Archive for the ‘sandpiper’ Category

Southernmost Texas

Monday, December 21st, 2009

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Finally made it to the Gulf Coast of Texas. The warm breezes I felt when I first got here confirmed that I had arrived. Unfortunately, it proceeded to rain nonstop the following two days. I’m staying at the same park that I’ve stayed at before, but this time my site is about 20 feet from the Arroyo Colorado River. The second day of rain I started to get worried, but the river did not rise. There is, however, flooded farmland and front yards all over. You know a lot of stuff gets washed into the river when it rains. Nonetheless, people were back fishing the day after the rains.

I love watching all the birds fly inland over the river in the morning and out towards Laguna Madre in the evening. There are always brown pelicans around. It looks like an 2 adults and 2 young look alikes above.

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Coyote in muddy farmland. He blends right in.

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Green jays

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Black crested titmouse.

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Kingfisher seen from my rv. All these pictures are from where I’m staying.

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There is a resident spotted sandpiper at my site. It’s a solitary bird that bounces up and down like a male ruddy duck.

Below, a Harris’s hawk with a fish. I didn’t have time to focus my camera, but still wanted to include it.

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Posted in Arroyo City, County, green jay, hawk, kingfisher, pelican, sandpiper | Comments Off

The Lost Coast & Humboldt Bay

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

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Moved a little south of Eureka, to the Victorian village of Ferndale, so I could be closer to the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge and also the road to “The Lost Coast” of Northern California. Highway 211 is a rough, narrow, twisting, and often very steep highway that goes along a segment of the coastline that was too rough for Highway 1 or 101 to go. I wanted to drive it to see if I could take my trailer over it. The only good thing you can say about the 211 is at least it is paved, except for a few very small segments. I would not want to take my trailer over it. If it was a one-lane, one-way road, maybe.

The first picture above is the stretch of coastline you get to after going over the mountains from Ferndale. The second picture is of “The Wall”, a one-mile 18% grade just north of of the coastline stretch.

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Picture of the South Spit Management Area of Humboldt Bay. A five mile road lets you drive over it.

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A paraglider was able to take off and land in the same spot on a bluff over the South Spit.

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Birds seen along the sand spit: brown pelicans, cormorants and sandpipers.

Below, a goodwit seen on mudflats on the wildlife refuge.

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Below: a black phoebe and a dark-eyed junco.

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Posted in cormorants, Ferndale, godwit, junco, pelican, phoebe, sandpiper, wildlife refuge | No Comments »

Benton Lake National Wildife Refuge

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

Benton Lake National Wildlife Refuge is near Great Falls, Montana at the western edge of the northern Great Plains and 50 miles east of the Rocky Mountains. It has many of the birds I saw at Camas Refuge in Idaho, with a few differences.

Above, eared grebe with offspring. Still seeing some young ones riding on a parent’s back. The other parent dives for food for the baby during this time. Have seen some young ones like the one above, start diving. The just stay under water a few seconds though.

Breeding sora in the marsh.

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A standing yellow-bellied marmot. Have also seen a muskrat.

Upland sandpiper

Willet

Long-billed curlew

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A night heron carrying a black bird in it’s beak, with the black bird’s significant other chasing after them. The heron disappeared with it’s prey into the marsh foliage.

A pair of western kingbirds are nesting near the refuge visitor center. They fuss at you when you pass by. Have also seen eastern kingbirds.

When I first got to Great Falls, I stayed two nights at Walmart. During the day, I took my trailer to the refuge. One night, there were around 25 other rv’s staying in the Walmart parking lot. After two days, I moved to Fort Benton. It is an unusual small town, in that it’s in a canyon made by the Missouri River. Lewis and Clark thought this area was paradise when they stopped here. It later became the last stop for steamboats from St. Louis and then a major railway stop. The fort was built to protect people from outlaws and indians.

In looking on the web for information on the Upper Missouri River Breaks, found that cattle have caused a lot of problems here, as they have elsewhere.

“The BLM reports that past grazing management has resulted in almost complete elimination of important woody shrub species such as red-osier dogwood, chokecherry, serviceberry, currant, and gooseberry – all of which are highly important as food sources for mammals and birds. Another grazing related problem is the impending demise of riverside cottonwood forests. Presently almost all of the cottonwood trees along the river germinated from seed in the 1880s, before grazing was occurring on the river. As cattle grazing became an entrenched use on the river, cattle have systematically eliminated virtually all young cottonwoods, leaving no replacement trees to take the place of the old and dying mature trees.”

Posted in Fort Benton, grebe, heron, Ibis, kingbird, marmot, phalarope, sandpiper, sora, White Falls, wildlife refuge, willet | No Comments »

Camano Island, Washington

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

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Where Padilla Bay is around 11 miles north of where I’m staying, Camano Island is around 11 miles south. Above are caspian terns seen at Iverson Spit Preserve on Camano Island.

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Just a short distance from Iverson Spit, but on the other side of the island, is English Boom Preserve. It is seven acres of tidelands and shoreline that used to be part of a large log storage yard. On my first visit there, the sounds of an eagle drew my attention to the above nest. Excuse the poor quality, it was on a tall tree on a shaded hillside. I went back the next day to try and get better pictures. On arriving, the young eagle was sitting on one tree, about a block from the nest, and one of it’s parents was on the tree next to it. After a short time, the young one flew over to the parent’s tree. Shortly thereafter, the parent flew off, leaving the young one to sit for about an hour, intermittently crying out for its parent. Finally, the parent appeared near the nest and the young one flew back to the nest. The parent took off again, but this time the young one followed it out of sight.

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Salt marsh at English Boom.

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Right above English Boom is a small plane airport. Their runway is shown above. That’s it. If they don’t lift off by the end of the runway they will go over the cliff and go boom.

Camano Island is heavily developed, with public access to the coast limited. It is just from the work of some volunteers (Friends of Camano Island Parks) along with city, state, and federals agencies that have allowed some public preserves and parks to be developed. The above two parks are not advertised and there are no signs directing you to them. I got the directions from the Washington Audubon Society’s web site and their Washington Birding Trail Map.

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Another site brought about with the help of the Friends of the Camano Island Parks is Davis Slough. The above two pictures of sandpipers (top) and lesser yellowlegs (bottom) were taken near there.

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Update: Happened to stop at the same spot as above in the late afternoon and found a large flock of sandpipers. They must nest there for the night.

Update of my update: Read where the sandpipers are part of the fall migration along the Pacific Flyway.

I drove to Camano Island State Park to check it out. It is in a beautiful setting of tall trees with coastal access. The camp sites are no hookup, first come first served (Yes!).

Posted in eagle, lesser yellowlegs, sandpiper, State, tern | No Comments »