Our morning walk wasn't great. An off leash dog racing all through the spawning salmon and chasing every bird in sight, is not the way to start a day! Don't get me wrong, I am a dog owner but people, use your heads! Dealt with today's episode and probably created another enemy but if all of us could try to educate when we see it happening....
so the only photo from this morning is this of some Mallard and a couple of American Wigeon (on left)
after lunch we went over to Harrison Bay....
first time in months and months that nobody camped there.
VERY quiet out on the bay. Seems unusual but I think the weather has us thinking it is later in the season than it really is. Was looking out there and saw what I thought was a loon, wasn't going to even bother taking a photo it was so far out....but I did....and here is the first interesting sighting....
because it wasn't a loon....it was a Western Grebe! Not the first time they've been seen on Harrison Bay but seeing one of these larger grebes anywhere is an event as there just aren't that many of them. I think it was 2 years ago when one hung out in this area for several weeks.
back to the walk...
the Bald Eagle pair were on their under construction nest. Looked a bit more substantial now then when we first saw it.
Not much in the way of small birds, think most were sheltering in the hedgerows as it was still pretty chilly. Did see several Spotted Towhee.....
and a Dark-eyed Junco. Heard a number of small woodpeckers, downy and Hairy, and some Black-capped Chickadee and Steller's Jay, but getting photos was a whole different matter.
Now for the other sighting....this was actually first thing this morning, looked out the window and said OMG....
and Evening Grosbeak! (Yellow bird) Evening Grosbeaks are a species whose numbers are declining although no one really knows why. They tend to roam back and forth across the country, usually in smallish flocks. Seeing just one bird like this is unusual. Hopefully he was scouting out the territory! I checked back and this is the first time there has been one at our feeders since August of 2014. Grosbeaks love berries, but they also love sunflower seeds, in fact they can really go through the food if they decide to stay. The blackbird in the photo is, of course, a Red-wing Blackbird. There is a small flock of about a dozen males that have been coming to the feeder. Blackbirds will eat anything in the way of seed....sometimes in late winter we can have a hundred or more....cheap bird seed or even chicken feed is good enough for them when you get those sort of numbers!
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