Field trip afterglow with rufous hummingbird, Discovery Park

I'm still absorbing an amazing field trip I took on Saturday morning, led by Seattle Park ranger Penny Rose. The trip was part of a class on birding by ear, and she was a wonderful teacher. Rose is the kind of naturalist who can walk into a place and within seconds, can see and hear four times as many things as I could pick up in half an hour. I want to be just like her.
Among the sightings/hearings: 54 species, including four kinds of warbler and three kinds of flycatcher, three nests and the first Swainson's thrush song of the season. She also showed us through a trail I'd never tried before, but which will be one of my primary destinations in future. She calls it "bird alley."
Here's one of the characters you can find there.

We don't see many rufous hummingbirds in Seattle. It's possible that the city-loving Anna's Hummingbirds, who live here year round, make it hard for the migratory rufous hummingbirds to find niches. But this fellow is sitting pretty, guarding a territory that includes the big fireweed patch in the south meadow.

Spring cleaning, Montlake Fill

Big bleached snag, tree swallow singing away from a high branch, and in one of the holes, a tail.

There you are.

And drop the sawdust away from the hole.

A pair of chickadees were taking turns at this, flying in, taking out stuff, dropping it, preening, and flying in again.

Now Blooming in Oak Bay Native Plant Garden

This half-acre nook was first dedicated as a publicly owned native plant garden in 1939, but much of its current appearance is the result of diligent restoration done in the past 10 years by local activists. It boasts 120 native species, with many specimens rescued from building sites. April 1 showed the garden in its full glory, with fawn lilies...

...and more fawn lilies.

shooting stars

chocolate lilies

pink fawn lilies

trillium

satin flower

yellow wood violet

bleeding heart

blue-eyed grass

and the first camas.

Goldfinch and willow

The willows at the north end of Golden Gardens were full of trilling American goldfinches,the state bird of Washington, Iowa and New Jersey. It ties with the robin (Connecticut, Michigan, Wisconsin) for the fourth most popular state bird, coming in behind the Mockingbird (Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas), the Western Meadowlark (Kansas, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oregon, Wyoming), and the grand champion state bird, the cardinal. (Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, West Virginia.)
I'd prefer if each state would have a bird to itself. There are 888 species to choose from in the country, after all. So, let's give the goldfinch to New Jersey, let Iowa take the indigo bunting or something, and find another bird for Washington. My first pick would be a corvid. British Columbia has the Steller's Jay, so I consider that taken, but the raven is up for grabs.
Still, even the most playful raven isn't as endearing as these fluffy yellow things trilling in the pussy-willows.

And for more morning cheer: brant in the waves.

New! Exciting! Geeky!

I have a new blog, called Figure One, in which I find cool pictures/charts/graphics and then gush about why I like them, or don't.
Ideally, I'd like it to be kind of like Go Fug Yourself, but instead of celebrity outfits, I'll have maps, graphs and a wolverine named Xena.

Voyage of the Guillemot

On Sunday I had the great privilege of taking a trip on Guillemot, a fine old wooden motorboat owned by Peter Mann and his wife, Nancy Everds. Nancy takes truly amazing wildlife pictures, and she also photographed the trip. If she posts any, I'll link to them and we can all gaze in awe.
Anyway, here are some pictures that I took:

Here's the wake of the Guillemot on the glassy early-morning water of the Ship Canal.


Double-crested cormorant drying its wings. (And doing the bat-signal.)



Mr. and Mrs. Common Merganser, perhaps charmed by the cuteness of the vessel, consent to be photographed.



Surf scoters out in Puget Sound.


There was a big flock of western-grebes. We could hear their trilling calls above the hum of the engine.




A pair of bald eagles looks on from Blakely Rock, off Bainbridge Island.



Two pelagic cormorants and three sea lions share a buoy.



Brant on Blake Island.



Brant with Mount Rainier in the background.



A yellow-faced bumblebee, I believe. Spring continues.



If you moor at Blake Island, make sure your boat is secure.



There are curious characters about.



Another pelagic cormorant.


Harlequin ducks, off West Seattle.

Dead harbor porpoise, Discovery Park

My son and his buddy came across this on Saturday morning on the south beach. Something has obviously had a meal of it, but there were no crows or gulls skulking around, and it didn't smell. Poor thing.