There is a saying 'what a difference a day makes!'.....or in this case, what a difference one night of warm, heavy rain can make....
Should have taken the exact same shot.....
but here we were yesterday (January 28th) afternoon at the log bay....the logs all high and dry with lots of gravel showing....
24 hours later...
that is what it looks like. That is a LOT of water in such a short time!
As for the birds....well it has been pretty quiet except for a mixed flock of Kinglets, Chickadees and...
Brown Creepers.....have been moving through the area.
today there were a number of Varied Thrush in the bushes....and seems everywhere you go you can hear Anna's Hummingbirds.
Didn't see any Bald Eagles today but this guy was one of 4 seen yesterday.
After a couple of days of sometimes torrential rain, the skies finally started to clear....so we set out for a walk and almost immediately spotted this guy...
pretty sure it is a Cooper's Hawk. Always hard to tell the difference between a Cooper's and the smaller Sharp Shin but due to size....
and the fact that the stripes on the breast are thick rather than thin, lean towards the Cooper's ID. Both species feed on smaller bird which is probably why it was very quiet in the little bird department!
Made it to the waterfront...
in time to catch this pale rainbow. All the rain, along with snow melt due to higher temperatures has brought the water levels up...
not a bad thing as the area was virtually dry. Notice those white dots out there....
the Trumpeter Swan family that has spent the winter with us....back now there is some water depth.
So they say today is the saddest day of the year....well not if you are an...
Anna's Hummingbird! There were so many of them and they were chattering and doing their diving displays and just having a wonderful time. The fact that the sun was shining probably helped.
at the same time the Black-cap Chickadees were almost as busy. This one paused to eat one of the few Pacific Choke Cherry fruit that remain but most of them were busy doing their preliminary pairing up and starting the search for nesting sites. Something they do for months before getting down to business.
lots of other little guys as well like this Song Sparrow, as well as lots of Junco.
not much going on in the water. Mind you there isn't much in the way of water out there.
there were a few Mallard paddling around in the shallows....the males green heads were just gleaming in the sunshine.
this female Belted Kingfisher was also chattering about the area with an eye out for something to eat.
Speaking of eye out....
this Bald Eagle was giving us the 'eagle eye' yesterday.
It is that quiet time of the year. Some walks recently there has been barely a bird in sight...today was a bit better...
this sort of sets the scene...there were few Mallards bathing very enthusiastically out past the logs.
Steller's Jay were being quite active.....
This is one of 2 Northern Flicker hanging about the area. There was also a Hairy Woodpecker that didn't come down low enough for a photo. The usual Song Sparrows, Spotted Towhee and Dark-eyed Junco were also about.
The Anna's Hummingbirds are busy setting up their territories....these hummingbirds nest several times a year starting in winter. This guy quickly dive bombed another one that was near by. Sounded like a screaming 747 as it whipped by. Good job they aren't any bigger.
Today was the warmest it has been in several weeks....not that it was all that warm, got to 6 or maybe 7 degrees.... took a couple of walks to the log bay area...
the first at my usual time and was there ever a lot of activity...
including the sighting of this American Robin - the first one seen in several months. Robins are never very far away during the winter but they don't usually start showing up until about mid-February.
another species that hasn't been seen too much....
are House Finch, but today there were a number of them, the above being a male orange coloured variant
while a typical coloured male (foreground) and a female were enjoying a bath.
There were also all the usual suspects....
Like this Song Sparrow (one of many), some Fox Sparrows, Spotted Towhee, Dark eyed Junco and even a Northern Flicker.
No ducks or eagles in sight although...
there was this one lone gull which I think, based on the very pink leg colour, is a Thayer's Gull. There were a few Mallard, 4 female Common Merganser and a trio of Bufflehead up at the other end of the walk.
During a second, later walk...
it was much quieter with only the flock of Red-wing Blackbirds calling from the trees but the sun did put in a very brief appearance!
A few years ago we were in Alberta during a late spring storm. The local radio station called the stuff coming down 'Schnizzle', a combination of snow, sleet and drizzle and that pretty much describes the weather we've been experiencing the last few days...
here is what it looked like this afternoon and it was even chillier than it looks! Apart from a few Bald Eagles the only other birds in sight were a flock of Red-wing Blackbirds.
if you look closely you can see a blackbird there in the bushes.
Yesterday was just as chilly but drier so we did our walk over at Harrison Bay....
there is a whole lot of beach over there now and not a lot of water.
there were a lot of swans in various areas of the bay. This lot over along the south shore had to be Tundra Swans based on their calls.
Something we'd never seen over here before....
yes, they look like Mallards but they are actually decoys. There was a group of 5 of them at the side of the river with a hunter in full camouflage hiding behind a little alder tree. Duck hunting is allowed in this area and we often hear guns, but this was the first time we'd actually come across them.
Something else of interest....
Double crested Cormorant often winter here around Harrison Bay. For years there was a wire stretched across the river that cormorant used for perching, this past year that wire was removed, now the only place they can perch is on various pilings.
We'll finish off with a few more eagle photos....there are still some around...
this one was over seeing the beach at Harrison Bay yesterday...
while this windswept fellow was braving today's weather by the log bay.
I had promised myself I would attempt to update the look of this blog for this new year....but so far haven't got around to it.
So, let's carry on and set the scene for the coming year...
It is a chilly start with day time temperatures barely getting above the zero mark - that is on the Celsius scale of course! Water levels are down to about as low as they can go here at the first bay with it's broken off piling and the bank that is eroding away. There were a few ducks just off here this afternoon and a Belted Kingfisher is often seen on that leading log in the middle of the photo - but not today, and not long enough for photos!
and the scene is pretty much the same here at the log bay, a few Mallard and Green Wing Teal paddling along the edge - that is pretty much it.
The influx of Bald Eagles is over now - no more salmon to eat - they've had to move on in search of food. Of course a few live here year round .....
like this guy seen yesterday - New Year's Eve.
There have actually been a few interesting bird sightings the last couple of day...like these
Bushtits - a huge flock of these fluffy little guys moved through our complex yesterday afternoon.....
It isn't often that they stay still long enough to get a picture like this!
Since I still find it a novelty to have....
hummingbirds here all winter, here is another photo taken yesterday, this being a female Anna's Hummingbird. In fact these little guys are the most consistently seen species this winter.
Falling into the 'inconsistently' seen category would be...
these Evening Grosbeaks....4 of which were in a neighbours tree today....
and...
this male House Finch....also seen just down the street, and the first one I've seen for months. Neither it nor the grosbeaks made it to our yard with all our feeders.
A total of 19 species were seen today, between our yard and on our rather chilly walk - in order of appearance - Varied Thrush, Steller's Jay, Song Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Anna's Hummingbird; Chestnut backed Chickadee; Northern Flicker, Spotted Towhee; European Starling; Red Wing Blackbird; Black capped Chickadee; Belted Kingfisher, Evening Grosbeak, Common Raven; Mallard; Green-wing Teal; Bald Eagle; House Finch; and Pacific Northwest Crow.
