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Saturday evening (11/5) I caught up with Katy as she was perched on a railroad marker beside the tracks below Sunset Ave. I think it was her last foray before dark.
Tuesday morning (11-8-16) Katy, the marina's resident kingfisher, was hunting for breakfast. I just missed shots of her diving into the water inside the marina.
Kingfishers were putting on quite a show at the marina. I counted three or four chasing each other. Their loud chattering makes them easy to spot, but not necessarily easy to photograph.
A male and female were perched on opposite ends of a boat.
female
male
The female flew past the male and the chase was on.
I got several shots of the two birds fighting, but this is the only one that was in focus.
I returned to the fishing pier Thursday afternoon (11-10), but very few birds were present out in the water. A heron was at its usual spot inside the marina below the walkway leading out to the pier. I wanted to see how good of a super closeup I could take with my big telephoto package.
Local birders have gotten excited over a red phalarope seen off the fishing pier the past few days. I would not have seen it Thursday afternoon (11-17-16) if a birder had not pointed it out to me.
The phalarope is very small, as seen when compared to these gulls.
Friday afternoon (11-18-16) a small flock of Brant were in the Sound off Edmonds. I believe it is the first time I have seen Brant passing through in the fall during their annual migration. I usually see them in the spring, when they spend time at Marina Park and Brackett's Landing feeding on eel grass as they work their way back north. I suspect it is related to the tides. The tides in the fall are too high to expose the eel grass, where the tides in the spring are low enough to expose it.
The last morning of November had high winds. I think this drove the herons to the marsh, as I counted 18 by the time I arrived after the winds had subsided. This is the greatest number of herons I have seen at the marsh in a long time. I kept hoping for a flyover by one of the Pt. Edwards eagles to create a heron tornado, but no such luck.
These two photos were taken with the white balance set on automatic.
This photo was taken with the white balance set on overcast, which gave it an autumn look.
We relocated to the fishing pier, which was open as most of the repair work has been finished.
The surf scoters have become more habituated to people and were swimming under the pier to look for mussles embedded in barnacles attached to the supports. The tide was not yet low enough to expose the barnacles and most of the scoters remained away from the pier.
Two had been under the pier, but swam out to rejoin the flock.
Mature male.
Juvie female(?).
A red-necked grebe. They are common winter visitors to Edmonds, but this is the first one I have seen this migratory season.
A large flock of herons continued to hang out at the marsh Friday morning (12-2-16).
One of the Pt. Edwards eagles flew in from the direction of the ferry dock and scared up the herons.
Unfortunately, I did not have a camera with a wide angle lens in hand, so I failed to record the full visual effect of the heron tornado over the marsh.
The herons began to return after the eagle landed by Willow Creek on the far south side of the marsh.
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