Mid Month already!

 Here we are, the middle of the month of October already and in keeping with the theme of this year of 2020, nothing is quite normal.

For example, here we are with the estuary once more covered in water!  Good for the fish, that I hear are arriving, not so good for the eagles that are starting to gather to feed on the fish as there is no where for them to land.

A lot of birds around right now....

of note, this, one of a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers seen this morning.  Also, I'm pretty sure I heard a Varied Thrush today.  Lots of Black capped Chickadees and a few Brown Creeper.

We got for a good walk over at Harrison Bay this afternoon....

you can see how high the water is.  Virtually no beach there at all.

still the Bald Eagles are gathering, like this adult....

and this juvenile......counted 13 in total along the length of the walk.

the usual smaller birds were out today as well, like this Song Sparrow.....

and this Spotted Towhee - I think this is a young one just changing into adult colours as the eye isn't as bright red as it will be an it doesn't have that many spots yet.

A bit of a surprise was this.....

Fox Sparrow - seems early for these guys to be showing up, but then everything seems to be pointing to an early and severe winter - and why not?

There was also a fairly large flock of these....

which I haven't been able to ID.  At first I thought they were Yellow-rump Warblers, but no,they aren't....they definitely acted very warbler like and were busy going over the poplar trees.

Last thing of note....

a couple of these large King Bolete Mushrooms - this one being nibbled on.

ELK!

 Have to say it.....never, would I have believed that one day we'd be able to look out on the estuary and see a herd of elk grazing!  I think I mentioned in my last post that people had been reporting seeing them.  Well tonight was my turn.

there they are.  In total, there were 7.  3 males, 3 females and a young one.

This shows their location from the road, and on the estuary itself....seeing them tonight was just the icing on the cake for a spectacular fall day that started out ....

with a misty sort of morning.....if this picture doesn't just scream 'Chehalis Estuary', I don't know what would, with a Heron siloutted on the shore, a bunch of Canada Geese swimming past and a Bald Eagle photobombing the whole thing.

 after lunch, it was a walk over at Harrison Bay with a perfectly calm picturesque scene...

another Great Blue Heron over here.  In fact there were all kinds of birds....

including a Hairy Woodpecker.  Must have been at least a half dozen Northern Flicker although none cooperated for a picture.

all kinds of American Robin eating everything they can find.  In this case, the berries of a Virginia Creeper.

Dark Eyed Junco were everywhere!  Also a number of Song Sparrows and Steller's Jay.

all in all it was just a spectacular early fall day!

 

and now it is October!

 Here we are.....October - the time of year when life gets interesting here along the Harrison River.  We will set the scene:

Here at the estuary we have water - more water for this time of the year than I recall ever seeing before.  Not sure how, or if, it will influence things.  There are certainly a lot of Canada Geese enjoying it and last night, even as late as midnight, we were hearing all sorts of geese, duck and gull calls.

Another interesting thing is that there have been several sightings of elk out on the dry areas of the estuary.  Elk were introduced further up the valley and seems they have moved down this way.  So far, I haven't been lucky enough to see them.

over at Harrison Bay what has been most noticeable, other than the higher than normal water levels, were the number of eagles....couldn't get a picture but we did see 7 of them, which is higher than normal for this time of the year, again, don't know what that indicates for the season, if anything.

another thing we've noticed is that the huge crops of berries, Mountain Ash, Black Hawthorne and Red-Osier Dogwood have been completely devoured.  The Pacific Crabapple fruit are still there but one wonders for how long as the trees were full of American Robins eating them.

There haven't been a lot of birds to photograph yet, but his young Great Blue Heron obliged yesterday.

and I think, for now, we will just leave with this photo that really say's 'Fall is here'!

Where has the month gone!

 My Goodness, Where has the month gone!  Guess I need to do a bit of catch up but maybe I will work backwards....

Headed out in the canoe today for probably the last time as the water levels are dropping rapidly now.  It is actually unusual for them to still be this high at the end of August.

Wanted to check out the situation at the Purple Martin boxes.  Had been hearing them so knew they were still in the area, which is unsual this late in the month. There were approximately 30 birds flying around but this female still had young in that nest box.  Lets hope the weather holds so she can get them raised and ready to migrate in time.

