January | 2022 | Wings Over Skagit

While I’ve embarked on several excursions to the local area to photograph waterfowl this fall/winter, I’ve had very little luck finding subjects for my photography. On the afternoon of January 16 I decided to give it another try without having much hope of any success. My plan was to tour March Point but I only made it as far as the Cap Sante Marina. There I encountered a small flotilla (maybe about eight) of female Buffleheads diving for food.

Over the next hour or so they were joined by several other species. This is one of about three male goldeneyes that eventually joined the flotilla… I think this is a Common goldeneye but its winter plumage makes it difficult for me to make a positive identification.

While I was engaged in photographing members of the flotilla a pair of Red-breasted mergansers sneaked up on me from behind and I at first missed the opportunity for really good photos, but they eventually returned.

Eventually two or three female Hooded mergansers joined the group…

I took 285 photos which included all sorts of combinations of the birds…

Here are a female Red-breasted merganser, two female Hooded mergansers and three female Buffleheads…

Here are a male Common goldeneye and a female Red-breasted merganser...

And here are a male Common goldeneye, female Red-breasted merganser and a female Bufflehead…

But wait… there was more! As I was leaving the dock a male Belted kingfisher landed on a boat in front of me, capping a great afternoon of photography!

A few photos to get the New Year off right! These photos were all taken on January 7, 2022.

With a friend I first canvassed the neighborhood and found a few Varied thrushes, one of the females of which is pictured here.

We next encountered this Bald eagle perched on a power pole on March Point. Always better to find them perched on tree limbs, but along the roads the good perches on trees are rarer.

This Great Blue Heron was beside a road over on the Skagit Flats.

It was a fairly uneventful excursion, but when I returned to the house I noticed that there were quite a few birds in the yard, so I set up outside for awhile. Here’s a female Dark-eyed (Oregon) junco.