Showing posts with label for the birds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label for the birds. Show all posts

For the birds: Birds need them - we need them - let’s save the trees

Friday, August 2, 2019

Golden-crowned Kinglet in tree
Photo by Elaine Chuang
By Christine Southwick

All our local birds need trees. Our yard birds are classified as Perching Birds since their feet have evolved to clinging to tree branches.

Most of the birds in our area eat, sleep, and breed in trees. Northern Flickers, Downy, Hairy, and Pileated Woodpeckers, and Red-Breasted Sapsuckers are prime examples.

Did you know that Black-capped and Chestnut-backed chickadees, plus Red-breasted Nuthatches, are just some of the birds that use old woodpecker cavities for their nests

That’s already eight cavity nesters that need good-sized local trees for food, raising their young, and for shelter and sleeping.

Red-breasted Nuthatch high in tree
Photo by Elaine Chuang

All kinds of birds build their nests in our local trees: Robins, Steller’s Jays, Yellow Warblers, et al. 
  • White-crowned Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos, and Spotted Towhees use trees as look-out posts from which to watch for predators near their nests.
  • Golden-crowned Kinglets, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Merlins, Band-tailed Pigeons, and many other birds need tall evergreens in which to lay their eggs
  • Red-breasted Nuthatches have been known to build their nests 120 feet high in conifers, Cedar Waxwings and kinglets often nest 60 feet up.
  • Willow Flycatchers, Olive-sided Flycatchers and Pacific Slope Flycatchers pass through our area during northern and southern migrations and use treetops from which to fly out and catch the bugs needed to fuel their journeys.

Birds glean tiny bugs off trees, helping to keep trees healthy. Their lilting songs lift our hearts and reduce our stress levels. Birds and bees help pollinate trees.

Pileated Woodpecker on old tree
Photo by Elaine Chuang


How do we humans benefit from trees? Why should we keep them? 

Trees reduce noise, moderate temperatures, reduce dust and help clean the air. Trees, especially year-round conifers, deflect rain and snow from falling directly to the ground, thereby slowing runoff and diminishing stormwaters and flooding.

Many people don’t know that Shoreline Parks only have 20% of our city’s tree canopy, while 71% of the tree canopy is owned by private homeowners. Therefore, tree-cutting homeowners directly reduce Shoreline’s tree canopy, and affect their related neighborhood.

Red-breasted Sapsucker with sap holes
 (these holes do not hurt trees)
Photo by Elaine Chuang
Trees need to be kept. Thin a tree, don’t cut it down.

If a tree is sick, don’t cut it flush to the ground, leave a ten foot or higher snag. It will cost you less, and the woodpeckers will start using the snag.

Other birds will soon claim the used woodpecker holes.

Give birds places to live and improve our breathing/noise/and climate change issues.

Keep the trees! 
Help save the Birds!



Read more...

For the birds: Who Are YOU, Little Bird?

Friday, June 28, 2019

Junco male feeding one of his young.
Adults come back to feed their babies,
 and don't need our help.

Text and Photos by Christine Southwick

Lots of hard to identify birds may be showing up in your yard, fluttering around, acting a little unsure, or totally unafraid of humans yet.

These are this year’s babies. As a group they are called “fledglings” since they have grown enough flight feathers to leave their nests - which is called fledging. 

If they have just left the nest within a week, they will still be fluttering their wings and begging to be fed.

Adult Spotted Towhee feeding his youngster -
note the fledgling's spots are orange-ish

Because they still learning how to survive, many of these young birds have major camouflage. 

Passerines (perching birds — meaning those that use trees), are full sized when they leave their nest, unlike water birds and ducks. 

So, don’t let their size fool you — they grew to full size in their nests, and mostly just have to grow their tail feathers (space-saving adaptation for nesters).


Spotted Towhee - larger than Song Sparrows-
still has extra coloring at mouth - called gape.
Spotted Towhees, our resident skulkers, have rufous coloring on either side of their white breasts, with some white spotting on their wings (most notable on the males), hence the name. 

These birds used to be called Rufous-sided Towhees, but the name was changed to distinguish the two separate Eastern and Western species (ours are the prettiest).

Spotted Towhee young are quite interesting to watch. Within a month of fledging, these dark over-sized-looking-sparrows start turning orange-ish on their bodies and looking more like their parents. 

