Meadowlarks!

Today was promising to be a carbon copy of the last few days....lots of sunshine, some eagles flying around over head...as we were heading to the 'first bay' a couple of birds flew past, coming from the direction of the estuary, then five or six more flew over...their body shape was reminiscent of a European Starling, but they didn't sound like starlings....fortunately they stopped briefly in the very top of the two 'eagle trees'...still in silhouette I aimed the camera and hoped for the best....

and it worked.....they were Western Meadowlarks!  Of course this isn't the first time meadowlarks have been seen here,  I think they are probably quite common in mild winters out on the 'flats'...but it is always nice to see that they are still coming by!

over at the log bay there is less and less water and more and more Salmon, in fact haven't seen this many for a while - it is even starting to smell a bit 'fishy', which is a very good thing - it means there are lots of them returning to the area.  When we first moved to this area, close to 20 years ago there were days when you opened the door and didn't really want to breath it was so fishy....

This Northwestern Crow was perched in one of the poplar trees....at least I think it is a crow...I don't usually have a problem ID'ing them but.... it does seem strange for a crow to be perched all by itself, usually they are in groups...there was a pair of Ravens flying around over head...oh well, it was one or the other!

there was a lot of bird activity near the viewing platform - all in deep shade!  Saw a number of Towhees and Gold-crowned Kinglets have shown up.  Could hear Black-capped Chickadees and as I was maneuvering to try and to get a better angle of a lone Robin....this Red-breasted Sapsucker landed right in front of me, and I could hear another one back in the bushes on the other side of the trail.

and of course there were a few Bald Eagles around, including this guy perched right against the sun in the 'eagle' tree.