Subject: [Tweeters] Edmonds Marsh
Date: Nov 2 12:41:10 2013
From: Jeremy Davis - davisjp23 at hotmail.com


Stopped at the Edmonds marsh just long enough to spot 15 Great Blue Herons waiting out the vicious winds by huddling in the reeds. A dozen Canada geese were nearby, followed by Green-winged Teal, Mallards and some Gadwall.

Over at the ferry, it was interesting to see how each species dealt with the wind gusts in their own way. While Mallards struggled just to keep forward motion in the headwinds, the more compact Scoters made steady, if exhausting, progress. The gulls were impressive though. They seemed to surf the winds, dropping or rising long enough to find a crack in the wall of air and use that lull to glide forward without much effort.

I imagine there's a study out there somewhere on the ballistic coefficients of various bird species. It'd be interesting to compare my notes with theirs!

Jeremy Davis
Mukilteo