Well this morning we set off in the canoe in search of shorebirds....
it was breezier than we would have liked but beautiful non the less. Here we are sitting right over the path that we'll be walking on by the end of the month if not before, the way the water levels are dropping!
we headed over towards the log jam between the Harrison River and the Chehalis and could see there was lots of activity going on. It was also getting rougher...taking photos from a bouncing canoe does not lead to clear crisp photographs.
as we got closer we could see lots of Common Raven and.....
Turkey Vultures! Lots of Turkey Vultures, counted at least 35 of them. The Sockeye Salmon are running in the Harrison, hence the interest.
thanks to the bouncing canoe none of the really close up shots worked out but this is one of the better ones.
of course we'd set out to see shorebirds and there was definitely lots of 'shore' now but although we saw evidence by way of foot prints and beak probe marks, not a shorebird in sight.
a number of Red-wing Blackbirds though and also some swallows or maybe even swift of some sort, couldn't really ID any of them. From this point we turned back to wander up the arm of the Chehalis...
quite a few Great Blue Heron, mainly young ones like this guy, were spread around the area.
a lot more ducks too, these were young Hooded Merganser....
up and around the corner were some Mallard....there were flocks of various ducks flying around as well, all very restless and spooky as they tend to be at this time of the year.
the only shorebirds we saw the entire trip were the Spotted Sandpiper that have spent the summer in the area. It was very quiet for other bird life as well. Cedar Waxwing were flying back and forth across the river but that was about it. Perhaps it was the almost gale force conditions that were keeping the birds out of sight.
there were still lots of Canada Geese just about everywhere you looked, most were now finished their molt and able to take flight again. It was at this stage that the camera went in it's bag and I had to pick up the paddle to help my husband as it took all our strength to fight the wind and make it across the bit of open water to home. So still no shorebirds.....
Oh my goodness! I can't believe how quickly the water levels are dropping!
walked down to the boat launch this evening with my camera - went down the other night without a camera and there were Geese and ducks right in the boat launch.....of course not tonight!
however I did spot some Pied-bill Grebe over in the grasses on the west side - saw 3, only 2 in this photo.
back to water levels...it won't be long until we can walk right to the end of the path! I'm really hoping to get out in the canoe tomorrow, thinking that if we don't get out there in the next few days we aren't going to be able to get out at all until next spring.
Back in the yard, the Chestnut-back Chickadee family continues to entertain in the yard...
here are two of the babies.
Another stretch of way too hot weather has had us spending all our time on our shaded patio, and today we were entertained by yet another family of Chestnut-backed Chickadees....
this time there were at least 5 of the little guys and they were very taken with our little water feature.
this little guy sat on our patio table, with both of us there as well.
here a couple decided to bath together.
at one point a Pine Siskin dropped in to see what was going on. Haven't seen Pine Siskin for a while but a few are starting to show up.
Chickadee's aren't the only baby birds still around.
this fledgling Song Sparrow has been out there the last 3 days but isn't as co-operative as the chickadees when it comes to having it's photo taken. A mother robin was seen with a mouthful of worms while Steller's Jay have been in and out. Still some American Goldfinch babies as well although not as many as a week or so ago. All this should serve to remind that the nesting season stretches well into the month of August so no tree cutting or heavy shrub pruning yet!
One more look at the sweet little guys....
It was a nice morning so we decided to take the canoe out again....
We are sort of between 'season's' right now. Checked out the Purple Martin boxes but they were empty,no sign of any Martins today, in fact there was no activity at any of the swallow boxes either and very few swallows,other than Barn Swallows around. We did see some young...
Spotted Sandpipers....there were actually 3 here at the first bay.
decided to head over to the edge of the Harrison River, the 'islands' are just about re-emerging but not quite. Shorebirds should be starting to migrate through any time now so happy to know there will be some 'shore' for them to settle on. Water was flowing very swiftly here so turned back.
lots of Canada geese everywhere you looked. Most still in molt but obviously some were now finished and able to fly again.
quite a few Great Blue Heron including this very young one. Once again we could hear a Loon but never spotted it. Headed up the Chehalis River and saw....
young Hooded Merganser up ahead, there was also something large crashing about in the vegetation and worried that it might be that mother bear with her cubs, we didn't go any further.
