While still waiting for our first migrant warbler to arrive in the yard this season, I had an interesting birding day yesterday. Upon returning from a very early trip to Seattle on April 5, 2023, I drove through the Cap Sante Marina and noticed a Common loon. I hurried home, retrieved my camera and returned to the marina. Conditions weren’t ideal for photographing the loon… the tide was out which means any waterfowl are located farther from shore. I was somewhat surprised that the loon was still there… it hasn’t seemed to be spending a lot of time in the marina lately.

I watched the loon for a few minutes and saw that it was slowly moving eastward towards the nearest dock, so I went out on the dock in anticipation of the loon swimming under the dock. I had lost sight of the loon once I was on the dock but suddenly the loon surfaced very close to me… with a small crab in it’s beak! I wasn’t all that prepared for the occurrence so didn’t have my camera set for those circumstances, but realizing that time was of the essence I took a few photos. The loon quickly consumed the crab… I could hear the shell crunching in the loon’s beak!

I soon lost the loon and couldn’t find it again despite making a couple of driving trips around the marina. Stalking the loon on foot is extremely frustrating. It can swim 50′ under a dock which can necessitate me having to walk a couple of hundred yards!

Later the same day I staked out our yard in the hopes of getting my first good photos of the season of Rufous hummingbirds. I wasn’t disappointed. A male began hanging around the yard, for the most part ignoring both sexes of Anna’s hummingbirds using the feeder. Eventually a second male Rufous hummingbird entered the yard, ignoring the feeder but making a few passes at the first male Rufous.

I saw our first Turkey vulture of the season on March 31, 2023. I’ve seen two almost every day since.