Not a lot around

It has been a few days since I've done a report.  To be truthful I couldn't bring myself to go near the area over the weekend.  I find the fact that the Eagle Festival is now inviting people to the area for 4 weekends, instead of just 1, to be very alarming given the fact there is no one on site to supervise during those 3 extra weekends.  As it was with a 1 weekend festival there was about a month of disturbance to the area, now it will be closer to 2 months when you consider everyone who comes out prior to the event and for weeks following it.  I guess all we can hope for, for the sake of the birds anyway, is some bad weather soon....

this isolated spot isn't even safe anymore,  I've seen several people sneaking up there, in fact there is becoming a beaten path headed that way....one of the people I witnessed was someone who considers himself to be a very serious birder and should know better!

today there was quite the collection of ducks up in our quieter water....a Great Blue Heron was also enjoying the solitude.

the numbers of Gadwall ducks have certainly increased recently.  Of course it wasn't all good news....the reason that there were so many ducks up our way was also the reason we didn't make it right to the log bay today - there were off leash dogs chasing balls into the log bay...no duck is going to stick around while that is happening!

I will post this picture of a male House Finch that I took at the log bay last week when there were again dogs there but this time they were on leads and sitting quietly with their owners.

I understand that despite the onslaught of visitors on the weekend there was a pair of Trumpeter Swans seen just off the log bay area - they would have been the first seen there this season..it has been very disappointing not seeing them this year.  I guess we have the dry weather and lack of water depth to thank for that because there are certainly lots of them on Harrison Bay, although there too the lack of water is getting rather alarming.

some good news....there are still live salmon spawning in the water so the birds should keep coming for a while.