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Monday, June 10, 2013

Baby Jays and local area

Today's report is a bit of a Hodge podge and actually none of the pictures were taken today - I just didn't get around to posting them yesterday.  I will mention first though that water levels have definitely come up a fair bit over the weekend.

Yesterday we drove up Morris Valley Road past what is the estuary part of the year....


The Foxgloves are in perfect bloom right now and I wanted a picture.


here is another shot showing the full range of colour of these native plants.

We then drove over to Cheam Wetlands Regional Park and I'll only post one picture from there...


this one of a singing Marsh Wren.  We get Marsh Wren out in the estuary area as well, some years more than others, it depends on how high the water is and how long it stays high.  At Cheam they were singing their buzzy songs from every direction!

Then it was back home and a walk up along Elbow Creek...


this trail, which really isn't very long, takes off from this spot - you can see the estuary out there in the distance.


Elbow Creek runs from Elbow Lake, borders the golf course and ends up joining the other water sources at the estuary.  We could hear birds, including Swainson's Thrush and something that I think was some sort of Wren, either Pacific or Bewick but didn't see anything.


this tree trunk shows that obviously this area is used by birds!  the entire tree from root to tip looked like this - Sapsucker holes.


This is an area of typical west coast rain forest...


a few wildflowers typical to this environment were in flower - Goatsbeard is shown above...


the tiny white flowers of Foam Flower and in the foreground the leaves and one flower stalk of Vanilla Leaf.

Back home again and sitting outside enjoying a book....looked up and saw this...


very young Steller's Jay with parent.   Had heard them earlier in the day, this was a re-visit.  The baby Chickadees are still around although getting more independent and I also saw a fledgling Purple Finch, both yesterday and today but I haven't been able to get a picture yet.

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