Whidbey Island and Fir Island
Winter/Spring 2020
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Warbling Vireo (Seattle)
Bushtit
Townsend's Solitaire in our front yard.
Chipping Sparrow
American Kestrel
Barn Swallow
Whimbrel
White-crowned Sparrow
Mountain Bluebird (male)
Mountain Bluebird (female)
Western Bluebird (male)
Horned Grebe
Cooper's Hawk
Northern Waterthrush--Fir Island
Tundra Swan--Fir Island
Shorebirds with Jay
In the summer of 2019, my friend Jay Adams led a series of trips to observe the variety of shorebirds visiting Whidbey Island and other nearby hotspots. He and his partner Ruth Richards would comb through the hundreds or thousands of sandpipers in order to spot rare visitors that had strayed from their species' regular migration routes. With their guidance I was able to see many beautiful shorebirds for the first time. This went beyond names and field marks, as I've come to appreciate shorebirds for their unmatched elegance and supernatural flying abilities.
Ruff
Jay and Ruth
Ruff
Dunlin in breeding plumage
Black-bellied Plover
Western and Pectoral Sandpipers, Long-billed dowitchers
Least Sandpipers
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Shortbilled Dowitchers and Western Sandpipers
Wilson's Phalarope
Wilson's Phalarope
Hudsonian Godwit
Hudsonian Godwit
Red-necked Phalarope
Red-necked Phalarope
Marbled Godwit
Wilson's Snipe
Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs
Dowitchers taking off
Dowitchers in flight
Pectoral Sandpiper
Black Turnstones
Surfbird
Greater Yellowlegs
Dunlins filling the sky in the Skagit Valley
Protection Island—Smith & Minor—National Wildlife Refuges
July 19, 2019
San Juans in view as we exit Deception Pass
Rhinoceros Auklets--Strait of Juan de Fuca
Approaching Protection Island from the north
North-most point of Protection Island
As expected, Pigeon Guillemots are plentiful
First look at a Tufted Puffin
Harlequin Ducks and seals off Kanem Point
A better look at a Puffin
Lots of Eagles, generational conflict
Seals in-all sizes and colors
If looks could kill....
Elephant seal
Bringing home the bacon
Tufted Puffin
Tufted Puffin
PGs sharing a bite
Gulls upset that only Puffins are featured on the Protection Island sign.
We saw 60-75 eagles on this trip
Rounding Violet Point, heading north
Good looks at Auklets here
Another Rhino
Common Murre
Where's this Cormorant going?
Smith Island
Bait ball
Smith Island from the southwest
Juvenile Eagle on the beach
Black & White: Cormorants & Gulls
A quiet place for Cormorants
One last Rhino
Deception Pass, Whidbey Island
The Sentinal
South Florida February 2019
Roseate Spoonbill siphoning up a meal
White Ibis
Purple Gallinule
Anhinga
Green Heron
Great Horned Owls
The Marshes--Ten Thousand Islands
Little Blue Heron in Mangroves
Roseate Spoonbill
Limpkin
Snail Kite
Mottled Duck
Wood Stork
Glossy Ibis
Red-shouldered Hawk
Spoonbill in flight
Reddish Egret
Gray-headed Swamphen
Black-bellied Whistling Ducks
Literate Osprey
Great Blue Heron and chicks
Painted Bunting
Ancient mural in Lake Worth PO
Kauai'i November 2018.
Captions, left to right:
Row 1: Japanese White Eye; pair of Mynas; Brown Booby soaring; Rainbow Eucalyptus grove
Row 2: White-rumped Shama; Green Pheasant; Great Frigatebird; White-tailed Tropicbirds navigating Waimea Canyon
Row 3: Red-crested Cardinal after bathing; Laysan Albatross nest site; Red-footed Booby; a pair of Nenes
Row 4: Common Moorhen (Hawaiian subspecies); Neutered sign--the wettest spot on Earth; Apapane, Kauai Akakiki
Row 5: Ellie-watching; Alley cat vs. Junglefowl
Whidbey Island, Ecuador, and New Jersey. Posted October 2018
JJS
Captions, left to right:
Row 1: Northern Pintail; Falconer presenting his Great Horned Owl, Solomena; Pileated Woodpecker on a regular visit to my yard;
All images are the copyrighted work of Michael Sheldon and may not be copied or used without his permission.