thick. Now already I am finding there must be some trick to posting more than one photo!!!
Although I’d taken the camera with me, I really wasn’t into the whole ‘birding’ thing today…
it was another dull gray day…there were lots of ducks out there…including some Northern Shovelers…and a few Swans way out…but figured it was a day pretty much like they’d all been and I was in a hurry to get the big dogs walk done to get back to the little old dog that is having some medical issues…
But…as we approached the viewing platform I could hear a woodpecker quite close…
and there he is…a male Hairy Woodpecker…
posing beautifully for some great pictures…
there were a lot of Dark-eyed Junco in the same area, and there have been Pine Sisken, House Finch and even a Purple Finch in the area all weekend.
Just for fun I thought I’d check and see what was happening on this date last year….seems it was sunny and cooler than it is this year….7 degrees out there today..
Just had …
this female Yellow-headed Blackbird at my feeder…if you recall I reported on back on May 20th…and hadn’t seen any sign of her since. I don’t know if this is the same bird or a different one…haven’t heard a male, but then there are so many Evening Grosbeaks about today (not the quietest of birds) they could give even a male YHBlkBd a run for his money in the vocal department! That other bird in the feeder is a male Brown Headed Cowbird, of which we also have LOTS!.
As I ran out to try and ‘capture’ the above bird…I passed a female hummingbird sitting beside my empty feeder, so ran in and grabbed the cup of ‘hummer juice’ that I had meant to put out this morning….and that reminded me I had planned to post some hummingbird pictures today…
So here they are….this is a female Rufous Hummingbird…
I’m hoping for another sunny day when I can sit out by the feeder and hopefully get some pictures of a male….
and of course I still need to capture the pair of Anna’s that are in the park!
Despite the fact it seems more like February than the end of March…seems you can always find something to report…. and today is certainly no exception.. as I looked out my window today to spot a male ….
Rose-breasted Grosbeak! Rose-breasted Grosbeaks aren’t supposed to be here. They are summertime visitors any where east of the rockies..
they are close relatives of the Black-headed Grosbeaks that we have in abundance – if you look closely at this picture, there is a male Black-headed in front, with the Rose-breasted behind. It was showering at the time which is the reason for them being fluffed up.
Last August I had a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak here at my feeders for almost a week, this could well be the same one on his way back. That was, I think, only the 2nd time this species had been seen in the upper Fraser Valley – now it has been seen again.
After a few days away, wandered down to the boat launch this morning to see where the water levels were…
and was surprised to spot a pair of…
Common Loon! Finding a Loon on our ‘lake’ isn’t completely out of the question, we do sometimes experience the thrill of hearing their call out there during high water…
but I don’t recall ever seeing a pair of them before.
as for water levels…well they continue to creep up…about as high now as the ‘high water’ mark for last year…
mid-day we went for our walk to the park…the viewing platform is around the corner out there somewhere…going to be quite some time before there is any ‘viewing’ done from it again…it was very busy in these bushes, saw both the Bushtits and the Black Cap Chickadee busy going in the direction of their nests….lots of Warblers…could make out a couple of Wilson’s Warblers, also Orange Crowned…Orioles calling from the trees…
the way to the log bay is now blocked by water so had to go up and through the housing development…something I don’t like to do, and won’t do very often, due to the ‘Private Property – No Entry’ signs on the gates. Doesn’t matter how many people tell me to ignore them…it is ingrained in me to obey signs..
nevertheless for the sake of this blog…I disobeyed (feeling very guilty the whole time) and reached the log bay…water is getting close to the bench now. There were birds everywhere, 4 types of Swallows (Tree, Barn, Northern Rough Wing, and Violet Green), saw a pair of Spotted Sandpipers…a female Rufous Hummingbird was gathering fluff from spent pussy willows and taking it up into one of the large Poplar’s…everything in nature has a purpose…pussy willow fluff makes great nesting material for tiny little birds.
The return trail…blocked at this end as well..
there was a great deal of bird activity…but not a lot you could actually see – did manage to capture this female Purple Finch…
and this Spotted Towhee eating the dandelion seeds – saw a lot of Towhee today after their being rather scarce for the last while, so I suspect that this years batch of youngsters have now hatched and parents are busy food gathering…
also of note today, the native Thimbleberry shrubs are in flower. I love the flowers of this shrub, they are so big and showy! I also spotted the first Wild Rose flowers today but they were in an awkward spot so thought I’d leave them for now.
Two nice days in a row…a bit of a record this year! Before I get to today I want to report the sighting of a rare (for our area) migrant that I saw yesterday as I was heading out for a lunch date….
a Western Kingbird! I didn’t have a camera with me at the time but the bird was doing exactly what this one in one of my file pictures is doing…sitting on a fence wire. Yesterday’s bird was right beside highway #7 just across the Harrison Bridge so definitely still within IBA BC033! This added another species to the list – up to 169 now.
Made it over to the log bay today….you can see it was pretty windy…and also that the top log is well on it’s way to being submerged…
looking northwards….this view won’t change much now, except at the edges…it is just going to be water for the next 3 months or so.
ditto, looking this way, in fact I expect where I’m standing to be under water probably by the next time I make it over there.
likewise at the other end, I expect this will be the last view like this for some time. I could hear a Spotted Sandpiper in this area but couldn’t see it…
Just before the battery in my camera died I spotted this male Bullock’s Oriole, one of several I heard down there….so this gives the opportunity to talk a bit about this favorite (at least for me) summertime visitor.
