Weather: Beautiful day overall. Mostly sunny and in the 60s.
Map of Union Bay for Reference: CLICK HERE
Species count was 43: robin, spotted towhee, dark-eyed junco, black-capped chickadee, brown creeper, American goldfinch, tree swallow, violet-green swallow, double-crested cormorant, bushtit, mallard, green-winged teal, ring-necked duck, American coot, bald eagle, Wilson's snipe, American crow, northern shoveler, American wigeon, bufflehead, pied-billed grebe, yellow-rumped warbler, ruby-crowned kinglet, Bewick's wren, marsh wren, northern flicker, song sparrow, Anna's hummingbird, Canada goose, European starling, red-winged blackbird, gadwall, GBH, golden-crowned kinglet, Savannah's sparrow, house finch, golden-crowned sparrow, killdeer, rock dove, Steller's jay, hooded merganser, brown-headed cowbird.
Notes from the day:
Today I took a little different approach to birding at the Fill since I was with my students from Alderleaf. Typically, I prefer to find high activity spots and sit for prolonged periods of time to allow the birds to relax and resume baseline behavior. When in a group, it's rare that everyone has enough patience to sit for long enough to be able to enjoy the birds when relaxed. So I essentially just took the approach of reviewing where the different species were located throughout the area and what specific behaviors that they've been demonstrating as of late.
One great benefit of being in a group was that we had a lot of eyes and birds were harder to miss. One of the students spotted a Cooper's hawk perched mid canopy in Yesler Swamp. I probably wouldn't have spotted it on my own. It was also the students who located the first pair of cinnamon teals to arrive for the year. We spotted these two on the Main Pond. They just arrived here from their wintering grounds in South America. I'm expecting to see the blue-winged teals within the coming weeks who are travelling from just a little farther south.
The mallards truly are the bravest of all the ducks. At least here at Union Bay. For some reason today I was able to get closer to them than I ever have before. Maybe it's because they've expended so much energy in courting, nesting and territorial defense that they aren't as quick to move as they once were? Here's a picture of one of the students hand feeding a female mallard near the Southwest Pond.
Another killdeer mating pair (maybe it's the same pair from last year) has nested in the tall grasses in the the meadow directly to the west of the Main Pond. I didn't get to witness it myself, but another group of students was able to observe one of the killdeer do a broken wing display. The broken wing display behavior is one typical of birds which nest on the ground near open areas. Then intent is that the bird pretending to have a broken wing is trying to lure you away from it's nest by becoming an easy target for a predator. The white-crowned sparrow also performs the same behavior.
The baby Anna's hummingbird in the cherry tree near the Turtle Logs has almost grown bigger than the nest. They typically only stay in the nest for between 2-3 weeks so this is probably one of the last times I'll get to see it here. I've had a chance to watch this little guy since it's first days, thanks to another birder who pointed out the nest location.
One of the other teachers heard a common yellowthroat off the main trail near Shoveler's Pond. As you may have figured, they are elusive little guys and didn't show themselves. They typically sing their easy to recognize, simple song over and over from within cover. Let's put it this way, I've heard about 15 of them so far this year and have only seen one and that was only for a split second.
A house finch nest had fallen to the ground just north of the Turtle Logs - just across the trail from the hummingbird nest. It seemed however that they had built a new one already since one was bringing nesting material back to the same spot where the previous one fell (about 15 feet up within a ledge on a large tree). Here is one of the student's displaying the nest.
Overall, it was a great day with the students and a few of them even got the birding bug. I also found out through them that you can rent a canoe for $9 an hour and I think that one of these weeks I am going to rent one to get a different perspective. Also, I'd be able to observe some areas of the Fill that I typically wouldn't be able to get to.
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