Observations While Running

While out for my regular aerobic exercise, as I ran along the edge of our pond, observed a bald eagle swoop over the pond, then get chased away by one or more crows, one of which followed at a respectful distance as the eagle reversed course and flew away.

Further on, I encountered five large downed trees, a hemlock and four Doug-fir, along the trail through our nature preserve. The wind storm we had three nights ago did more damage than I imagined. Later I also saw a large cedar toppled a few blocks from our house. Our crews here are fast - the trees were sectioned and removed from pathways and roads by the time I saw them.

Toward dusk, the eagle returned and rested in a fir across the pond from our deck. At such distance and low light, no decent image was possible with my equipment and skill level, but I captured a somewhat good likeness.

Mallard Diver

There are two sorts of ducks: divers and dabblers (think head and shoulders under water, tail high in the air). According to the authoritative ornithology site at Cornell, mallards are of the dabbling sort who "almost never dive". So I feel privileged to have observed a mallard who almost never dabbles. It is a juvenile who is always accompanied by his mother, who doesn't dive. What might account for this precocious diving juvenile?

He was too young to have observed the diving ducks on the pond before they left in spring. Perhaps he is a young iconoclast duck. Or perhaps diving preceded dabbling on the evolutionary vector and his primitive brain is reasserting itself. Or perhaps he is cross-breed of some type.

His diving motion is identical to the divers we have seen on the pond, very smooth. He stays under water for around 7 seconds and moves perhaps 10 feet before resurfacing. While down, he pushes his bill through the soft sediment on the pond bottom. He seems an expert underwater swimmer. It appears his ability comes from his genes.

Here he is on a dive, then with something he dredged from the bottom, and lastly his mother, who just floats nearby wondering whose kid this is?

Update: This afternoon, every mallard on the pond is diving. Clearly, this is a standard, if secondary, behavior of mallards. I wonder if the juvenile's behavior was an influence on the others; mallard see, mallard do. Perhaps conditions on the pond do not provide enough food for dabblers this summer. The pond has been treated with an aquatic herbicide and the shallow parts don't have much vegetation right now.

In other pond action, we have had at least two bald eagle visits. When spotted, the pond mallards go berserk, squawking loudly and in unison as she makes her lengthwise pass over the pond. She doesn't slow and try to hover, just swoops across at about 15 feet above the surface. Eagles take fish and ducks and anything easy, including carrion. By the time I hear the ducks and get out to watch, she is just leaving, so haven't seen much of the action to date.

Tulip Time in Skagit Valley

Wednesday saw us join Dori, Emi, and Nate on a road trip to the tulip fields to the north. Most fields had already been cut, but one farm still was showing blooms. The kids liked watching the penned llamas and sniffing the flowers. I liked the expansiveness of the color landscape.

On the way home, we stopped at the side of the road to observe the largest gaggle of snow geese we had ever seen. From a distance on the drive up, the skein appeared as a moving white cloud ebbing and flowing above the horizon. As we were driving back, the geese were conveniently parked by the side of the road, allowing Debby to roll down the window and get these images. Meanwhile, I got out and observed an eagle eyeing the gaggleplex (very large number of geese) from a tree across the road.

Mukilteo Beach

Debby decided we needed a beach picnic. She packed us a lunch, I grabbed the camera, and off we went to Mukilteo Beach.

Being a Saturday, there were a bunch of people and dogs, but we found an open table and chowed down and enjoyed the sun for awhile. Then it was picture time.

Here's Debby posing by a nice chunk of driftwood she found.

Here's the view to the west, looking over the southern end of Whidbey Island toward the Olympia Mountains. The foreground trees are about 4 miles away. The mountains are over 50 miles.

Here's the bird of the day. I saw a large black silhouette atop a 100 foot snag up on the hills behind the beach. I think it's an immature eagle. I don't know my juvey eagles well enough to know whether it's of the golden or bald persuasion. My first thought was golden, but based on coastal location, beak size, and random white blotches, it is way more likely to be an immature baldy.