Its only goose poop

Last Saturday I dragged Frost and Wren out birdwatching at Union Bay Slough. I took Wren there a few weeks ago and have since decided Frost should be required to come on semi-family outings [semi-family is when I take the kids out] rather than hanging at home while Daddy gets his 9 hours after "I went to bed at 3am" shut-eye.

This has proven to be a great success and would have been even better if I had dressed Frost myself rather than allowing him to follow his own judgment. For both outings (to Farmers Market and Union Bay) we have had to return home prematurely to avoid death due to hypothermia. Last week, Frost did not bring gloves, a hat or another layer under his coat and I had to patch him up with my own fleece vest, a spare hat I found in the car and one Little Hottie hand warmer.

I let Frost use the binoculars to find birds and at first he found it very frustrating. He yelled:

Damn it. This is impossible. Its like trying to point a Wii remote at a bird!!!

After a while he finally saw the bird which Wren had been yelling at too. Wren was yelling:

It is him. Redwingbackbird. There is it!

"Its like trying to point a Wii remote at a bird!"

We walked around the trail to the waterfront where we saw 100s of over overwintering birds on Lake Washington as well as a group of 5 or 6 trumpeter swans. They were pretty hard to make out with our small binoculars but we chanced upon a birdwatcher with a Leica spotterscope who lowered the tripod almost to the ground to let Frost see through. With his equipment we could see the black beaks and glide of the swans among some Canada Geese. The birdwatcher was very excited as were some women cyclists doing some off-roading who also came over.

Frost was quite exhilarated with binocular use after getting some practice. I explained that birdwatchers were like spies - they had much of the same equipment (spotterscopes, binoculars, microphones and notebooks) and had to learn to be very sneaky and creep up quietly to see birds. He set off alone a great distance (which is where Union Bay Slough is great for kids - it is so open that they can go a fair way off alone without the parent freaking out - to stalk coot. Wren tried to follow and became bogged in the watery sedge so I had to recover him but despite some conflict over use of binoculars everyone had fun and felt important.

After stalking coot Frost and Wren observe a little pond.

Eventually Frost told me:

I have worked out a technique for using binoculars. You find a MARKER. Like I see that gazebo over there and I find it and I know the birds are below the gazebo so I look down and find them.

I congratulated him and said that was exactly what adults and professionals do.

We saw the following birds without even trying to do any identification or sneaking: Canada Goose, Great Blue Heron, merganser, trumpeter swan, coot, bufflehead, red-wing blackbird, robins, northern shoveler and a large hawk.
Frost explains to Wren about beavers and says they are "very lucky" to find this tree almost eaten up.

Wren and Frost both saw a beaver-gnawed tree which Frost considered a rare find. They were both concerned by the abundance of goose poop in the grass. At times, Frost refused to walk for fear of stepping in the poop and Wren stopped from time to time to ask:

What is this stinky stuff?

To which I had to give the reassuring answer of "its only goose poop".

What is this stinky stuff? Asks Wren while examining goose poop.

Early morning birdwatching

We had lovely clear weather this past weekend and managed to get out with the kids to make some vitamin D. On Sunday morning Wren and I went birdwatching at Union Bay Marsh. The area and shores of Lake Washington are home to many overwintering birds.

It was very cold and the rivulets of water crossing the path were frozen over. Wren enjoyed stamping on the ice and trying to crack it. Little ponds were also frozen and pebbles skittled across the surface in a musical way but if a large rock was thrown it cracked the ice and felt through, trapping big white air pockets under the dark surface.


In this picture Wren is listening to the call of the Red Winged Blackbirds. There were many of them on the bare shrubs and trees, calling to each other in sequence. Wren learned to identify the song and I ahve a little movie clip I should put up showing him listening and identifying the bird. He particularly enjoyed looking at the picture in the bird book and saying "that is him!" (to everything from Sandpiper to eagle.


While walking around the trail we ran into Marth (Lincoln's Gran) and may be able to do the Little Gym class at the same time as they. I hope it works out. Martha walked around with us and has also been thinking of bringing Lincoln to the park and has bought the same little bird book of Seattle Birds to learn the local critters. The Union Bay area is very popular with birdwatchers - we saw about 10 other people with binoculars and/or very large lenses on their SLR cameras. My little Nikon was an anomaly (but my subject was closer - in the scenic shot there is actually a red-winged blackbird in the far tree but it appears only as a dot).

When we came to the banks of Lake Washington we noticed some bird photographers pointing out a pair of bald eagles who were attacking a coot out on the lake. We hurried over and watched the pair of eagles dive-bomb the little coot who ducked and dove bravely while swimming for shore. There was a flock of several hundred coot in a protected inlet but this little coot had wandered from the protection of the flock.

After about 8 passes at the coot (at times the photographer thought the coot was a goner) the eagles gave up and flew off to a perch in some lakeside willows across the inlet. The coot swam hurriedly to the flock which was feeding near a great blue heron standing basking on a log near the shore.

It was very exciting. Later in the day we went to the Pacific Science Center and saw the train show which was on over the weekend.