San Juan Snow

Our crazy weather continues as over the last two days parts of the island have been snow-covered while other parts are dry and sunny. There was a little more snow today than yesterday, and chilly temperatures kept the snow on the ground while the sunshine cleared the roads so I was able to safely drive down to the south end of the island this afternoon. While the snow had all melted in town, there were still a couple inches down by Cattle Point, and it was beautiful out!

I absolutely love the colors in this first photograph, with the stark white snow contrasting with the bright blue water, and a bit of the golden grass shining through. Definitely check out the larger version by clicking on it to do it justice. I didn't even notice it when I took the picture, but Jason and his big black dog Guinness are in the shot walking along the bluff!

Down closer to Cattle Point lighthouse much of the snow was still undisturbed. Here's a shot of the trail leading up to the lighthouse, with only the meandering tracks of a fox leading up to it:

Something about the split rail fences in the snow captured my attention and they became the subject of my photos for a while:

The North Pair red-tailed hawks were out and about, taking advantage of an icy cold north wind to kite above an open field and look for prey. RTH1, Garth, came over to check me out, and I got some of my best shots of him as he flew overhead. I hadn't noticed until now his white chin, while Ruth RTH2 has an all brown chin:

Eagle Antics

Today we had a full complement of weather, from sunshine to stormy winds to rain and hail and snow. Yesterday, although chilly, was much nicer, and I went down to Cattle Point to do some bird-watching. It was surprisingly quiet animal-wise, so I just enjoyed my walk without much to stop and look at. When I was almost back to my car, however, all of a sudden there were bald eagles everywhere: in flight, flying from perch to perch, yelling back and forth to each other, and engaging in some very cool aerial acrobatics, almost in synchrony:

What, I wondered, was the source of all this commotion?! Eagles are usually pretty sedate birds, spending less than 2% of their day in flight or feeding - the rest of the time they are either roosting or perched, which with their exceptional eyesight is often a passive method of foraging. When I first saw the pair in flight I thought courtship might be the reason. The lighting wasn't great, but as soon as they turned into the sunshine I realized it was an adult and immature flying together, so it wasn't courtship. (Juvenile bald eagles are all mottled brown and don't get that characteristic white head and tail until after they're four. This is also when they become sexually active.) How about territoriality? Bald eagles are very defensive of their nest sites and associated territory - but usually not as much against juveniles as against other adults. There were also at least 5 different eagles around, so it wasn't like there was one intruder invading the space of a nesting pair. Hmmm....what else could it be?

Soon enough, I received a clue that gave me an insight into the loud and active eagle proceedings. An eagle was flying towards me, looking at first like it was trailing a long string. As it got closer, and especially after looking at my photographs, it became more apparent what I was seeing:

What is that, a huge salmon fillet? Definitely food of some sort clutched tightly in its talons. Apparently all these eagles had found something to eat - and thus to fight over. Cool stuff.

A Different Red-Tailed Hawk

The other day while driving down to the south end of the island I noticed a hawk sitting on a telephone pole near a farm where I've been seeing some hawks pretty regularly. I did a U-Turn and it stayed perched long enough for me to snap some photos from the car. Then a loud truck came by the other direction and it decided enough was enough, and took flight, all while my camera was snapping of course.

When I saw it, I thought it was a red-tailed hawk, but then when I looked at my photos I wasn't sure at first. Turns out, it is a red-tailed hawk, but yet another different morph coloration. The bird does have red legs, as you can see in the second photo, but I still can't quite figure out just what you're seeing that's red in this first photo, because it's not his leg up that high. What is that? When he's perched it looks like he had a loose feather but it looks weird. Still, I was so lucky to capture this odd pose as it lifted its wings to take flight!

Here you can see those red legs and, once I lightened the photo, that characteristic red tail. I noticed once I looked at the photo closer that the bird also has its head turned back to take one more look at me, too.

In Like A Lion

If the first few days of March are any indication, we're in for a month of unpredictable weather and great wildlife sightings. Last night the winds were so fierce they woke me up in the middle of the night (and I sleep like a log) and left us wondering if in the morning we would still be attached to the dock. Today, however, it was calm and 55 degrees was balmy enough to read on the front porch chair in the sunlight in the morning and drive with the windows down in the afternoon.

Yesterday was similarly warm (just think - in six months 55 will seem very cold!) but was more dark and overcast. Still, I trekked down to the south end of the island thinking I would spend some time with the red-tailed hawks. The only one I saw was this member of the South Pair, now designated RTH4 (or, to make it easier for me and you, Mario) and thought to be the male. RTH3, the supposed female, is a rufous morph (hence I'll call her Rufous), but RTH4 is a dark morph. Both of them are quite skittish compared to the North Pair, so photographic opportunities have been sparse, but here is a photo of RTH4 Mario in a favorite perch of his, a shrub near Cattle Point Lighthouse. He's got a very red chest and legs, which are even more apparent in the larger version of the photo (click to see), and he also has some white spots on the back of his head that make him easy to identify when perched:

