[obol] Other Birds At the Newport South Jetty

[Cindy Ashy]

Dick Demarest, Audubon field trip leader this morning, spotted a White-tailed
Kite off in the distance to the south kiting on a thermal with an occasional
jig that gave us exceptional views of the black patches on its shoulders and
its exquisite fan tail. As it moved north toward us, the view just got better
and better....and there were lots of oooohs, ahhhs, and wows. Then suddenly it
took an almost perfectly vertical dive from very high all the way to the ground
and came up with a small bird. It carried its prize to the top of a tree and we
were then able to zoom in on it with Dick's amazing scope that is still crystal
clear at 60x and see a stream of little feathers flying in the wind as the hawk
devoured its prey. I watched it capture another bird later in the afternoon
with the same exacting skill.

Harlequin Ducks often hang out on or by the first finger of the jetty and Dick
tried several times to locate them for the group but elusive they were. I had
to laugh when their painted bodies appeared a couple hours later, two males and
one female about 3/4 out sitting on one of the rocks (the tide was a bit
lower). I watched them a while...the two males got in the water and dove very
actively while the female seemed content to stay on the rock and just observe
her male companions. The lighter Glaucous Gull flew by twice very close to me
while I was there (I could almost hear it say "here I am, look at me") and a
Great Blue Heron landed near the harlequins and stayed in the same spot the
rest of the day which I found a bit odd. The Bufflehead seemed to be flying
around more than usual showing off their orange feet while most of the
Red-necked Grebes seemed to be floating and sleeping peacefully with their
beaks tucked neatly under their wings. I also saw the happy little harlequin
trio much later just before sunset much further west in the channel (about
parallel to the beach) headed west seeming to ride the tide.

Back to predation...on the beach I found a freshly dead Western Grebe. Most of
the body was relatively intact but something had ripped open the chest and
picked this portion and the neck meat clean with the neck vertebrae pulled out
in a "loop" shape from the back through the chest. Could someone tell me the
type of predator that would eat the grebe in this manner? (someone told me or I
read this OBOL but can't remember) Could it be an owl? Maybe a big owl that
would be well camouflaged in our snowy surroundings the last few days :-)

Cindy Ashy


 
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