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Saturday, June 24, 2017

Canoe trip....

What with one thing and another it has been a while since we've gotten anywhere so yesterday, with the weather warming up but not yet to the promised 'record breaking' heat we decided to throw the canoe in the water and poke about a bit.


water levels have dropped considerably since our last time out on the water although still higher than they'd been the last couple of years.  We swung down to check on the....


Purple Martins and were pleased to see more activity around the boxes...here is a female...


and here a male....think there was one fledgling visible but didn't want to bother them too much, knowing there is so much human activity they have to put up with.  Think there were about 7 birds and remembering that nesting continued well into August last year, think the colony is in pretty good shape.


turned and headed across the open water towards the area of the Chehalis River.  We saw a number of groups of Canada Geese....this one made up mainly of young birds not quite ready to fly while other groups were in their flightless molting stage and some flying about hadn't quite reached that stage yet.  Could hear a Loon but didn't spot it....have heard there are at least 4 loons in the area.


Cedar Waxwing were everywhere.....where ever there was a bush there was a wax wing.  Saw one pair doing the mating 'pass the tidbit' ritual so they are either just starting to nest or still thinking about it.  Saw a lot of Yellow Warblers in the same general areas, also a few Red-wing Blackbirds.


what we didn't expect to see was a family of Hairy Woodpeckers....the youngsters just having fledged out...


as it turned out, this wouldn't be the only woodpecker family we'd see.


an Eastern Kingbird was spotted as well....seems there are usually a few of these in the area each year.


Nice to see that Gray Catbirds have returned and are nesting in the same general area as usual...


Black-headed Grosbeak as well....could hear lots of Swainson's Thrush also heard a couple of House Wren!  Not a first for the area but certainly not usual.


Tree swallows are usual, this one perched by his active nest site...in fact there were active nests all over the place.  Saw a couple of Violet Green Swallows, a few Northern Rough Wing and some Barn as well.

When you are on the water you expect to see water related birds....and yesterday they were rather lacking...


There was this family of Common Merganser, the youngsters 'torpedoing' along the water way down the river ahead of us.  We heard a few Spotted Sandpiper but never saw one.



Several times a Great Blue Heron (or more than one) flew over.  Of course right now there is still a distinct lack of shore for them to land on.

What was a big surprise though....


was finding this Red-necked Grebe up in a sheltered area.  Have never seen one of these grebes here this time of the year.  We see them on the river and in the bay in the winter occasionally as they winter on the coast, but not during breeding season, which begs the question of if there is another and they are nesting here?  Pied Bill Grebe nest here regularly, in fact heard several of them yesterday...

oh and remember I mentioned the woodpecker families?  Well we stopped for a break on a bit of dry land...


and a family of Downy Woodpeckers showed up...here is dad...


and here is one of the youngsters.  Not only that, but also saw a young Pileated Woodpecker fly by us.   Obviously the end of June is when Woodpeckers hatch out!

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