By fall these youngsters will look like Spotted Towhees, except that their spots are lightly tinged orange, and their wings are dark brown, not black. It takes a lot of energy to grow new flight feathers, so only the body feathers are replaced until the following summer.

Our local Dark-eyed Juncos have fledglings with speckled chests, and no head color demarcation. The two best clues?
  1. Dark-eyed Juncos are the only birds in this area that have pink bills and pink legs, and
  2. the white outer tail feathers which show as they fly away

Spotted Towhee brings a grub
to one of the babies
Song Sparrow babies look mostly like their camouflaged parents, minus the tail, with less white on the head. Those brighter head feathers won’t change until the following summer.

Black-capped Chickadees and Chestnut-backed Chickadees look just like their parents, except the fledglings look brand new, while the parents look somewhat bedraggled until they replace (molt) their all their feathers in August.

All passerines you will see here have specific molt patterns; bird books can help when you are in doubt.

It is very important NOT to use pesticides, nor herbicides until after September.

Happy Birding!




Read more...

For the Birds: Nestling crows leave home before they can fly

Sunday, June 23, 2019

Maaaaaaa!
Carl the crow calls for his parents


By Christine Southwick
Photos by Peggy Bartleson


Do you have a crow on the ground, making a loud noise? Unless you see blood, or a hanging wing, it is probably not injured. It is most likely a nestling crow which has left its nest before it can fly. Most crows leave the nest early for safety reasons. Nests, with their “feed ME” sounds, are lures for predators — raccoons, hawks, owls, eagles. The sooner nestlings are strong enough to leave their nests and hide, the more likely that they will survive.

Feed me!
Carl the crow begging parent for food


And do not fear; the parents are watching, dive-bombing cats and other dangers, and feeding their youngsters on a regular basis. Sometimes a couple of youngsters will hang together, but more often they will go their separate ways, thus increasing their probability of survival. The parents know where each is, and are feeding them appropriately.

Don’t let the nestlings’ size fool you. When they leave the nest, they are 80% or more of their adult weight. Their legs are already adult size, and their wing feathers are nearly full grown. But they are still babies. They will often tip side to side as they walk, making them look a trifle drunken. Part of the problem is that they don’t have their tail feathers yet to act as their rudders.

Carl being fed by his parent


The pictures are of a neighborhood nestling. I first saw it five afternoons ago. The first neighbor didn’t know what to do, but had put out some tuna fish. Baby crows have to have the food stuffed down their throats—so putting out food won’t help nestlings.

The next morning that baby had moved across the street, near a house with a known hunter cat. The parents dive-bombed that cat until it started lying elsewhere. Now the little crow is staying at a house where the owner watches daily, but doesn’t crowd it. The parents feel comfortable in the yard, and Carl the crow (that’s what the neighbor calls it), struts around more steadily every day, and hides in the flowers at night.

Still no tail feathers - Carl is grounded.


It still doesn’t have tail feathers yet, but will soon.

Remember, most birds found walking about on the ground are not abandoned, and don’t need human “help”. Keep your pet away from the area that the bird is staying, and wait about a week. It will fly away then.

More info about baby crows and what/what not to do, here.
Find more For the Birds under the Features section on the main webpage

Originally printed in the Shoreline Area News June 6, 2014.



Read more...

For the Birds: Migrants are arriving

Monday, April 29, 2019

Great Blue Herons on nests at Kenmore Park and Ride
Photo by Elaine Chuang


By Christine Southwick


Great Blue Herons are nesting at their heronry located at the Kenmore Park and Ride on Bothell Way and 73 Ave. This heronry has at least 37 active nests!

The heronry has at least 37 active nests
Photo by Elaine Chuang
The Ospreys have returned from Mexico or lower California, and the ones taking up housekeeping in Shoreline are located on at Hamlin Park near Shorecrest High School, and on the North City water tower.

I am certainly enjoying hearing these pairs calling.

Red-winged Blackbirds are back at Cromwell Park and at Echo Lake. 

Even though there are Red-winged Blackbirds in other locations in western Washington, the vegetation in our area dies back, so “our” Red-winged Blackbirds don’t show up until the cattails and reeds start leafing out.

The Wilson Warblers are arriving from lower California. I have heard at least two of them, one near my house.

