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A juvie Cooper's hawk landed on the old martin gourd holder and stayed several minutes. It looked smaller than Fenimore, the juvie Cooper's I photographed last year. There is a pair of Cooper's hawks that has been nesting at City Park, across Sunset Ave. from the marsh, for the past few years. I suspect the juvies I see at the marsh are offspring of that pair.
The juvie Cooper's hawk continues to hang around the marsh. Wednesday evening it was perched on the old martin gourd hanger.
It flew to a tree above the boardwalk between the #2 and #1 viewing platforms. I had to shoot at +3 exposure compensation on account of the back lighting.
The hawk remained perched while I walked under the tree and positioned myself on the #1 platform.
The hawk took off and flew about eight feet past me at shoulder level. I was shooting from a tipod using the 5DIII + 500L telephoto + 2x III teleconverter, so there was no way I could photograph a moving object that close. My son had remained at the #2 viewing platform with the 1Dx + 100-400L II telephoto zoom and got a shot of the hawk flying past me.
The juvie Cooper's hawk was prowling the marsh again Friday morning (8-24-18) and chased a flock of sandpipers without success. Later it captured a wren size bird in the ground foliage, then flew to a tree just past the #3 viewing platform to eat it.
Like all raptors, it was constantly looking around while eating. I must not have been percieved a threat to steal its prey.
After finishing up, the hawk cleaned off its beak and took off. Cooper's hawks can maneuver quite quickly through the leaves and branches of the trees that border the marsh.
Many sandpipers are stopping at the marsh during this year's fall migration. Several of us were out Friday looking for Baird's, semi-palmated, and pectoral sandpipers reportedly seen in mixed flocks of least and western sandpipers.
The really serious birders brought along spotting scopes and binoculars, which are more powerful than my telephoto setup. Even with high end optics, it can be difficult to discern the subtle differences between some species from a distance, especially when heat waves are radiating off the mud.
Birders in the audience who want to take a shot at ID-ing the sandpipers in these photos are welcome to comment here or send me an e-mail.
Through a series of e-mails, I was told that the bird in my photos was banded as a chick in 2005 in the Columbia River Estuary. That would make the bird 13 years old.
Monday evening (8-28-18) the juvie Cooper's hawk once again mistook me for Rocky the Bird Whisperer when it flew up to the old martin gourd holder and posed.
A greater yellowlegs was at the marsh. Its calls were quite distinctive. I don't know if it was the same one I photographed earlier in the month.
My son and I drove down to the marsh Tuesday afternoon (8-28-18). One ofthe juvie Cooper's hawks flew in front of us as we got out of the pickup. Some friends shouted to us that the other one was perched on the old martin gourd holder. I told my son to take some handheld shots with the 1Dx + 100-400L telephoto zoom in case the hawk flew off while I was setting up the 7DII + 500L telephoto + 2x III teleconverter on the tripod.
My son's photo.
My photos.
Scratching an itch.
Gotta go.
My friends said they saw both hawks at once, which verified earlier reports of two juvies at the marsh.
We returned after dinner near sunset. I substituted the 5DIII for the 7DII due to the fading light. The hawk was on the martin gourd holder once again, but took off just as snapped a photo at 1/250 to get as low a ISO setting as possible for a "still" shot.
The hawk returned to the martin gourd holder for a few minutes, then flew off.
The hawks have been landing in the tall grass in the marsh, where I believe they are hunting small birds such as marsh wrens and song sparrows. They will perch in the trees bordering the marsh and on structures such as the old martin gourd holder, the viewing platforms, and the railing of the boardwalk.
Wednesday afternoon (8-29-18) the airspace over Sprague Pond at Mini Park in Lynnwood was full of osprey as the three fledglings from the nest on the grounds of the Edmonds school district's bus barn were testing their wings. These photos were taken handheld with the 1Dx + 100-400L II telephoto zoom.
One landed in the fir on the east side of the pond.
It was joined by one of its siblings.
A third fledgling passed its nest mates as it made a few circles around the pond.......
The scene at Sprague Pond was not as static as it may appear from my photos. The juvies were flying in & out and circling the pond during the hour I was there. They and the adults were constantly calling to one another. Osprey calls sound very similar to the warning sound of the traffic signal at a nearby intersection that alerts blind pedestrians when the light has changed.
It was quite tricky changing cameras and settings when the juvies would take off from the tree and circle the pond. A few times they flew away from the area and then returned.
Not much avian action Thursday (8-30-18) afternoon. These birds, which look like recent fledglings, were on the rocks of the jetty at Brackett's Landing North. They looked larger than the house sparrows I often see there. I don't know their ID. If anyone does, please speak up.
Update: Three people from Tweeters have ID-ed these birds as juvie brown-headed cowbirds.
Friday afternoon (8-31-18) several of us photographed what we believe was a juvie marbled murrelet inside the Edmonds marina. The bird worked its way up and down the east side of the marina between the north breakwater near the ranger shack and the north side of Anthony's Restaurant.
Several times it dove and caught small fish.
It was not shy and did not mind people a few feet away on adjacent floating walkways, as can be seen in this photo of my friend photographing it. This photo also gives you an idea of the small size of the bird.
If this is indeed a first year marbled murrelet, I wonder if it hatched nearby. They breed in coniferous forests near coasts and nest on large horizontal branches high up in trees.
If anyone thinks it is something other than a marbled murrelet, please let me know.
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