Last Saturday, Paul and I found ourselves awake unusually early, and we went for a walk at the Arcata Marsh before breakfast. I was expecting to find an extraordinary amount of dawn-time activity, but the marsh was just as active as I usually see it (which is to say, very active). Even so, it was cool to see some creatures in their morning routine. A couple of male Buffleheads were rolling onto their backs in the water and preening their pristine white bellies. I've never seen ducks do this before, and this just won Buffleheads several more cuteness points in my mind (they were already pretty cute to begin with):
Saturday's early morning light wasn't great for picture-taking, but I was back at the marsh on Tuesday afternoon when there were just as many creatures to see (with better light to see them by). Song Sparrows were singing and setting up territories along almost every stretch of the path:
And of course Marsh Wrens were all over. Little wren, does your tail get any higher?
Hundreds of shorebirds were flocking in the mudflats, and one Marbled Godwit (with a strangely crooked beak) was foraging right next to the path:
A group of five Great Egrets looked particularly fancy surrounded by mud:
This Canada Goose seems to have found a great nesting place on top of an old (redwood?) trunk with great marsh views:
A White-tailed Kite was hovering over the meadow, watching for furry morsels below:
I'm super impressed by the hovering skills of these raptors:
And this kite sure picked a lovely place to hunt:
The Arcata Bottoms really are a haven for raptors (and shorebirds, and geese, and ducks, and so on...). In a previous post, I noted that the many fence posts around these pastures seem to make excellent perches for the wide variety of raptors that hunt here. After new visits to the Arcata Bottoms last weekend and again this morning, I have some more fence post sentries to add to the list, starting with this little American Kestrel (with lounging cows for a backdrop):
American Kestrels are our smallest raptors, but Merlins aren't much bigger, and these fence posts seem to be just the right size for those little hunters as well:
Aren't Turkey Vultures too big for these wooden posts? I guess not:
One Turkey Vulture on a roadside post let me inch up next to it in my car, at least up to a point; I'm pretty sure this is the closest I've been to a Turkey Vulture in the wild, and it took off (to land on a post further away) just after I took this picture:
Wow, what beautiful massive wings, and what a bizarre skull-like head. Turkey vultures are so cool.
While I'm already sharing sights from the Bottoms, how about some water birds? Three male Buffleheads paddled around together (while a group of several female Buffleheads hung out a little ways away):
And a big flock of American Coots demonstrated how cool their black-white-gray outfits look en masse:
We've had rainy and gray weather for what seems like forever at this point, but even when rain threatens at least I can drive through the Bottoms and still get to see new and interesting things!
In a now-annual Christmas tradition (five years running!), I took a trip with Paul's dad on Tuesday out to the Brigantine division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge while we were visiting family in New Jersey for the holidays. With an eight-mile wildlife drive through coastal wetlands, this is a pretty special place, and there are always lots of interesting birds hanging around. Some of the coolest creatures are the Snow Geese that come down from their arctic breeding grounds to overwinter here in huge numbers:
We estimated the Snow Geese on Tuesday numbered somewhere in the thousands. They made quite a sight blanketing the marsh as they foraged, and they were striking in flight as well, with those black-tipped wings:
Most of the Snow Geese wore pristine white costumes:
But there were a few blue morph individuals as well; I think these birds are particularly handsome:
Here's a (very) brief video of some of the Snow Geese foraging; the sound should give an idea of how crowded the area was with these birds:
Lots of other cool birds made an appearance during our visit as well. This gorgeous Great Blue Heron was hunting near the road:
A Greater Yellowlegs (such an appropriate name!) brightened up the shoreline:
And there were ducks all over the place. We saw big American Black Ducks that flashed the iridescent patches in their wings as they bathed:
Buffleheads that dipped in and out of the water, pursuing their meals:
Ruddy Ducks with their funny round bodies and big beaks:
Flashy Hooded Mergansers:
And a single female Common Goldeneye, looking quite pretty in her simple costume:
It was great to get out to the shore and see so many creatures. What an awesome place!
On Monday afternoon I was out shopping and found myself next to Lake Erie. It was a beautiful sunny day -- quite rare around here lately -- and I had brought my camera and binoculars with me, so I settled down on the town's public beach to watch the water.
I guess I still haven't posted much here about this Great Lake, which is crazy, because I'm astonished every time I encounter it. This lake is so much more ocean-like to me than the Long Island Sound (which is my ocean paradigm after living in Connecticut) mostly because I can't see the land on the other side, and also because I've already seen bigger waves here than I usually saw in Connecticut. On Monday, though, the lake was surreal, with flat, barely moving water that blended exactly with the sky in the low afternoon light. This has got to be one of the strangest landscapes (or maybe make that water-scapes) I've seen:
It took a big passing barge to create the horizon with its wake:
Aside from the amazing water-scenery, I had a lot of fun meeting the local birds as well. Ring-billed Gulls made up most of the population, and the lighting was just perfect for pictures of these handsome birds as they moved from water to shore:
There was quite a bit of jostling on the beach every time one of the gulls came in for a landing:
The Ring-billed Gulls made handsome sights on the reflective water as well:
But mostly I just had way too much fun taking pictures of them in flight:
A Great Black-Backed Gull loomed over the smaller Ring-billed Gulls from its rock:
Several ducks made brief appearances as well. These two female (or immature male) Buffleheads came closer to shore when the barge went past:
And then they took off in a series of splashes:
This bigger group of Buffleheads made a water landing a little further away, the males showing off their pink clown feet (ducks can be so funny looking):
A few Common Mergansers flew past, too, a bit like arrows with those pointy beaks:
With so many interesting creatures and sights, visiting Lake Erie is always a good idea.
All of a sudden, it feels like winter around here. I went for a walk in Naugatuck State Forest this afternoon, and even though the sky was completely clear and the sun was bright, it was pretty darn cold!
This was my first time back in the forest since Superstorm Sandy, and there were so many fallen trees out there, mostly big conifers. Crews had already come through and cleared the trails (with big trucks, if the tracks in the mud were any indication), but I still saw a lot of strangely oriented trees on my walk:
The storm also scattered fallen branches and pine cones onto the paths, and I saw groups of chickadees, titmouses, and nuthatches actually hopping around on the ground foraging through this stuff -- that was a pretty cool and unusual sight. A few other birds were foraging low in the trees as well, including our two kinglets -- I feel like I've been seeing a lot of kinglets this fall, or maybe they've just happened to be unusually accommodating for me and my camera. This Golden-crowned Kinglet looked like a decorative ornament hanging on the bare branches:
And this Ruby-crowned Kinglet was actually showing its namesake spot of red, which I've only ever seen once before on these little birds (look closely, it's there):
On the lakes were two birds I don't often see around here. A female Bufflehead (or possibly a young male) was diving into the cold water and popping back up again every few seconds:
And a fluffy little Pied-billed Grebe floated along nearby:
As I left for home, the sun was sinking and it was getting even colder in the woods, but this trio of Mallards sure seemed comfortable in their late afternoon bath:
It's nice to know that the woods made it through the storm, albeit with several fewer trees still vertical. The chopped up fallen trees along the paths look strange and awkward right now, but I'm sure they'll blend into the normal forest scene before too long. I'm glad I got to visit the woods today to keep up to date with its changes.
