Priest Point, Olympia, WA. 2012/5/25

Priest Point, Olympia, WA. 13:00.

It is about 60 degrees and raining in Olympia, WA right now. I will be at my girlfriend's house here for the next two days, and plan on visiting some of the local parks and forests to catalog some natural history.

Today, we are watching my girlfriend's nephew, who just turned 6. He is a ball of energy and we decided that despite the rain, it could be fun to go to a park.

Because we were in downtown Olympia, we decided to go to one that was nearby. Fortunately, there is a nice park right on the waterfront called Priest Point Park.

There was quite a bit of bird activity in the area. Some nesting Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias) were making quite a large ruckus in a stand of large Western Red Cedars (Thuja plicata). I saw a Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) about 15 feet high up on a Douglas Fir (Pseudosuga Menziesii), but it seemed to be keeping to itself and pecking at the tree. They really are loud! We saw a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) up high at the top of another Douglas Fir as well. It appeared to be an adult, and was keeping watch on the park. There were also seven Mallard Ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) near the shore washing themselves. Three were males, and four of them were females.

In addition to those birds, I saw a Brown Creeper (Certhia americana) spiraling down a Bigleaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum) and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula) flying out from a short patch of English Holly (Ilex aquifolium) about twenty feet over to a short Alder (Alnus). It sat on one of the limbs and tweeted for about a minute and then took off to an unknown location.

We did not stay for much longer because my girlfriend and I started to get a bit too wet (we were wearing sweatshirts). My girlfriend's nephew on the other hand, was very sad to be leaving and wanted to stick around. We promised him that we would go exploring at another park tomorrow. I would like to see more of what Olympia has to offer!

Species Observed:

Anas platyrhynchos
Ardea herodias
Certhia americana
Dryocopus pileatus
Haliaeetus leucocephalus
Regulus calendula

Acer macrophyllum
Alnus
Ilex aquifolium
Pseudosuga Menziesii
Thuja plicata

Publicado el junio 5, 2012 03:13 TARDE por ablevins