Could hear Pied-bill Grebe but couldn't spot them. Headed back home.....of note lately around the feeders are the number of....
American Goldfinch....lots of youngsters (none in this photo), the adults are already loosing their bright breeding plumage.
lots of Chestnut-backed Chickadee families too. Also still seeing lots of young Steller's Jay and the last few days, Northern Flicker seem to be all over the place.
The heat wave over the past while has kept us inside but since today it is easing up to more reasonable temperatures we went over to Kilby for a short walk along the dike.
Could hear quite a few birds but didn't see that many....
there were quite a few young swallows, like these two Tree Swallows....
and this young Barn Swallow. Also saw a Great Blue Heron, a few Robins, and a Bald Eagle.
Since the campground is full, took this photo of the bay from further along the dike.
as you can see the water levels are still high with not much in the way of beach showing. It was also quite windy today.
stopped and took this view looking up the Harrison River...there is apparently a wildfire burning further up the river but no sign of it from this end. We're hoping to get back out in the canoe again soon, there should be a few areas of dry land re-emerging and in another couple of weeks we should be starting to see migrating shorebirds.
Got brave and attempted heading out in the canoe again this morning...
it was much calmer out there today. We decided to just creep along the edges alongside Morris Valley Road and over to the Nature Trust lands.
We sure heard lots of birds but they were staying hidden. As we got into this area there were Red-wing Blackbirds, Common Yellow throat and Marsh Wren but spotting them was hopeless. We could hear Pied billed Grebe and unfortunately, we also heard bullfrogs. Bullfrogs are an invasive species that are depleting the population of native frogs.
worked our way in as far as we could, haven't been in here for years. Again, birds everywhere but not co-operative for photo taking.
did find some aquatic wildflowers....looked them up and this is Lesser Bladderwort
As we headed out we could hear a call that neither of us recognized....couldn't find anything so have no idea what it was...a water bird of some sort I think. As water levels drop the water birds will be forced into channels and that is when there is more likelihood of spotting them. Right now there are just too many places to hide.
speaking of hiding....more molting Canada Geese.
The only bird sighting of note today was this.....
Eastern Kingbird.
After much debate as to what the weather was going to do, we decided to chance it and take the canoe out this morning.
that piling is obviously a favorite Bald Eagle perch as there was one on it again this morning. Headed over to check out the situation at the martin boxes...
they were still there but not as many so I expect that as the young become more independent they will probably be leaving...
notice the leg bands on this Purple Martin. So after quickly checking here we made a bee line for the arm of the Chehalis River. Skies were still iffy,
as we approached saw a very large flock of Canada Geese sneaking along, obviously in their molt stage when they are incapable of flight so stay hidden and very, very quiet.
once we were in the river there were swallows everywhere! Mainly Northern Rough-wing....here a bunch of young ones (there is one young Tree Swallow at the extreme right).
All the swallows, like this Tree Swallow, were flying low over the river and actually dipping and picking bugs up off of the surface...tried to capture that but didn't manage too.
There were also Violet-green Swallows, like this one above. Headed further up the river keeping an eye out for the mother black bear that is apparently in the area and rather protective of her two cubs.
Found a number of Spotted Sandpiper....there were also lots of Cedar Waxwing, but keeping high up in the tree tops. There were at least 2 Belted Kingfisher, 3 Great Blue Heron, and a whole mess of young Common Merganser, unfortunately they were hugging one side of the river and we were on the other with a screen of grass between us, so no photos.
As we were in the river we noticed it getting darker and the temperature was dropping but didn't realize how wild it had got out there until we rounded the corner to head for home....
it was a very rough ride....but the rain actually held off until the canoe was back on the truck!
