Yesterday, Betsy and I went to Washington Park, right next to where we live in Anacortes, WA. It was a beautiful day, and we went to one of the main lookout points in the park.
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| View to the east from Washington Park. Mount Erie is to the right, and our home is in the Skyline area to the left. |
One of the reasons we went to this spot was to look for Townsend's Solitaire. This is perhaps the only place in Skagit County where you have a good chance of seeing this bird. It comes down from the mountains in the winter to feed on the juniper berries that are so abundant in the park. Here's the tree where we first saw the Solitaire, and a view of the bird with plenty of berries nearby for the taking:
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| The juniper tree where we first saw the Townsend's Solitaire. |
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| A Townsend's Solitaire at Washington Park. Notice its all gray body, light wing bar and eye ring, and buffy patches in the wing. |
As we expected, the Solitaire was feeding on the juniper berries. Here a shot of it just after it grabbed one. In the next shot you can see the bulge in the throat where the berry is on its way down:
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| Townsend's Solitaire getting ready to swallow a berry. |
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| The berry is on its way down the throat. |
We got lots of nice views of the Solitaire, as shown in the next photos:
There were other thrushes feeding on the berries as well. The American Robin shown below was having a great time eating one berry after another:
All in all, it was a wonderful way to spend a morning before going home for lunch.
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| Looking to the west from Washington Park. Burrows Island, Rosario Strait, Lopez Island, and the Olympic Mountains are in the distance, and the "family tree" is in the foreground. |
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