Surprise, Surprise!

Well, what a pleasant surprise today when we ventured out for yet another warm, sunny walk…..someone has cleared the path so we can actually walk over to the park again.  Have no idea who did it but I sure appreciate the fact that it has been done.

so here we are, finally at the very dry log bay…

and boy is it dry out there….if we don’t get some heavy rains (and there are none in the forecast) the Chum Salmon are going to have a really hard time accessing this area when they start arriving in just a few weeks time.

today there were just a few Mallards….

and these guys – possibly American Wigeons??? out there. 

the Hardhack bushes are already growing up and filling in the area out from the viewing platform.  There were a few quiet twitters from the bushes along the bath but nobody visible….think it was just too warm at that time of day.

Noticed the district has replaced the park sign with this one…

very quiet at my end too – this is the very empty first bay….apparently there was a flock of small shorebirds here last night but nothing around today apart from…

this Great Blue Heron.  He seems to have moved his fishing spot as the last two days he’s been across from that lone piling at the first bay.

Never ending summer!

This summer took a while to get going, but it sure doesn’t want to go away any time soon!

it’s been just one sunny hot day after another.

water levels are pretty much non-existent…

one day there was a huge flock of Canada Geese out on the flats – at least until a fisherman walked through them and sent them scattering….

The Great Blue Heron is in his usual fishing spot pretty much every day..

If you have really good eyesight you might be able to spot the fact that there are two birds in this picture – one is pretty obvious – the other is towards the bottom right hand corner.

The one is a Glaucous-wing Gull – they’ll be lots of those around once the salmon start arriving…

and the other a Killdeer – seems there are always a few of them every time you venture down there, and sometimes there are large numbers of them.

I’ve mentioned a few times, the sparrows that are down in the grass and then fly up and disappear into the bushes – well today this one didn’t dive quite so deeply into the bush so I was finally able to get a picture to ID with – they are, or at least this one is, a Lincoln Sparrow.

Lots of activity….

Our stretch of wonderful weather continues….

with sunshine and perfect temperatures…

there were Killdeer scattered all over the place this afternoon (2 above).  Last night my husband had seen a flock of some sort of shorebirds in the distance – he thought they might have been Yellowlegs, but I suspect they were Killdeer, due to the numbers still there today.

The Great Blue Heron was taking a break from fishing while a couple of Mallards, still in their in-between plumage, swam by…

a few more Mallard and a couple of Green-wing Teal (bottom right) were along the shore.

out on the flats was another sort of ‘bird’ – we’ll hope it was on official business as those who follow this blog know that air traffic is one of the concerns in this region.

back near home the feeding frenzy continues….here one of the ‘I don’t know how many’ American Robins, around right now!

the White-crowned Sparrows were even getting into the action.  The above one a juvenile.  I’ve never seen White-crowns eat berries before – live and learn!

and now a couple of furry critters – the above Douglas Squirrel was getting a drink…..

while at night, the Flying Squirrels take over.  We have as many Flying Squirrels during the night as we have Douglas Squirrels and Townsend’s Chipmunks during the day…I rarely take pictures though, as a flash is needed and it can damage their sensitive eyes.  And speaking of furry critters – the Snowshoe Hare has been spotted a couple of mornings recently, but not when I have my camera!

Feeding Frenzy!

Another beautiful day….

although early this morning there was a definite feel of fall in the air with temperatures down in the single digits….

While standing taking the scenery picture, I could hear a couple of woodpeckers calling by the viewing platform that I can not get too anymore, and then spotted this near the water’s edge.  I’m not sure what it is, possibly a young White Crowned Sparrow but it doesn’t look quite right for that – unfortunately the sun was in the wrong place for getting good shots…

The Great Blue Heron was in his assigned fishing spot….

and had spotted a couple of Killdeer (only one in photo), on an early morning walk…there were also quite a few ducks then but not identified..

The hardhack bushes were full of young Common Yellowthroat…although I got quite a few good glimpses of them, a picture was another thing entirely!  This is as good as it got!

