Salmon and Swans????

Well yesterday I mentioned that we should be seeing Salmon soon and Swans towards the end of the month....  so it wasn't a great surprise when my husband came home from the dogs early morning walk and announced he'd seen a chum salmon....it was a major shock though when he said there were a pair of swans out there....like 'already'?!

A bit later in the day I got out for a walk....made it as far as the first bay ...

and sure enough....

there was a very large and very active Chum Salmon - the 'active' part made it very difficult to get a picture but you can make out the dorsal fin in the middle behind the log.

Then way out, close to the Harrison River....sure enough....

there were two Swans out there - hard to see, they are by the log in the middle of the picture...the thing is...

when I cropped a picture to a ridiculous level, I think they might be Mute Swans.  The heads just look very round...and it really is very early for Trumpeters or Tundras to be showing up.  Hopefully they will come closer to this side so I can get a better view.  I checked local birding sites and no one has reported any swans of any sort....so we have a mystery on our hands.

Should mention that there was a lot of activity in the bushes at the head of the first bay....

lots of little Ruby-crowned Kinglets....they of course are on their way south...  There were also Robins, Towhee and Song Sparrow and then I spotted.....

a Varied thrush!   So here we have another species that we don't normally expect to see until late November, however I have seen them at this time of the year in the past, it seems to depend on food supplies...these guys tend to migrate up in to higher elevations as well as heading north and then in winter they come down to the lower elevations.

Also of note today were some Red-breasted Nuthatch at my feeders.  I was thrilled to see them again and hopefully they'll be spending the winter like they did last year.....and there are these guys...they tend to be around all the time and are so common we tend to ignore them....

I'm talking about the boisterous and bossy Steller's Jay of course!