Wildlife Update Comments. We thought we would pass on some of the wildlife update comments received over the past 2 days. Note that we don't indicate who they are from unless they have given us permission.
I love the wildlife reports! The parrot may be the one owned by Audrey Boyer. Although I have not seen "Bird" for several years, it used to fly freely in the neighborhood. It was not lost, or escaped, and returned to its home on Oceanview by evening. It could make a pretty good imitation of a crow and was frequently seen flying with a flock of those birds.
While sitting in my den looking out over the water, I saw a solid gray eagle. It was NOT a Heron. I looked in The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds book and there is such a bird as a Gray Sea Eagle. I've only seen it once, and as I said before it was not a Heron. Have you heard anything about this kind of Eagle?
My wife has seen a white/cream colored pheasant on Illahee Rd, north of 3rd. Not sure if it is a domestic or wild bird.
Thanks for including my question abut the doves in the previous newsletter. I posted three of the little webcam movies up on a webpage. They show a little more detail than the still I sent earlier. If you know someone who is interested, you could forward them this link. http://www.alberts-astro.com/misc/index.html
However, WARNING, the clips are pretty big, about 7 megs, so a dialup user would have to wait for hours to see the clips.
I would agree as noted below, the birds seem larger than those I'm used to seeing. When I first saw them I thought... What the heck are those seagulls doing in that tree???? That's how big they look from my distance.
Al Tuttle
Al - Thanks for sharing your photos and your web page. The white birds have been a puzzlement for many in Illahee and we were hoping someone would come forth and tell us who was raising these birds. We actually had one of them land in a tree next to our house so I got to see one up close and my take on it was it was a raised pigeon and they were being bred to maintain their white feathers. When I was young we used to raise pigeons in our back yard and it is not easy to get a group of all one color.
When our kids were young we went to the Illahee dock at a high tide in a dingy and got a squab (young pigeon - the pigeons nest in stringers under the dock and it is easy to get the young ones at high tide) that was just beginning to feather and kept it for a pet for awhile (the kids named it Andrew) until it flew into the house one day and landed on one of the blades of the ceiling fan. Our son said he could get Andrew down by turning on the fan, which was enough justification for my wife to have us take our pet back to the dock to release it. She was worried it would someday get back into the house and fly into the fan and she would have a bloody mess to clean up. It was okay as a pet on the deck, but not in her house. Anyway, that is my pigeon story and my take that they are pigeons.
Jim those were great reports on wildlife. I for sure sited a dove, and it sounded like a Mourning Dove. Rock pigeons coo differently :) I'm not sure ring neck doves have the same call the Mourning Dove has, but I could be wrong.
Great on the Midshipman! yes they are fun fish, maybe someone can catch one for Illahee days!
Weed Expert to Talk on Tuesday. The county's Noxious Weed Coordinator, Dana Coggon, is the brown bag lunch speaker at the Norm Dick's Center on Tuesday, July 29th, from 12-1pm. She will have some examples of noxious weeds and has also said we are welcome to bring any weeds we need help with identification. We have found these brown bag meetings to be informative and there is usually nearby parking available then.
Jim Aho
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