Fernhill Wetlands

Tree Swallow - Tachycineta bicolor

Saturday afternoon, the weather was cold but beautiful so we decided to go to one of our favorite parks, the Fernhill Wetlands.

We didn't see the tree swallows on this trip (photo from 4 July 06) but they're just so cute I couldn't resist posting an old one. Click for a close-up and to see flying tree swallows.

Domestic "Blue Swedish" Mallard - Anas platyrhynchos

When we first entered the park, we saw a flock of mallards with a bunch of weird ducks mixed in.

Sami was sure we'd discovered something new, but I'd read this article on Manky Mallards
so I knew we were looking at domestic and hybrid mallards. We also saw a "Bibbed Mallard".

Great Egret - Ardea alba

and

Green Winged Teals - Anas crecca

The Great Egret is the symbol of the National Audubon Society. It flies with it's neck pulled back in an s curve.

Great Egret in flight and standing alone.

Juvenile Gull

The young gulls all look sort of similar and don't even have the same beak and leg colors as their parents so I couldn't identify this one.

Great Blue Heron - Ardea herodias

and

Common Mergansers (f) - Mergus merganser

The great blues are the largest herons in the US and they are fairly common in our area. Another picture of the great blue here.

The mergansers are tough little diving ducks, with sharp toothlike projections on their bills. Apparently gulls like to follow flocks of mergansers and steal the fish they caught. Although we witnessed several successful dives for fish, we didn't see any being stolen. Picture of the merganser flock (including males).

Bald Eagle - Haliaeetus leucocephalus

We saw several bald eagles on this trip. Adults with the classic white heads, not the confusing young ones with brown heads like we saw at Tillamook.

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We also saw a Double Crested Cormorant - Phalacrocorax auritus

Unfortunately the cormorant photo is not very good because it was so far away.

Northern Shoveler (f) - Anas clypeata

The shovelers have giant shovel-shaped bills with comblike projections that they use to filter food from the water.

It's interesting to watch them feeding because groups of shovelers swim around in a circle to create a kind of whirlpool that swirls food up from the bottom of the pond.

Hooded Merganser (m) - Lophodytes cucullatus

The Hooded Merganser has a fancy crest that it can raise and lower (this one is raised).

Another interesting fact: the Hooded Merganser can change the refractive properties of its eyes to see fish underwater. Kind of like those Moken Sea-Gypsy children that dive for pearls.

American Coots - Fulica Americana

Although they look and act like ducks, they're not, they're part of the rail family. Also, they don't have webbed feet.

Oh, and they have some seriously ugly babies.

Northern Pintails - Anas acuta

I think the pintails are probably the most elegant ducks we have in Oregon.

More pintails swimming.

Male pintail on land.

Canadian Geese - Branta canadensis

These are the most common geese in the US. They're everywhere, usually in large quantities. Some of them migrate north or south depending on the season, others live here year round.

Actually there are a lot of different subspecies but they're so similar you need to be an expert to tell them apart.

Green-Winged Teals - Anas crecca

This was my first time seeing Green-Winged Teals. They were incredible and had such amazing colors.

Sami's binoculars are 18x, so we got a good view of them. It made me really want an even better camera with a telephoto lens.

American Kestrel - Falco Sparverius

Just as we were leaving the park, I saw this young Kestrel. It's the same kind of bird we saw at the Wild Arts Festival last week.

Full Moon

Although it got dark early and we were only in the park for about 2 hours, we saw an incredible variety of birds. We should definitely go back more often.