February flurries

Here we are, February, second month of the new year already and yes today we are actually getting a few flurries....very, very light, just the occasional snowflake drifting down, but more than we had all of last month.

naturally it has been a cool day with the temperature not rising above freezing and with cooler temperatures in the forecast, in other words we're finally getting a bit of 'winter'!.

First thing I noticed on our walk today was a Common Raven calling, there has been a lot of raven activity recently....the photo I took today wasn't great so I'm posting this one I took yesterday.....

not all that far away, yesterday we had opted to go for a walk along the slough at Deroche and this guy was one of two in that area.

back to today, this Red-tail Hawk was over at the log bay and not happy about us being there.

there really wasn't much other activity there.  A few Mallard out in the water but that was about it.

There are still quite a few Bald Eagles scattered about, in fact several people have commented that there seem to be more around at this time, this year, than there has been in past years.  The above bird, of course, a juvenile, while this adult.....

was perched on a nearby piling.

At this point I want to relay a story I've heard from a couple of sources now.  We know there is quite the coyote population in this area, just the other day I heard one barking really close but by the time I got to where I could actually see, it had disappeared.  Now apparently there are a couple of dog in the area, we'll call them strays since no dogs in this area are supposed to be running free.  Yesterday, a lone coyote was seen out on the flats and these two 'stray's' took off after it (this was witnessed by a number of people), the coyote led the dogs into the bush on the north side of the estuary where the rest of the coyote pack were waiting.  From the ensuing sounds it was felt that the dogs had been 'ripped to pieces'.  That apparently isn't the case as I've heard that they were seen again last night, but the episode does show how coyotes work, by using one as a lure.

Back to birds....just a couple more...

a Song Sparrow - we're getting to the time of year when they are often seen perched, singing their hearts out.

And lastly, just because there were so many of the around today...