Field Notes

Late summer — and this year's young birds are growing up. Mike Hamilton's camera has found themunfurling new feathers, practicing essential skills, and sometimes . . . looking a little confused by it all.[We've named the birds below their pictures, so you can guess what they are. Have fun!]This... read more »

Have you ever noticed trees with many small holes drilled in the bark, often in neat rows? These are most likely the work of a sapsucker, a type of woodpecker, and the holes are known as sapwells.  After the initial drilling, the sapsucker regularly revisits the tree to lick up sap from... read more »

It floats like a duck, but the American Coot isn't a duck -- it's a member of the rail family. At the beginning of the breeding season, coots build floating platforms in dense aquatic vegetation -- as many as seven, before the female selects the perfect location for her 8 to 12 eggs. Chicks leave... read more »

A Western Sandpiper stops on the Washington Coast on a late April morning, and refuels on polychaetes, a type of marine worm, before continuing its migration to the Arctic Circle. Photographer Gregg Thompson noted that the sandpiper had to stand w-a-a-a-y on its tiptoes to pull the long worms out... read more »