This morning at McLane Creek Nature Trail I saw a juvenile Wood Duck
feeding on Salal berries. As much as anthropomorhisms may be suspect,
this was possibly the most self-satisfied bird I have seen in recent
memory.
While basking in the morning sun on one of the observation
platforms, I was distracted by some thrashing to my left. A Wood Duck
was struggling to gain footing in the mature Salal covering the bole
of a Western Redcedar stump in the beaver pond. For the next 6
minutes I watched it methodically harvest the ripe berries, 3 to 5
feet above water level, while two other less adventuresome or less
adept Wood Duck juveniles attempted to duplicate the performance.
Otherwise, my observations here were of little note:

Date: August 17, 2003
Location: McLane Creek Nature Trail, Thurston County, Washington

Low temperature: 17 degrees celsius
High temperature: 19 degrees celsius
Prevailing wind speed: < 1 km/h
Percentage of sky covered by clouds: 0%
Precipitation: none

Between 0830 and 1043 I walked by usual 1.7-mile, figure-8, trail
loop. For a pleasant Sunday morning there were remarkable few people
here. There was rather little bird song, though probably normal for
the season. I did hear an unusual frequency of woodpecker tappings
though.

Birds seen (in taxonomic order):

Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) 1 [1]
Wood Duck (Aix sponsa) 7 [2]
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) 3 [3]
Hairy Woodpecker (Picoides villosus) [4]
Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) 1 [5]
Steller's Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri) 1 [6]
Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) [7]
Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) 5 [8]
Winter Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) 1
Swainson's Thrush (Catharus ustulatus) 2 [9]
American Robin (Turdus migratorius) [10]
Wilson's Warbler (Wilsonia pusilla) 2 [11]
Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus) 1 [12]
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) 1

Footnotes:

[1] Adult.
[2] 2 males, 2 females, 3 juveniles. One juvenile was perched in
Salal 3-5 feet above the water for ~6 minutes feeding on ripe
Salal berries.
[3] 2 males, 1 juvenile.
[4] One male distinctly seen; others briefly.
[5] Heard.
[6] Heard.
[7] Two or 3 scattered small flocks (~6) in Red Alder canopy.
[8] Heard.
[9] Heard.
[10] One seen in flight; uncounted others heard.
[11] Adult male feeding juvenile.
[12] Juvenile.

Total number of species seen: 14

This report was mailed for Doug Canning by http://birdnotes.net


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Douglas Canning
Olympia, Washington
dcanning at nisquallyestuary.org
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