Pintails and Finches

Another dreary cold day….

as this picture taken from the viewing platform shows…more fresh snow all around, in fact it was snowing/sleeting down here earlier in the morning…

The only ducks seen today…

was this pair of Northern Pintail…a species we don’t see all that often here at the estuary….

over at the log bay…

there was quite a large, and very busy flock of American Goldfinch…here is one of the males – I’m starting to get the hang of what program to use on the new camera to at least get it to focus on the bird…

and here is a female Goldfinch…neither picture quite as crisp and clear as I’d like, but we’re getting there!

Again, Ruby Crowned Kinglet were seen from one end of the walk to the other…and this picture is crisp and clean…showing the potential that this new camera has.

At about this point a Northern Harrier flew down low…spooking a Greater Yellowlegs.  I hadn’t been able to see any shorebirds, until this one flew up in alarm from an area not visible from the pathways ….

Heading back I noticed…

a male House Finch….

which was soon joined by a female…this isn’t a ‘daddy’ bird feeding a baby bird…but a courting ritual where the male regurgitates and feeds the female….

This will be my last posting for a few days.  We are off in the morning to take advantage of a long weekend in order to make sure everything in the RV is in working order before we head off for our big trip in a months time…Happy Easter to everybody, maybe the Easter Bunny will bring some seasonal temperatures…we don’t seem to be getting them any other way.

Sandpipers and Sapsuckers….

The unseasonably cool weather continues…

we are making some progress as we are getting sunny periods between the rain/sleet/hail showers….

Despite it all spring continues to make progress…just after catching a brief glimpse of that Common Yellowthroat, and then watching a male Rufous Hummingbird chase a Ruby Crowned Kinglet, spotted this bit of red…one of a pair of Red-breasted Sapsuckers that have been seen pretty much daily…

over at the log bay I had been just about to take a picture of two Greater Yellowlegs Sandpipers that were right in close to shore…when a dog, one of 3 loose ones came splashing across the water…so of course the Sandpipers took off…crying their alarm cry.  This is a protected area – the park is clearly marked ‘Dogs on leash at all times’ so why do people insist on disobeying!

Once the dogs and their owner moved on the Greater Yellowlegs reappeared, although not venturing in as close as they had been…today there were 3 of them.

a few American Goldfinch showed up as well…managed a picture of the back of one of them…notice the progression of the ‘leafing out’ as well.

as we were heading back…one of the Red-breasted Sapsuckers flew into the cedar grove…  I think this is the pair that nested up in some old Alders last year.  This year that nesting site has been expropriated by a pair of European Starlings…so the Sapsuckers are checking all of the cedar groves for a suitable site.

Robins, of course, continue to be much in evidence…there were quite a few Varied Thrush about today too.  I’m not sure how many Robins are in the general vicinity, but some in depth work is being done on a section of lawn at the complex I live in, and over 100 robins were enjoying that!

We spent some time at the viewing platform, just watching…the Black Capped Chickadee were going back and forth to the nest site, there were lots of Ruby Crowned Kinglets around….this American Goldfinch was enjoying some Hardhack seeds.  I’ve mentioned before how important the seeds of this native shrub are to the birds.