December 22, 2014 : Commonwealth Park, Beaverton, OR

I spent a morning at Commonwealth Park in Beaverton, OR. It is a very nice park and I will return.  Unfortunately it was foggy in the morning and quite overcast  later, so the light was very flat and not the best for photography.  I did see 25 species of birds, 2 species of mammals and 2 species of fish (see my lists below).

I had fun watching the Common Mergansers while they dove and fished, watching them consume five catfish and two perch.  Invariably, once a merganser caught a fish that was too big to easily gulp right down, the other mergansers would dive under the victor and try to steal the fish from its beak.  I never saw this work out, but the crime must pay off once-in-a-while or else they wouldn't expend all their energy trying to steal fish.

Common Mergansers, male in foreground, female in rear.

Common Merganser, male

 

Common Merganser, female 

Common Merganser, female

Common Merganser, female

Common Merganser, female

Common Merganser, female

Common Merganser, female.  Note the serrated "teeth" in the beak, which enable these birds to keep a good grip on a wriggling fish.

A cropped close-up of the above photo

Next, a series of Common Mergansers with sushi lunch ...

Next, a couple of shots of Common Mergansers chasing and diving to try to steal a fish ...

I also had fun trying to catch Common Mergansers just as they were diving under water.

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

Male Mallard landing in a symmetrical and colorful pose.

 Mew Gull

Mew Gull

American Coot having a water-plant salad for lunch.

Peregrine Falcon

American Wigeon, male

 American Kingfisher, male

American Kingfisher, male

American Kingfisher, male

Mother Nutria

 Young Nutria

Two young Nutria

Bird List
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American Coot                  Mallard                             American Wigeon
Bufflehead                         Canada Goose                  Cackling Goose
Pied-Billed Grebe              Common Merganser        Hooded Merganser
Green Heron                      Great Blue Heron             California Gull
Mew Gull                          Ring-Billed Gull               American Crow
Red-Tailed Hawk              Peregrine Falcon               American Kingfisher
Western Scrub Jay             Red-Winged Blackbird    Anna's Hummingbird
Northern Flicker                House Finch                     Song Sparrow
Yellow-Rumped Warbler          

Mammal List
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Gray Squirrel
Nutria

Fish List
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Catfish
Perch