hello tweetsters.

i finally got out to peek at some birds today, and it was wonderful.
my primary goal was to find canvasback, because i love seeing these
elegant ducks. i finally found one canvasback, a hen, at carillon
point, very close to shore and very close to the public dock, where
i got long, close looks at her.

while wandering around on the public docks at carillon point,
freezing my buns off in the wind, i saw a single winter-plumaged horned
grebe. this bird was a little shy and would periodically dive below
the water, but it was so close to the dock that i managed to get
some good long looks. as time went on, i found that i was better
at imitating a post because i was so cold that i could hardly move.
still, the grebe was suspicious and studied me carefully with
blood-red eyes.

my partner and i then went to the kent-auburn valley to find the
ross's goose. we spent several hours looking at the birds in the
flooded pastures on both sides of 167, but never found the elusive
ross's goose. we did see many canada geese, snuggled down into
the velvety-green grasses, and we saw thousands of ducks of many
species. at one point, i joked about how it would be easier to
list the duck species that we *didn't* see today, since there would
be fewer ducks to list!

the highlights were three male and one female ringnecked ducks
located in the "ponds" between the west valley highway and 167,
along with the group of mew gulls in varying plumages, and the
large group of american wigeon that had at least three male
eurasian wigeon and one very oddly-marked american wigeon male.

the oddly-marked american wigeon male had a pale head and neck
that, on first glance, appeared to be white, but upon closer
inspection, appeared to be a pale yellow color. this bird still
had the green eye-patch and the rest of the body was normally
colored for a wigeon. i can only assume that this bird was a
variant and not a hybrid since it looked and behaved like a
wigeon in every respect, except for his strangely-colored head
and neck.

today's birds were;

1 horned grebe, winter plumage (carillon point)
many pied-billed grebes
many double-crested cormorants
3 great blue heron, non-breeding plumage
2 mute swans (arboretum)
many canada geese
many mallard
many gadwall
many american green-winged teal
thousands of american wigeon
3.?.0 eurasian wigeon
hundreds of northern pintail
many northern shovelers
2.1.0 ruddy duck, winter plumage
0.1.0 canvasback (carillon point)
3.1.0 ring-necked duck
many scaup spp. (carillon point and in kent-auburn valley)
0.5.0 goldeneye spp.
1.4.0 bufflehead
3.7.0 hooded merganser
zillions of american coot
about 20 peeps, probably western sandpiper
killdeer
mew gull
ring-billed gull
western gull
glaucous-winged gull
1 hybrid western x glaucous-winged gull
adult bald eagle (soaring over 520 bridge)
1.2.0 northern harrier
1 sharp-shinned hawk
many red-tailed hawks

Deborah Wisti-Peterson email:nyneve at u.washington.edu
Department of Zoology, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash, USA
Visit me on the web: http://weber.u.washington.edu/~nyneve/
<><><>Graduate School: it's not just a job, it's an indenture!<><><>







0.5.0 goldeneye spp.
1.4.0 bufflehead
3.7.0 hooded merganser
zillions of american coot
about 20 peeps, probably western sandpiper
killdeer
mew gull
ring-billed gull
western gull
glaucous-winged gull
1 hybrid western x glaucous-winged gull
adult bald eagle (soaring over 520 bridge)
1.2.0 northern harrier
1 sharp-shinned hawk
many red-tailed hawks