The first few years I lived here, we never saw an Oriole…then one summer, a neighbour was shocked to have one come to his hummingbird feeder. The bird continued to come all season long, and then the next year, it returned…this time, with a mate. The rest, as they say, is history!! We now have quite the population of them.
The female Bullocks Oriole is pretty much all yellow…as this file photo (taken in my former backyard) shows…
for Orioles, raising a family is a ‘family’ affair! Both parents work at building their hanging nests…they favor Poplar trees for these nests which are usually situated not as high up in the trees as you would expect. Unlike most birds, the eggs don’t hatch all at the same time so the young don’t leave the nest all at the same time…that is when daddy takes over…as in the above picture…busy feeding this fledgling.
of course mom doesn’t get out of all the feeding chores….
in this series of pictures, taken in my former backyard…mom is busy preparing a wasp for the hungry youngster…
it isn’t just mom and dad that help raise the family…often the youngsters from the previous year will join in as they take 2 years to mature. Unfortunately pictures I had of the ‘teenagers’ seem to be missing…this is another adult male at an Oriole feeder.
Orioles have a number of different calls that you will soon recognize, one of the calls is a rattling call similar to that of the Steller’s Jay but in a lower register.
Well today I got to see one of the Beaver for myself!
here at the rapidly filling first bay by the viewing platform…
on the far bank, could just make out this guy in the grasses
he didn’t seem terribly perturbed as we walked down the trail on the opposite bank for a better angle…it helps that although my dog is definitely interested….she knows that animals are only to be looked at, not chased – of course she is always on a leash and we might not be so lucky if we encountered a wild horse….but that is another story!
the Beaver wasn’t the only attraction on the far side…this Tree Swallow was down on the bank, probably collecting nesting material…there were also all sorts of little birds coming down to the water for drinks and bathing…
after a while the Beaver lumbered down this, now we know about it, obviously well worn path to the water…
and disappeared. It is so nice to see Beaver here again. There used to always be beaver, in fact the remnants of a lodge over by the log bay are still visible, but Beaver themselves hadn’t been seen for a few years.
the other item of note today were the numbers of Yellow Rump Warblers – this female was at the log bay – they were throughout the park. She caught my eye because she looked different – after down loading the picture I see why – she is a ‘myrtle’ with the white ‘chin’ rather than the usual yellow.
I think the water level was pretty much stable from yesterday. I looked for a Spotted Sandpiper, but still haven’t seen one. My husband saw one last night…at least it was there until an off leash dog appeared on the scene.
in keeping with the Yellow Rump Warbler theme….here is a male Audubon…
and another, this one in one of the Black Twin berry bushes….
a male and a female here…there were actually 3 in this particular willow but couldn’t get them all in.
The month of May started out very promising with the sunniest, warmest day we’ve had yet this year…
this picture was taken May 1st…
same view today – in the rain – the most important thing to notice is the level of the rising water. The only birds visible over here were this pair of
Mallard – sneaking along the far side of the bay…
here we were looking sort of southeastwards yesterday…
and eastwards today – the gravel bars are disappearing – as they should be this time of the year.
most noticeable when we set out today was a lot of Canada Goose ‘carry on’ – went to the viewing platform and there was a Goose perched on the nearest piling, with another at it’s base and another perched on a piling further down…
here is the one perched on the closest piling – the one with all the purple martin boxes on it.
Just as I reached a point where I hoped to be able to see a bit more, the one from the other piling flew over to this one, there was a bit of a ‘kafuffle’ and they disappeared from sight.
The vocal carry on continued, so on the way back we returned to the viewing platform to see what we could see….
in the short length of time we’d been away there had been a migration ‘Fall out’….all the bushes in the surrounding area were covered in birds….primarily Yellow Rump Warblers….
This one, and the one above being male ‘Audubon’ Yellow Rump Warblers…
but also some of the ‘Myrtle’ sub species – these having white ‘chin’s rather than yellow.
It wasn’t just Warbler’s though….here a couple of Warblers, but also a couple of American Robins…
but also White Crowned Sparrows (we have had some White Crowned Sparrows here for a while as some will stay and nest here, but many more will move through)
also seen was a Lincoln Sparrow – the picture I took today was only good enough for me to be able to give it a positive ID so I am using this ‘file photo’ taken in my former backyard several years ago.
If the weather hadn’t been so bad, I would have gone back with binoculars to see what else might be in the mixed flock…but since it continues to be wet, windy, and miserable I haven’t bothered.
The Canadian Geese had now proved to be 2 pairs…this pair had settled into grazing on the grass on the gravel bar across from the log bay and a second pair were at the point of this same gravel bar.
One more note: there was a pair of Osprey flying about earlier today. Yesterday we spotted an Osprey nest being build on a piling just to the north of the bridge that takes highway 7 over the Harrison River. I’ll attempt to get a picture of it one of these days. Osprey have always nested on pilings out on the river, but this is the first pair to do it in a spot where a boat isn’t needed to view it.