While Mario soon spooked and flew away and no other red-tails were to be found, there were plenty of other raptors to observe. This adult bald eagle watched my progress with great interest from one of the only fir trees in the area:

A female northern harrier also flew over to check me out. Earlier in my hike I had accidentally spooked her off the ground and she flew away with a rat in her talons - the first evidence I've actually seen of any of the south end raptors making a kill. She must have stashed it somewhere and come over to get a better look at her intruder, because she circled overhead and then disappeared again. Notice the very long tail:

This cheeky little red fox also came through, apparently making its rounds as it stopped every so often to mark its territory. It wasn't fearful at all, and just gave me a passing glance as it trotted on by, right next to me on the trail:

Back home as the sun set the clouds broke enough to shine through onto Brown Island just across the channel. I think this is some of the most striking lighting, when you see sunlit trees against a backdrop of a dark gray sky. The dark water and deep shadows in the foreground just make it seem even more menacing:

Yesterday ended with a partial rainbow that disappeared as the sun dipped below the horizon:

J31 Tsuchi - Another Mystery Solved

Jeanne and I have been working at identifying whales based on eyepatches. While we usually use the dorsal fin and saddle patch to identify individual orcas, it turns out almost anywhere black meets white there are subtle individual differences in markings. Long-time blog readers may remember the first eyepatch revelation, when Jeanne figured out the mystery whale of the above-water vocalization incident in 2004 was actually L85 Mystery, based on his eyepatch.

Well late last night, while sorting through photos and pulling out good eyepatch shots, I had a revelation of my own. This is one of my favorite spyhop photos I've ever taken, and I've always loved the jagged black and white zig-zag by the whale's mouth. On this particlar day back in 2005, only J-Pod was present, and J-Pod is the family group we see (and thus, the whales I most often photograph). Still, I had never noticed this marking in any of my other photographs, so the identity of this spyhopping whale had remained a mystery...until now.


Yesterday I was looking at this lunging whale in the photo below; a great eyepatch shot because when the whale comes this high out of the water you can see the whole eyepatch. I had previously identified the whale in this photo as J31 - Tsuchi, and was confirming my identification by looking at another eyepatch shot of Tsuchi. As I zoomed in to get a close look at the eyepatch, some suspiciously familiar zig-zag marks caught my eye!



Both the markings and the eyepatch look slightly different because you're seeing the whale at a different angle, but both match the spyhop photo. So nearly four years later, I've identified my mystery spyhopping whale as J31 Tsuchi! The funniest part is the spyhop photo and the lunging whale photo were only taken 3 days apart in 2005, so I've had the evidence all this time. It just goes to show you never know what you might learn by studying your photographs a little closer. Hopefully I'll be able to ID some whales from other spyhop photos in the future as I learn the eyepatches better.

Olympic Mountains and February Bird Count

Today Jason and I went down to the south end of the island to check out the red-tailed hawks. It was another wintery day with dark gray skies and cold winds. We spent some time hunkered down out of the wind watching the North Pair as they soared over the fields looking for prey. It was amazing to watch them kiting - just hanging in place without any movement at all. We didn't see them catch anything, although Garth (RTH1) made an attempt but apparently missed the little rodent or whatever it was he was after.

The most spectacular view was to the southwest, looking across the straits at the Olympic Mountains. While the slate gray clouds hung over the San Juans, the Olympics were lit up by pale sunlight and the view across to them was crisp and clear. Make sure to click on the photo to see a larger version.

Today also brings us to the end of the Great February Bird Count hosted by Northwest Nature Nut. The winner over at Pittswood Birds tallied a remarkable 46 species in their yard over the course of the month. I don't have quite that diversity here at our marina but I did tally a respectable 19 species over the month, the most surprising of which was a pied-billed grebe which I have never seen from here before. Here's my species list for the month, in alphabetical order:

• American crow
• Bald eagle
• Belted kingfisher
• Bufflehead
• Canada goose
• Chestnut-backed chickadee
• Common raven
• Dark-eyed junco
• Double-crested cormorant
• Fox sparrow
• Glaucous-winged gull
• Great blue heron
• Hooded merganser
• House sparrow
• Mew gull
• Pied-billed grebe
• Red-breasted nuthatch
• Red-necked grebe
• Song sparrow

It's Still Winter

Well, our preview of spring is definitely over! No more sunny afternoons in the 50s for a while. Yesterday I went for a walk on the beach and got caught in the middle of a sleet storm. Then today, we woke up to about half an inch of snow. It's warmed up enough to start melting, but it's definitely still a reminder that we are still in the middle of winter!

The light snow was enough to bring the fox sparrow out of hiding and back to the feeder. I hadn't seen him since our last snowstorm. In addition to the hooded merganser I saw from the deck yesterday, that gives me two new species to add to my list in the last week of the Great February Bird Count.

Other than that, I've pretty much been hunkered down inside to stay warm and get out of the rain. There looks like there's a few clear days coming up in the forecast, so that will be the time to get back outside with the camera in hand.