With the weather moderating and changing, we've had a couple of great walks. Haven't made it to our nearby park yet, but both times headed over to Harrison Bay area.
Sunday was a beautiful day! Sunshine and finally the temperature crept above freezing.
parked in the parking lot at Kilby because the roads were pretty dicey and we weren't sure what the parking lot at Kilby campground would be like.
there is the scene at the bay looking back towards the parking area
First pleasant surprise was this female Hairy Woodpecker (there has been some debate as to if it is a Downy....trust me, it was a Hairy, the angle of the photograph makes the bill look shorter, not that it really matters, we have lots of both)
No human had ventured before us....
lots of coyote tracks though. You know they are here, you just don't realize how many until you see them in the snow.
it was a very 'woodpecker' kind of day. I'm not sure if there was just one of these Pileated Woodpeckers sort of keeping pace with us, or more than one...there was a lot of freshly broken branches caused by the freezing rain and he was checking them all out.
not to be out done, there were Northern Flicker checking things out too....we saw as many as 4 all together...
further along, a Double Crested Cormorant - have never seen them down this way before.
wanted to check out the new eagle nest to make sure it survived the weather, and it has, although looks like quite a few branches around it were lost.
Spotted something on a piling that didn't look like an eagle...
turned out to be a Turkey Vulture! Turkey Vultures shouldn't be here in January, March maybe, more likely April. From the pale colouring, this is a young one, lost or left behind, I don't know.
there weren't too many little birds about but this male Purple Finch certainly stood out.
as we headed back, we saw more Northern Flickers (or probably the same ones that just moved on a bit), eating the remaining fruits of the native Pacific Crabapple trees...the interesting thing was that every flicker we saw was a male.
Todays walk wasn't quite so awe inspiring, the sun wasn't shining, it was threatening to rain, although that held off and it was rather icy underfoot,
the fields beside the dyke were ice covered but Canada Geese and American Wigeon were managing to get through to the grass below.
the Wigeon are really getting into it. No wonder, they are probably hungry!
saw a couple of Bald Eagles, both young ones
some Trumpeter Swans on the river and a few flying around.
just as we were heading back to the parking area...
this Coopers Hawk flew into a tree momentarily.
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