Part 2....Evening Canoe trip

Come early evening the wind had died down so we set out again...

this time headed....

directly to the branch of the Chehalis since we hadn't made it there earlier.  Lots of Canada geese pretty much finished their molt now.

noticed an assortment of birds in this dead tree....Most of the ones on the top are European Starling.  Not a surprise as we've seen them up there before.

there were also a few Brewer's Blackbird, like this male ....identified by it's shiny black plumage and bright yellow eye.

and I'm pretty sure that the top two birds here are Rusty Blackbirds.  Although during breeding season they are black like the brewers, they have the 'rust' colouration the rest of the year, these could possibly be young ones...another identifying feature is the pale eyes.  Rusty's are uncommon just about everywhere this side of the continent but since I have had one at my feeders once a few years ago, this sighting isn't a 'first' but is definitely 'rare'.

I couldn't even 'guesstimate' what the smaller bird on the bottom left of the group photo was.

  
further up the river we could see a number of ducks in the distance.  Most appeared to be Mallard although one young Pied bill Grebe stuck its head up momentarily before vanishing from sight.

in one spot there were many Cedar Waxwing doing their fly catching routine...also so a few flashes of yellow, warblers of some sort, they didn't stay visible for long.

movement on the muddy bank of the river caught our attention....turned out to be this Song Sparrow....had heard a number of them along the route.  Of course the whole trip there were swallows and swifts flying over head catching insects.

quite a few American Robins as well, like this juvenile.

and finally as we started back, this female Common Merganser with her brood of 10, so not the same family we had seen our last trip....led the way.

Morning canoe trip

So the other day we set out for a morning canoe trip until the wind caused us to turn around and come back home.  We then tried again in the evening when it got a bit calmer.  This is the morning one.

as you can see water continues to drop way down....we can now get onto the flats...

we headed down to check out those new martin boxes....as you can see it was pretty choppy already.

and there is one set of them...seems they moved an old box in with them just to get things established I guess.

lots of activity at the old set....my guesstimate was close to 30 Purple Martin's in the vicinity.

nice to see a few new Tree Swallow nesting boxes had also been put up along with the ones for the Martin....

speaking of Tree Swallows....there was one pair still caring for a brood....probably a 2nd batch I would think.

hard to get close ups when the canoe is bouncing so much, this appears to be a young male and it was checking out one of the new boxes....staking his claim on it for next year maybe.

so satisfied that all was well with the Purple Martin nesting colony...we headed across to the shore opposite our boat launch....

spotting one of the young Great Blue Heron on the way....saw a total of 8 of them during the trip.

and that Red-neck grebe was out there as well.  Still appears to just be the one who really shouldn't even be here.

headed up one arm where we sat for sometime as a Marsh Wren was singing and I was determined to get a picture...although he flew from the grass to the bush once, I never did manage a photo.

this young heron kept us company along side....

and there was this school (?) of what appeared to be tadpoles of some kind in the water, they moved in a tight group....have no idea what they were.

another unknown was this young gull....obviously a 'this year'....and one of several, all unidentified gulls we saw.  This one, at first was mistaken for an Osprey as it almost acted like one.

lots of dragonflies again....this being an Eight Spot Skimmer.

By this point it was decided that the wind was just not going to let up so we headed to shore, thinking we'd try again later in the day.

Boat launch birds

With the weather heating up again there have been no walks and with various chores and appointments, no canoe trips either (maybe tomorrow)....so the only sightings have been during brief sit downs at our boat launch....it makes one wonder just what one would see if you could just sit there by yourself all day long!

We'll start with this, which when I spotted it...asked myself...what the heck is that?  Well as it turns out it what it usually is about this time of year....a juvenile Brown Headed Cowbird.  This is a species where the female lays her egg in another species nest and leaves it up to the new species to raise the youngster, usually to the detriment of the other chicks as the cowbird tends to be larger and more demanding.

A bark from my dog drew my attention away from the above to...

this...a Ruffed Grouse that had come up out of the bush on the water side....

and was quickly sneaking its way across the open part of the boat launch.

the Song Sparrow was in its place....another further over on the other side where I could hear it, but not see it.

this morning when I looked out there, did a double take because....

straight out there was this Red-necked Grebe.  If you recall we had first seen this (or another) of these grebes while out canoeing and it was noted then that this is a species that has not been seen in this area, this time of the year before.  Now I know that the bird has stayed around and wasn't an accidental over night stay.

there are quite a few Barn Swallows still around...this male was picking up nesting material again...something I've noticed before...they seem to be in nesting mode for as long as they are in the area.

this Pine Siskin was down there all on it's own which is a little unusual, they are normally in large flocks or often mixed in with Goldfinch.

with the water receding, the Great Blue Heron are showing up...of course the young ones are fledged and out on their own now as well which increases the numbers.

