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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Mew Gull and Meadowhawk

Heron in the water

A pretty quiet day out on the flats today.  Like I’ve said before, sunny days don’t have nearly the activity that inclement weather days do, that could be partly due to the increase in human activity in the area on sunny days.  There is one lone Great Blue Heron out there, belly deep in spawning salmon..I should note that it is starting to smell a bit ‘fishy’ in this area even though, to date, the numbers of salmon are low…hopefully that is just because it is early yet.

Mew Gull at log bay

Back at the bay by the viewing platform you’ll note one lone gull there on the water…

Stirring up the water

This, quit dainty looking gull is a Mew Gull…..

Mew Gull and Salmon

They stay quite close to a pair of spawning salmon, dashing in and grabbing the roe as the salmon drop it.  They will also ‘stir up’ the water to bring the roe, or salmon eggs, closer to the surface, where they quickly devour them.  You can see that ‘stir’ effect in the ripples on the water in the photo before this one.

Western Meadowhawk

Wanted to toss this in.  These red ‘dragonflies’ are actually called ‘Western Meadowhawks’ and there are a lot of them on the grassland areas right now.  Usually they are gone by mid October, but we have yet to have a good frost. 

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