Wild Fidalgo

October 11, 2013 was a big day for wildlife at West Beach in Deception Pass State Park.  A half dozen Bald Eagles were fishing just off the beach.  The Mayor was working his pine grove and the Heermann's Gulls , had joined all the other sea birds at "Fraggle Rock."  Not to be outdone, about a dozen or more Northwestern Crows (Corvus caurinus) were patrolling the beach next to the picnic grounds.  Such a group of crows is called a "murder."  Other collective nouns for crows include "cauldron," "congress," "horde" and "muster" according to iBird Pro . While I watched the crows doing their crow chores on the beach, one fellow seemed to be more interested in studying me.  That's him in the photo above.  I'd be curious to know what he learned. Northwestern Crows make their living beachcombing the intertidal areas of rocky shores.  For this reason, these Corvids could be classified as shorebirds.  Th...

Gregarious is a good word to describe Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) .  They like to gather together in groups with their own kind.  This is Cranberry Lake in Deception Pass State Park.  Two years ago, they gathered together here to such an extent, the park had to close the swimming beach.  Too much you-know-what in the water.  After steps were taken (that we probably don't want to know about), the beach was reopened last summer. Several collective nouns are used to described groups of geese like this:  flock, gaggle, blizzard, chevron, knot, plump and string.  I think it depends on whether the geese are flying, swimming or just hanging out together for some of these terms.  For example, a chevron of geese refers to the V-shaped formation they assume while flying.  I have seen blizzards of Snow Geese when 5,000 or 10,000 of them launch into flight.  It is truly a snowstorm. As an experiment, this is the same photograph using...

On December 30, I walked the trail from East Cranberry Lake to West Beach in Deception Pass State Park.  This is a very easy 1 mile/1.6 kilometer hike.  About half borders the lake and beaver marshes.  Then it crosses the road and runs through the woods next to the huge Cranberry Lake Campgrounds.  It ends near the West Beach parking lot.  This route offers a lot of wildlife potential including beavers and the diverse waterfowl of Cranberry Lake. Next to the lake, near the end of the trail, this Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) was singing his heart out.  Obviously, they don't just sing during the breeding season.  Maybe they also do it for fun.  Song Sparrows in this region have darker plumage than other parts of North America.  This one is also puffed up a bit in defense against the chilly morning temperatures of late December.

This morning I hiked the trail from East Cranberry Lake to West Beach in Deception Pass State Park.  It is a nice, easy, mostly level hike and a good way to spend a couple of hours in the middle of winter.  Despite the lakeside location, your feet will stay dry, which is always a must in my opinion.  Shortly after setting off, this marker indicated I was entering Beaver country.  The Beaver is North America's largest rodent, and the second-largest in the world after the Capybara. I had never seen a beaver in the wild, unless you count the time when I was about eleven years old.  He was posing for pictures right in the middle of the bridge at Chief Joseph Dam in eastern Washington.  I am not kidding.  He mugged and posed and seemed to enjoy entertaining the tourists while they took his picture.  He would sit up on his hind legs and turn his profile to the cameras, first left, then right.  He was a big guy, more than two feet tall when he...

This seems to be a banner year for Harlequin Ducks (Histrionicus histrionicus) in Deception Pass State Park.  Off and on, I have seen one or two birds at a time.  Was I ever surprised to come upon this gang out on Urchin Rocks at Rosario Beach.  I have never seen so many at one time. They nest along fast moving streams at higher elevations.  In winter, however, they love our rocky shores, according to Birdweb .  They suggest the west coast of Whidbey Island and Rosario Beach on Fidalgo Island are two of the best places to spot them.  My experience is proving them right about that. This group appeared to be resting and bathing.  The two males in the water would dunk their heads and splash with their wings while the others looked on and enjoyed the sunshine. The best wildlife viewing in the park is on a weekday, off-season and early in the morning when it's quiet.  Just one other party and I had this whole section of the state park ...

Over the past month or so, I have made several trips to West Beach in Deception Pass State Park.  I have been coming to check this big rock just off shore from the parking lot .  It looks oblong from shore, however, the satellite map view reveals it to be fairly round in shape. For want of a better name, I have dubbed it Fraggle Rock after the Jim Henson/HBO TV series from the 1980's.  Like in the TV show, it's a little world apart where different creatures live in a complex ecosystem. I have discovered this rock to be a favorite resting place for sea birds.  Fall and winter seem to be the best seasons to view this phenomenon.  After 09:00 AM is the optimum time to view the birds.  By 10:00 AM, the crowds really begin to gather. One of the species I have been looking for in particular is the Heermann's Gull (Larus heermanni) and here is one red-beaked fellow in all its glory.  They breed on hot desert islands off the west coast of Mex...

I spotted this fellow resting at the edge of Cranberry Lake in Deception Pass State Park.  There was something about his beak that caught my eye.  It looked smaller than I would expect for a Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) .  I wondered if I had spotted a Cackling Goose instead. When I got home and started studying the question, I found myself mired in a very complicated subject.  My Sibley lists six subspecies of Canada Goose, Aleutian, Cackling, Dusky, Richardson's, Lesser and Common.  National Geographic refers to "approximately seven named subspecies."  The phrase "approximately seven" would indicate a hesitancy to commit.  It also lists the Cackling Goose as a separate species, Branta hutchinsii . BirdWeb indicates there are five subspecies that occur in Washington, Western, Lesser, Dusky, Vancouver and more rarely Giant.  It also lists the Cackling Goose as a separate species. Finally,  Wikipedia lists seven subspecies, D...