Birded Gazzam Lake on Bainbridge Island yesterday afternoon. Saw several (3-4?) wood ducks, without chicks, mostly males with one female, all in their non-breeding plumage. What a difference a month makes! Those spectacular males now look almost dowdy, although they still have their crazy red eyes and colored bills and prominent white throat patches and facial markings. The females have changed less.
Saw a female pied-billed grebe with three chicks. The chicks have a tiger-striped face and bill and are, naturally, very cute. I got some OK pictures of the wood ducks and grebe chicks.
Late in the afternoon the mosquitoes came out and were accompanied by olive-sided flycatchers.
It's been interesting to go to the lake over the last 5 months or so and see the wood ducks in breeding plumage, then paired up, and now post-breeding. Also, the pied-billed grebe males were calling aggressively in March and seem to have been successful in attracting mates and producing young.
Oh, and there were mallards as well. Surprise.
Stephen Hubbard