Fir Island birding

We had planned to be hiking at the Stimpson family nature reserve Thursday of this week, but we heard the weather forecast for high winds on Thursday and calm on Friday. We opted to go on an outing on Friday instead.

We really did have high winds in our area on Thursday. We had some damage to sections of our fence and our canoe went sailing over our neighbors fence. Exciting times for sure! We were thankful that our damage wasn't any worse. I looked at the past observations on the Intellicast weather site and found the recorded highest gusts before the storm let up. Our highest was 63 mph. You can read the other stats in the screenshot photo below.

We weren't sure about the tree debris that might be on the trail at Stimpson after the storm so we chose to go birding at Fir Island. The temperature today was quite a change after yesterday's high 50's. It was 41 degrees when we began our walk. I was glad I brought my layers, gloves and warm hat. The southeast breeze was chilly. There is a nice path to walk along the slough.

Great Blue Heron

Snow Geese overhead

We went in the bird viewing hut and spotted a Ruby-Crowned Kinglet. I tried to get a picture of it but it flew too fast for me.

Here's my great attempt. Tada! A blurry bird photo 😄

It was a very grey day and it made everything very subdued looking.

Rose hips along the way. We saw a Flicker and many Robins in the trees.

It was hunting season, so there were Safety zone areas signed along the way.

We took a right turn and headed out along another direction of the slough.

We saw a couple of Eagle nests and Eagles sitting in the old snags. Zoom in to see them more clearly.

As walked along towards the point the trail narrowed and the brush became more of a thicket along the way. There were Spotted Towhee here and there all along the path. 

 

Looking out at the sea of Cattails.

The path narrowed even more as we neared the point.

The end of the trail view. 

We lingered and enjoyed the view and reminisced about our past times on this trail.

On our walk back we saw a Northern Shrike. No photo but confirmed it's I.D. with my iPhone's ibird  PRO app and our Sibley's bird book.

I looked back and saw that the sky was beginning to get a slight sunset hue to it.

It was fitting that it was chilly and low light on this shortest day of the year.

Such a nice day and place to walk 4 miles and welcome in the Winter solstice.

*If you look at the photo below you'll see my ibird birding journal list, it includes a photo of the birds we saw.