Juvenile Hairy Woodpecker on
woodpecker type suet feeder
Photo by Christine Southwick
(through a window)

I haven’t seen any flycatchers here in Shoreline, but they are showing up in areas with tall leafy trees, especially near rivers and wetlands like in Duvall.

Merlins, using tall top-exposed trees found in Shoreline, will be building/ renewing their nests soon. These Merlins could be returning from South America, with the males returning first, and their partners joining them here later.

Some bird newbies are showing up at feeders:

I saw a juvenile Anna’s Hummingbird learning to use the feeder— it would take a drink, then lean back and flap its wings to keep its balance -- juvenile hummingbirds fledge (fly from their nests) before their bills have grown to full length.

I also had a juvenile male Hairy Woodpecker using the suet feeder designed for woodpeckers.
  
How did I know that it had recently fledged? Because there is still red on the top of his head (woodpeckers in the nest all have red coloring on the tops of their heads (believed to help the parents locate their young in the many-holed nesting tree). This coloring fades within a month of leaving their nest.

Bewick's Wren feeding nestlings
Photo by Greg Pluth
Bewick’s Wrens and chickadees (both black-capped and chestnut-backed) are feeding their first brood of nestlings right now.

Song Sparrows, Spotted Towhees, and Dark-eyed Juncos all nest on the ground from now through August (may have more than one brood), so please keep your dogs leashed, and watch for nests where you weed-whack.

Yellow Warblers, Orange-crowned Warblers and other warblers are wending their way northward, and if you haven’t seen them yet, keep your eyes skyward (actually treeward). 

They will come!



Read more...

For the Birds: Is that bird coming, going, or staying?

Saturday, March 30, 2019

Juvenile rufous hummingbird. Presumed male --
back won't turn rufous until second year
Photo by Chris Southwick
By Christine Southwick

Longer daylight hours and warmer weather (hopefully), has started this year’s bird migration here in our neighborhoods.

Flowering Red Currants have started blooming - one of the two primary nectar sources (Salmonberry blooms are the other) that the majority of Rufous Hummingbirds use to help fuel their northern migration, often as far as Alaska.

Earlier this week I heard and found my first of the year White-crowned Sparrow, singing out on a leafless limb near a parking lot - I fondly call these birds Parking Lot Serenaders.

These sparrows come back from their southern wintering grounds to breed and raise their young in our climate-friendly locations.

The females build their nests in nearby bushes. It could be that parking lots have fewer cats and raccoons, thereby reducing the cost of predation.

White-crowned Sparrow
Photo by Whitney Hartshorne

Our resident birds have started singing their mating tryouts — Song Sparrows, Bewick’s Wrens, and Spotted Towhees are in full song. Black-capped and Chest-backed Chickadees have changed their winter calls into their nesting songs.

In my yard, these, plus Dark-eyed Juncos, appear to be paired already, and the Anna’s Hummingbird females are busy pulling nesting cotton and hair for their tiny little nests. 

I expect to start seeing bumbling Anna’s juvies learning the secrets of hummingbird feeders, sticking their shorter bills haphazardly into the feeder, tying to get to that sugar water.

Just this week, I heard and saw a Pileated Woodpecker sounding out his territorial markers — one tree was real loud, one not so loud, and one even less-loud (sort of like the three beds — one too large, one too small, and one just right).

MacGillivay's Warbler stopping for bath
during migration -- they breed higher further north.
Photo by Chris Southwick
He has returned repeatedly to the middle-sound-producing tree trunk.

You may start seeing birds that will be passing through, stopping for a quick sip or dip of water, rest, and refuel before continuing to their preferred breeding locations.

Birds you might see: House Finches, Purple Finches, rarely a MacGillivray’s Warbler, and/or perhaps two different flycatchers — Willows and Olive-sided.

Willow flycatchers breed near wetlands and require shrubs and trees from which to dart out to catch insects. Olive-sided Flycatchers are in decline, mainly due to loss of habitat — they favor tall trees, usually with open or dead tops for their fly-catching.

Female Rufous (left) and Anna's hummingbirds sharing feeder
Photo by Chris Southwick 

Other birds that that you will probably see: Yellow-rumped Warblers, Townsend’s Warblers, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, and Bushtits.

