1:30 pm, 56 degrees F
Today at Marsh Island was clear, crisp, and not as cold as last week. It felt much warmer, but you can definitely tell that the cold weather over the past weeks has affected the plants. The trees and shrubs don't have many leaves, and the leaves they do have are quite shriveled so it isn't as easy to identify them. My spot looks a little different from last week. The lily pads are few and farther between than before and the water is so much shallower. Many of the little ponds and puddles are frozen over, making it so the ducks are hanging out in the deeper waters. The plants in general are more bare, but there are many that are still going strong. I focused on listening today. The bird chirps and calls are frequent, and I can really hear the chickadees and song sparrows as they call out. The variety of birds I saw today were all doing different things, and I liked observing their behavior. The ducks for example were hanging out in the water by the shore under the low hanging trees, nestling their heads into the side of their breast keeping warm. The dark eyed juncos were eating in the grass, and sparrows were eating in the trees. And the great blue heron honestly looked like it was just standing there. I was pleasantly surprised to find an array of birds! I wasn't sure if I would be able to because of the weather, but apparently these birds are well adapted to the cold temperatures.
My spot today! Nothing too different, but you can definitely see the difference in lily pads from month or even two weeks ago.
I can see the bottom for the first time very clearly. There seems to be several open clams laying on the top layer of dirt.
A nice, clear afternoon!
My first sighting of any birds were these dark-eyed juncos! They love something that is in the grass, most likely seeds. There were probably 15-20 juncos under this alder tree, just pecking away for many minutes. They are really quiet while they are doing this, I didn't hear any calls. But once you get within five or six feet they quickly escape to the trees.
One up close.
In Duck Pond, I found some cute mallards staying warm beneath the branches. The pattern on their wings is really beautiful when you see it up close. There were other mallards in Washington Lake too, but they were apparently warm enough to swim around.
This is a female American widgeon. She has a slightly brown patterned head and body with orange streaks on the back feathers. You know it is not a male because the head is just brown instead of having a green patch around the eye. This particular widgeon was swimming around with some female mallards in Washington Lake.
Her again!
The following four pictures are of the coolest bird I found.
To me the Great Blue Heron is pretty much the most majestic bird on the island, and I was lucky to spot him because I have never seen him in all the weeks I have been observing Marsh Island. I probably just watched him for like ten minutes, and he didn't even move until I started whistling at him. They walk around really slow, and take careful steps kind of like a sloth. The feathers have this nice grey/blue sheen, and the chest markings are kind of streaky. They walk around on those spindly legs, and sometimes blend in really well with their surrounding.
Song Sparrow! This bird like the trees on Marsh Island for something they eat. It hops around only staying in one place for a matter of seconds. For a song bird, the call that I heard wasn't very song like, but instead a series of short chirps. I know they definitely have longer calls, so it may have felt threatened or been communicating with another bird.
These are the best photos I could capture of this Glaucous winged gull. It was circling the island in kind of a territorial way. I don't really like gulls, probably because they like to hang around campus waiting for an unassuming person to steal food from, but this one was okay.
This is a pied-billed grebe. The aren't super easy to photograph because of their frequent diving, but cool birds to watch. I witnessed a good catch of fish by one of
these grebes out in the lake.
That's it! Thanks for reading!
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