Queen of Elliston Park

It may say something about my attention span when the highlight of October birding was meeting the Queen of Elliston Park. She is definitely not a bird. This lovely lady trotted over to greet me one frosty morning in the parking lot. Her footman told me that she is known as the Queen of the park because she is there holding court three times a day. The Queen is very large, calm and gentle and sat in front of me allowing her head to be stroked. Birds are fine, but meeting the Queen, that is something special!

On that same day, I saw two Pintail ducks on the wetlands ponds. Earlier in the month, there were Green-winged Teal further west on the Inglewood Irrigation canal, along with a pair of Hooded Merganzers with their hoods down. I hadn’t seen that before and would not have taken them for Hooded Merganzers without being told that was what they were. There were also Dowitchers all over the place. I can’t tell from looking whether these are Long- or Short-billed Dowitchers, but based on the migration pattern, I am going to guess they are Long-billed.

Otherwise, the most interesting sight of the month was this Pilated Woodpecker. It was spotted flying across the river and obligingly stayed up in a tree on our side of the water long enough for me to get a clear photograph.