A Very Birdy Week

Pelicans!  Avocets!  Black-necked Stilts!

In other words, it was a very good week for birding in the Tri-Cities area, despite too much wind, too much heat, and way too many gnats.

Anyway, there are lots of photos today, so let's get to it!

This is Wanawish Dam, formerly known as Horn Rapids Dam, about 10 miles from Richland:

American White Pelicans like to fish here.

They were not actively fishing during my visit, just kind of hanging out, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching them.

When one of them flew in to join a small group, there was some sort of altercation:

But eventually things got sorted out.

Perhaps it was simply a matter of one bird being in another bird's favorite spot.  I saw something similar a few days later on a visit to the McNary wildlife refuge, when a coot swam up to a log that was occupied by a turtle:

The coot seemed perturbed by the turtle's presence, almost as if it were giving the turtle the old stink-eye.

Then it turned its back on the turtle and kicked one foot out at it, as if to say, "Go away, you bother me."

And right after it did that, the poor turtle got the message and slid off the log.
Coot: 1, Turtle: 0.

Although there were a million gnats at McNary, I had a fine time, because there were fine birds.  As usual, the Yellow-headed Blackbirds were out and about:

And an American Kestrel was hunting, another typical sight there.

The best birds, though, were the ones I don't typically see there that often -- Black-necked Stilts and Avocets.  This is the Stilt:

The reflections were fabulously fun to photograph:

Stilts and Avocets are closely related to sandpipers, and like to forage on small aquatic prey by picking or probing in shallow water:

I saw just a handful of stilts, but there were dozens of Avocets also foraging, which made me ever so happy, because the only time I'd ever seen them before they were way way WAY far off, barely visible with binoculars.  I'd never gotten good photos of them until now.

Like stilts, they are good-sized birds of around 18" in length.

Their distinctive upward curving bills are used to sweep through the water for tiny crustaceans.

So that was my very birdy week, and now it's back to the usual lounging-at-home, dog-walking, puttering-about times for me.  Have a great Monday!

The Owls Will Have to Wait

Some months ago, I came  up with a plan to go look for Great Grey Owls in eastern Oregon this May.  They are resident in an area outside La Grande, and there are known nesting sites that I was hoping to see, but alas, nature had other plans. 

Well, I hope the owls will be there next Spring, and in the meantime, I went birding on nearby Bateman Island one day this past week instead.  There weren't very many birds in view, though the ones I did see were rather nice. 

Naturally, the Hounds got to come along:

Our first nice bird was a Common Loon that was diving a lot, and it was quite far off, so it was hard to get a good photo:

The next fun bird was a Western Kingbird who was busy flycatching, always returning to the same tree.  Here are both profile and front views:

The trail on Bateman Island runs nearly one mile from the causeway to a small pebbly beach.

At the beach, far out in the Columbia River, I spotted a lovely Clark's Grebe:

The Hounds spotted a wading area, and went for it:

Not quite as exciting as a search for Great Grey Owls, perhaps, but enjoyable all the same.