Mostly cloudy with rain the first part of this morning, and occasional rain later in the day. The sun even broke through for a short while this afternoon. Winds were calm the places and times I was out and about.
This morning’s visit to the park turned up a Spotted Sandpiper (#117) in front of the visitor center.
It was nice to see the new year bird, but it did not turn out to be the top highlight of my visit.
Walking down the narrow trail along the estuary, I noticed a high frequency call being repeated. It did not sound like one I’ve heard before, relatively constant in pitch (and a very high pitch). I went to pull out my recorded, and realized I had left it at home. I used my phone instead, but later discovered the phone did not record frequencies as high as this call must have been.
The details and sequence of what happened next are a little jumbled in my memory, but roughly they went as follows.
I had stopped near an opening in the trees and after getting the short recording, I turned my attention to the ducks on the far side of the estuary. There were several Green-winged Teal, and one of them seemed paler on its front than the others.
Before I had a chance to study it, the teal (as well as nearby Mallards and mergansers) started taking off. I saw a raptor making a pass at them, then turning and flying up to land in a tree.
I grabbed my camera (which I had set on a bench while making the recording), but before I could get pictures of the raptor in the tree, it took off after an eagle which had flown from my right (the river mouth) up the estuary.
I was able to get a picture of the Northern Goshawk as it flew up the estuary.
When I lost it in the camera, I looked to see where it was, and saw he goshawk make a pass at the eagle before disappearing into the trees. The eagle dropped to the river and stood there breast deep in the flowing water.
I had not given much thought to the eagle, as it’s not unusual to see them flying about, so it seemed a little strange that the goshawk had gone after it. (Not that I had time to reflect on this in the moment.)
Instead of taking off, the eagle kind of rowed its way across the river until it got to shallow water. While standing there at one point it stuck its face into the water and appeared to pull at something.
Along the way, I began to wonder if the eagle had caught something. When it took off, I was able to see that it was carrying a duck (I believe a teal).
I’m not sure how it came up with the teal. Initially I thought maybe the teal had gone to the river after the initial goshawk attack, and the eagle caught it there. Upon further reflection, that seems unlikely.
My best guess now is the goshawk stunned (or worse) the teal, but wasn’t able to grab it on the first pass. The eagle flew in and took the stunned/wounded teal while my back was turned to grab my camera. This prompted the goshawk to go after the eagle. The goshawk’s pass at the eagle may have caused the eagle to drop the teal, but the eagle was able to drop down to grab it in the river.
I heard about a Wandering Tattler seen near Magic Island, so I headed out there this afternoon. It was quiet bird-wise. Though a few ducks were out off Magic Island, I didn’t see any shorebirds. I did find scurvygrass and the yellow beach Draba in full bloom, so that was nice. I also found a new-to-me species of seaweed. Pyropia nereocystis is an ephemeral epiphyte on bull kelp, and there was some on a tangle of bull kelp that had washed ashore.
Upon seeing a report of an American Golden-Plover , I headed down to the park again after my call this evening. On the few occasions American Golden-Plovers have shown up here, it’s been in the latter part of May, so I did not set out expecting to find one of those. A Pacific Golden-Plover wouldn’t be out of the question, however, and even if such reports turn out to be a misidentification of something I regularly see, I consider it generally worth it to check just in case.
The bird had been reported with godwits, and I found neither a golden-plover nor godwits. However, on my way back, I did see a couple of Semipalmated Plovers (#118), a species I had missed seeing over the weekend when they were observed by others. I also enjoyed nice looks at a Townsend’s Warbler working the alders along the beach.
While out this evening, it looked almost like some fresh snow may have fallen on the higher elevations, but it was hard to say for sure.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
