What a difference….

What a difference a day makes!  Yesterday was so beautiful and today even the dog looked at me with a ‘do we have to’ look on her face…

Not only was it wet but chilly enough I’d been wishing I’d tucked some gloves in my pocket.  The 3 Trumpeter Swans, by the way were out there just the other side of the point of grass on the right of the picture.

Lots of salmon in both the ‘bays’ but especially the log bay…there was a Kingfisher in this area too.

Quite a few Bald Eagles out there…and gulls of course…

Only one Great Blue Heron, but lots and lots of ducks, mainly the usual suspects, Mallard, Green Wing Teal and American Wigeon, but also a few Common Merganser.

One thing I did notice today was the increase in Red Wing Blackbirds…the above picture, obviously NOT taken today but taken in this area in the past, shows a male Red Wing Blackbird.  Every winter the Chehalis Estuary has an over wintering flock of male Red Wings, numbering in excess of a hundred individuals.  For the past week or so a few individuals have been showing up, today about 30 of them were calling from the top of one of the area trees.  If all goes as normal, numbers will build and we will be ‘treated’ to listening to these guys for the next 4 or 5 months, to the point that even we bird lovers are saying ‘go some where else for a while!’.  IF the weather gets really cold, they tend to disappear but return as soon as it moderates.  Come March or April their behavior will change dramatically and during the summer breeding season their behavior will change again.