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John’s pretty good bird count

johngregsite Posted on by
image buffleheads

During last Saturday on a quick visit to Mason Island, I managed to get a walk around the neighborhood and spotted a number of birds.

The first stop was at the dock on Poggy Bay where Bufflehead ducks were cruising around at a less-than-preferred distance (image at left). Note: the full white chest area suggests buffleheads and not hooded mergansers (see later photos)

image hooded merganser
A hooded merganser was crossing the Ice pond as I walked by the southend causeway
Image heron on the pond
The resident blue heron that stands around the Ice pond went to the west side

Also during my visit to the south end of the Ice pond, the usual suspects cruised around (the mallard families, of course)

image red tail hawk maybe
At the north end of the Ice pond, a hawk posed on a stump
image black duck

As I got down to the yacht club, I caught these American Black ducks in the cove west of the parking lot after I checked out the bridge to Enders Isl.

image hooded mergansers
And finally, when I got to the Great Marsh, a whole congregation of hooded mergansers quickly departed the dock area

Hunting season

johngregsite Posted on by

It has been nearly a month with shoot-animals-with-guns season here abouts. We generally keep out of the woods during this time and when we do venture out, we go around noon time and wearing bright orange vests and hats. Last week on a longer walk than usual (out to the pipeline corridor and the no-name pond), we found the dead doe carcass as shown, about ten feet off the trail.

There are several possibilities regarding this find. The deer could have been hit by a car on a road, was wounded, and ran into the woods as far as it could and then succumbed. We did not examine the animal to any extent (I kept Kayla away from it, obviously) and could not determine what caused its death. It is possible it was shot by a hunter, was only wounded, and ran away successfully.

Over the years I have discovered dead deer due to probable auto accidents. One year I encountered a couple hunters looking for a deer they claimed was hit. In another year, I found the remnants of a deer that a hunter had dismembered.

We will monitor this one and see how long the forest takes to make it disappear. I doubt anyone (human) will cart it off.