Keep looking in your yard. If you have native plants, and especially dripping water you may be surprised at the birds that stop and rest in your yard.



Read more...

For the Birds: Who’s that knocking on my chimney cap?

Sunday, March 10, 2019

Intergrade flicker--Red-shafted malar stripe with yellow-shafted
red dot on back of head, Photo by Elaine Chuang
By Christine Southwick

Are your chimney caps and vent caps being attacked? They won’t really be hurt — it just sounds like it.

Male Flickers are starting to drum on telephone poles, and any other echoing surface, the louder the better.

Females judge the fitness of a potential mate by how loud he can drum. 

Telephone poles, trunks, and most branches don’t resonate too well, so the males go for metal surfaces. 

The good news is that males will stop using metal surfaces and return to wood and vocalizations, once a mate is acquired.

Red-shafted flicker father teaching youngster where to eat
Photo by Elaine Chuang
Flickers are unusual in the woodpecker family — they are often found on the ground eating their favorite foods - ants and beetles. 

You will still see them on tree trunks and limbs hunting for bugs, plus they nest and sleep in larger trees.

Flickers, the most common woodpecker in Washington, are considered a keystone or indicator species. 

Their presence is used to judge the health of a wooded area because their many nest-holes (usually abandoned after nesting) are used by small owls, wood ducks, bluebirds, swallows, wrens, and small mammals like the Douglas Squirrel. 

See additional information HERE 

Northern Flicker in tree by Elaine Chuang
Flickers create nest holes in dying trees, old telephone poles, fence posts and house siding (close-by nest boxes will help with the last issue). 

It usually takes up to fourteen days for the pair to excavate the 8-16-inch-deep hole for the 5-8 eggs. 

The flickers that are in our area are usually Red-Shafted Flickers, with salmon-red underside wing and tail feathers. 

The males have a red malar stripe. 

Flickers migrate a little southerly in the winter, and back to the northern part of their range in the spring. 

During the winter months yellow-shafted flickers will sometimes be seen here.

Red shafted -a beautiful bird
Photo by Elaine Chuang
We know that the ranges of these two subspecies overlap since we sometimes see Intergrade flickers. 

Intergrade flickers have a mixture of some red-shafted flicker markings, and some markings of yellow-shafted flickers (male yellow-shafted have black malar stripe, and all yellow-shafted have a red spot on the back of their heads which red-shafted do not). 

Sometimes these flickers have red-colored under-wing feathers, other times yellow-colored under-wing feathers.

If flickers drumming on your house and chimney vents are driving you crazy, don’t worry. The flickers will stop within a month. 

More info on how to get these protected flickers to stop pounding on your siding HERE.



Read more...

For the Birds: Wintertime Bird Feeding - Helpful Tips

Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Heated, covered hummingbird feeder
Photo by Chris Southwick
By Christine Southwick

Wind chill, wet weather, snow, and freezing temperatures are deadly to many birds, specially first-year birds.

You can help feed birds in winter with some easy additions:

Hang weather guards above all feeders including the suet, and your hummingbird feeders. This creates a protected environment for the feeding birds.

Keep water available, which means keeping it liquid during freezing weather.

Finding much-needed drinkable water during freezing temperatures becomes a high-energy cost. 

Note: since all local birds, except owls, feed during the day, a 2 inch-deep dish can be kept liquid during the day, with frequent refills. (Wild Birds Unlimited has several models of bird bath warmers. LFP Town Center, next to Albertson's)

Keep leaves in your yard.

Blow them off your grass, paths and walkways, but keep leaves in beds and under trees to improve the soil and provide food and shelter for ground birds.

Fox sparrow in heated bath
Photo by Chris Southwick
Plant native shrubs and trees for wind, rain and cold shelter from the elements. Native plants provide bugs that birds know and need—non-native plants do not. Plus, native plants will survive in our area with minimal attention and little added water.

Now, watch local birds seeking out your yard, and feel good about helping your local wildlife. It really is a win win for everyone.



Read more...

For the Birds: Feathers are more than beautiful

Monday, January 21, 2019

Osprey fishing
Photo by Doug Parrott

By Christine Southwick

Feathers are beautiful with their palette of colors, plus their myriad of shapes and sizes, even though there are only six distinct types of feathers.

