The last day of February ~ already! and yes.....
it snowed.....again, still! After snowing almost all day the day before, just as we were arriving home from this walk, it started snowing again.
we made it over to the log bay this morning...and despite the snow, right there in the middle...
a sign of spring....an American Robin.
it sounded like spring too with the Red-wing Blackbirds (this is just a portion of them) singing their heads off.
in another area there were 3 Song Sparrows being very busy, mainly eating the tiny seeds from the Hardhack bushes.
this...
Great Blue Heron was wading about in the snow....and, after vanishing for the past couple of weeks...
Varied Thrush showed up again.
After lunch we wandered over to Harrison bay....again it was very quiet...
although there were a few pairs of Black-capped Chickadees. These little guys tend to start working on nesting sites early, finding one, and discarding it several times before settling into nest....
and speaking of nests, the eagle nest was empty but...
the Bald Eagle pair were out there on a piling.
Snow.....
again! At least there wasn't too much this time and it was warm enough during the day to melt most of it.
So today I wondered why there was so little bird activity around our feeders....
until I spotted this Sharp-shin Hawk perched on our garden gate! These little hawks feed on song birds....and standing on one leg is quite normal for them....
you can see from this picture that he does have two feet.
After lunch we headed over to ....
Harrison Bay where it was even quieter than it has been! One of the days soon we will come upon a day when there will be so many birds we won't know where to begin ~ but not today. The eagles weren't even at their nest.
there were a couple of Northwestern Crows....
and an Anna's Hummingbird. Only other bird I noticed was a little Downy Woodpecker, however as we were headed home we passed an area where the trees were absolutely full of birds, mainly Northern Flickers and Robins.
Then in another section...
Great Blue Heron were gathered....counted over 30 of them!
Another thing I've been intending to mention....also starting with 'S'...
are the large number of Steller's Jay around right now....and how vocal they are...as nesting season approaches they will become very quiet.....
oh and while we are on 'S''s ....next spring like day, start watching for swallows....some were spotted at Burnaby Lake a week or so ago.
Today I had the privilege of being invited to witness the signing of the paperwork to make the Lha':lt/Harrison-Chehalis Wildlife Management Area official.
The ceremony took place at....
Sts'ailes Lhawathet Lahem or the Healing House of the Sts'ailes. A lovely lunch was provided to all the guests prior to the actual ceremony.
the language class, led by their teacher gave a song of greeting.....
some of the participants in the ceremony...
Sweepers, with the cedar boughs, led and followed the procession while the two boys two of the four 'markers' of the land.....'marking' this as a momentous occasion in the history of the land.
the actual signing done by Chief Harvey Paul and Brent Gund of the provincial government.
a song of celebration as he agreement was signed.
and the traditional exchange of gifts....
a Wolf mask....and I didn't get a picture, but the other was a salmon mask....
The designation of Wildlife Management Area for the Chehalis Estuary has been a long time coming. It was being discussed back in the late 1980's, and rejuvenated several times over the years. Some of the comments made by dignitaries at today signing said things like 'the area is unparalleled in so many ways' and it 'takes a community to save a river'.
The reason it took so long to get this designation was due to the opposition of the District of Kent that borders just a very small area of the WMA and the IBA. We have our local MLA to thank for finally working out an agreement that was acceptable to the district. Unfortunately that agreement resulted in the whole Harrison Bay area of the IBA, NOT being included in the WMA. The WMA starts at the bridge over the Harrison River and continues northward. Even so, this area represents over 10% of all remaining wet lands in the entire lower mainland.
Patience, persistence and partnership resulted in this giant step in protecting part our IBA area....perhaps eventually those same qualities will get the rest of the area included, but for now we will celebrate today's achievement.
Sometimes life gets in the way of bird counting. Day 4 of the bird count didn't get to happen and with today being the only 'normal' day for this week, we headed over to Harrison Bay for our walk.
it was absolutely dead calm out there and very quiet....
a few Canada Geese on the shore.
one of the resident Bald Eagles was at the nest while it's partner was perched across the bay.
I had commented on our last walk that we should be seeing....
American Robins in the fields, and sure enough, today this one was there, no doubt soon there will be many more.
a few Northwestern Crows, like this one with something I can't quite make out, in it's beak.
and there were Song Sparrows, like these two, as well as some Spotted Towhee scratching about.
and this is a common sight right now....Great Blue Heron gathered in this spot. Numbers will thin soon as they head to their communal nesting sites.
Definitely not an exciting count day, although with better weather than predicted we did return to Harrison Bay for a walk...
where it was very, very quiet
the one exciting find was this White-crowned Sparrow....the first of the season!
Also heard, and spotted this...
male Downy Woodpecker....but there were several more in the area.
and of course...
there were a few pairs of Northwestern Crows visible.
and speaking of 'visible'....lets hope this is the last snow we'll see for this season at least!
As planned we set off today to count birds at the Deroche slough. Started off by driving down the west side, for some reasons a great many photos I took today were 'fuzzy', partly due to the dull light and the fact most were taken from an idling diesel truck - not a good combination, so I don't have too many photos....
this one of a male Gadwall turned out....there were a lot of Gadwall ducks, also Ring-neck Ducks, Buffleheads, Common Merganser, Mallard, etc.
The exciting find for the day was....
this Northern Shrike! A species you can go years without seeing and this is the second one we've seen in the last couple of weeks.
The other side of the slough was very quiet....we couldn't do the usual drive down the dike as there were trees down across it....remnants of the freezing rain I guess.
We stopped at one spot and spotted this....
Great Blue Heron posing beside a stashed canoe....
and another little hooked billed bird...
this American Kestrel on a wire....
were also a few....
Trumpeter Swans and if you look close there are some Mallard and Ring-Neck Ducks hiding in the grasses.
After returning home took a damp walk over to
the log bay where there wasn't much of anything except some Red-wing Blackbirds in the tops of the poplar trees.
Not sure where we will head tomorrow.....but wherever it is, will report what, if anything, we find.
Turned out to be a beautiful spring like day for the first day of the 4 day Backyard Bird Count.
this was the scene this morning and as you can see the snow is now gone and the water levels have risen, thanks to all the rain we've had the last few days. It was very quiet in the bird department, only item of note....
was this American Robin, one of several, returning right on schedule in mid-February.
After lunch we headed over to Harrison Bay....
where it was also very calm and quiet with water levels considerably higher than they were a week ago.
the resident pair of Bald Eagle were there.....
at least until one of them decided to fly to their nest.
the field's beside the dike were full of Canada Geese.....
but the most notable items was....
the number of Great Blue Heron in the area....22 to be exact. One on nearly everyone of those pilings...
and a few more of them along the shore.
So tomorrow we will go out and see what we can see again, probably at Deroche and on Nicomen this time.
