over the place today. I saw my buddy that's always at the same tree, no matter the weather, near Wedding Rock. They looked much greener today than they usually do. I'm sure it had something to do with better lighting, but I think the males are getting closer to breeding. They were chasing each other everywhere today. While they display that behavior rather frequently, they seemed to be more territorial than usual.

Shoveler's Pond was empty as usual. Maybe it's too deep for the dabblers and not deep enough for the divers? It's the only large watering area in Union Bay that doesn't have waterfowl on it at the moment. And it hasn't had any now for some time.

I was able to photograph my first belted kingfisher today! I've been trying to do so for over a year now and have been wildly unsuccessful. He let me watch him hunt before he flew off over to the lagoon, which is where I'm pretty sure he lives. I saw him over there a few weeks ago.

I was also able to see my first tree swallow of the year. I had heard on Tweeters that they had been seen down in Nisqually earlier in the week and was hoping they would make it this far north for my visit today. I probably only saw 5 or 6 of them feeding about 20 feet up in the air over the meadow near Southwest Pond.

As I was watching the swallows, the mating pair of eagles flew over the north end of the lagoon towards campus and the cormorants all took off flying towards the lake. Maybe the eagles have had cormorant on their menu in the recent past? I found it odd how that they fled the area but all of the other ducks and coots remained on the water in the lagoon. My guess is that they're slower in flight and are an easier target. Jon Young told a story of how he witnessed a bald eagle kill a GBH during a sit that he was doing so I wouldn't be surprised if they occasionally dined on cormorant.

Southwest pond was pretty active today. I saw my first two American goldfinches of the year on the northern side and in the southwest corner I heard my first Virginia rail! I waited forever to see it but it never made an appearance. There were actually two of them and they'd occasionally call to one another, but both always stayed in cover. At least I got to hear one for the first time.

The GBHs weren't gathered along Canoe Island any more in a rookery. Maybe they're getting ready to mate? The males build the nest so one of these days (maybe next week?) I'll get to see them carrying nest building materials. I only saw one today hunting along the water's edge in the lagoon. It was probably the least amount of GBHs that I've ever seen here.

One of the coolest things that I saw today were the eagles hunting over the lake. My friend Fil informed me this week that they prefer to hunt during sunny days because the warm air creates thermal masses that allow them to soar over the lake. Eagles sometimes need to be in the air for long periods of time while hunting and to do so without the thermal masses would take a tremendous amount of energy. To date, practically all of my best eagle encounters occurred on sunny days.

I also have a theory that the eagles sometimes time their lake hunts with the boats that move across the center of the lake. You see the ducks and coots all congregate in large flocks in the center. On calm days whenever a boat comes in, they all scatter to the shore. I doubt it's because they're afraid of the boats. The boats travel through the areas in which they congregate and split them up. The eagles must know this and swoop down to scatter them even more when they're disoriented. I saw the birds scatter a few times as the boats passed through but didn't see any eagles. They probably all expect the eagles to come and take cover regardless. Next week, I am going to look out for this behavior specifically.

So far this year, every pie-billed grebe that I've ever seen at Union Bay has been swimming/diving solo. Most of the time they intermingle with a variety of different species. But today, they were pairing up. I've never witnessed a courtship dance of a grebe and I'm hoping I'll get to do so next week.

Overall, it was the best day I've ever had at Union Bay. The only thing that would make it better would have been to see the Cooper's again. Maybe next week? Until then.

February 21, 2014

Duration of Visit: 11am-3:30pm
Weather: Cool and cloudy, rained hard before 11 and there were a few drizzles throughout the day.

Map of Union Bay for Reference: CLICK HERE

34 species seen today: Mallard, Northern Shoveler, GW Teal, American Wigeon, Gadwall, Pied-billed Grebe, Common Merganser, American Coot, GBH, Double-crested Cormorant, Bald Eagle, Red-tailed Hawk, Starling, Robin, Junco, Spotted Towhee, Song Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Golden-crowned Kinglet, RW Blackbird, Marsh Wren, Pacific Wren, Wood Duck, Canada Goose, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Northern Flicker, Crow, Black-capped Chickadee, Ring-necked Duck, Pileated Woodpecker, Killdeer, Steller's Jay

Didn't See this week (but did see week's prior): Golden-crowned Sparrow (saw a mating pair next to tree swallow pond last week), Cooper's Hawk, Bewick's Wren (Or at least I didn't see one), Belted Kingfisher.

