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On a rainy Sunday morning (3/2) I spotted my birder friend Young Dave at Marina Park. Dave in turn spotted a western meadowlark. I assume it is the same one Janine has seen in the park since last October.
The shots were over-exposed as I forgot to reset the exposure compensation from the last time I shot. Picasa's auto contrast feature saved them for the most part.
Janine has seen it in the early morning. The park gets pretty busy by mid morning. I was there mid morning, but the park was empty due to the cold and rain. Janine said it will hide in the hollowed out bases of the driftwood.
Some shots from Monday (3/3), which might have been our last sunny day for a while.
My son Daren and I started out at Mini Park in Lynnwood, where a flock of ring-necked ducks were in the lake.
The resident double-crested cormorant was doing stretches from its regular perch. I can get shots of its "scaly" back here that I cannot get in Edmonds.
Some northern shovelers were at the south end of the lake.
Debbie called to ask for directions to Marina Park so she could look for the western meadowlark. I decided to join her there. She was the first to spot the meadowlark in the grassy section of the park, which was nearly a bog from all the rain. The soggy conditions kept people off the grass and on the sidewalk, which may have been conducive to the meadowlark staying out in the open.
Many times the meadowlark lay low in the grass and was hard to photograph.
Just off the beach: female common merganser or red-breasted merganser? It has a lot of white at the end of its bill like a common merganser, but they prefer fresh, not salt water. Red-breasted mergansers, on the other hand, like salt water and will spend the winter off the local beaches.
From the fishing pier we walked over to the marsh, where a female downy woodpecker was in one of the trees.
A quick check of the Pt. Edwards eagles' nest revealed the female to be in it. She has been spending a lot of time there, so we may see some babies this spring and summer.
We ended the day at Sunset Ave., where I saw a large flock of birds landing in the Sound to the north off Picnic Pt. They were too far away for me to identify.
Taken leaning out my car window, which accounts for the tilted background.
Wednesday (3/5) was very frustrating. There was lots of eagle action at Marina Park (see Terry's latest thread), but the dim light made for "challenging" photographic conditions. The same was true for the marsh. The recent heavy rain raised the water level so that ducks swam closer to the walkway, but the light was not good. Winter photography at the marsh is difficult even in good light, as most of the time you are looking into the sun.
Green-winged teal
Great blue heron
No cross-bills have shown up like last year. I keep hoping these heavy, late winter snow storms in the mountains will push some flocks down our way.
Due to the recent rains, the water at the Edmonds marsh is the highest it has been all winter. I hope it will drive birds like the rails and snipes to the high ground adjacent to the walkway.
Three times this week I have flushed something from the high ground between the #1 viewing platform (far west one) and the railroad tracks. I got only fleeting looks, but it had the shape of a snipe. Thursday (3/6) I got a "Sasquatch" shot of the mystery bird:
A few yellow-rumped warblers have been hanging out in the trees along the walkway near the tennis courts.
Water in the marsh has brought back the great blue herons.
Red-winged black birds are showing up and sounding off. Here is a female.
The Pt. Edwards eagle pair was riding out high winds from the comfort of their nest.
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