Today Carol Ledford, Jan Skau, John Thaw, and I got
great looks at the Baikal Teal at the Kent Valley,
Washington sight. The location is a couple miles E of
I-5 at Exit 147, on the N side of 277th and W of
277th's of intersection with West Valley Highway.
The property consists of wet hunting fields on Dairy
property belonging to Smith Brothers Farm. We
arrived there at 9am and other than a break for lunch
and a bit of searching other local sites, we were
there until 5:30pm. Our patience paid off big!

Other than a 10am fly through by a juvenile Bald
Eagle, the Eagles refused to work their magic until
about 4:15pm. For the morning the 2 adult Bald Eagles
either sat on their nest or on adjacent branches in
their large Cottonwood overlooking the wetlands from
the upper part of the hills to the NW of the sight.
They eventually flew NW over the hill and out of sight
in the wrong direction. They didn't return until
about 4:15pm when they put on their wonderful show.
WOW!! They flew together over the sight, and then one
banked and harassed a Red-tailed Hawk into doping its
catch. Both Eagles landed, one picked up the prey and
both flew straight E to the telephone poles adjacent
to the Dairy's barns, where one dined. These actions
raised a lot of ducks, mostly from the grasses and
partially open waters at the Eastern side of the
wetlands. Shortly thereafter the two Eagles left
their telephone pole perches and flew NNW over the
Eastern side of the wetlands, and they flew into a
flock of Crows on the ground in the open. One Bald
Eagle came up with the least alert crow WOW!! and
then returned to the same telephone pole adjacent to
the Dairy's barns and began to consume the still
living Crow. This added ruckus raised a lot more
ducks especially from the E side.

John Thaw found the Baikal Teal at about 4:30pm. What
a Magnificent bird!! Great light! Not a drop of rain
all day. What a fabulous day. All its field marks
were visible at one time or another. The Baikal Teal
was about 200yards from the road. We watched the bird
for an hour from about 4:30pm until 5:30pm when we
left. We watched in awe, as it preened, swam, waddled
through low grass, fed, stretched, or reared up while
flapping its wings. The Baikal Teal was still in the
open when we left, and birders were still observing.


Bill Clemons
willclemons at yahoo.com
Mtn Park, Oregon




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