Not many: Wigeons (only 2), Coots (they were all out on the middle of the lake), Anna's (only one).

Notes from the Day:

The Mallards were courting out in Yesler Cove. The male would circle the female and dip his beak into the water and flip it upwards into the air. The female would do the same as they swam in small circles facing one another. In a separate part of the pond, five male mallards were circling the same female. She didn't seem to have chosen a partner yet - since I didn't notice any one particular male defending her against the rest. I'm not sure if it was the lighting today, but the heads of the male mallards were a really beautiful green.

A male Anna's Hummingbird was the only hummingbird that I saw the entire day. He was still in his same tree in the tree island near the Research Conservatory that I had seen him at the week prior. Judging by his behavior, he's defensive of all 3 of the trees on the island - I previously thought he may have been defending only one. As I would walk around the island, he would change his perch to a position where he could keep an eye on me. These guys are super territorial. Other than him, there wasn't a bird to be seen in that particular area almost the entire afternoon - I made a couple of visits at scattered times to check.

Flocks of robins, starlings and a few red winged blackbirds fed together near the swamp where the American Goldfinches congregate during the warmer months. The rw blackbirds and starlings would take off first at an alarm. The starlings would all take to the air simultaneously with one alpha male leading the flock to both seek cover and return when he felt the situation was safe again. I'm not sure what triggered either of the 3 alarms that I witnessed over a 10 minute period, but the robins didn't seem to be concerned. They were actually incredibly bold and never stopped ground feeding the entire time that I was there.

Marsh wrens were everywhere today and were incredibly vocal. Most dominating voice of all of the birds today.

There were a large number of yellow-rumped warblers and ruby crowned kinglets but very few golden crowned kinglets today. Over the last few weeks, I've found the Golden-crowned Kinglets to far outnumber both of them. In fact, here's a photo of a Golden-crowned Kinglet who flew within a foot of my face a couple of weeks ago.

The killdeer finally made an appearance. There were two on the gravel road separating the bay from the school side parking lot. I thought they might be nesting but they just casually walked away from me and didn't do their typical broken wing act. Got a video of one of them trotting along. It was good to see them back.

One Common Merganser showed up right when I arrived on Yesler Pond. I always see them in very small numbers whenever I do actually see one.

Towards the late afternoon, I spotted the Red-tailed hawk via a pileated alarm call in the tall deciduous canopy next to Shovelers Pond and the pileated immediately flew away over my head to a safe zone a good 150 yards away from the hawk. It's funny how for each of the last two weeks, I haven't seen any raptors until the mid to late afternoon. Last week, about 15 minutes before I was about to leave a 5+ hour visit to the Bay, a Cooper's Hawk zips over my head over the Central Pond. As soon as it got to the northern side of the pond, a murder of crows took flight off of their high perches in a nearby tree to chase the hawk out of the area. Funny thing is, immediately after the crows took flight, so did an entire flock of European Starlings to assist in the chase. If the crows hadn't been there, I doubt they'd be so bold.

I was finally able to distinguish the fox sparrow from the song today with ease. The fox sparrow really does have a white chest where the song sparrow's is more gray. The song sparrow is also more bold and at ease with humans. The fox sparrow is very cautious and flighty.

There were double digit GBHs out by cormorant bay and it was the same thing last week. It's always the best area in regards to waterfowl diversity in the winter months in my experience. Most diversity compared to any other area in Union Bay more than likely in the winter. I couldn't get a good picture of all of the GBHds together so here's four of them.

Steller's have been all over the fence line trail by Yesler Pond each of the last two weeks. There seemed to be over a dozen of them scolding/calling something today.

Only saw one wood duck from the rowing building. Didn't have to walk to the road. You can always count the number of wood ducks you see at the bay on two hands. There aren't many of them here.

Practically all of tree swallow pond was full of Shovelers. They were everywhere, both juveniles and parents. The only other duck on the pond was a mating pair of wigeons. In fact, they were the only 2 wigeons that I saw all day. The last few weeks I've seen wigeons in much greater numbers.

I've been itching to see my first Virginia Rail for over a year at Union Bay. As usual, I combed the edges of most watering holes where cattails grew in search of them but it was to no avail. I'm confident I'll see them when the time is right.

The ducks and coots were out in the middle of the lake in large numbers this week. There were hardly any out last week due to the rough waters. Eagle sightings seem to be relative to the number of waterfowl out on the lake.

I'll write again next week.