Nisqually NWR, early / mid-December. On the rare day when the sun is shining, the light even at midday is so rich. At this time of year the sun is so low on the horizon that the wavelengths of light that reach the surface are rich and warm like the golden hour after dawn or before dusk in mid-summer. A gap in our series of atmospheric rivers, Saturday dawned with clear skies and sunshine. After being cooped up for most of the previous week, I decided to head out to Nisqually NWR, especially to become more familiar with an early Xmas present to me, a Canon 5D mark IV camera. (early reviews – VERY nice). I typically do not visit Nisqually on a weekend, as it can be very crowded (and I have the option to visit midweek), but nice weather windows in December are rare. I managed to find into a spot in the full parking lot and skipped around a birding tour led by refuge volunteers.
As I have mentioned before, Nisqually NWR is a great place to see ducks and geese up close. It is as if the birds are trying to serve as living representations of the “Blue Goose” symbol of the National Wildlife Refuge System. This symbol was created by J.N. Darling, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning political cartoonish and conservationist. A “Blue Goose” weather vane tops the Education Center at Nisqually NWR.
It is a bit incongruous to have ducks and geese blithely gorging or dozing in the refuge while you can hear shotgun blasts ringing around the periphery of the refuge. It may well be that the ducks and geese learn that the people walking along the trails at Nisqually are not threats (and their presence may even provide some protection from eagles and other potential predators). Of course, bald eagles represent a major threat (outside of hunters). After being absent for several months, the resident pair of eagles has returned to the nest tree by the Twin Barns.
Like other raptors, eagles begin the breeding season early so that their nestlings and fledglings are present when their food sources are peaking.
This time of year, the late chum run in the Nisqually River attracts other bald eagles to join the residents in the refuge. While I’m sure that chum carcasses are the main item on the menu, the eagles are not above adding the occasional duck or goose to their diet. If you see an explosion of cackling geese or ducks from across the refuge, you will typically find a bald eagle cruising the neighborhood.
On my recent visit, I encountered a very chill duck that allowed me to approach quite closely along the boardwalk. However, I have had some trouble coming up a precise identification, perhaps some type of teal.
While less common (and quieter) than cackling geese, Canada geese are found in small flocks in the freshwater marshes and flooded grasslands.
Mallards are also a consistent component of the avifauna. Less commonly seen in the salt marsh or mudflats, they are abundant in the freshwater marshes, the flooded fields,
the drainage canals (especially slurping duckweed),
and the main pond.
American wigeons are everywhere, especially in the saltwater mudflats and shoreline vegetation. It is quite common to find birds dozing at the junction of the gravel dike and the elevated boardwalk that leads out into the saltwater mudflats.
A good part of the diet of a northern shoveler comes from single-celled algae and other microorganisms in the water column. They are quite common in the seasonally-flooded fields / marsh to the south of the trail from the Visitor Center to Twin Barns. Commonly, you will find shovelers often a pair, quickly circling around a center point. These feeding movements, called vortexing, draws water and planktonic food into the middle where they can then filter the concentrated food.
In contrast, northern pintails spend most of their feeding time with their beaks buried in the roots of waterlogged vegetation, either in the flooded grasslands or in the saltmarsh.
Green-winded teals (drakes above and hens below), like the northern pintails, will also dig among roots.
But they will also spend considerable effort slurping the biofilm from the surface of the mudflats.
While the puddle ducks can be relatively nonchalant toward walkers at Nisqually, the diving ducks: the scoters, the goldeneyes, the ring-necked ducks, tend to be far more wary. Buffleheads in particular, are quite skittish when I try to capture a closer image. If they feel that I am too close, they will quickly swim away until they feel that they have a large enough buffer. But if I try to minimize my movements when they are at the surface and move to a closer vantage point when they are underwater, I can take the more intimate images that I am seeking.
Always fun to catch a sunny winter’s day.
Steve
As I have mentioned before, Nisqually NWR is a great place to see ducks and geese up close. It is as if the birds are trying to serve as living representations of the “Blue Goose” symbol of the National Wildlife Refuge System. This symbol was created by J.N. Darling, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning political cartoonish and conservationist. A “Blue Goose” weather vane tops the Education Center at Nisqually NWR.
It is a bit incongruous to have ducks and geese blithely gorging or dozing in the refuge while you can hear shotgun blasts ringing around the periphery of the refuge. It may well be that the ducks and geese learn that the people walking along the trails at Nisqually are not threats (and their presence may even provide some protection from eagles and other potential predators). Of course, bald eagles represent a major threat (outside of hunters). After being absent for several months, the resident pair of eagles has returned to the nest tree by the Twin Barns.
Like other raptors, eagles begin the breeding season early so that their nestlings and fledglings are present when their food sources are peaking.
This time of year, the late chum run in the Nisqually River attracts other bald eagles to join the residents in the refuge. While I’m sure that chum carcasses are the main item on the menu, the eagles are not above adding the occasional duck or goose to their diet. If you see an explosion of cackling geese or ducks from across the refuge, you will typically find a bald eagle cruising the neighborhood.
On my recent visit, I encountered a very chill duck that allowed me to approach quite closely along the boardwalk. However, I have had some trouble coming up a precise identification, perhaps some type of teal.
While less common (and quieter) than cackling geese, Canada geese are found in small flocks in the freshwater marshes and flooded grasslands.
Mallards are also a consistent component of the avifauna. Less commonly seen in the salt marsh or mudflats, they are abundant in the freshwater marshes, the flooded fields,
the drainage canals (especially slurping duckweed),
and the main pond.
American wigeons are everywhere, especially in the saltwater mudflats and shoreline vegetation. It is quite common to find birds dozing at the junction of the gravel dike and the elevated boardwalk that leads out into the saltwater mudflats.
A good part of the diet of a northern shoveler comes from single-celled algae and other microorganisms in the water column. They are quite common in the seasonally-flooded fields / marsh to the south of the trail from the Visitor Center to Twin Barns. Commonly, you will find shovelers often a pair, quickly circling around a center point. These feeding movements, called vortexing, draws water and planktonic food into the middle where they can then filter the concentrated food.
In contrast, northern pintails spend most of their feeding time with their beaks buried in the roots of waterlogged vegetation, either in the flooded grasslands or in the saltmarsh.
Green-winded teals (drakes above and hens below), like the northern pintails, will also dig among roots.
But they will also spend considerable effort slurping the biofilm from the surface of the mudflats.
While the puddle ducks can be relatively nonchalant toward walkers at Nisqually, the diving ducks: the scoters, the goldeneyes, the ring-necked ducks, tend to be far more wary. Buffleheads in particular, are quite skittish when I try to capture a closer image. If they feel that I am too close, they will quickly swim away until they feel that they have a large enough buffer. But if I try to minimize my movements when they are at the surface and move to a closer vantage point when they are underwater, I can take the more intimate images that I am seeking.
Always fun to catch a sunny winter’s day.
Steve
.
. I was just a seasonal scientific technician but my supervisor who was the wildlife biologist said that the thought process was to try to get the pair to move to another tree further away from the trail.
