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There is a porta-potty on the premises, so bring a thermos of coffee and be prepared to spend some time. If you sit on the bench in front of the bulletin board next to the building, the creepers will fly past you on their way to the redwood tree to get bark to line their burrow. The redwood tree is behind the bulletin board, but I think it is too dark and too confined to get any photos with your 150-600 Tamron of the creepers pulling off the bark
I am tempted to try for photos using my 5DIII, tripod, and wider angle lenses (24-105L or 70-200L) with a Speedlite flash.
Mixed flocks of sandpipers have been visiting the marsh the past week. Good photos were impossible due to the heat and bright sunshine creating heat waves which radiated off the mudflats. Friday afternoon (4/22) was cool and overcast, so my son and I went down hoping to get passable photos. Four least sandpipers were present out in the large mudflat.
It was a slow photography weekend due to Daren's Special Olympics regional track meet in Marysville and rainy weather, but Sunday (4/24) I got some nice shots of a snipe and its reflection from the #1 viewing platform of the marsh.
Monday morning (4/25) I was attempting to take action photos of Wesley from the #1 viewing platform of the marsh using the 5DIII + 500L + 1.4x TC mounted on a tripod.
I should have used the 7DII as it has a much faster firing rate than the 5DIII. I missed a shots of Wesley taking off and landing.
That afternoon I went to Pine Ridge Park where I ran into my next door neighbor taking his young daughter for a walk. Although he is not a birder, he was the first to spot the resident barred owl on the other side of the small pond next to the main trail.
We walked on down the trail to a bench next to the larger pond. People must feed the ducks from the bench, as several swam over to us. Present among the mallards were two species that are usually too shy to approach people. Unfortunately the location was in deep shade.
A pair of wood ducks.
A ring-necked duck.
A pied-billed grebe was making weird calls from the sunshine in the middle of the pond.
yeah, that little "feeding station" by the pond gets real dark in the afternoon... the ducks do come in close, though! good shots given the conditions...
Tuesday morning (4/26) I found a lone snow goose at the Mini Park side of Sprague Pond in Lynnwood. I have seen snow geese by the thousands on Fir Island and Eide Road, but I have never seen one by itself in a city park.
The goose showed off its black wingtips, one of its identifying characteristics.
A resident green heron made some flyovers.
Two groups of Canada goose goslings reside at the park. The goslings came very close to me and I used the opportunity to take a closeup.
Wednesday afternoon (4/27) several of us watched an eagle perched under the tree canopy in Pine Ridge Park. One of our group found the resident barred owl sleeping on a fairly low perch near the pond.
On the way out, we found a downy woodpecker working on a tree by the trail.
Later that afternoon Daren and I drove up Pine St. to look for the Pt. Edwards eagles. I saw something perched on the eagles' tree at the to of Pine St. I parked the pickup, but the bird took off before I could get into position. The bird turned out to be a peregrine falcon. I got two grab shots as it flew northeast towards the fish hatchery and City Park. It is the first one I have seen this year.
We went down to the marsh, where Wesley did his best impression of a falcon.
Nest boxes for tree swallows were recently installed at the Edmonds marsh. Thursday afternoon (4/28) a tree swallow was checking out the one off the #1 viewing platform.
The swallow did not enter as the nest box is already occupied by a pair of black-capped chickadees.
There are at least four other nest boxes at the marsh, so hopefully the tree swallow will find one that is empty.
Later that afternoon I went up to the Pt. Edwards walkway where a female hummer was getting nectar from a flower.
A rather small hummer posed several minutes for me. I saw two flying together, so it may have been a fledgling that was out on a field trip with its mother.
The hummer let me know that it wanted Rocky to take its photo.
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