But their beauty camouflages their strengths:
Pileated woodpecker, male plumage
Photo by Kelly McAlliser
  1. Best insulation per inch
  2. Waterproof
  3. Allows birds to fly—only birds have feathers. They provide up, forward (lift and thrust), down (braking), turnings, pin-point landings, and they allow birds to fly amazing distances during migration, often non-stop.
  4. Lightweight, but strong enough to survive wind, rain, storms and sun damage. Their intensity of colors signals their gender and fitness for mating. Research is finding that UV coloring (which humans can’t detect) provides birds with major information.

The structure of a feather is unique: Feathers are made of keratin, the same protein as nails and hair, and like nails and hair, a feather stops being alive once it reaches its full length.

The shaft of the feather is attached into muscles or bone (flight feathers only) and distributed in distinct symmetrical tracts. The feather vane is attached to the shaft. The vane is made of barbs attached to the shaft (technical term rachis). Barbules branch off the barbs, and interlocking barbicels cover these barbules. This arrangement allows a feather to flex and still stay connected to its various parts

Green heron in wetland
Forrest Gamble
Have you ever picked up a tattered feather, and run your fingers across the vane, causing the barbs to zip together, unzip, and zip back, making it look whole again?

Feathers need to be intact to be windproof and waterproof and flex to precise flight maneuvers. This is exactly what birds are doing when they preen their feathers -- zipping the barbules together again to make their feathers functional.

The first time that I really looked at the structure of a feather, I thought that Velcro could learn something from this hundreds-of-thousands-years-old evolutionary structure.

Feather unhooked
Indeed, new research has found that no matter the size of the bird, from hummingbirds to condors, barbule spacing ranges from 8 to 16 micrometers. 

This consistency is believed to be a key factor in the strength and flexibility of feathers.

So maybe Velcro and other adhesives can learn important properties from the structure of feathers.

But for me, feathers are amazing, both for their strength, their amazing colors and their ability to refasten to themselves. Besides, they are fun to blow on and watch them flex and flutter.




Read more...

For the Birds: First bird of the year

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

Varied Thrush

Text and Photos by Christine Southwick

Birders are eternal optimists -- they will go out in all kinds of weather to see a new bird that is reported to be close by.

They will drive miles for a two-minute look at a bird that is only visiting this area. 

Only an optimist would take that chance.

American Goldfinch
Birders study bird pictures, listen to bird songs, calls and chips, and learn their habits so that they can identify an often fast-moving bird quickly.

Birders like to set up challenges — most birds in a county; most birds in a year; first bird of the year…

Band-tailed Pigeon
First Bird of the Year means that the morning of the new year when you identify the first bird you see (or hear if you are an advanced birder), that bird becomes your totem for the year.

Suppose that the first bird I see/hear is a Hairy Woodpecker, or a Varied Thrush, a Band-tailed Pigeon, or even an American Goldfinch.


Hairy Woodpecker, male
First, I would look up that bird to refresh my knowledge about this species. 

And then every time I my first-of-the year bird I will smile and think “That’s Good Luck!”






Read more...

For the Birds: A Tree Came Down Today

Saturday, December 15, 2018

Bushtits cuddling in a tree
Photo by Robert McIntosh


By Christine Southwick

A tree came down in our neighborhood today and many neighbors grieved and will continue to grieve. It was a tall Beech tree, over 60 feet tall.

This tree was used as a resting and surveying stop for Band-tailed Pigeons, American Robins, Pine Siskins, finches galore including the House and Goldfinches that liked to sing and flock to this tree.

Robin convention
Photo by Christine Southwick
Bushtits would use the lower branches to safely hop into nearby shrubs.

Every fall I knew when the winter group of juncos had arrived — they landed in that Beech and called out to the resident juncos.

How will the Band-tailed Pigeons scope out whether it is safe to come to my feeders or not?

How far will the Robins have to travel to find the foods that they gleaned in that tall leafy tree?

(Note: the Ash Tree that they would mob for the berries was cut down three years ago, and the neighborhood population of Robins plummeted and has not recovered.)

Chickadees, Bewick’s Wrens, Yellow-rumped Warblers and other warblers I didn’t identify since the tree was so tall frolicked in that tree.

Douglas squirrel
Photo by Elaine Chuang
The next day after the tree came down there were NO bird sounds for hours — nor were there any sightings of the local Douglas Squirrel that comes every day for peanuts.

