Life on the Outer Coast

Tuesday & Wednesday

Commute to town: Tuesday:2 pelagic cormorants, 2 glaucous winged gulls, 1 long-tail, 2 common murres. On Wednesday: 8 Harlequins and 4 pelagic cormorants and 2 gulls on the way to town in the morning. One common murre on the way back to town from taking Ian home around 4pm.

On Tuesday heard the siren call of unusual birds so stopped by the Gavan St. feeder and Moller park. Continue to be impressed by the number of juncos at the feeders and in the salmonberries. Also saw a northern flicker and a flock of siskins while watching the juncos. Soon after I arrived I heard what sounded like the white-throated sparrow singing. It wasn't as "sam peabodyish" as the birds I heard in New York, but seemed very similar. I didn't see any of the sparrows I had seen yesterday, so I can't confirm what my ears heard.

I did have an interesting conversation with Al, the keeper of the feeders who isn't housebound. He confirmed that it is tree swallows that nest in the houses in the backyard. I'm not sure how many years that the houses have been in the yard, but the swallows nest their each year. Apparently the parents leave the nest around the 18th of July. The swallow nestling story happened a number of years ago. He also told me that his grandson brought the birds inside after the parents left and decided that they needed his tutelage to learn to fly. He would let the birds perch on his finger then he would move his hand up and down to get them to flap. It was during one of these lessons that one of the birds swooped its way out the open window. He added a chickadee nest box last spring (?) and had a pair of chickadees raise a family in the yard. Perhaps I should remember to put the bird houses up instead of keeping them in the woodshed.

Very briefly looked at the lake from the dentist's parking lot after dropping Ian at school on Wednesday. A double crested cormorant was perched on a rock at the lake edge. I've seen many of these birds on lakes elsewhere in the country, but don't remember seeing one on Swan Lake. I suspect that I have, just didn't pay attention.

Picked up the feathers from the trailside on the way to townWednesday morning. The rain made them a bit more difficult to pick-up, but they dried nicely.
I should have collected the feathers on Sunday. I either didn't look at them very carefully or perhaps the conditions made it difficult to see all of the detail. A few of the feathers were entirely grey, most were mixeds of white and grey, grey and brown or all three colors. Still not sure from which birds these feathers were plucked.