C.B.C. Day

Today was the day for the annual Christmas Bird Count to be done in this area.  This is a count I have not yet been able to participate in, but I will be watching with interest to see what the numbers for this area were – particularly of Bald Eagles.  At least they had a fairly pleasant day for it – there was even a bit of sunshine!

This morning I had an appointment in Chilliwack, on my way home…stopped to take a few shots of the Bald Eagles I had been hearing about at the sides of highway 7…..that tree is an example…..

Here is another…

and another…this is taken from the east side of the bridge…these few trees, when we had left this morning were absolutely covered in eagles..

This is a view up the Harrison River towards the estuary, from the west side of the bridge…this area had been covered in eagles in the morning as well.

Our afternoon walk and you can see that water levels are back down to almost ‘pre deluge’ levels…

This pair of gulls (could that be a Western cross on the left?) were being extremely vocal – I don’t know what the one on the left had – perhaps a piece of salmon skin, but whatever it was it was obviously very good.

There was a flock of at least 50 Dark Eyed Junco in the bushes near the viewing platform….we often forget to focus on the more common little birds so thought I’d feature them today…

Numbers of them were eating seeds out of the Hardhack flower heads.  I’ve noticed before that this native shrub is an important winter food source for some of our seed eating birds.

another common area bird is the Spotted Towhee – this was one of a pair spotted towards the end of my walk.

Nasty day!

This morning, for the first time in years, I and my dog both decided it was just too nasty to even attempt our morning walk!  Pouring rain, and with a temperature hovering between 2 and 3, occasionally that rain turned into snow.

It was only marginally better when we attempted our afternoon one…apart from 3 Hooded Merganser, 1 Common Merganser and 4 Gadwall….there was just nothing!  As I neared the log bay I noticed this Bald Eagle eating something on top of a piling….

When I got to the bay…where you will note the water level has dropped a bit despite the rainfall….I noticed a bunch of ‘white’ on the lowest log…

Feathers!  my immediate thought that some of the area coyotes must have killed something over night and I had hoped it wasn’t a swan….but then I put two and two together and took a closer look at what the eagle was eating…

as I watched some more white feathers drifted down….so then I wondered if it had killed a gull….but after down loading these pictures and zooming way in…I think I can make out the head of a male mallard on the log with the feathers….this would explain why there was not a Mallard in sight anywhere!

One final look at ‘lunch’.

I should note that there appeared to be very few Eagles out on the flats but I had rec’d a phone call earlier telling me that there were hundreds and hundreds of eagles in the trees beside highway 7 and the Harrison Bridge….so that must have been where they were all hanging out today.

Finally, a dry day!

What a treat to get up to a day with no precipitation!

this morning there was a fair amount of fog around, although it dissipated quickly.  The higher water level meant we had Canada Geese again, as we haven’t seen any here for a while.

here are a few of them as seen through the fog.

Also, seen this morning for the first time this season – a Bufflehead – one lonely female!  I did see a raft of at least a hundred of them in the Harrison River, right beside the bridge, on the weekend, so perhaps the rest of the little group that normally spends the winter with us, will arrive soon.

With water levels remaining fairly high…the amount of birds out on the flats was truly astonishing…

Here is one section…

and another….

and another….must have been at least 500 Bald Eagles out there today. (note: if you click on the picture it will enlarge for a better look)

although there were none in close…I counted a total of 16 Swans as well..

I can’t say for sure what type but from the calls I suspect that at least some of them were Tundra Swans…but I really can’t say for sure.

There was activity in the bushes as well, Song Sparrows, Towhee, Junco, Red Wing Blackbird, Varied Thrush, Steller’s Jay, Winter (or more correctly now ‘Pacific’) Wren and Gold Crowned Kinglet were all seen and I heard a Downy Woodpecker, but couldn’t spot him.

24 hours of torrential rain….

This is what 24 hours of torrential rain can do…

The only surprise is that the water level isn’t even higher…

Here is the log bay….completely covered in water now…

a fuzzy gloomy picture of out on the flats….note some Swans out there as well as Eagles…that will (hopefully) be the good thing about all this…maybe we’ll see some swans now.

Compare this picture of the log bay with those taken the past few days…I’ll be surprised if we can access the park by tomorrow the way the water is coming up.  Water is pouring off of all the surrounding mountains, the temperature is climbing so precipitation that had fallen as snow on the mountains will now be melting and adding to the run off….and it continues to pour.

Still too wet for ducks….

I’m not even going to post a picture today.  Bands of moisture continue to move through the area, some times light, sometimes heavy and once as hail…

Last night the Chehalis Estuary area – or at least the number of Bald Eagles in the area this year - were featured on Global TV news.  An estimate of 5,000 was given, making this years eagle population the largest single gathering in the country….features like this are of course good for spreading awareness of the importance of the area….features like this also bring visitors to the area to see the phenomenon for themselves…and like I’ve experienced many times, ‘visitors’ are recognized as such and the birds move else where.  That is exactly what had happened today…apart from a few Bushtits by the viewing platform, a grand total of 10 Mallard and a few scattered eagles and gulls there was just nothing….

Where I did see an astounding number of Bald Eagles this morning was in the trees lining the Harrison River just on the northeast side of the Harrison Bridge – of course, being as I was just making a quick run to the local post office – I didn’t have a camera with me – but I’ve never seen eagles in those numbers in that location before.

Too wet for ducks!

It has now been raining for about 24 hours….

we go from ‘rain’ to ‘torrential downpours’ and then back to rain…it was so wet that even the ducks had vacated us…

That same Bald Eagle was in the same spot although water is now lapping at his toes as all this rain is bringing the water levels up a bit…

a few drenched gulls over at the log bay and there were a good number of eagles just the other side of the logs and scattered out over the flats.

the gravel bars are starting to disappear under water again….and now, as I write this, we are having a thunder storm in the midst of it all – what an interesting day! and not in a good way.

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…