A benefit of this crazy time with so many public access areas now less accessible, gated etc. is I've been exploring unpeopled areas I usually have just passed by before.
On a recent outing, I came across a pond with some great Whatcom birds: a pair of Cinnamon Teal, two Snipe, a pair of nesting American Kestrel, a least 5 Common Yellowthroat.
What a life the Kestrel were having. There must have been eggs in the nest cavity as Starling would come and perch near the nest and it appeared, from a long way off, that they might have even gone inside. As the Starling came near one of the Kestrel would come diving at it chasing it off. We watched this behavior for about 20 minutes. Then to make matters worse for the Kestrel, a Crow decided to chase one of the Kestrel. We watched this for at least 5 minutes before they both were too far for binocs to follow them. About 15 minutes later we saw the Kestrel coming back towards its nest, but was intercepted by the crow again.
Great entertainment in the wild kingdom.
A few photos of the Cinnamon teal:
https://flic.kr/p/2iQExcX
Cheers
Stay sane.
Eric Ellingson
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <
http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20200415/771a5d60/attachment.html>