Wanted to do a posting today in honor of it being the first official day of spring but oh my! The weather has been horrendous. My daughter on the island tells me it is sunny over there and I see now that the wind is picking up and the rain has stopped so I guess better weather is on it's way.
We did do a very quick walk just to the boat launch and wouldn't you know it, birds we don't normally see lately were there.....the little Bufflehead crew had increased to 7 but there were also 4 female Common Merganser, a Great Blue Heron was flying around squawking, a Belted Kingfisher was 'rattling' and a Red-tail Hawk was circling over head.....no pictures of course!
The pictures I will post (again unedited and taken through the window) are this female Red-shafted Northern Flicker....
and a back view of this male hybrid....
in this view of the male you can see he has quite 'golden' coloration...
there is that 'eye-browed' Steller's Jay again....
I'm still waiting for my first Hummingbird. Two neighbours now have reported they've had hummers at their feeders, one for sure was an Anna's, not sure about the other one.
First I'm going to apologize for the quality of the pictures in this post. I am still having problems finding a photo editing program that works or at least that this computer likes....so these pictures are as they came from the camera and since they were taken through double pane glass they are't great....
but I wanted to show that the migration of Northern Flickers is right on schedule. This is the time of year when we are most likely to see hybrids like this fellow that was at the suet yesterday. He has the red mustache of the red shafted and the red 'v' on the nape of the neck that the yellow shafted has, also his under wing colour was a sort of orange, a cross between 'red' and 'yellow'
This is a closer look at him as he checked out the Black oil sunflower seeds before moving to the suet. Today I've seen a normal (for us) red shafted female but I've put another suet feeder out in a more obvious location in hopes of attracting a pure yellow-shafted as well.
The suet has certainly attracted just about everyone else. This Dark-eyed Junco was determined to get at the suet. It took a number of tries before he ended up flying on top of the cage. Junco's are another species now migrating through, they are everywhere! Will be on the look out for any of the 'piebalds'.
The numbers of Red-wing Blackbirds are decreasing but there are still lots around and they enjoyed the suet as well.
Even the Spotted Towhee were trying to get in on the act. I never actually saw one make it to the cage but they picked up any crumbs below.
of course you can't keep Steller's Jay away from suet. Look carefully at this guy which is one of our normal pacific coast Steller's jay.....
and then look at this one. See the white 'eye brow?' that is a marking seen on the jays that are normally further north and over to the east by the Rocky Mountains.
With spring just 2 days away (believe it or not based on the weather which has become rather cool and unsettled) one has to keep one's eyes open as you just never know what you will see!
Despite the best of intentions I didn't get a single entry done this past week, as has no doubt been noticed! A glitch with my new photo editing program was a contributing factor, along with the weather which has been extremely wet, and then there were a couple of walks cut short by those dog owners who continue to think that leash laws don't apply to them...
The above is the last picture I've taken here and it was taken a week ago, in fact I haven't seen any Green-wing Teal since. The little Bufflehead continue and a few Mallard but that has been it for ducks, at least that I've seen.
Last Sunday we took a drive over to the Blue Heron Preserve in Chilliwack. The trail close to the heronry is now closed as the birds are building their nests and will be sitting on eggs shortly. This is a view from across the pond.
There were quite a few ducks on the large pond including this pair of Common Merganser
on another smaller and quieter water way this male Wood Duck was hanging out along with a pair of Mallard.
There were so many of all the common birds you would expect to see this time of the year that it was hard to know where to focus the camera. This of course is a Black-capped Chickadee
Dark-eyed Junco this one being a female...
Spotted Towhee....
and of course, given the time of year....
American Robins!
One other item of note was a bird we saw on the way home. It was perched on a barn roof and my husband did a quick about turn because it appeared to be a hawk with white wing patches....
it definitely had white wing patches, with writing on them! I then thought it must be plastic but it was turning it's head, and then it flew down into the grass so it wasn't a fake. I have no idea what kind of hawk it is but presumably it escaped from somewhere.
This will be a much shorter blog than I had originally planned for today. The reason being that the day was much nicer than expected and since the forecast for the rest of the week is wet, wet and more wet, I couldn't bring myself to stay inside and edit pictures that I took over the weekend and a visit to the Blue Heron Preserve on Sunday.
So first I'll just show this photo taken at the log bay. The only ducks around were a pair of Mallard but there was a Killdeer on the gravel bar opposite. Red-wing Blackbirds, a few Starling, some Robins and Junco along with some House Finch pretty much rounded out the species in this location.
The above is one of those pitiful 'proof it was there' photos - a Tree Swallow perched on one of the pilings. I saw a total of 3 today and imagine there were more.
