Pouring!!!!

What a horrible day!  It has been absolutely pouring all day.  I guess the only good thing about it is that if this were all snow…we’d be up to our roof tops by now, but with the temperature not having climbed above 1 c it is strange that it is ‘wet’ rather than ‘white’ – perhaps there is some sort of temperature inversion happening.

Some ducks and a Heron seen through the rain….that was pretty much all that was out there today – a few Eagles scattered about as well.

It isn’t really apparent yet, but with all this rain and the melting snow, the water levels are starting to creep up again.  With nothing but rain in the forecast for the foreseeable future, we’ll see how high they get.

The Belted Kingfisher was over here again today and there were a few Green Wing Teal and a few Mallard – I could hear something out on the flats that I couldn’t identify…have no idea what it might have been.

Turbulent day

What a turbulent day – weather wise!  The forecast rain arrived last night and continued on into the morning…then it cleared…

so by the time we were ready to go for our walk, it wasn’t bad at all – you can see there was a snow squall happening up that valley – which is a bit strange as it was a very warm, 9 degrees out at the time…

most of the birds seemed to be up in the air riding the wind currents but a few were on the ground..

at the point I was taking this picture, we could hear sirens, which set off the pack of Coyote who live on the hillside to the west of the estuary – 2 fire trucks roared along the bordering Morris Valley Road and then a helicopter flew over – none of it perturbed this guy, except he did duck his head when the helicopter went over.

Nothing was moving in the bushes along the trail, but the log bay was busy again with gulls – lots of gulls…

and more Bald Eagles….

Not sure what was up with these 5 – all lined up in a row!

As we headed back the wind suddenly picked up to the point that I was happy to get out from under the large trees…

this Great Blue Heron flew in and landed, not far from the original eagle

who was still happily perched there.  Since our walk the wind has died down somewhat but it is now very dark and raining again….and because I just caught sight of it….that black ‘Gray’ Squirrel I mentioned a few days ago is still here, in fact, there are at least two of them…

Dreary end to the month

What a horrible way to end the month! 

Today’s pictures aren’t going to earn any acclaim – that is for sure!  It was so dark and wet out….you can see the ‘eagle trees’ by the viewing platform were well populated…

I had actually been surprised to see a total of 5 Northern Flicker, all feeding in the ground in one spot, along with a handful of Varied Thrush and even a Robin.

Over at the log bay – where the water level is rising once again – there was this Herring Gull along with a few Mallard…notice the number of dead salmon in the water and there are still lots of live ones in the area as well.

while I was at the bay a pair of Great Blue Heron flew in and circled, with one landing on this piling and the other….

in this tree – these birds always look so ungainly perched on a tree branch.

the bird stayed perched as we walked underneath it to head back home.

One thing I do want to mention for today is the spotting of a Gray Squirrel.

This is what I classify as a ‘proof it was there’ photo.  It has been at least 2 years, possibly 3, since I’ve seen a Gray Squirrel in the area of the estuary – and yes I know it is black….they are called ‘Gray’ squirrels even though they can be gray or black in colour.  They are a species of squirrel that is native to the eastern half of the continent but were introduced to the lower mainland, Stanley Park to be precise, early in the last century and were content to stay there until about the 1960’s when they started spreading out.  They are now standard fixtures as far east as Chilliwack on the south side of the Fraser River and Agassiz on the north side, but in the 14 years I have been watching this area, this is only the 3rd time I have seen one.  There are conflicting opinions on how their presence affects the populations of our little native Douglas Squirrel.  The opinion that I tend to agree with is that they don’t really have a lot of effect as the two species prefer different habitats.  Our native Squirrel (of which we have an abundance this year) like undisturbed forested areas where the Gray Squirrel  prefers open ‘park like’ areas such as our parks and suburban gardens offer. 

A very gray day

Definitely not one of your more inspiring days!

at least it was still dry when we set out.

The ‘eagle’ trees were well populated with a total of 13 Bald Eagles…

and the piling at the first bay sported this Great Blue Heron on top..

Here is a closer look at the heron

and a closer look at a couple of juvenile Bald Eagles that were amongst those in the eagle trees…..

almost as soon as I took these pictures…a number of the eagles suddenly took off ~ I wondered, because they had been perfectly happy with me standing there, but then I saw another couple approaching the area, carefully, armed with a camera….so I decided to not go any further and headed back past them so they could get some pictures.  Seconds later the Heron who had happily posed, took off screeching and I turned around and not a single Eagle was left in those trees.  This was a perfect illustration to what I firmly believe, that these birds learn to recognize the ‘regular’ invaders of their habitat, but react with alarm to anyone new.

And speaking of ‘screeching’ or at least ‘screaming’ ~ last night we heard what at first sounded almost, but not quite, like a woman screaming…it happened close to a dozen times….I have since looked it up on line and it had to have been that cougar that has been spotted, now 3 times, in the immediate area.