So this is the 3rd day of the Great Backyard Bird Count - the world wide bird count. I guess the best way to do this is just to start posting some pictures and work backwards.....
this was today (February 17th) at Harrison Bay. A gorgeous day, chilly when the wind blew but almost warm where there was no wind....and look at how low the water is. Not sure if we've ever seen it quite this low before. There were a few Canada Geese down at the edge of the water, many more in fields....easily 200 to 300 of them pretty much every day in the general area.
This was an interesting combination on the shore today. A male Northern Pintail - there are sometimes large numbers of these guys around - and a female Green Wing Teal. Strange she was there all by herself!
We ventured a bit further afield today, this is the slough at Deroche so no longer in our IBA but normally a real hot bed of bird activity. Unfortunately this year is is mainly frozen solid! There were these 5 Great blue heron .....
Where water was open there was so much activity it was hard to see it all, especially from an idling truck on a very narrow road with no shoulders...but you can see in the foreground, a Bald Eagle with a kill and a couple of Northwestern Crows wanting to share, lots of Canada Geese in behind, a few Trumpeter Swans, quite a few Bufflehead ducks and who knows what else!
this was a bit of a surprise! A Killdeer right at the side of the road. I guess the sun had thawed the soil enough that it could find some little bugs or worms.
now speaking of Bald Eagles and kills....this was at Harrison Bay yesterday. This Bald Eagle flew down into a field where a couple of crows had been, grabbed what appears to be a female Bufflehead duck and flew up into the trees. The duck must have been dropped by somebody because you would never find a Bufflehead in the fields....of course the eagles are in hunting mode now as there are no fish left....the other day one was witnessed grabbing a rat!
the fields have been full of activity....this was yesterday, a Tundra Swan on the far left, lots of Trumpeter Swans, ducks include American Wigeon, Mallard and Northern Pintail.
a bunch of Wigeon here with one lone Mallard...
let's not forget the little birds....some days like today with the wind there were none, other days there are quite a few....Song Sparrows like this guy one of the easiest to spot as they are really in singing mode right now - hoping for spring to return I think!
finally, yesterday morning, I managed to get a decent photo of a Gold-crowned Kinglet! This was over at the park. These guys have been around a lot the last few weeks, in fact we saw some over at Harrison Bay today, but they are so active that getting a picture is usually and exercise in futility.
The snow also brought lots of Varied Thrush.....they had been almost totally absent this winter but now they are everywhere. Now speaking of Thrush....yesterday I looked out and there was a bird I didn't recognize on a bush in my yard. It was one of those 'what on earth?!' moments - went to grab my camera and before I could get a picture, it flew. It was definitely a 'Thrush' but what kind? The only kind that should be here right now are the Varied....the best I could guess was a Swainson's Thrush but it seemed too small for one of them and besides it is a couple of months early to see them. For all I know it could have been some real rarity....but haven't seen it since.
Keep hoping that the weather is going to go back to seasonal soon, but doesn't look like it. Normally I'd be saying that we should be expecting the return of the Robins, except they've been here all along, and that Mountain Bluebirds and Tree Swallows could be expected in the next couple of weeks - but this year - who knows!
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