Song Sparrows, Towhee and more Juncos along the trail with all sorts of little birds bouncing around in the tree tops.
and way up in one of the 'eagle trees' there is a Hairy Woodpecker. Even higher up in the same tree, Purple Finch were singing while nearby Steller's Jay were mobbing something. I looked and looked but couldn't see what even though some of them were actually even down on the ground. I did find a pile of feathers from what looked like a mallard on the ground in the same area.
and I just wanted to post this, noticed on the weekend that the Salmon berries are in flower already!
As predicted yesterday, Tree Swallows were liable to show up on the first nice sunny day.....
and as you can tell, today was that nice sunny day! I only walked to the first bay (above) today because not only did the sunshine bring out the swallows - it also brings out the people and since I had my dog it is just easier on everyone to stay away. The Tree Swallows I did see were flying around the nesting boxes that are on that piling. I also heard a Killdeer, but try as I might I could not find it.
Red-wing Blackbirds were still around and notice the pussy willows - they have, of course been out for sometime now. There were a number of Robins and also saw a Ruby-crowned Kinglet.
Even better pussy willows in this picture of a Song Sparrow singing it's little heart out. There were Song Sparrows singing everywhere. Spotted Towhees were scuttling around in the underbrush, in fact it sounded like there were all sorts of things scuttling about.
The female Northern Harrier was coursing over the foreshore again, I've seen her almost daily but haven't been able to get a decent picture.
Something else I saw today was a Mourning Cloak Butterfly! This seems really early, but because I wasn't 'up and running' I'll show you that I actually found a very wet, cold Mourning
Cloak, way back on February 24th!
The poor thing had been sitting on the road. I picked it up and brought it home where it revived and then was beating against the window so I had to put it back outside. I don't recall ever seeing Butterflies in February before and I only remember one March, back a number of years ago when we had a very early spring. The flowering plum trees were in flower in about the 3rd or 4th week of March and both Mourning Cloak and Satyr Butterflies were all over them.
Today, despite being a bit showery, was one of those days when there were so many birds in so many places it was impossible to see them all!
We'll start with a view taken at the log bay....
Just to show the grey, low clouds, water levels and the fact that the grass is turning green!
There were Red-wing Blackbirds calling from one end of the walk to the other. This fellow perched momentarily on a piling.
Not quite as numerous, but almost, were the American Robins. Robins have been with us for almost two weeks now and their numbers seem to be increasing almost daily.
Speaking of numerous, there were so many little Gold-crowned Kinglets and Bush-tits bouncing around in the bushes and tree tops that it was impossible to count them (or get a picture). Song Sparrows were singing, always on the other side of a bunch of little branches,
Spotted Towhee were there too although the only photo we managed was this 'butt' shot.
Today I finally managed to spot....
the Hairy Woodpecker I've been hearing. He was working away up in one of the big 'eagle' trees.
While I was watching him, a pair of....
Downy Woodpeckers flew past. This one settled momentarily before joining is partner in one of the large cedar tree groves.
I also caught sight of a Northern Flicker. March is the month when we can expect an influx of flickers as they migrate through. This is also the month to keep the eyes peeled for spots of blue as Mountain Bluebirds should be migrating any time now. The first sunny day, keep the ears tuned skyward for the chattering of Tree Swallows....and of course Hummingbirds should be back soon as well. I put my feeder out today, Rufous may be a week or two away but Anna's have spent the winter not that far away and will be spreading out as the weather warms.
One more thing to add.....I was thrilled to look out my window a few minutes ago to see one of the rabbits....or more correctly, the sub-species of Snow Shoe Hare. Nice to know they are still around. My camera was near to hand but the hare ducked under my neighbours shed before I could manage a picture.
Well I think we are getting back on track. Getting the new computer figured out and have now managed to download all the memory cards so we are now up to date.
March came in like a lion. Rain, rain, and more rain! Water levels rose and then dropped back down as soon as the rain stopped.
The most exciting thing to happen 'bird wise' in the last few days has been having a Northern Pygmy Owl show up in my yard.
He first appeared on Sunday....then this morning....
There was a bit of a ruckus outside and there he was with 'breakfast'! A Red-wing Blackbird - of which there are no shortage right now!
Just a few of the Red-wings that have spent the winter with us. Also still with us are the....
Red-breasted Nuthatch although not in the numbers we had. The last few days I've only seen one at a time, up until Sunday when the owl appeared, there were a pair (m & f) coming together. I certainly hope that one didn't become an owl snack!
and I think that is enough for now, just in case this doesn't all work.
