February 2nd - Groundhog Day, Superbowl Sunday and World Wetland's Day - and boy do we have 'wet' wetlands!
The last day of January brought torrential rains that last for close to 24 hours, with the result that the estuary, that had been all grasslands and gravel bars, looked like this...
when we got up yesterday morning....2 1/2 to 3 feet of water over the entire area.
and it wasn't just the estuary....these are farm fields on the way to our usual afternoon walk at Harrison Bay.
Harrison Bay looked more like a muddy ocean! Wind was so strong there were huge waves out there.
Then this morning we got up to this....
yes, that is snow! Fortunately that is all we got although more is forecast for tonight. You'll note too that the water level has dropped a lot overnight as this was all under water the previous day.
Today actually turned into a lovely sunny day so another walk on the dike was in order...
much calmer out there today! Birding has been pretty quiet too, although out there you can just see...
this trio of female Common Merganser.
There are also lots of geese...most in the fields...
although a few were in the water today as well.
Oh, and look at this!
Pussy Willows!
One more sign of spring....we've had a shift in the hummingbirds in our yard....all winter we've had a male standing guard on the feeders, the last couple of days....
this female Anna's Hummingbird has taken possession of our yard. Hopefully she is thinking of nesting somewhere close by.
We are back in business. My computer decided to die suddenly so it has been replaced. Fortunately there hasn't been anything too exciting happening but will do a bit of catch up anyway...
10 days ago, this is the way it looked around here....now we are back to normal rain.
this was Harrison Bay about the same time.
and this is how it things look now, at least when it isn't raining.
So lets get to the birds....
the Bald Eagle pair have been hanging about their nest.
the fields are full of geese, both regular Canada and the smaller Cackling...
lots of ducks too, mainly American Wigeons, but some Northern Pintail and Mallard as well.
one day there was a large flock of Pine Siskin going over the alder trees.
Some days there are lot's of Trumpeter Swans,
but the best sign that spring is on the horizon is...
the fact that for the last few days we've been hearing Red-wing Blackbirds calling.
Slowly things are returning to normal. Thanks to the warmer weather and rain, the depth of snow is gradually receding. The weather combination also created a lot of fog or mist today.
this was the scene at the boat launch this morning...but the amazing thing about this morning
were the number of Brown Creepers! They were everywhere.
kind of hard to get pictures of fast moving little birds in the weather conditions. Besides the creepers, there were Chickadee's both Black Capped and Chestnut-backed and...
even a Pacific Wren.
We made it as far as the first bay but the path, which is hazardous enough in ideal conditions, wasn't passable.
After lunch we made an attempt at walking at Harrison Bay....
Conditions weren't any better and then it started to rain, so the walk was cut short.
Misty snowy scene.
even so there were little birds in the bushes....Towhee, Song Sparrow, Junco, House Sparrow as well as Black Capped Chickadees and more of those Brown Creeper.
This was taken yesterday.....just a few of the many Anna's Hummingbirds hanging about in our complex this winter.
Thought I'd show the reason why I haven't been doing any postings for the last little while...
We have winter. Today was the first day we managed to walk down to the estuary.
that would be the path over to the park.....didn't attempt it today as my little dog was turning into a snowball. Not only do we have snow, but the temperatures have been way below freezing the entire time.
We apparently have another 24 hours of extreme winter weather before hopefully, we will be able to return to more normal weather and able to get out for walks again.
Anna's Hummingbirds are still active and depending on feeders, which we are having to swap out ever 30 minutes or so due to the cold. While we have had a yard full of Jays, Song Sparrows, Towhee, Varied Thrush, Flicker, a few Starling, Doves etc. etc. etc.
4 days into the new year and decade and I've been hard put to find anything to post! The weather has been a bit of everything, mainly cloudy, often wet, a glimpse of sun, some hail and wind....
This is the scene at the boat launch right now.
and this was the log bay this morning...you can see the water levels have come up a bit - not surprising with all the rain we had on New Year's Day.
This is one of the Bald Eagles that were there. There was also a Kingfisher but not much else.
We've attempted several walks over at Harrison Bay, one was cut short due to rain, this one, on the 3rd was cut short when our neighbour/friend in that boat out there called to us and asked if we'd like to take a run up the river - well you can't say no to an offer like that!
so this is the view of where we normally walk, from the river - the eagle nest is just to the right of the middle of the picture.
leaving the bay behind and heading up the river.
we are up the Harrison River, past the estuary, this area is still all part of the I.B.A. but even on the water, there wasn't a lot to see. Some eagles and raven, a pair of loon, some mergansers and common golden-eye and a kingfisher, that was about it.
here, at this point, we've turned around and are leaving the Harrison River and the IBA, heading to the Fraser River. In all we spent a couple of hours on the water, a real treat despite the fact it was January and getting chilly towards the end as the clouds got heavier.
Today we walked in a new spot - the trail isn't new, not sure why we haven't walk here before because it is just down the road and the area is still part of the IBA. It is the Chehalis Fishing Trail.
Pretty dense forest and apart from hearing one Nuthatch....didn't see any birds except...
for a surprising number of Bald Eagles.....
the area is pretty unspoiled which maybe explains why they are hanging out...
a few more here....
and quite a few further down....unfortunately the weather was deteriorating while we were there so not ideal for taking pictures.
this is the Chehalis river with varied terrain along the shore so I imagine the potential is there for seeing various birds at different times of the year.
we will have to add this trail to our walking routine.
It doesn't matter how many times you walk the same path, it is never exactly the same and sometimes, something really can surprise you.
We set out on our normal walk along the dike today,
this Bald Eagle flew down and started eating a rather disgusting looking dead fish....nothing surprising there.
a couple of Northwestern Crows flew down in hopes of getting a share....
No, it was further along that the first surprise showed up. Look very, very closely at the above photo....do you notice anything, because I did and said 'what the heck is that!'
'that' turned out to be a Raccoon, sound asleep in this nest of branches! Now we know that there has to be raccoon's over here, but until today, we'd never seen one over there and we'd never seen a raccoon sleeping in a tree before.
The next surprise, unfortunately we didn't get a picture of as we were too much in shock watching a Peregrine Falcon attacking a Bald Eagle! The eagle had been flying to join it's mate that was perched in a tree when the falcon came out of nowhere and went after it. What a gusty bird!
on the return trip, the raccoon was still asleep and this eagle pair were at their nest.