I've noticed several hummingbirds, most had been Anna's, the ones we now have year round, but this particular one is a Rufous Hummingbird....either a female or one of this years youngsters as the males are long gone, in fact they seemed to have left 2 or 3 weeks before their usual time which is the end of June.  Females and young are usually found until early September.

of course the American Robin's are still here and enjoying the water...

and then I saw this....not sure what it is...could be a California Gull although last year about this time we saw some Caspian Tern....what ever it is...it means that birds are on the move!  Have been hearing reports of shorebirds in the Okanagan so, maybe soon!

A bit of this and that....

Nothing terribly exciting the last few days, no walks, no canoe trips....so just a bit of this and that found around home....

This is 'mummy' .....

Raccoon.  I have been packing my camera at all times in hopes of getting photos of her with her 4 youngsters, but she is pretty smart and so far I haven't managed.

after taking this, and continuing on down the street, looked back to see the babies running across the road, one at a time....oh well...

Down at the boat launch...

the water continues to recede at a rapid pace.  This was this evening.  Maybe by tomorrow we'll be able to get far enough down the path to peek around the corner towards the park once more!

there has been far more Canada Goose activity the last few days with small groups flying here and there as they complete their molt.

Bald Eagles continue to be seen and heard....in fact it has been reported that there seem to be more in the general area now, what with the interior fires.  Not sure if that is correct or not but for sure the amount of area burned is going to throw a lot of wildlife and bird into turmoil with a hard winter looming....might be a year to consider putting out some bird seed if you've never done it before...

this Song Sparrow is back in residence in its' favorite willow tree....seems to be perched there almost every time we venture down.

this little guy....a Willow Flycatcher, was in the same tree the other day....camera had problems focusing on him so a bit blurry.

American Robins, like this juvenile are enjoying the muck left behind.

A good news kind of day......

Yesterday, July 20th was an all round good news kind of day.....

for starters, it was raining....

the first real precipitation in over a month.....

which meant we finally got for a walk over at the dike along Harrison Bay.....

where despite all the dry weather we've had, and because of the high water table, everything is very green and lush....

of course we saw the regulars...

Song Sparrows.....this one in a Black Hawthorne tree with a good crop of ripening fruits.

here is a closer look at this native fruit that feeds so many critters.....including bears, of which we saw evidence that they are in the area again.

but here is some more good news.....

a nearly fully fledged Bald Eagle in the eagle nest....after all the speculation, proof that they had another successful year.  Appears only one young one this time although given calls we heard possibly a second might have already left the nest....at least we know for sure there was one!

and of course one of the adults was close by.

there were American Goldfinch lined up on a wire....2nd from left looks like a youngster.

that wire, that only runs part way along the dike, makes a great perch....this time for a Barn Swallow.

White-crowned sparrows all along the walk....didn't see any youngsters this time but we know they are there.

Black-capped Chickadee too....a whole family in this location.  (only one in photo)

further along spotted something unusual on a fence post....

turned out to be a male American Kestrel.  Kestrel's are in the general area, especially on Nicomen Island and have been seen here at the IBA before but couldn't be classified as regulars.

all of a sudden...

this Spotted Sandpiper flew up out of the field onto a fence post.  Guess they decided the farm fields were a safer place than along the side of the dike.

apart from the baby eagle, the most exciting finds...

were the number of Bullock's Orioles!  Here a male is feeding a fledgling in a blackberry bush.  With Orioles the whole family gets involved in raising the years crop of youngsters, mom, dad, and even siblings from the previous year.

here is a closer look at that particular fledgling.

The good news doesn't stop with the walk though....on July 18th representatives from FVRD parks and members of the Georgia Basin Ecological Assessment & Restoration Society who were responsible for installing the initial 6 nesting boxes for Purple Martins here at the estuary, installed 12 more nesting boxes and as they balanced on ladders, in boats they had a chance to really examine the little colony and found that all 6 of the original boxes that I've posted photos of, were full of youngsters....so a very successful nesting year....and as the adults were busy examining the new boxes almost immediately, sounds like next year will be even better.  Next time we get out on the water, we will check out the new boxes.

back to some fledglings and possibly the only not great news of the day....

was the spotting of this very young Black-headed Grosbeak out back.  It is so young that it would appear to have been forced off a nest early, probably by the tree holding the nest being cut down or pruned severely.  The good news is that it's dad was with it, feeding it, and since pets aren't allowed to roam free in our complex, it will hopefully survive.

I've had fledgling Purple Finch coming to the only little feeder I have out at present, for the past few weeks, in fact last week a female was collecting dog fur...possibly thinking of raising a second hatch, which would be very late.

so by evening the sun was shining once again.....

and we finished off the day with yet more youngsters down at the boat launch....

an American Robin youngster...

and a Yellow Warbler....there were lots more including Chickadees, Towhees, and even Warbling Vireo that I didn't manage photos of.