Ever since moving to Anacortes in 2001 I have wanted a quality photo of a loon in full breeding plumage.  Just about every year I have been here I have stalked loons down at the Cap Sante Marina, but although I’ve taken many photos of loons over the years I’ve never gotten one in full breeding plumage. It seems that every year the loons leave the area just before coming into their breeding plumage… which leaves me more than a little frustrated!

This year, today (3/19/2016), I finally achieved my goal  This Common loon didn’t make things easy.  When I first spotted it, it was preening which provides the opportunity to photograph the bird in the poses I posted in my blog about a week ago.  I retrieved my camera and returned to the marina, but by this time the bird had quit preening and switched to “diving for food” mode.  It was now playing “cat and mouse” and kept disappearing on the other side of the various docks.  It could stay under water about a minute, swim a hundred feet or so and necessitate my walking several hundred yards for another photographic opportunity.  I played its game for awhile, but as fortune would have it, it suddenly surfaced very near me unexpectedly and I managed to take two quick photos before it resumed its underwater hunting.  So now I have my photo(s)!

I’m having a difficult time returning to photos I took in January and February because I continue to obtain good current photographs.

Over the past two days (March 15-16) I’ve been able to spend considerable time at photography due to the improved weather.  Here are a few of the results…

A couple of months ago I was asked what the difference was between the two most numerous species of chickadees was.  The first bird pictured here is the Black–capped chickadee, a bird that generally prefers deciduous habitats.  The second bird pictured is a Chestnut-backed chickadee, a bird that generally prefers conifers.  We have both at my house (where both of these photos were taken but in the more forested areas (such as WA Park where I walk mornings) I usually see only the Chestnut-backed chickadees.  We also have a rather rare visitor from higher elevations, the Mountain chickadee, but I’m still waiting for the first one to visit my yard.  I did see a Mountain chickadee in WA Park many years ago.

This next bird is a Pine siskin.  We had many in the yard around the start of the winter and then they ALL disappeared.  Some are now making a comeback.  I’ve often wondered about the birds’ breeding habits and yesterday observed one gathering moss/lichen and flying high into the fir trees with it.  I highly suspect that it was building a nest with the material.

As I believe I’ve written before, we’ve had at least one Dark-eyed junco of the Slate-colored race overwinter with us here for the past 7=8 years.  (I’m sure it’s not the same bird!)  I love looking at the junco photos because of the birds’ feather patterns on their mantles.  If you look closely at this photo (double-click on it) you can see how neatly all the feathers are laid.

Moving on to the Cap Sante Marina, I found one (or possibly two) Common loons preening at a couple of different locations.  I managed to observe (and photograph) the bird rising from the water to stretch its wings on four different occasions.  This bird is just coming into its breeding plumage, at which point it will exhibit a spectacular appearance.   (Consult your field guide if you are unfamiliar with its breeding plumage.)  Unfortunately, in prior years I’ve found that just as the birds are about to reach their full potential they leave the marina area.  I find it interesting that the loons are one of the few waterfowl that I see searching for prey from the surface of the water.  They stick their head under water while swimming, surveying the depths below.

I think I stated my original intent was to go back and catch up on photos I had taken since the Palm Springs trip, but lately I keep happening on unusual photo opportunities that I would prefer to post in a timely fashion.  And this post somewhat continues the Bald eagle theme of my last post.

On March 13, 2016, I was on an outing with a Fir Island destination, but as always I try to maximize photographic opportunities along the way.  It had started to rain just as I left the house but I decided to tour March Point just in case.  While driving along the road I spotted an adult Bald eagle sitting in a march area eating something on the ground.  I wasn’t able to tell definitively what it was, but I could see in a couple of photos what appeared to be a deer carcass.  Here are a few of the photos I took of the eagle savaging the carcass…

March is here and it brought the weather to demonstrate its presence!  My intention was to    start posting my post-Palm Springs photos and experiences in chronological order but I had a good birding day on March 5 and it included a noteworthy, timely visit so I decided on a contemporary posting.  After a blustery Friday (March 4 Saturday dawned with enough sunshine to make a birding excursion seemingly worthwhile.

I began my photography at the Cap Sante Overlook, just blocks from my home.  There I photographed this overwintering male Anna’s hummingbird (one of our smallest birds)

and eventually three juvenile Bald eagles (one of our larger birds) taking advantage of the updrafts and circling the overlook.  Since the eagles were clearly juveniles I assume they were sparring instead of mating, but their aerobatics made for interesting observation.

On the way back down I found this Spotted towhee who didn’t mind its photo being taken…

For the past week or so there has been one or more Brant along the north shoreline of March Point, and on some days there are a pair.  Sadly one of the Brant apparently has an injured leg and its mate is generally sticking with it.  The situation has given me my first ever opportunity to obtain some good Brant photos.

My next destination was Fir Island, but other than this Common raven  I found along the way I discovered very few birding opportunities.  While I found some swans, I don’t think I saw a single goose!

I returned to the house to find a male Hairy woodpecker in the yard and I was able to take photos from several angles while it clung to the side of a fir tree.  (I initially assumed that this was a Downy woodpecker but after viewing the photographs on the computer monitor I agree with my wife who thought it a Hairy.)

And finally… our special visitor.  As I sat monitoring the yard a female Rufous hummingbird flew up to one of our two feeders, which until now had been used exclusively by the overwintering Anna’s hummingbirds.  This was our first Rufous hummingbird of the season (March 5)… we’re looking forward to many more!

This will be the final post featuring birds from the greater Palm Springs area.  Since the CA trip I’ve been accumulating lots of good local photographs, so my next post will be a return to the Pacific Northwest.

I photographed these Western Blue birds at Indian Canyon, just outside of Palm Springs.  There was a large flat rock where native Americans had made holes in which to grind corn and when it rained the holes would collect water.  The water was several inches below the lip of the hole but for some reason the birds seemed to prefer drinking from the holes rather than the clear, cold street that flowed through the canyon just a few feet away.  Early in the morning, with the sun behind me, was a great time/place to photograph several different species of birds.

This is a photo that I’ve wanted to get for a long time but have had difficulty doing so.  This is a male House finch (in the foreground) with a female in the background.  The birds are somewhat dissimilar so I’ve always wanted a photo to illustrate the difference in the sexes.

A Mockingbird, the State Bird of Texas!

Next up… Phainopepla, a bird I’ve generally found in open scrub desert.  The male is pictured first followed by the female.

And finally, a male Costa’s hummingbird back at the condos who came to wish me ‘goodbye’!