Notes from Matt Miller, Education Assistant:
It has been fairly active at our little local wetland recently. With wacky weather and tsunamis things are still fairly normal and stable around the lagoon. With spring right around the corner, the birds are pairing off and setting up camp for the mating season. Today I saw the last few male mallards vying for maybe the last single female mallard in the whole lagoon! The wood ducks have been paired off for a couple weeks now and today we saw a beautiful male sitting guard on top of one of the bird boxes. The tree swallows have returned from their winter grounds in Southern California, Mexico, and Central America and are fervently building nests in the tree boxes around the lagoon gearing up for some youngsters here in just a matter of weeks now. Look out though, last week we saw two racoons coming out of the woodland forests and hop in the water to swim over to one of the islands–on the hunt for nests no doubt, as eggs are a favorite food. A couple of very special sightings recently–there has consistently been 3-5 Cinnamon Teals at the lagoon, a couple of beautiful males with their cinnamon coats and one or two females–blending in with brown and tan plumage. ALSO, one field trip two weeks ago apparently spotted a ferret so be on the look out!
Posted by: admin on March 14, 2011.
