We left early on our way back to the island the other day hoping to see the extremely rare White Pelicans that have been reported off and on in Padilla Bay over the past couple of months. Padilla Bay is a calm shallow eelgrass-lined inlet in the northern Salish Sea, protected as a federal Estuarine Research Reserve, managed by the Washington State Dept of Ecology. According to the North Cascades Institute,
April 19, 2016
A flock of White Pelican paid a visit to Padilla Bay on the edge of the Salish Sea earlier this week….a very rare occurrence as they tend to stay east of the Cascades during migration. The local Great Blue Herons took notice of theses “interlopers.” :)
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Parking at the interpretive center just north of Bayview State Park on the eastern shore of Padilla Bay, I scanned the bay from the lookout there. What I saw was the low-tide seascape in the photo at the top….hundreds of acres of algae and eelgrass, with islands (and one oil tanker) in the distance. No pelicans.
After a while a woman joined me on the lookout with binoculars. People with binocs are almost always bird-watchers so I asked if she’d seen the pelicans. Turns out she’s a heron-counter, and related a harrowing story which may have accounted for the absence of the pelicans. Two days earlier a crowd of about 40 eagles attacked the pelican flock on the bay for several hours. She said the pelicans did not fight back or fly away and 4-5 were killed. Rats! I guess just missed them.
More recent reports on the pelicans from Tweeters, the Univ of Washington birdserv daily feed had me briefly hopeful, but now less so —
June 28, 2016:
There was a huge congregation of pelicans visible from shore (at 10:00 a.m.). The flock was spread out a bit, counted at 94 birds. All of the birds were slowly moving away from Swinomish Channel toward the end of March Point and more open water.On my return from birding elsewhere, a second check of the pelicans at 12:30 p.m., , revealed only about a dozen birds, flying at altitude toward the islands.
June 30, 2016:
Yesterday some of the Puget sound flock(s) appear to have flown north. Approx 75 were reported by others at Samuel Isl (Between Saturna and Mayne Isl. in the Canadian San Juan Islands). Later 75-100 were reported further north at Nanaimo on Vancouver Island (British Columbia, Canada).
Additional information about the White Pelicans from Avian Biologist Dennis Paulson via Whidbey Audubon:
White American Pelicans in Western Washington this time of year is unprecedented. He suggests that the pelicans are likely expanding their range because of loss of breeding habitat (ie. in Malhuer Lake, Oregon and possibly other areas) due to drought/climate change, and due to an increase in population since the ban on DDT and other pesticides.
If White Pelicans are indeed expanding their range into Western Washington, I may get another chance to see them, on a future excursion to the mainland. But probably not this year. It sounds like they have continued on in their migration up into Canada. I wish them well en route and that they find good nesting habitat there.
The March Point named in the Tweeter message is directly across Padilla Bay from Bayview State Park. The most conspicuous features on March Point are two oil refineries. A back road encircles the point, and along the western shore of Padilla Bay we pulled over in an old graveled industrial site to perhaps hear the herons. In a remnant steep-sided forest on the point is the largest Great Blue Heron rookery in the state. Local property owners donated some of that forest to the Skagit Land Trust so the herons nest safely within close reach of the rich feeding grounds of Padilla Bay and other wetlands nearby. We could hear them all right, a prehistoric cacophony overhead as they flew back and forth and in the trees where they perched. With this extreme low tide the parents had a long journey to shallow water at this time of day.
I could see at least 100 herons perched in the trees and flying overhead. The nests are lower down in the foliage. The heronry was a fair distance from where we were parked, so this is the best I could do with my 300mm zoom lens, but you can see lots of them. The youngsters are expected to fledge in early July.
I was hoping to hear herons, but seeing them too was an unexpected treat!
Back on the road and on to the ferry dock at Ship Harbor to catch the afternoon boat —
Most of the breeding Great Blues who stalk the local beaches on the islands fly over to the Padilla Bay heronry — certainly a much quicker trip than ours by road and ferry! Ship Harbor used to be a busy site of fishing boats and canneries in the heyday of PNW salmon. Today there’s nothing from that era but old wooden pilings and some metal slag piles, but the pilings are perfect habitat for Purple Martins, away from the starlings and house sparrows who have nearly wiped out these large swallows in Washington. In 2000 the Skagit Audubon Society began building PUMA nesting boxes here. The Martins appeared in late April this year as usual and are actively nesting now.
The osprey perched on the piling was one of two I saw over Ship Harbor bay. I saw them stoop several times during the 45 minutes I was waiting for the ferry. An osprey hovers in place watching for a fish through the ripply sea surface, and then dives...
Diving ospreys — cool!
I found several exciting birds along the Salish Sea shore on this trip — the Great Blue Herons, the Purple Martins, and the Ospreys. It was disappointing to miss the White pelicans — lost my chance for them probably.
But speaking of lost: I was sad to see what’s happened to the nesting Pelagic Cormorants at the dock, from a birdwatchers POV. They’ve been driven away by Washington State Ferries, who consider birds a nuisance and possible health hazard. I’ve watched WSF try different strategies over the past few years — nets and bars over nest sites, eagle kites to scare them away — all unsuccessful. This year they have found the answer: 2 guys in an inflatable skiff zooming around the dock structures intermittently. The cormorants all fly off, interrupting any breeding behavior. In May I saw about 100 cormorants here, this month only a dozen. We are well into nesting season, so if they intend to breed they will have to go elsewhere, if they can find any open spots so late in the season.
Any notable wild birds or other critters on your lost or found list?
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All nature observations are welcome in the comments below. Tell us what you’re seeing in your own natural neighborhood, in your part of the world.
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