Saturday, November 24, 2012 Valley Birding

I'm still getting my strength back from my surgery but I wanted to get out a bit so we decided to try some local birding in the Auburn/Kent Valley. We started out spying some wood ducks in the creek that runs right beside Auburn-Black Diamond Road. We drive on this road everyday and have never seen wood ducks out here before. It's crazy how many times we're seeing wood ducks now. I'll never tire-they are so gorgeous. Then we went down to the fields between Hwy 167 and Emerald Downs. We saw quite a few birds of prey like red-tailed hawk and a peregrine falcon along with 2 trumpeter swans flying over. Then plenty of waterfowl like northern pintails, American wigeon, green-winged teals and mallards along with a great blue heron. Also caught sight of a towhee and song sparrow. Our last stop was the Green River Natural Resources Area where we saw some coots, cormorants, wigeons and ring-necked ducks. Also flying around was a northern harrier and a beautiful pair of bald eagles in the power tower and a kestrel in a tree. We didn't see anything new but it was a big day for me to get out after taking it easy for a month.