Wintering Waterfowl

One thing that I knew I would miss by leaving Seattle was my local birding patch, the Montlake Fill.  It was a fifteen-minute drive from home, had a lot of habitat variety and thus lots of different birds, it was not too large and not too small, and I nearly always ran into birding friends there.

There's no equivalent here in the Tri-Cities.  The natural areas nearest to my new house, W.E. Johnson Park and Chamna Natural Preserve, are okay, and I've seen good birds there, but the habitat is limited and the first is a popular horse trail with lots of horse evidence about while the second is prone to mud (at least in winter).

Bateman Island is the local birding hot spot, 11 miles away via the highway.  It has the same lack of habitat variety, uneven paths, and you have to walk all the way from one end to the other to get water views.  I went there this past week, and it was nice enough, with a few good birds about.

Common Mergansers are winter visitors. 

So are American Wigeons.

The Great Egrets live here year-round.

Then there's the nearest National Wildlife Refuge, McNary.  It's 19 miles away, and has slightly more habit variety, though the biggest draw is the Burbank Slough, which attracts wintering waterfowl by the thousands.

I stopped by there this week to see plenty of ducks and geese.

Duck, duck, goose, goose!

Out on the water, among the many, many Mallards, I spotted more wigeons, mergansers, coots, Buffleheads, and a few Canvasbacks.  It was quite the party.

There were even a few swans about.

These are Tundra Swans, which are very similar to the more common Trumpeter Swans.

The difference is in the shape of the dark bill, along with a small yellow patch near the eye which is hard to see here but clear in my binoculars.

 It was fabulous to see all the wintering waterfowl, which are some of my favorite birds.  I do miss seeing them at the Fill, though, where they tend to come in closer range, and where it also tends to be warmer during the winter months. 

Next Summer I'll be spending quite a lot of time back in Seattle, and will definitely spend tons of time at the Fill.  Until then, I think I'll keep checking back on the local spots here -- I haven't birded them in Spring yet, which should tell me lots about finding a good local patch.