Harrison Lake

Today, was a much nicer day, weather wise, so we decided to take a drive to Harrison Hot Springs…

We had just crossed over the Harrison River bridge on highway 7, when we noticed a bunch of Great Blue Heron, all lined up like sentinels……

here are a few of them…

and here, a few more – there were 18 of them altogether…if you are terribly observant, you will notice this is the same location that I took the picture of the tree full of Bald Eagles, a few days ago….hardly any eagles around today….  You will also have noticed, if you follow the blog regularly, that it has been several weeks since I’ve mentioned Herons, that is because it has been several weeks since I’d seen any – obviously they aren’t too far away!

and here is Harrison Lake….there was a bitter wind blowing down the lake..

 

these cold ‘out flow’ winds go hand in hand with nice sunny days during the winter…

Harrison Lake, is of course, the source for the Harrison River that flows south from the lake, then is joined by the Chehalis River where the estuary is formed, the river, as I noted in yesterday’s entry, flows along the east side of Harrison Bay, wraps around the east end of Harrison Knob and then joins the Fraser River.

This photo shows the ‘lagoon’ which lies between the lake itself and the village of Harrison Hot Springs.  One of the reasons I had wanted to go to the lake was to see if I could spot the Snow Buntings that I had heard were hanging about…..it was too windy and cold to see any birds today, apart from some Canada Geese and ducks sheltering in on the lagoon.

This picture…from my files…is of a Snow Bunting that was here in the estuary area, 7 years ago….haven’t seen one since.