Dead Swan

Not everything you see in a natural area is ‘nice’…

Such was the case this morning when the first thing that caught my eye was this dead swan…not only was it unusual to see a dead one, but it was in an area, where to date this winter, I haven’t seen any swans…which means it must have been dragged to this point…

 

To counter balance the ‘bad’ – there were also these two little Bufflehead ducks ~ I have mentioned before that we have always had a little flock of Buffleheads wintering in the area by the boat launch – that is up until this year – this is only the second time I’ve seen Buffleheads in this spot this winter and the first time it was only 1, this time 2, maybe the flock will arrive yet!

Come mid-day the dead swan is still there – the light wasn’t any better and it was raining (what else?!) so I didn’t take binoculars but with this cropped picture you can see some feathers on the ground so something must have been feeding on it – my guess would be some of the many coyotes in the area.

Getting back to the live birds…this Great Blue Heron was posing nicely..

Over at the log bay you can see the water levels are dropping…that bottom log is out of water where yesterday it was completely submerged..and the flock of Red-wing Blackbirds were there…

There was also a pair (male and female) Hairy Woodpecker…this is the female and the male was at the top of the same piling….

A few Bald Eagles around – most of them juveniles which is about right for this time of the year as the adults are already thinking about nesting.  Also saw the pair of Raven.  There appeared to be some Mallards way out and could also hear Swans out there in the gloom, and on my way back home, 5 Common Merganser had joined the 2 little Bufflehead.