Morning Pic

A great blue heron fished the Hoquiam River on Friday morning, during low tide.

I had headed out that morning to look for shorebirds along the harbor. It is near the beginning of spring migration, when up to a million shorebirds move through the Grays Harbor estuary over the course of a few weeks. The birds feed on invertebrates in exposed mudflats, so low tide is a good time to see them on the riverbank, or down by the harbor on Dog Marsh, which is where I was planning to go.

I couldn't decide what route I wanted to take out to Dog Marsh. Then I saw Beacon Hill, on the northeast bank of the Hoquiam River, with new green leaves on the trees, and my favorite hill farther north, with fog hanging around the top, so I detoured to the river.

The heron was on the bank just across Lincoln Street; it was the first thing I saw when I got to the river. It stayed still for exactly one shot before heading across to the far bank, where it perched on a dock piling while I photographed the fog on the hill, and then it headed downriver.

Since I was on the river anyway, I decided to take the walking path to Simpson Avenue Bridge, and from there go beneath the bridge to see if I could walk the riverbank all the way around to Dog Marsh. I had tried to do that for a Morning Pic in December, but couldn't because the water was too high to pass about halfway between the bridge and the marsh. It seemed like a good time to make another attempt, with the tide at its low point.

I got distracted a couple times on my way to the bridge. First I took a few shots of this nesting Canada goose.

There sometimes is a gander standing along the sidewalk there. I saw him several times, and he always looked like he was standing guard, so finally it occurred to me to look for a nest.

According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website, the female will incubate the eggs for 25 to 28 days while the male stands guard. I'm not sure what it means that he wasn't around Friday; maybe he was just off patrolling the perimeter somewhere. On Sunday morning I swung by, to make sure nothing had happened to him, and he was back on duty.

After the goose I stopped off for a few shots at Levee Street boat launch, next to Swanson's grocery store. The pier there, which floats, offers an interesting vantage point at low tide.

From there I put the camera away until I got to Simpson Avenue Bridge, which you can see in the last photo above. The going looked a bit treacherous after I left the paved walk and went under the bridge. There were a few slick spots, and my shoes and jeans got muddy, but I found that mud-covered rock offers surprisingly decent traction.

The edge of Dog Marsh lies just beyond the railroad bridge shown above, over a drainage ditch.

I crossed the ditch on one of those half-buried logs, scrambled up the bank into a patch of blackberry bushes, and voila! I had reached Dog Marsh by following the riverbank.

On the gravel walk, just around the bend where the river turns into the harbor, I found the heron again.

It took off and headed back toward the river.

But it stopped before disappearing around the bend, and I was able to find a spot on the rocks to set my tripod for a few more shots. The heron slowly worked the bank while moving back toward me.

It noticed me before it got too close. It stopped and looked around, as though uncertain of how to react to me, then took off upriver out of sight.

Shorebirds

I didn't see any shorebirds for the entire walk along the exposed mudflats. The mudflat shown below, along the western edge of Dog Marsh, is a good place to watch them feeding up close, but it too was completely abandoned.

It is early in the shorebird migration season, which last from late April to early May, so maybe there just aren't that many birds here yet. Or maybe they were all feasting in the mudflats of the Grays Harbor National Wildlife Refuge, a few miles west of where I walked. At any rate, the next few weeks will be a good time to catch some photos and hopefully some video.

Stay tuned!