More normal

With an over cast sky and chilly temperatures, the park was back to normal today.

A couple of Bald Eagles down feeding at the log bay and more scattered about in all the fore shore trees…it would seem though that the large numbers of them have departed…this seems a bit early for that though as we usually have eagles well into January.  Even the numbers of gulls have diminished dramatically with only one patch of resting gulls out on the flats, rather than the three or four we’ve been seeing for the past month or so.  This Thursday is the official Christmas Bird Count day for our area…let’s hope enough of the birds hang about for that.

 

One of the reasons for the lack of birds could be the extremely low water levels…they are about as low as I’ve ever seen them.  Not really surprising since other than a bit of ‘mist’,  we’ve had virtually no precipitation so far this month. 

The ‘eagle tree’ by the viewing platform was being shared between a handful of eagles and these Red-wing Blackbirds.  Heard a Kingfisher and there were Chickadee’s in the bushes.

the first bay is as dry as everywhere else.  There was one pair of Salmon idly circling in the only deep puddle..with no way of leaving it even if they wanted to.  A little flock of Junco’s and a Song Sparrow were bathing over in the back corner…too dark and too distant for a picture.

This Great Blue Heron was back in his favorite fishing spot…along with a number of Mallard and some American Wigeon and Green Wing Teal.  Usually, by this time, a small flock of Bufflehead have taken over this spot for the winter months.  There has been no sign of them yet.  I seem to recall they were later arriving last year too so there is still hope.