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Tuesday, November 30, 2021

Wrapping up the wettest November on record

 Well, lets get this miserable month over with!  Obviously we weren't out in the rain today, these photos were all taken yesterday when we a brief respite.....


so that was the boat launch area yesterday morning....I don't think it has moved too much, or at least it hadn't the last time I ventured out to look but it has been pouring ever since then.


over at Harrison Bay, the dyke was once more the 'road'....


have never seen quite so many Bald Eagles along the dyke, and a great many of them were 'drip drying' like this one.

all the usual birds were there, the Dark-eyed Juncos, like this one, also Song Sparrows and Spotted Towhee.



but there were also some less common, like this Sharp-shin Hawk....


and this Red-tail Hawk....


but most exciting, this young Northern Shrike.....only the second time I've seen one here, and interestingly enough, it was in pretty much the same spot, but several years ago.


the fields were wet, but not as bad as they had been before...


probably because they are being proactive and have the large pump running full bore, sending the water from the drainage ditch straight into the bay.


way over there....


the Bald Eagle nest is growing....hope this one is successful!


back to the estuary, this is the far end, beside Morris Valley Road....


Hooded Merganser can usually be seen up in this area.

So.....bring on December....wonder what it has in store for us?  I'm almost scared to know!

Saturday, November 27, 2021

The day before the next deluge

 As I write this I'm listening to the rain pounding down as it has been doing all day, although it is getting more intense and one can't help but wonder how bad things will get this time, with yet another, stronger system due to arrive in a few days.

Yesterday, we had a break in the weather so headed over to the dyke....


the fields were still basically dry....there was a huge flock of geese, I think mainly Cackling Geese, out there but too far away to really tell....and yes, that is a patch of sunshine on the hillside.

there was a lot of activity in the bushes at the start of the walk, here some of the House Finch...


and a Spotted Towhee....


even a little female Downy Woodpecker joined in.

I'd heard a 'snap' and then saw an Eagle flying over with a branch....


there is a new eagle nest under construction in this poplar.  Now this is interesting.  These poplars were where the eagles used to have a nest but one winter, a storm snapped the tree off where the nest was.  That was when they moved and built a nest in poplars between the river and the dyke, but that nest was pretty much destroyed a couple of years ago, they attempted rebuilding, but it just really never worked.  We saw eagles flying with sticks to both this new location and the other location, so we don't know if we have 2 pairs building different nests, or 1 pair building 2 nests in hope that one survives.  We will just have to keep watching. We know there is another new nest along the other section of the dyke.  That one looks pretty secure and the pair are usually seen perched close by.


Took this mainly because there was some sunshine!  Something we haven't seen much of lately.


yet more Geese and other assorted waterfowl in another, slightly wetter field seen as we were heading home.


Wednesday, November 24, 2021

Just a few eagles

 A few dry days and things are returning to normal at the estuary....


this was the view today of just a small portion of the emerging gravel bars.


and this was the big tree by the viewing platform....


while this was beside the log bay....

and it wasn't just eagles, the entire estuary was alive with all sorts of waterfowl...


Swans, this one happens to be a Tundra

and all sorts of ducks, both diving and dabbling...


there is a little Green-wing Teal in there with mainly Mallards although I see a few American Wigeon on the shore.

lots of Common Merganser, these two females were in close to shore..

while we were watching the activity out on the estuary,


a whole flock of little Pine Siskin landed in one of the tree's briefly, I'd actually forgotten about siskin....this is the first flock I've seen since late last winter.


A friend kindly cleared the path at the first bay, so we are, at least for the time being, able to walk across the grasslands again....that is if you don't mind fording a small creek.


Sunday, November 21, 2021

Big difference

 What a difference a couple of dry days make!


ventured over to the dyke today and the fields are dry again.  Well probably not 'dry', I imagine they are squishy underfoot, but the only soggy places now are the usual spots.


the pump is still busy pumping water into the bay....but look, we have a beach again!


it was actually a beautiful day with no one around.  The dyke was back to being a dyke so didn't have to worry about any vehicles.


there wasn't much out on the water, a few Mallards poking about along the shore.


this Spotted Towhee was just hunkered down enjoying the sunshine....


there were quite a few House Finch doing the same thing.  This one being a female.


it was so nice, we just kept wandering...


a lot of Dark-eyed Junco over in this section...


and of course the Bald Eagle pair (the other one was perched up higher), keeping an eye on everything.


Saturday, November 20, 2021

To the park today

 


Water levels dropped dramatically over night....


you can now make out our usual path....a brown yucky mess compared to the lush green that was there before the deluge.


once we can negotiate the path, this is what awaits us....this section of the path is completely clogged with driftwood.


this seems like a bit of overkill.  Yes the flood waters moved the bridge but it is rock solid where it is....safer to walk across it than the way it is now where you have to go down into the dip to get by....but I guess in these days when everyone wants to sue everyone at the drop of a hat, the parks department can't take chances.


there were quite a few Red-wing Blackbirds at the log bay, nice to see them again...


and nice to see the 'bay' being a 'bay' again....


with the water still being, deep, there were a lot of diving ducks rather than dabblers....a large flock of Common Goldeneye like these guys, Common Mergansers and a few Bufflehead as well.

We have just done an evening walk and there was a lot of calls coming from the estuary including those of swans, so will be interesting to see what is out there in the morning.

Of course there were also some Bald Eagles


like this young one that was keeping an eye on the Red-wings that were working over a bush down below.

Friday, November 19, 2021

Waters dropping - slowly.....

 A beautiful morning....


the water levels have dropped considerably - still way higher than they should be though.  Freezing levels dropped resulting in snow on all the surrounding hills....of course the weather forecast for next week sounds like it will take care of that, but we will enjoy the break while we can!


ventured over to the dyke after lunch....unfortunately a cloud parked itself over the sun for most of the walk....saw a total of 8 eagles...


this was one of them.


there was a pretty good sized pump working at the drainage ditch....


shooting water into the bay....the work must be paying off....


as the fields on this side are much drier than a few days ago...


although not everywhere!  This is beside Kilby road.


lots of activity out in those flooded fields, unfortunately, too far away to really see. Must be hundreds of gulls, crows, geese, mallards, American wigeon an some pintails and who knows what else!