Did that Douglas Squirrel live in that tree too?

There were two nests that looked suspiciously like squirrel nests.

Were woodpeckers resting within? 

I do know that the Northern Flickers used the top branches every spring for their courtship displays and Downy and Hairy called from there.

Band-tailed Pigeon
Photo by Craig Kerns
Then there are the human impacts: no filtered air or sun; less moderation of cold in winters; less privacy between the neighbors; and the esthetic value.

I will miss the buds and the leaves, and the fall colors — I already miss the textured skyline, and the birds that I could count sitting on branches.

That tree didn’t need to come down — only a couple of the top branches needed lopping.

One arborist said that the rest of the tree was healthy, but another company was more than willing to cut down the whole thing, and grind it up like it never existed.

Keeping a snag would have cost less, and our neighborhood would have been better served.

A tree came down in our neighborhood today and many neighbors grieved and will continue to grieve.



Read more...

For the Birds: A Christmas Bird for Shoreline

Sunday, December 9, 2018

Intergrade Northern Flicker, male—pretty enough to be on a Christmas tree
Photo by Charlotte Byers

By Christine Southwick

What to decide for a Christmas bird here in Shoreline… We don’t have Northern Cardinals, so I eliminate them. We don’t have Partridges; and the closest thing we have to doves is our native Band-tailed Pigeons.

Now, we do have calling birds — all winter long: chickadees, juncos, song sparrows, fox sparrows, Northern Flickers, Pileated Woodpeckers, plus Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers. Some people even have Varied Thrushes.

Showing white rump (diagnostic field mark of a flicker )
Photo by Elaine Chuang
I’ll go for the colorful Northern Flicker.

Its plumage is almost like a Christmas ornament with its delightful mix of black bib, black poke-a-dots on their chests and bellies; stripes (barring) on their backs, black tails (top side), and white rumps that clearly show as they fly away. 

IF it is a Red-shafted Northern Flicker, our most common subspecies, the undersides of their wings (and their tails) are a brilliant salmon color. 

And if it is a male Red-shafted Flicker, then it has a red moustache.

There are also Yellow-shafted Flickers in Washington, most of them higher in the mountains and further east. Every winter residents here may see birds that are part Red-shafted, part Yellow-shafted (since I haven’t seen a Yellow-shafted in my yard, I am assuming that the Reds go find the Yellows).

Pair showing their salmon-colored tails (Red-shafted)
Photo by Elaine Chuang
These Intergrade (same species, just subspecies, therefore not a Hybrid) will have coloring on the heads that is a combination of the marking of both subspecies.

If it is a male Yellow-shafted it will have a black moustache.

And both male and female yellow-shafted have a red spot on the back of their heads — red-shafted do not.) 

And most often the under-wing, under-tail are a yellowish-salmon color, although I have seen fully yellow undersides with the “mixed up” head coloring.

Learning from Dad
Photo by Elaine Chuang
Northern Flickers favorite meal is ants, so they will often be seen feeding on the ground. They nest in tree trunks, with the male being the main chiseler. Both parents feed and teach their young. 

It is common to see one of the parents take their youngsters to the suet feeder the parents use. 

They patiently teach each of the youngsters how to eat, and then how to get their own suet.

Flickers prefer open forests, especially pine, cottonwood and willow, so if you have a tree that might have a dead branch or two, keep the tree, prune or make it a snag, so that flickers and other woodpeckers can make nesting and roosting homes.



Read more...

For the Birds: Snow Geese are flying and eating in Skagit

Thursday, November 15, 2018

Snow Geese showing black wing tips
Photo by Elaine Chuang


By Christine Southwick


Every fall over fifty thousand Snow Geese fly from Wrangel Island, Russia, to our Skagit valley. In order to reach these preferred wintering grounds, the flocks fly very high and in narrow routes, stopping at familiar stopovers before landing and wintering in our friendly Skagit farms and wildlife areas.

Exclusively plant eaters, Snow Geese come to the Skagit area for the milder winters and to feast in agricultural fields, some planted specifically for these geese, in a “Barley for Birds” program. Years ago these geese were in danger status, but now they are in danger of over-population. Geese are hunted locally from October to January, in very specific locations, so it is still safe to go view.

