Lots of activity

Lots of activity the last few days over near Harrison Bay....

 The fields have been full of swans, mainly Trumpeter but there are a few Tundra as well, Canada Geese, including some of the small Cackling Geese - there is one right in the lower middle of this picture....and ton's of American Wigeon ducks...

a solid carpet of Wigeon....

every now and then, they take flight....sometimes just out to the bay, wave after wave of them, and sometimes when an eagle flies over, they all take flight, circling around and settling back down on the field.

the Bald Eagle pair have been hanging about the nest, which still needs a lot of work.

over here at the estuary it has been a lot quieter....water levels are down to where you expect them to be this time of the year.

there are usually a few Great Blue Heron around, like this one just out from the log bay this morning, you can see how shallow the water is now from the vegetation.

there were quite a few Varied Thrush this morning feeding on the few fruits of the Pacific Crabapple that are still hanging on.

Black capped Chickadees can usually be found as well.

and now for a couple of 'signs of spring'....

Hazelnut Catkins....

and Pussy Willows!

A non- snow event!

 Well after the promise of some real winter.....

this was as good as it got!

It was enough to bring a bit of a change over to the Harrison Bay area....

where between the river, the beach and the adjacent fields, there had to be at least 300 Canada Geese....

American Wigeon have been conspicuous due to their absence, but today there were a few on the river.....

and then flock after flock of them flew in to join geese and swans in the field.

We had been wondering where all the Swans had gone, well they are back...pretty much all Trumpeters although I know there was one Tundra in the mix at least.

The previous few days had been sunny which meant they were rather busy with everyone out enjoying the weather.... here are a few photos...

beautiful and calm...

a male Hairy Woodpecker working on a tree beside the railway bridge.

an a Bald Eagle striding along the shore...

One of the days, we did a 'forest' walk....

and were surprised to see Skunk Cabbages starting to grow in a few spots.

A few interesting sightings

 A couple of days of nice weather and we've managed to see a few interesting things....

not that Bald Eagles are that interesting these days....but this shot, taken this morning, just sort of sets the scene.

There were a lot of these little guys this morning....

Golden-crowned Kinglets.....we've been seeing them almost every morning lately. There were Black-capped Chickadees with them, but none of them cooperated for a photo.

there were, however, a number of Varied Thrush.

He wasn't there this morning, but most days we've seen or heard at least one Hairy Woodpecker....this male was yesterday.

Over at Harrison Bay....

it was a 'Great Blue Herons on pilings' sort of day!  With a total of 9 of them on assorted pilings in the river.  Three here....

another couple here.....

and even one here on the metal piling....

But maybe the best sighting was....

a pair of Wood Ducks!  This being the male....

and this, the female.

there were also two pair of Mallard in the same secluded spot....this being one pair.

Sunshine!

Finally, Sunshine!  

 it did, however come at a price....as we did this walk, we'd been without power for over 12 hours....not that, that really bothers us....the lack of internet though did.  Fortunately it did come back a couple of house later....

things won't be repaired quite that quickly.....

at the eagle nest.  The wind sure played havoc with it, not much left!

Due to the wind, there weren't any birds visible, at least until we got to...

the log boom out on the river, where there were not one, not two, but a total of eight....

Great Blue Heron....3 in this picture...

on our return, the Bald Eagle pair were busy surveying the damage at the nest.  I guess the good news is that there are lots of sticks laying around which should speed up the rebuilding process.

Earlier in the morning, we had walked over to the park and the only birds visible were...

some Golden-crowned Kinglets. These little guys are so active and usually deep in the bushes, so was thrilled to actually get a decent shot!

Sunshine forecast for tomorrow too....cross fingers!

Quiet, calm and gloomy start to the year

 Here we are, getting close to 2 weeks into the new year, and there just hasn't been much of anything to report.

this has pretty much been the scene....on days that it isn't absolutely pouring, it stays kind of grey and gloomy, but at least we are able to get out.

this pair of Mallard co-operated one morning and there have been a lot of Green wing Teal from time to time.

a pair of Eurasian Collared Doves over at the log bay one morning....in fact there have been quite a few birds along the trail some days....

like this young Anna's Hummingbird on one of the few sunny mornings....

this male Hairy Woodpecker was found on the same day.

this young Bald Eagle was there as well.  There are still a few eagles around, but most have now moved on and I have no idea where the swans are.

over at Harrison Bay, the calm theme continues....

Canada Geese are back in the fields now....

Spotting this Red-neck Grebe on the 3rd was a bit of a pleasant surprise.

while today, the most exciting find was this Brown Creeper.  There were a number of Golden-crowned Kinglets with it, but wasn't able to get a picture.

Sunshine is promised towards the middle of this week, let's hope so.  We need a change in the weather to prompt some activity.