Seasons are changing and birds are coming and going. Some local highlights
on the south end:
- Mutiny Bay off our house. For the last 2.5-3 months there have been
expansive black smudges on the water that resolve into large rafts of surf
scoters with a spotting scope. They come and go from day to day, but the
overall flocks of 300-500 birds are here far longer than we expected. Today
they were virtually onshore as a mixed flock with 100s of red-breasted
mergansers and horned grebes in breeding plumage
- Deer Lagoon. Highlights included 12 white pelicans, whimbrels,
black-bellied plovers, savannah sparrows, and still an assortment of
pintails, green-winged teals, shovelers, wigeons, and gadwalls. Neat new
bird group were several dozen caspian terns
- Useless Bay proper, low tide: Still 100s of brant, dozens of great blue
herons, and many eagles.
david armstrong