Hi Tweeters:
My sisters and I visited Totem Lake and Juanita Bay Park on Sun, Oct 30 on a
partly sunny day. Quite warm and no wind. It was quiet at Totem Lake in
the morning, so we headed to Juanita Bay Park (JBP), arriving about mid
morning. The little road behind the fire station was quiet also, and just
had the usual suspects. We headed back over to the park. Caren Park had
told us on an FRS radio that someone had seen 12 Wilson's Snipe at the north
end of the walking road. We headed up the road, with my sisters Marilyn and
Jean up ahead. They were the ones who saw a WESTERN SCRUB JAY just before it
flew. They had fairly good looks at it, and managed to see a lot of the
field marks. Caren got a partial look, and I only saw a silhouette bird
flying away. It was at the trees and bushes at the south end of the old
road and flew back toward the west. We looked for it later, but it never
reappeared. We saw the jay at 10:40am. As we walked north on the road, we
saw a large turtle. Ernie, a local advisor told us it was a Red-eared
Slider Turtle. These turtles were pets in the past, and have adapted to our
lakes. They have a yellow lower shell (plastron). They can be seen basking
in the winter on warm days. We didn't see the other basking turtle which
also can be at JBP. It is the Painted Turtle with a red plastron. It is
dormant in the winter at the bottom of the lake, and is not being seen now.
At the north end of the road, we looked at the mud on the north side of the
bay. There were Wilson's Snipe perched up and down the shore. I started
counting, and eventually saw 20 WILSON'S SNIPE. What a sight! A little
later someone else
counted 23 birds. It was about 11:15am. After that the snipe started to
disappear back into the grass behind the muddy shore.
There were a number of ducks on the bay, which have been reported
previously. There were a few Hooded Mergansers and Bufflehead in full
breeding plumage. A few Canvasbacks were on the bay. I didn't see any
Eurasian Wigeons. There are many American Wigeon, and quite a few Wood
Ducks, and Ring-necked Ducks in breeding plumage. American Coots are in the
thousands. We also saw a Cooper's Hawk flying. Nice day, and almost
shirt-sleeve weather.
Yours, Carol Schulz
DesMoines, WA