January 2022 - that's a wrap!

 Last day of the month, figured we'd do a wrap up....

weather was decent, not raining or snowing although a touch of fresh snow on the hills

not much around except the hundreds of Canada Geese with some Cackling Geese mixed in, in all the farm fields...

and

more in the water....

this little Cackler had a lot to say after having a vigorous bath.

at one point, this little guy - a Cooper's Hawk I believe, flew over and a bunch of the geese took flight.

and if you are looking for signs of spring (and aren't we all!)  Pussy Willows today.

Heading home...

this Pileated Woodpecker (male because he has a red 'moustache') was working on a hydro pole.

So tomorrow we are in the month of February....the month when we have the 4 day Backyard Bird Count.  This year the dates are Feb. 11 to 14th.  This is the bird count where everyone is invited to get outside somewhere, anywhere and count what ever birds you see.  It is something I look forward to every year and almost invariably something happens that keeps us from enjoying it to it's full extent.  Hopefully that won't be the case this year.

By mid-month we will be hoping to see the arrival of the robins and by the end of the month, depending on how things go, we could be seeing the first Tree Swallows arriving, it wouldn't be the first time they've shown up in the last day or so of February.

Not a lot happening.....

 We've continued to have some technical issues, we've also continued to have some beautiful weather....

for all that sunshine, it has actually been pretty quiet....

lots of Canada Geese in the fields, but that has been about it...

way out on the river there was a small flock of Canvasback Ducks.

Here at the estuary,

while trying to find the Killdeer that could be heard in the distance....

found these two shorebirds....pretty sure they are Dunlin, a species that has been seen here once and a while over the years.

yesterday was a beautiful day...

Crows were very active.  Crows in our area used to be called Northwestern Crows, but recently they've all been lumped back in as American Crows.

Brown Creepers were active too.  One is this photo.

the Bald Eagle pair were there, this one had a fish it was eating on the piling.

today, the eagle pair were still there but no sign of any of the crows.

Technical issues

 It's been a few days since I posted....partly due to not really having been anywhere much, and the reason for that is that we are having technical issues at home and are having to stick close in case a repair person actually decides to show up.  

For some bizarre reason, tonight things are working (well somethings anyway) so thought I'd take advantage to catch up.

so the most exciting find was spotting this little guy....

a Northern Pygmy Owl.  We had only just gotten out of our car and were about to start our walk, when he was noticed perched just over the trail....

and since it seems you are lucky to get one sighting of one of these guys per year, I might as well post another picture.

Some days have been bright and clear, and others, not

this morning was a combination of both, with frost thrown in for good measure...

spotting 5 Killdeer was the highlight for today as I had just been thinking it had been a long time since we'd seen a Killdeer in the area.

Anna's Hummingbirds continue to be highly visible....

this afternoon a pair of Great Blue Heron were enjoying the sunshine out on the estuary.

Out of season Turkey Vulture

 Today's walk took us back in the direction of the walk in the fog....

it had been quite sunny in the morning, but as you can see, mist was rolling in again...

that young Turkey Vulture that we had seen a while back, was in the area again and out in the open so I could get a better picture.

he wasn't looking terribly happy, but I guess if he's survived this long, he should make it until his buddies arrive in another couple of months.

There were half a dozen or so Bald Eagles in the same general area...

including these two on the opposite shore that had a good sized Salmon...so hopefully they will leave enough for the vulture to get a bit to eat as well.

Other than this activity...

it was very quiet and calm.

The big.....and the little.....

 Another dull, grey, drizzly day but our morning walk over to the park gave me today's idea because if there are 2 species we can count on seeing, even when there is nothing else...it is the 'big'....

the Bald Eagles.....today there were 7 spread out along the trail.....and no doubt a few more way out on the flats....

and the 'little'

the Anna's Hummingbird....we saw 7 of them as well.  Twenty five years ago when I first started watching this area, it would have been unheard of to see a hummingbird in winter.

There was a set pattern for hummingbirds, you put out your feeder the beginning of March so it would be there when the male Rufous hummingbirds started arriving mid-month, but the end of the month, the females would have joined them.  By the end of June, you saw the males no more until the next spring, the females and young would hang around until the end of August and then they would be gone too.

The first winter when someone said they had a hummingbird hanging about in a tree in their yard in the winter, no one really believed it until they saw it for themselves.  That was probably 12 or 13 years ago. I'm sure I'd never even heard of an Anna's hummingbird at that point....but the next winter there were more of them, and the population has been growing ever since!

Of the 7 seen today, 2 were hanging out near feeders, but the other 5 were not.

the habitat here, which consists of native shrubs and small deciduous trees, must be ideal because, if you look very closely at the top 

this little guy is in his accustomed spot.  This has been his territory for at least 4 years now.

The female whose picture started this, well she likes the blackberries and red osier dogwoods at the north side of the log bay.....another male guards from the south side of the log bay.

another, you can just make him out on top of the left hand shrub, has claimed the area by the viewing platform.

A few facts about Anna's Hummingbirds, they live over 8 years and they can have up to 3 batches of youngsters a year, they start nesting in December.  One thing I've noticed is that when the Rufous arrive, the Anna's become much less visible, in fact you don't see them all that much during late spring and summer, they come into their own in the winter.

So back to our walk....

spotted ....

this trio of Trumpeter Swans....haven't seen any in close like this for a while and they didn't stick around.

Our afternoon walk was later than normal....

and just not much of anything moving.....

the rose hips from the Nootka Roses are about the only bright spot!

Young eagles but not a lot else

The last couple of days have been rather quiet for birds....not sure why...

 yesterday's weather wasn't awful, in fact we even had a bit of sunshine, although it didn't last long.

saw this Song Sparrow....

this Spotted Towhee was catching a few of the sun's rays....

this young Bald Eagle had been down on the beach, I found the colouring a little unusual.

Today has been a dull drizzly day, not actually raining but close.  Our only walk today was over to the park...

as we started over, this young Bald Eagle was perched on one of the branches of the purple martin box posts...

and stayed put as the dogs and I walked past.

still there as we returned, after seeing virtually nothing over at the park...

took advantage to get another photo.  He/she was still there after we'd gone by for the second time and were heading for home.

Foggy!

 I really don't remember the last time we have had a foggy day!  Certainly not a fog that lasted all day long.  It did make for some interest.

we wandered over to the park in the morning....

there were several Bald Eagle around, including this fellow

Anna's Hummingbirds too (this one a female)....and not much else to be seen.

After lunch we headed over to Harrison Bay

where the fog was even thicker.

it did make for some fantastic scenes though!

there were barely any birds around, a total of 6 Steller's Jay, though.  There had been a big flock of Dark Eyed Junco as well but they disappeared quickly and didn't reappear.

the pair of Bald Eagle with the nest in that direction, were there...

and a Common Loon out on the foggy river.

basically though, it was just a really unique experience.