Close up of grin patch—black lipstick-right?
Photo by Elaine Chuang

Snow Geese have a unique grin patch (looks like a line of black lipstick), and their wing tips are black. The Blue Goose is a dark morph of the Snow Goose, has a white head, and is rare here.

Snow Geese usually form their long-term pair bonds in their second year, with the females setting up nesting in the same location as they were raised (philopatric). Nestlings leave their swallow nest built on slightly higher ground within hours, but the parents protect their 3-5 young, which usually stay as a family for 2-3 years.

Darker swans are juvies - not Blue Geese. Note gull enjoying the feast too
Photo by Elaine Chuang

Some of the best viewing for the Snow Goose is at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s 225-acre Fir Island Farms/Hayton Snow Goose Reserve.

From Interstate 5, take Exit 221 (Lake McMurray/Conway) and turn west. Drive 0.1 mile. Turn right (west) onto Fir Island Road. Drive west 3.2 miles. Turn left (south) at Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife sign. Drive 0.5 mile to parking area (Discover Pass is required for this parking) There is a short trail along the dike offering views of Skagit Bay and opportunities for shorebird and waterfowl viewing. No hunting is allowed at this site.

Common view from cars—snow on mountains already
Photo by Elaine Chuang

If you are driving to view Snow Geese, Trumpeter Swans, and Tundra Swans, some shoulder in Conway and La Conner parking is prohibited, and it is against the law to walk in private property, to which local farmers and owners rightly object. Be considerate of local traffic.

It is also energy taxing for the flocks to be spooked into flying. So, if you want to see the geese flying, just wait a little while in your car -- thousands of geese are still arriving.


Read more...

For the Birds: Owls belong to Halloween

Friday, October 26, 2018

Eurasian Eagle-owl with demonic eyes (most of our scary traditions are from Europe)
Stock photo

By Christine Southwick

Halloween decorations often have owls depicted — often flying toward the unwary night traveler. Witches, wolves, bats, vampires all make sense; but why owls?

Barred Owl— our most
commonly heard local owl
Stock photo
Could it be that any creature that flies, and especially hunts during the dark hours, is scary and frightening?

In olden times, anything that appeared without warning from outside the glow of campfires and hearths was something to be feared and defended against. Screams, hisses and hoots seem to chill the soul, especially when the source is disembodied and ethereal.

And finding remains of small dead animals just lead to stories of how BIG OWLS could hurt children, pets, and maybe even adults. (It doesn’t help that owls may defend their breeding territories by strafing the heads of unwary trespassers).

Because the leading edge of owls’ feathers are fringed, owls are able to materialize suddenly, hauntingly silent, without making any noise with their wings. Superstitions became hard-wired into many people’s psyche, and owls are often viewed as evil wraiths when confronted at night.

Additionally, the huge European Eagle-owl has orange eyes, that reflecting the firelight appear to be demonic.

Barn Owl suddenly appearing
Photo by Kevin Keatley

Which owl is the scariest?

I vote for the Barn Owl!

Instead of hooting, it produces piercing screams that sound like someone is being killed! Add to that, the ghostly white face that suddenly appears floating, coming straight toward you, and no wonder people are afraid, especially during the Halloween season that has its own scary mystique!

Barn Owls as a species are so successful that sub-species are found around the world — their family order is distinct from all the other owl species.

Our most common owl in the Shoreline - Lake Forest Park areas is the Barred Owl, which makes its own funny sounds in addition to its hoots that sound like “Who, who cooks for youuuu?”

Northern Saw-whet Owl (only 8” tall)
We also have Western Screech Owls and Northern Saw-whet Owls in the area, mostly trying not to be eaten by the bigger Barred Owls. 

All our owls eat mice, voles, shrews, small squirrels, smaller birds, and large insects.

Some cultures view owls as beneficial and a blessing (Athena’s owl is an example), whereas other cultures believe seeing an owl during the day predicts a soon-to-happen death. 

Many peoples believe that owls are wise, in part because of their large eyes, and their quiet patient nature.

Personally, I love to hear owls — any of them….



Read more...
ShorelineAreaNews.com
Facebook: Shoreline Area News
Twitter: @ShorelineArea
Daily Email edition (don't forget to respond to the Follow.it email)

  © Blogger template The Professional Template II by Ourblogtemplates.com 2009

Back to TOP