5 Thursdays with Raptors

I talked in my earlier post:"A day in Skagit" that I ran into Bud Anderson while he was doing one of his field trips with his class. So what happened was: we had seen a few cars parked at the side of the road so we pulled over to see if the cars spotted something interesting. Then It ended up being Bud and his class doing there field trip. They also had been watching a Gyrfalcon which is what we were hoping to see. Bud was impressed that I was so young and I was birding so he invited me to his five course class for free! This was so big because first of all the class normally costs $170! Second of all he is an expert on Raptors so I could learn lots from him and last of all it was so nice of him to invite me to his class. So I ended up going to the class. It was every Thursday evening at the Woodland park zoo. It was more aimed toward adults so I did not catch everything Bud talked about but I still learned a lot. I took lots and lots of notes. 

Bud's raptor class

When I took my field trip we unfortunately did not see another Gyrfalcon but we did see a lot of other awesome birds like Merlins, Kestrels and other hawks and falcons. 

Male and female American Kestrels

A juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk

At the beginning of the field trip we watched them band a Barred owl, Red-tailed hawk and a Coopers hawk. 

Bud teaching us about Barred Owls before this bird was banded

Close up with the Barred Owl

Cooper's Hawk wearing a hood to keep it calm before it was banded

Measuring and banding the Cooper's Hawk

They tried to trap some Red-tailed hawks but did not catch any. The bait was a poor little European Starling but he would not get eaten thankfully because he Hawk that went for it would get tangled up in little plastic loops but still it will stress out the Starling same with the Voles they use as bait too. 

Around the end of class they would bring in a Raptor from the has Raptor flight program at the zoo. At the last day of class you were allowed to come early and get a tour of the Raptors from the flight program! The zoo is closed so no one else is there. You get to see the cages the birds live and sleep in. All the birds from the program are all there! They even bring some out to show everyone. There is a Spectacled owl, Peregrine falcon, Turkey vulture, Red-tailed hawk, Harris hawk, Aplomado falcon, Barn owl and a Saw-whet owl there was others but these were the highlights. The whole experience was really fun and I had a great time!!!

Meeting the Saw-whet Owl

A day at Tiger Mountain

Today we went birdwatching at Tiger Mountain. When we got there we started on the hiking trail. My brother is into reptiles and amphibians, so he was carefully rolling over logs looking for Salamanders or Newts or stuff like that. Almost right when we started hiking he found a Red-backed Salamander. He put it into a catching cage to look at it without touching it. He then he let it go back into its exact location. Not long after that, he found a Ensatina which is a small Salamander. It had gold colored legs and a slippery body. Another interesting thing is that it breaths entirely through its skin and has evolved to not have lungs.

Ensatina

Then we heard Brown Creepers calling. We looked around trying to find them and there they were. On a mossy tree we observed three Brown Creepers. Along with the Brown Creepers were Chestnut-Backed and Black-Capped chickadees and some Ruby-Crowned Kinglets. They were all being very loud! After that we spotted a Hairy woodpecker. It was on a stump pecking around. People often get Hairy Woodpeckers mixed up with Downy Woodpeckers. Hairy Woodpeckers are bigger and have longer bills. We also heard some Pileated Woodpeckers, but unfortunately did not see them. I also heard a Spotted Towhee calling. They sound very whiney and screechy.  

We ended up finding another Red-Backed Salamander.

Red-backed Salamander

As we walked by a stream my brother yelled "mole, mole!" and a mole was swimming across the stream. The mole started digging into the ground quickly. The mole dug so fast it even pushed a worm out of his home! It could have been a Coastal Mole or a Townsend's     Mole, they both look very similar. We think it was a Coastal Mole because of the habitat it was in. We managed to get a video of it:  

Later, when we took the trail that led us to the lake on Tiger Mountain, my brother flipped over a log and found next to a giant slug a cluster of small white eggs. Once we got to the lake I saw three Buffleheads and two Double-Crested Cormorants. The Buffleheads were diving (probably looking for a snack) while the Cormorants were peacefully riding the water. After I spotted them we heard a Pacific Wren calling. We went through a lot of brush we finally saw the small wren. We played a Pacific Wrens song and called the wren in. The wren got very territorial and came within two feet of us! The Wren got very upset when he could not find the trespasser Wren. We had a great time and found awesome birds! 

A day in Skagit

                 Today we went to Skagit,Washington to bird.We saw two very rare birds, a Gyrfalcon and a Black-headed Gull. These were the highlights of the day: Tundra swans, Trumpeter swans, Snow geese, Northern pintails, American kestrel, Western Meadowlark, Marsh wren, Gyrfalcon, Black-headed Gull and a Rough legged hawk. We looked for Short-eared Owls but could not find them.We have looked so many times to find a Gyrfalcon! And we finally got to see one! I was super exited! A Gyrfalcon is the biggest falcon in the world! A Gyrfalcon is an arctic falcon. We saw the juvenile.

                     The Black-headed Gull is a Eurasian gull and is a really rare bird in North America. It was white with a black spot on it's cheek. It was smaller than the other gulls ( Glaucous-winged gull, Mew gull and ring-billed gull). The bill is dark red and the legs were also dark red. It had a light grey back and a white stomach. It was on some farm land with lots and lots of other gulls.
               
                   The car ride up was so, so, so long! We listened to "The lord of the rings" on tape and almost finished it! We also bumped into Bud Anderson when we where looking at the Gyrfalcon he is a raptor expert who has been studying them for 30 years! He wanted me to come to his class for free! It usually costs $170. I was really exited! He was super nice! We went to eat at this place called "Calico Cupboard" it was a bakery. The food was really good! We got a Apple cinnamon roll  to go to share with my mom who was stuck at home with my 6 month old baby sister. By the way these pictures were taken with an iphone held to a spotting scope instead of our camera which inconveniently had a low battery.

Rough-legged Hawk

Gyrfalcon

Gyrfalcon

Me avoiding the mud

Me making a weird face at "Calico cupboard"

Me and this awesome bridge

Black-headed Gull

                 

   

A first post ... and some redpolls

Hi I am piper. I like to bird, horse-back ride, rock climb, roller skate, read and explore. So I decided that I should start writing a blog.

    My first post is when we went birdwatching at green lake,Seattle to find Common Redpolls, they had been spotted recently at Green lake. They are very rare in Seattle and are supposed to be arctic birds not city birds.They are in the Finch family. We ended up seeing them and I got really exited to see them! They reminded me of male House Finches.

If you look closely you can see Ferns growing on the tree

Fungi

Fungi

Bald Eagle

Common Redpoll

Common Redpoll

American Coot

American Coot

Female Northern Shoveler

Female Northern Shoveler

Northern Shoveler (male)

Ring-billed Gull

American crow

Gadwall (male)

Female and male Gadwall

Male Gadwall

Mallard (male)

Annas Hummingbird 

This is the normal look of a Bufflehead every time we tried to take a picture of them

 The only picture we got of a Bufflehead (male)