paulinabarryphoto-blog

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Species: Black Oystercatcher (Haematopus bachmani)

and

Herring Gull (Larus argentatus)

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Species: Sanderling (Calidris alba) AKA scuttling rocks

his is the nonbreeding plumage seen in Winter months.

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Species: Snow Goose (Chen caerulescens)

Read about them here:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Snow_Goose/id

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Species: Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceu)

Status: Least Concern

Description: Adult Male. Small glossy black body with a red/orange and yellow patch on each shoulder.Thin pointed black beak, black legs,dark eyes.

Information:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-winged_Blackbird/id

Male Red-winged Blackbirds are hard to mistake. They're an even glossy black with red-and-yellow shoulder badges. Females are crisply streaked and dark brownish overall, paler on the breast and often show a whitish eyebrow.

Male Red-winged Blackbirds do everything they can to get noticed, sitting on high perches and belting out their conk-la-ree! song all day long. Females stay lower, skulking through vegetation for food and quietly weaving together their remarkable nests. In winter Red-winged Blackbirds gather in huge flocks to eat grains with other blackbird species and starlings.

Look for Red-winged Blackbirds in fresh and saltwater marshes, along watercourses, water hazards on golf courses, and wet roadsides, as well as drier meadows and old fields. In winter, you can find them at crop fields, feedlots, and pastures.

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Species: Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus)

Description:  Adult female,Small merganser with distinctive rounded crest, Long, slender yellow and brown bill, Mostly dark gray with richer brown an light gray lining head crest crest, Dark eyes, white patch on wings

Found: Mid February Scutter Pond ,WA

Information:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Hooded_Merganser/id

Hooded Mergansers dive to catch aquatic insects, crayfish, and small fish. Males court females by expanding their white, sail-like crests and making very low, gravelly, groaning calls. Hooded Mergansers fly distinctively, with shallow, very rapid wingbeats.

Look for Hooded Mergansers on small bodies of freshwater. In summer, these small ducks nest in holes in trees, often near freshwater ponds or rivers. For winter, they move to larger bodies of freshwater, marshes, and protected saltwater bays.

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Species: American Wigeon (Anas americana)

Description: flock of females (about 38 individuals) About 21 inches in length. Dull gray/brown heads that gradate into a natural reddish neck and sides. The underbelly has a large, round, white patch. White and gray wings, black patch underneath the tail. Small gray bill.

Observations: Time: About 10 minutes. Tracks reveal that the ducks were digging or nudging snow away to feed on the grass beneath. Their diets usually consist of aquatic plants, insects and occasionally mollusks. Here they are grazing on a grassy baseball field. The flock often flew in circles a few times around the field before landing again, grazing, and flying again, sometimes in one large flock and often in smaller groups.

Status: Least Concern

Location Found: Civic  Field Park, WA, early February

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Species: American Wigeon (Anas americana)

Description: flock of females (about 38 individuals) About 21 inches in length. Dull gray/brown heads that gradate into a natural reddish neck and sides. The underbelly has a large, round, white patch. White and gray wings, black patch underneath the tail. Small gray bill.

Observations: Time: About 10 minutes. Tracks reveal that the ducks were digging or nudging snow away to feed on the grass beneath. Their diets usually consist of aquatic plants, insects and occasionally mollusks. Here they are grazing on a grassy baseball field. The flock often flew in circles a few times around the field before landing again, grazing, and flying again, sometimes in one large flock and often in smaller groups.

Status: Least Concern

Location Found: Civic  Field Park, WA, early February

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Species: Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus)

Description: Crow-sized, black body with bold white striped on neck and throat. Bright red head crest. Long, strait, gray beak. Red iris.

Observation: This woodpecker was on the ground! This woopecker was on the ground chipping into an old fallen log with many other woodpecker holes. Pileated woopeckers feed on carpenter ants almost solely. 

Location found: Civic Field Park, WA, early February

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Species: anna’s hummingbird (Calypte anna) Adult Male

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 Species: Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia)

Description: Red/Brown back with bold stripes with white n the underbelly. Yellow feet. Small, short bill. Round body.

Observations: Time: 3 minutes. Hopped out from the brush an onto an iced pond. Hopping underneath fallen branches foraging. SInging a “chimp song” http://www.audubon.org/sites/default/files/SONSPA_5.chimpcalls_NYle_1.mp3?uuid=58991b44dfc80

Status: Least concern

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Some species of bird (I think a varied thrush) was foraging in the mixed deciduous and coniferous forest in Civic Field Park, WA. Most of the tree species where it looks like digging occurred are large western red cedars 

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Rat Trail, Most likely the Norwegian rat (Rattus norvegicus)

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Species: Eastern gray squirrel tracks

Description:

Hind feet: 2.24inch Front feet: 1.5inch Four toes on the front feet and five on the hind. "hopping" gate much like a rabbit

Location found: Sehome Hill,WA

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Species: Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola)

Description: Female, black eyes, compact body with a large, round head. Belly is gray, back and head is darker slate gray White patch on the wing and cheek. Slate gray, short bill. 

Observation: Time: 25 minutes afternoon. Solitary. No other bufflehead or other species of waterfowl in the pond. In 25 minutes she dove 12 times for about 14 seconds each time. At one point she reared up an flapped her wings before settling down again and shaking the water off her head. At about 20 minutes he sees my sister walking and starts flapping her wings and swimming quickly to take off but then slows down and stays. At 25 minutes she got spooked by a tick snapping and quickly flew into the nearby brush.

into Status: Least Concern

Location found: Civic Field Park, WA, Late January

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Species: Unidentified, I’ll just call it a pink anemone

Observations: About 3 inches,consuming a crab

Location found: January 2017, Marine Park, WA

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Species: Shaggy Mouse Nudibranch (Aeolidia papillosa)

Location: January 2017, Marine Park, Fairhaven, WA

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Species: Western Gull

Observations: Barely an adult, the feathers on the head are still reminiscent of that of a juvenile. It had a sea star that it was trying to rip into pieces for easier consumption. It took about ten minutes before it could eat the entire thing, tossing its head pack to swallow the large arms of the sea star.

Location Found: January, 2017, Boulevard Park, WA