Later while at home trying to get a picture of a Juvenile White-Crowned Sparrow (and now I look I don’t think that is what was at the water)…I could hear a lot of…..

Cedar Waxwings….and a noise I couldn’t quite identify….going in search of what it was….

I found an absolute feeding frenzy going on just up the street.  I’ve mentioned before, I think, about the laurel bushes that we have lining our streets and the incredible crop of berries they have produced this year….well!  there were masses of American Robins….

and Cedar Waxwings, feeding on these berries and the sound I was hearing was them taking the berries up into a grove of Cedar Trees, eating the flesh and then dropping the rather large seed, so seeds were raining down and everything under those trees – including me as I sat and took pictures!

Here is a one of the robins with a mouthful.  There was also a flock of Black-capped Chickadees working all over the trunks of the same Cedar Trees – how they tied into the scenario I’m not sure – right now they seem to be in the Cedar tree outside the window, here by my computer….

They’re coming back!

A beautiful day today…but first I want to post a photo taken yesterday, after I’d already done my daily report…

a Band-tail Pigeon….I understand there have been a number of them here while I was away…obviously moving down out of the mountains and on their way to where they spend the winter, in slightly warmer climes.

Back to today, where the weather was just perfect.  We tried getting through the path to the park, but there was no way, so will just have to concentrate more on the bits I can get to.  In fact had already planned to attempt 2 daily walks this season.  Today, out there…

Canada Geese were grazing….and when an adult Bald Eagle flew over, all kinds of little birds rose up and landed again – quite possibly American Pipits or Savannah Sparrows – speaking of sparrows a number of them have been flying up out of the grass but just can’t get a good look to ID them.

Here is a closer look at some of those geese…

and a real close look, just in case there is someone who isn’t familiar with this very familiar ‘Canadian bird’.

also some Northern Shovelers….remember how last year we had so many Northern Shovelers? at least compared to previous years….looks like the trend may continue.  Also heard some shorebirds way over there in the creek but didn’t have binoculars with me….must start doing a walk sans dog and with binocs!

The Great Blue Heron are busy staking out their fishing territories….this guy got quite perturbed…..

when two more arrived on the scene…

a bit of a victory dance after he chased them off.  A chase also ensued when a Sharp-Shin Hawk flew over, pursued by some late Barn Swallows and some Swifts (not sure of the variety as again, I couldn’t get a good look)

and lastly, it is Dragonfly season….love those Eight-spot Skimmers…they are so pretty, at least as dragonfly go!

Back to normal….

Well here we are, back to normal.  Time to get back to the business of seeing what we can see on a daily basis…

What wasn’t ‘normal’ today was the weather.  After weeks and weeks with no measurable precipitation, we’ve had some systems moving through, trying to make up for it…

ventured out a little later than normal after one rain and hail storm had moved on….water levels are pretty different from the last post….they’re back where they belong now.

It didn’t look quite so pleasant in the other direction, but you can see the path across the grasslands is now accessible…there was a pile of pretty fresh bear ‘poop’ on it – but that is to be expected this time of the year with the blackberries and soon, the salmon…

here is the first bay – that big log is something new – we didn’t attempt the ‘forbidden’ trail around the end of the bay to the park so don’t know if it is possible to get through there yet or not.  Today everything was just way to wet to experiment.

There is a familiar sight though!  Great Blue Heron in the foreground and if you look carefully, at least 4 Bald Eagles out on the flats behind the heron.  It seems really early to be seeing eagles out there! 

One more picture of the very ‘green’ grasslands!  Sometimes, at this time of the year, this area is brown and dry but not this year.  The white flowers are those of the Pacific Water Parsley which is loving the conditions.

Catching up bird wise since we’ve gotten back I’m seeing the usual Steller’s Jay, there seem to be quite a few Dark-eyed Junco, lots of young (some very young) White-crowned Sparrows and Black-capped Chickadees.  Robins and Cedar Waxwing are enjoying various berries in the area.  A few American Goldfinch are still around, also some Pine Sisken.  Haven’t noticed a lot of anything else but then, today, they were probably still hiding from the rain.