Green Heron Butorides virescens today at Levy Pond.
Today I needed to go to Puyallup, so on the way I checked out two areas we often find shorebirds in the fall, but it's still early and none were stopping by yet. Shorebirds are amazing migrants. The adults migrate north to the arctic tundra where they rush to find a mate, lay eggs, incubate the eggs, and the young hatch precocial. This means that they have a downy feather coat, have open eyes and can control their body temperature almost immediately. The young are on their own feeding within a very few days, the adults leave for their southward migration, and by early July we start to see the earliest southbound adult migrants. The young feed, grow, develop their juvenile feather plumage, and migrate southward on their own, somehow innately knowing how to find their way thousands of miles to their wintering grounds.
This female Gadwall Anas strepera flushed from the field where I was walking at the 56th Street Stormwater Facility. Female Gadwall and female Mallards are quite similar, and are the two species of dabbling ducks we find regularly in our area. The white "speculum" and the bill with orange only on the outer edges help with identification.
Until next time, good birding. Steem on!