Field Trip Report: Freeland Small Sit
By Madrone Ruggiero
Seven people came to the Freeland County Park Small Sit on a damp Saturday, April 11, to enjoy a variety of fauna including both birds and sea mammals! Two children in attendance looked at the wildlife and played on the playground.
The rain subsided just after the beginning of the Sit and conveniently stayed away until just before the Sit ended, giving us humid conditions but good lighting for viewing out on the water. The Sit began near high tide and small numbers of the expected species of diving ducks fed just offshore including Buffleheads, Surf Scoters and Red-breasted Mergansers. Out in the harbor each mooring buoy was adorned with a Double-crested Cormorant. Floating nearby on the water a Bonapart’s Gull that had molted mostly into breeding plumage gave us an easy ID with its full black head and bill. As the tide went out more gulls came to the beach and we examined the mix of probable hybrid Olympic Gulls. Using an attendee’s self-made gull comparison chart, we found a possible Glaucous-winged Gull among them and three more Bonapart’s Gulls in varying plumages. The usual smattering of dabbling ducks scattered along the shoreline were mostly Mallards but among them was a male Gadwall who was actively courting a female Mallard with a head bobbing display and calling.
On shore a half dozen Yellow-rumped Warblers flitted about in the pine tree feeding and making their distinctive single note chip call. An adult Bald Eagle sat in the top of a Douglas-fir tree on the hill during most of the Sit before scattering the ducks as it flew away.
Highlights of the Sit for many of the attendees were the unexpected presence of a large number of marine mammals. Attendees got great views of a group of about a half dozen California Sea Lions lounging as a tight group while holding their flippers out of the water much to the delight of one of the young attendees of the Sit. Throughout the Sit there were also repeated sightings of at least eight (and probably more) Harbor Porpoises feeding farther out in Holmes Harbor past the sea lions. Closer to shore was the expected marine mammal for the Sit, a Harbor Seal. The trip leader later learned that there had been a pod of mammal eating Orcas spotted off Langley that day which may account for why there were a surprising number of marine mammals in Holmes Harbor.