Hi folks,

On my way back to OlyWA from Montesano this noon hour, I took the Brady Loop on a frozen, windy side-trip. There was a 25-knot east wind blowing, and the ground and all the surface water was frozen. A lot of the passerines were finding shelter where they could.

The continuing Lesser Sandhill Crane was in the grass field north of "Willis Field" and the WDFW Access & potty.

As I was scanning the geese and large flock of wigeon in the same field, I saw a white head, which was attached to a classic adult Blue-Phase Snow Goose. It's been a long time since I saw one of those. Among the 1775 wigeon were at least 11 male Eurasians and I picked out a couple hen Eurasians.

Then, an immature Bald Eagle made a foray at the wigeon flock and scored her lunch from amongst the explosion of ducks frantically taking flight. Almost immediately, 3 adult eagles and another immature came in to try to harass her away from her meal. She stood her ground, and after a few minutes flew with the duck over to a fence row, where the other eagles left her alone, and she commenced to enjoy the fruits of her hunt.

It was a busy little part of the outdoors for a few minutes, and well worth being a few minutes late back to work.

Best,
Jon. Anderson
Olympia
festuca at comcast.net