an absolutely gorgeous day was spent at jetty island, everett, today... i
and a friend (hello, skye) were shorebird hunting in the lagoon along with
new friends mike and carole sullivan, and we came away with a few nifties...

among the caspian terns being pushed inland by the high tide, there appeared
to be juveniles, but juvenile "what" was the question... CATEs, according
to Sibley, have a very heavy orange-to-red beak throughout their lifecycle,
while a few of the birds mixed in with the adult Caspians had much thinner,
more-yellow beaks...

as well, while i was photographing them, i caught momentary glimpse of what
looked like two whimbrels flying into the lagoon from the north, but quickly
lost them in the heat shimmer... mike and carole were kind enough to have
kept their eyes on the birds after i lost them, and we all tracked them to
the south of the lagoon over the next hour and change... the two were
actually whimbrel and long-billed curlew, and they flew together, fed
together, preened and rested together... it was quite a sight, and made me
feel a little better for having said i'd spotted a whimbrel two weeks ago
(but with no photo proof) and hearing everyone say they'd seen nothing but
curlew...

among the other birds: osprey (numerous, and almost all had fish),
cormorants by the dozens, juvenile bald eagle, great blue herons, dunlin
(pretty sure i had two individuals), least and western sandpipers,
semipalmated plovers, and (unfortunately) another unphoto'd bird: a common
tern. two weeks ago, amongst bonaparte's gulls on the north end, i spotted
about 15 of what i believed were caspian terns. one of them decided to go
walkabout, and he was obviously half-again (or more) larger than the others,
and it got me to wondering if there are a fair number of common terns at
jetty island this year, and folks are just ID'ing caspian simply because
it's an "obvious" guess, OR if the larger tern was an adult, and the others
were simply an incredible number of juveniles...

i've vowed to always take my camera to the island in the future, even if i
am on my deathbed... i hate mysteries that i can't solve... :)

most of the birds listed above are in the Photos of the Month section of the
website... as well, there are at least two birds that i shied from
ID'ing... if you know, please let me know, especially if i DID make an ID
and it was egregiously incorrect (grin)... i'll be putting some of the
other peeps i had problems with in the "Who is That" gallery in a day or
two...

00 caren
http://www.parkgallery.org

ps: the next well-timed high tide at the island is in two weeks... anyone
care to join me? :)
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