An end of month update

 Time to give an update on the situation out here at the estuary.  Seems people are getting antsy to see eagles, but really it is a bit early yet.  

there are salmon out in the river, and these are in the creek leading to the fish hatchery...

but even there, there are no eagles yet.....only Turkey Vultures!  Quite a few Turkey Vultures. I don't know if this is normal or not because this is the first year we've been able to access this area on a regular basis.

back here at the estuary, things remain very dry although the rain over the last week or so is giving hope.  In reality, we don't normally start seeing the Chum Salmon here until about the middle of October.

still dry here too.

Some waterfowl do seem to be arriving though...

there were quite a few Canada Geese out on the flats this afternoon.

Earlier, during a wet walk at the dyke along the Harrison River, we could see a lot of ducks out on the far shore of the river....as far as we could tell, they were all Mallards.

At the estuary....

there were a few Cinnamon Teal, I don't recall a year when we've had Cinnamon Teal hang about for any length of time, like they are this year.

and what we dismissed as a few mallards....

turned out to be Northern Shoveler!  

Another month has gone by

 So another month has gone by and still not much of anything to report.

other than the water levels just keep dropping and the really concerning this year is that the springs that have always trickled water into this, the log bay, have completely dried up.  Never, ever, have there been plants growing in there.

same story in the first bay.

it has also been very quiet bird wise.....usually a Great Blue Heron somewhere...

like that young one.

there have also been a lot of young Cedar Waxwings.

the occasional gull is starting to show up, like this young Glaucous-wing Gull

also Shorebirds...like this Greater Yellowlegs....there certainly is enough 'shore'....but all in all it has been pretty boring.  We so desperately need rain...just not all at once!