It was actually shockingly quiet out in the estuary area.  A number of young Great Blue Heron like the one above, some Canada Geese, a few Mallard and one young Gull.  That was about it....

oh, and one Savannah Sparrow on a little islet over by the Harrison River.

Since discovering iNaturalist, I have been busy taking part in some of their projects and this week it is the Nature Conservancy of Canada Backyard Bio Blitz....which was why I wanted to be on the water in hopes of seeing some shorebirds or something interesting.

the other day we walked over at Harrison Bay, in the morning before it got too warm for the dogs. Quiet over there too except for one small section....

where birds were feasting on the fruit of the Black Hawthorne....here a Black Capped Chickadee....

a young American Robin....

and Cedar Waxwing.

What I haven't been able to find yet to add to the bio species is a Bald Eagle!  Here we are in the heart of eagle country and I can't find an eagle.  Not sure where they have all gone.  Have 3 more days to find one.

A walk in the other direction

 It has probably been a couple of months since we could walk in the other direction along the dike, due to the high water, but we checked today and water levels have dropped enough that you can make it now....

It is kind of interesting how two areas so close together can differ.....

found quite a lot of this plant that I can't recall ever seeing before and have no idea what it is.

a lot of this Pea Vine growing here too.

Chicory with the River behind it.

Some things don't change....saw Bald Eagles often perched in this tree last winter, and here one was again today.

If you look closely at this Black Hawthorne bush there are at least 5 Cedar Waxwing and a young Robin were feasting on the fruit.

speaking of berries....

the Black Berries are ripening....which was a good reason to keep an eye out for bear as we know they hang out in this quieter area.

these White Water Lilies have had a tough time this year as the water levels rose so late and then stayed high....a little too high for water lilies....other years the whole surface has been covered, only saw the one flower today.

Change in the weather

A bit of a change in the weather today which allowed us to take a walk on the dike after this mornings rain....

it was awfully windy which meant that there wasn't much to see in the way of birds...

nice to see some Queen Anne's Lace plants....there used to just be one, now there are a couple so maybe, eventually, there will be more....they are so pretty and well 'lacey'.

so nice that they haven't mowed the dike sides this year, at least this summer - they did earlier in the spring....now the sides are lined with Chicory and Spotted Knapweed.

Tansy in full flower now.

May not have seen birds....we do have a 'bird' at home....

this very young Black-headed Grosbeak has made itself at home in our honeysuckle bush where it is feeding on the ripe berries.

Finally got out on the water

Into August now and we've finally managed to get out on the water, just in time to have a view of the first local area wildfire of the year....and hopefully 'only'....

it was pretty windy so didn't go far but did manage to check out the....

Purple Martins....there was a fair bit of activity, including this female who appeared to be feeding young in this natural cavity....  It appears that many of them are raising a second brood which is great news.

it was surprising to see a Tree Swallow nest box still occupied as most of the Tree Swallows have moved on by now.

seeing gulls flying down the river is more typical of the time of year...probably California Gulls migrating south

in the evening we ventured out again.  The number of Cedar Waxwing and various Swallows and Swifts was amazing....primarily Barn Swallows but others mixed in as well.

this morning it was beautiful out, so we ventured out again....the wildfire in the distance seems to have grown overnight.  The evening before it had almost appeared to be out....at least from the distance we are looking at it from.

there are a lot of Canada Geese out in the estuary area right now....groups of 10 or 20 or so, most still hiding in the grasses that is emerging as the water levels drop.

there was a family of Osprey up one of the branches of the river, the parents obviously introducing the youngsters to the art of fishing.

Spotted this female Wood Duck and a little further along there were a number of ducklings, still quite small, hiding in the grasses.  Surprisingly we only saw one female Common Merganser.....normally you see at least one family of them.  Could also hear a number of Gray Catbirds up in this area where they normally nest....just couldn't get a picture today.

did get a Belted Kingfisher....this one being a male as the females wear the 'belt' in the kingfisher family!

quite a few Great Blue Heron .....water levels are much higher than they normally are at this time of the year so they are probably having problems finding places to stand.  We also saw a couple of little shorebirds fly by....now we are into August, shorebird migration is underway...problem is, we don't have a lot of 'shore' right now although levels are dropping quickly.