After several days of 'slush' today's sunshine was a treat...
Mount Woodside was just gleaming, as are all the mountains right now.
We did get a bit of snow....this was taken on Christmas Day....
it is getting pretty quiet bird wise. This Trumpeter Swan family were here on Christmas Day but no where in sight today as water levels keep dropping...
numbers of Bald Eagles continue to dwindle as food supplies vanish...this trio of young ones were fighting over something on Christmas Day...
while this adult had obviously found one of the few remaining fish....
today....
this fellow flew up into a tree beside me with what appears to be a fish part. There were Golden-crowned Kinglets and Red-wing Blackbirds in the same area and a big flock of Bushtits further along the trail.
it is getting to be the time of the year when Song Sparrows become more visible as they set up their territories.
Today was the first full day of winter and we actually woke to a bit of snow although it disappeared pretty quick....
actually took this yesterday....the mountains were a bit whiter today although cloud and fog covered them most of the time.
the Trumpeter Swan family was out there but as the water levels are dropping again they are further out...
today we decided to go for a walk over at Harrison Bay...
this was the first time we've got to walk the dike since that windstorm and the amount of destruction was shocking, at least a quarter and maybe closer to a third of the trees between the campground and the dike were either down or damaged.
There weren't a lot of birds around...
a few Dark-eyed Junco....
and a Song Sparrow....also saw a Spotted Towhee but didn't get a picture....
a number of Bald Eagles....
here is the new eagle nest....didn't notice any birds right at it but they were spread out all along the shoreline.
this Pileated Woodpecker was pretty close to the nest....
a real surprise was this tiny Ruby-crowned Kinglet....
and speaking of surprises...there were a lot of Buffleheads, some Common Merganser and Common Goldeneye, also some Scaups....
but finding a pair of Ring-bill Ducks was a bit of a surprise. They are normally found in more sheltered areas.
Woke up to snow! Not a lot of it and kind of wet and sloppy, but snow none the less....
lets hope it is a precursor of things to come and not 'it' for the season like last year. It's time we had a real winter, at least for a while...
there were almost as many ducks out there as there were yesterday, but today we added a Great Blue Heron to the mix.
this female Common Merganser was busy dragging something and keeping it away from a companion.
thought this was interesting....look at all those salmon spines....presumably it must look like this pretty much all over....not much left to eat though.
Yesterday we had beautiful sunshine.....today was the exact opposite!
with the threat of rain or possibly (hopefully) snow in the forecast, decided to go for a bit of a walk while it was still dry. As you can see there were a lot of ducks in this more sheltered location - this is just a small portion of them...
appeared to be a mix of American Wigeon, Green Wing Teal and Mallard although also spotted a few Common Merganser and even some Common Goldeneye.
was a fair amount of activity here at the log bay....
a few Bald Eagles perched in the trees.....
a few more out on the gravel bars that are emerging - again.
One of the Trumpeter swan families was in close, two other pairs were out a little further...
This gull (not sure of the exact type) seemed to be wrestling with a still alive fish.
Activity wasn't limited to the water either....
I'd seen a Hairy Woodpecker as I walked over, but when I went searching for it, came across this female Downy Woodpecker instead!
there were also Red-wing Blackbirds sheltering in the bushes, along with Song Sparrows, Fox Sparrows and Spotted Towhee.
in another section Steller's Jay along with some Black Cap Chickadees and Golden crowned Kinglets.
and Anna's Hummingbird - this one a female
even spotted this female Belted Kingfisher on my way home.....there are often Kingfisher around but they are one of the most frustrating species to try and get photos of! Oh and that snow? Well it is trying but not holding my breath!
What a stunning day! Decided to go over to Harrison Bay for a walk....
couldn't do the dike as there was a grader working on it. Not sure why they spend so much time grading that dike....they have also cleared all the vegetation from the sides...
there wasn't a lot out on the water, in fact not a single swan in sight. Some Buffleheads, Common Goldeneye and Mallard that was about it.
could hear Black-capped Chickadees in the trees, and found this little female Downy Woodpecker instead.
Only other birds around were a few....
Northwestern crows and a camera shy Steller's Jay
there was a bit of a wind chill happening so turned around and walked the portion of dike behind the houses....
found a flock of a dozen or so of these Eurasian Collared Doves (had to really doctor the photo as it was in deep shadow)
here we are the far end of the bay looking back at those beautiful snow capped mountains.
we did spot this Common Loon in the waters under the railway bridge.
Should mention that Monday had been the Christmas Bird Count in our area and wouldn't you know it but the masses of swans and eagles and waterfowl that have been here all along, were no where to be found! They did count 52 species, some of the more unusual were a Pileated Woodpecker (I'd seen one that day as well, the first in about a year), a Northern Pygmy Owl was in the neighbourhood along with a Northern Shrike and even a Lincoln Sparrow.
My little dog decided that we should go for a walk this morning while it was still dry....and I'm sure glad because what a great walk it was!
you can see it was snowing lightly on all the surrounding hills....if the weather network has the predications right we should be seeing that white stuff down here pretty soon.....speaking of 'white', notice the 2 white dots out there in the water....
here is one of them up close - Trumpeter Swans of course.
mentioned yesterday that the little Buffleheads were back...not a great photo but here is one of the males, there were a number of them on our return trip.
walking along the trail could see there were a number of Bald Eagles in the trees ahead....
sat on the bench for a while and just watched....notice the juvenile eagle on the piling...
not sure what was going on but the eagles were being very vocal with lots of coming and going. Could hear there were swans in close so decided to walk out to the shoreline....
I thought that the juvenile eagle would take off as we approached but he didn't, he just sat there...
sure enough there was a family of Trumpeter Swans feeding just off the shore, bunch of Mallard there as well...
I've suspected all along that not only are there Trumpeter Swans out there....
but Tundra Swans as well and while I stood there watching this group which were a bit further out had a bit of a kerfuffle so I took some photos and after down loading them and zooming in I could see the bits of yellow at the base of the bills....definitely proving that I was right.
All the time this is going on and me and my dog are standing there....
this guy sat on his piling beside us, so close I could almost have reached out and touched him....of course....
if looks could kill........
