Lake Sammamish

23 Nov Lake Sammamish

Lake Sammamish State Park: pretty in the unseasonable cold –Nov. 20 2010

Delia & I went over to Lake Samammish State Park today for a quick 14,000 steps in the cold weather today (Delia has taken to wearing a pedometer everywhere lately.)

[singlepic id=25 w=420 h=300 float=center]

Near the parking lot we had some good songbird action, –this super-handsome Spotted Towhee stepped into the sunlight, plus there was a flock of Purple Finch, Hermit Thrush, a colorful British Columbian interior race of Fox Sparrow, plus a Yellow-rumped Warbler, both Chickadees and both Kinglets.

[singlepic id=22 w=425 h=325 float=center]

The male Hooded Mergansers were in the creek, the females were out in the lake. There was a Greater White-fronted Goose with the Wigeons, Mallards and Canada Geese also.

[singlepic id=21 w=425 h=325 float=center]

This Great Blue Herons was by the Creek. This bird had lots of black trim. I’ll have to look that up in Sibley.

[singlepic id=19 w=325 h=425 float=center]

[singlepic id=24 w=325 h=425 float=center]

Both of the regularly-seen accipiter species put in a showing today, and more surprisingly, they both struck similar poses for easy website-comparison. A juvenile Coopers Hawk above, an adult Sharp-shinned Hawk below. Note the round head and square tail on the Sharpy.

[singlepic id=23 w=425 h=325 float=center]

This female Belted Kingfisher was making plenty of noise all day. What would we do without Kingfishers? Still, we were glad we didn’t have to make a living diving into that cold water. We went home before sundown and turned up the heat.