Overcast with periods of rain. Temperatures in the 40s.
I made it out this afternoon. With rain falling and not feeling particularly ambitious, the outing was mostly car-birding.
Even more gulls present in the channel, many of them loafing along the rocky shoreline south of the ramp. I only saw more common species. Today I did specifically make note of a few Long-tailed Ducks.
Three Hooded Mergansers at the peninsula at Swan Lake and diminishing rain inspired me to get out of my car. I moseyed across the street, and they didn’t move off. I spent the next 45 minutes very slowly sidling closer, observing and photographing.
One of the three was a young male (hatched last year) that was by itself closer to the road. It moved into the water relatively early in the process. Instead of swimming off, it moved over nearer the pair.
The female of the pair seemed least wary of the three of them. The male seemed more wary of me, and also the young male. Perhaps his wariness of me (and his mate’s lack of concern), prompted him to take out his nerves on the younger male.
He initially slipped into the water and kept himself between the young male and the female (still along the shore).
As I watched, a Mallard came in and pushed the female off her preferred spot. As things settled, the adult male seemed less concerned and came to rest on a rock. The young male climbed up on shore not too far away.
The female eventually moved off the shore, after which her mate became more aggressive. He chased the young male repeatedly before following after his mate where she was swimming up towards the radio station.
Many midges were out. I hadn’t realized several landed on me until they showed up in my car. I managed a few pictures before herding them through the window.
The Orthosia praeses moths were still on the walls at the park. The pug moth (Eupithecia) was not.
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
