Wldlife of Edmonds, WA. 2014

[Bill Anderson]

More birds off the fishing pier.

Male common (?) golden eye.


A sharp-eyed birder with a good spotting scope pointed out two white-winged scoters in flight out in the Sound. They are not particularly common here.


I ran into Young Dave at the pier. After the pier we went to the marsh, where I spotted three Wilson's snipes up in the grass out of the high water.

Can you see them?


Here is some help.


One of Wesley's friends perched very close to us on the barbed wire. At one point three of them were chasing each other.

 

[Bill Anderson]

Late afternoon I returned to the fishing pier.

Male red-breasted merganser.


A horned grebe had a shrimp dinner.




Two female golden eye were looking for mussels imbedded in barnacles inside the marina.

 

[Joemeche]

Nice shots. Your goldeneye in flight is a Barrow's.

 

[Terry O]

Super job on spotting those Snipes, Bill!

 

[squirl033]

I ran into Young Dave at the pier. After the pier we went to the marsh, where I spotted three Wilson's snipes up in the grass out of the high water.

Can you see them?

there 4 in the original shot, counting the one off to the left out of your crop... i like the Barrow's in flight - nicely done!

 

[Bill Anderson]

there 4 in the original shot, counting the one off to the left out of your crop...

There were only three snipes. The one on the left kept moving closer to the one in the center. Here are two more shots taken when the snipe on the left was farther away from the one on the center.





I am surprised I saw all three. I even saw them before Young Dave did, and we call him the Snipe Whisperer for his ability to spot them.

This is a close crop of the snipe in the center, which was the one most visible. Due to their highly effective camouflage, snipes are nearly impossible to spot without binos or a telephoto lens. The one in the middle drew the attention of the naked eye only when the sun reflected off its bill.

 

[squirl033]

ah, that explains it! they certainly are hard to spot - their camouflage is so perfect they're pretty much invisible unless they move!

 

[Bill Anderson]

Two black scoters came in for a landing off Sunset Ave. Tuesday (12/16/14).






One of the snipe hung out among the green-winged teals at the marsh.

 

[Bill Anderson]

Bad weather and a bad knee kept me inside all weekend. Here are some shots from Friday (12/19) when it was relatively sunny.

A Brandt's cormorant was diving off the fishing pier.


It came up with something that looked like a needle fish.


Whatever it was, the cormorant dropped it.


This attracted the attention of a gull, which snatched it up and flew off.




Our most common winter resident cormorants are the double-crested cormorant (orange billl) and the pelagic cormorant (black bill & head). I have read that the Brandt's cormorant (black & white bill + white spot below the eye) is not common for Edmonds. If anyone has more info, please post up here.

 

[Bill Anderson]

The Pacific loon continues to stick around. I hopes it stays into spring after it has morphed into its spectacular breeding plumage.




Rhinoceros auklets have been swimming very close to the pier.


Three of them, hyphenated by a Bonaparte's gull, were between the fishing pier and the ferry dock.

 

[Bill Anderson]

Only nine days left in 2014. I'll start a new thread for 2015 on New Years Day.

Based on my photos, you regular viewers probably know my favorite local wildlife. What are your favorites? What would you like to see more photos of in the year ahead? Let me know and I'll try to photograph them in 2015.

 

[Terry O]

Love the sequence shots, Bill. You are the master!

 

[Bill Anderson]

Wesley, the male Anna's hummer who guards the #1 viewing platform of the marsh, was in fine form the day after Christmas (12/26).

 

[Bill Anderson]

Only one more day left for this thread, then it will be time to start a new one for 2015.

A flock of bushtits hit the pine trees behind the #1 viewing platform at the marsh. I wish they had been cross-bills instead.




I did not see any snipes, but I did see one dunlin out on the frozen marsh along with the resident killdeer.


A great blue heron landed in a tree by Willow Creek on the south side of the marsh.


My nemesis bird, the ruby-crowned kinglet, was in the same pine tree as the bushtits.

 

[Bill Anderson]

I have started a new thread for 2015. Check it out here:
http://www.pnwphotos.com/forum/showthread.php?11497-Wildlife-of-Edmonds-WA-2015

Here is my Edmonds Wildlife thread for 2013, the first one I started. Tempus fugit.
http://www.pnwphotos.com/forum/showthread.php?7934-Wildlife-of-Edmonds-WA

 

[JanineH]

The grays are here! This was taken near Clinton..

 

[JanineH]

A fluke and a blow...Patch and an unidentified gray near Clinton...

 

[JanineH]

Not sure if I'm posting on the right thread, hard to tell on my phone... Here's the barred owl at Pine Ridge Park winkin' at me

 

[JanineH]

This gray came up right next to the boat!!
Saratoga Passage

 

[JanineH]

One more fluke....near Clinton