The other day while running some errands I decided to stop at Koll Center Wetlands. It's a neat little place I used to frequently bird-watch, set right in the middle of a business park in suburban Beaverton:
There's a great blue heron rookery there, where once I saw how brutal sibling rivalry can be as one chick had thrown another out of the nest. It's a great place to see all kinds of waterfowl and any shorebirds that may be passing through, and there's a little wooded area nearby to pick up a whole other variety of species as well. On this particular afternoon it was fairly quiet, but the lighting was beautiful:
Most of the 13 species I saw were clustered at one end of the lake, unfortunately making them back-lit for me - not great for photographs. Here's a little pied-billed grebe:
While no species was particularly abundant, the variety in one spot was pretty cool to see. How many different species do you see in the photo below, and what are they? Click to see a larger version.
7 comments:
I can see Shoveler, Canada Gose Coot, and two other ducks species, one possible a tufted ? or scaup ?
Hi Monika
I got American Coot, a Canada Goose (sub?) species - no idea which of the 'hundreds' of varieties you get on your patch, nice male Ring Necked Duck, (Lesser?) Scaup (hiding behind central coot)& Gadwall.
Cheers
D
Think I'll change my Gadwall for a less contrasty Black Duck...any closer?
D
You guys are good, especially for coming from a different continent!
Northern shoveler, Canada goose (no idea what sub-species either), American coot, ring-necked duck (looks a lot like a tufted duck which we only get rarely), and you were spot on with the gadwall as well Dave!
I think the bird behind the central coot was actually another coot.
Actually I think the goose is a Cackling Goose (4 of the small C. Goose subspecies were recently split off to form the Cackling Goose complex). Note the short neck, small triangular bill,and dusky breast. I suspect these are fairly common in the Beaverton area. Not sure of the subspecies but Taverner's is a good possibilty.
Doh...can't believe I changed my mind!!! I thought I could see a pale back on the 'hidden' bird but it is probably just water droplets...doh again..being too clever. Could do with a nice male RND over here close enough to twitch, not seen one for a few years now and the eclipse male I had a few years ago on the nature reserve wasn't accepted. Shame as it was pretty good for one but not seen by any one else which doesn't really matter obviously my description wasn't good enough.
Cheers
D
PS more tricky quizes please (immature gulls???).
Charles - Thanks for the tip on the cackling goose - I wasn't sure since it seemed to large when doing a direct comparison to other ducks.
Dave - I'll see if I can't come up with some more quizzes. If we went to immature gulls you all would have to help me out though, because they are certainly not my strong point!
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