Bobcat!!!!

Woke to another drizzly day....

this was the rather uninspiring view this morning....so we decided for our after lunch walk we'd go over to Harrison Bay.  As reported, the last couple of visits, weren't all that exciting - excluding the bear of course!

Being greeted by this rainbow was a promising sign.

these pilings sported a Great Blue Heron on top and a Glaucous-wing Gull at the base.

a couple more gulls landed in the same spot...a young one and an adult.

up on the dike the only birds we saw were a small flock of Yellow-rump Warblers.....looking very pretty in the fall foliage.

Canada Geese had been in an adjacent field when we drove over but a mower was working along the roads and obviously disturbed them so they headed to the bay.

there are a number of large log booms out on the river right now.  When I saw this heron I thought it was struggling with a plastic bag or something, it wasn't until I got home and downloaded the photos that I realized it was a feather he had been wrestling with.

at one point the wind came up and suddenly Bald Eagles appeared out of no where, riding the thermals...counted 27 of them - think there are 13 in this picture.

Now, we've been discussing the lack of birds along the dike recently, and I think I know why and where they are.  Up until this year the field beside the dike has always been planted in corn.  This year it lay fallow for a while and then was mowed down.  There is the spot where there are rumours of another campground being built.  Well not very far away,

there is this spot. The dike runs alongside those trees in the background.  This is where we saw the bear last week.  This field was planted in corn.  As we approached this area today...

a Bobcat walked across the road and into the brambles at the edge of the corn field (I off course didn't react in time to get a photo of the one today but this is a Bobcat I came across earlier this year in the Merritt area). 

We pulled over and parked and...

watched these European Starlings working over this probably manure pile...

Red-wing Blackbirds on the few cornstalks still standing....

and this Wilson's Snipe!  There were also Junco, Towhee, Crows and Steller's Jay and that was just in 5 minutes of watching.  Bring back the corn field at the dike!!!  Please!