Showery….

Well the torrential rain seems to be over, at least for now…and we are down to showers..

probably a good thing because the water continues to rise…this was the view at the boat launch this morning…

There was a lot of activity out there this morning as you can see…with so little ‘dry ground’ everyone was concentrated in the one area.

The day had looked promising in the morning but by mid-day the showers had settled back in.  We had to do some wading to get for our usual walk..

The log bay today….the bottom ‘marker’ log is completely under water..not a bird in sight…

a few Eagle way down there in those trees and I could hear Red-wing Blackbirds, but nothing visible.

I thought I could hear Swans out there so just sort of pointed the camera in that direction…and sure enough…there were quite a few.  The only ducks seen today were a couple of Common Merganser – I did, however, hear some Black Cap Chickadees for the first time in weeks and there were quite a few Junco as well.

Warm, wet and …Swans..

With heavy rain all night and most of today, didn’t manage a walk until later this afternoon, when it let up for a short while.

the water level continues to creep up and no wonder…between ‘rainfall warnings’ and warm temperatures (it was 11c when I took these pictures)

water is just pouring off of all the surrounding mountains…here you can see the first bay by the viewing platform is filling up…

and so is the log bay….

There was not a duck to be seen, but the higher water has brought in some Trumpeter Swans…

Six of about a dozen that were out there today.  Also quite a few Bald Eagles, but nothing else except one Great Blue Heron.  With so much of the farmland in the upper Fraser Valley under water  I suspect the ducks are busy feeding on the flooded fields.

Between rain storms…

We’ve been between ‘systems’ today….so it has actually been dry out there…still very gray and dark, but dry..and mild…

So we ventured out for a walk…not at our usual haunt, but went over to Harrison Bay at Kilby.  As I have mentioned before, this area is still all part of Important Bird Area B.C.033…in the picture above we are on the beach just below the camping area at Kilby, looking towards the railway bridge.

As I’ve also mentioned before, the species of birds you see here are often quite different from those we see just up the river at the estuary area.   Being deeper water, the area is frequented more by the diving ducks such as these Lesser Scaup.  There were also a lot of Common Merganser and some Bufflehead.

We decided to walk along the river as it winds its way towards the Fraser.

This Double Crested Cormorant was out on one of the logs..

and there was one lone American Coot hanging about under the train bridge.

This is the Harrison River, just around the tip of land there, it will join the Fraser River.

These old pilings are remnants from when this area was a thriving mill town…hence the name of ‘Harrison Mills’…

another remnant from the past…those concrete slabs that the trees are growing on top off are being held up by very deteriorated wooden pilings…one wonders just how long they will stay this way, although from the size of the trees, they’ve been like this for a long time.

This male Common Goldeneye was out on the river…very poor picture but at least you can see the ‘golden’ eye!

Heading back noticed some Beaver activity…which reminded me that I haven’t seen any sign of Beaver up in our area for several years now….we used to have Beaver there – in fact the spot that the Heron was hiding in last week, had, for many years, a Beaver lodge in the back corner.

We wandered back the other way…this is looking up the Harrison towards the estuary area (up and around the bend, not visible in the picture)…the water level of the river is a lot higher than it was when we were over here before Christmas.

These Poplar or Cottonwood trees were full off…

Red-wing Blackbirds…so it would appear this is a separate flock, and about double in size, from the one that is up at the estuary.  There were also at least a hundred Swans out on the bay, but too far out to even attempt a picture, and I could hear lots of Chickadees in the bushes here…something we haven’t heard up our way for a few weeks now. 

Can it get any wetter?!!

It is absolutely horrible out there!  It has been pouring continually since yesterday’s walk.  At 4 pm yesterday afternoon the temperature was at 0c, by 10:00 pm last evening, it had climbed to 7c….today we’ve held pretty steady at 4c.

The snow is rapidly melting…being replaced by water…

the rise in water levels I mentioned yesterday, are very obvious today.

gravel flats are rapidly disappearing under the rising water…

as for birds…well you can see there are a few Bald Eagles out there in the gloom – but not 1 single duck.  One Herring Gull and one Glaucous-wing gull and I heard a few Gold Crown Kinglets in the bushes….that was it.

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.

A ‘Snow’ day!

Definitely a ‘snow’ day!  With almost a foot and a half of snow in a little over 12 hours no one was going anywhere this morning!

That was the view this morning as we trudged our way down to the boat launch…

with periods of rain or freezing rain throughout the morning, some of the snow had settled by the time we got out for our mid-day walk – and yes that was a tiny patch of blue sky!  It didn’t last long though.

The first bay by the viewing platform…there were a few Mallard here.

Red Wing Blackbirds over at the log bay…could hear swans – LOTS of Swans, but couldn’t see any – white on white just isn’t visible, especially when you forget your binoculars!

looking back into the bay…

This Great Blue Heron flew in while I was taking the ‘bay’ picture – one of 3 seen today and not very happy looking!

This picture, taken by my husband, shows how the wind must have really been blowing last night while the snow was coming down as the trunks of these cedar trees were plastered.

I’ll toss in this Bald Eagle picture (also taken by my husband) – there were probably 20 or so eagles visible today, some way out along the Harrison but several perched in trees on this side.

Have to mention the Varied Thrush – saw a few while we were walking but most seem to be here in my little yard – counted 19 of them at one point!  They are everywhere.

Unfortunately I guess our snow won’t be with us that long as the wind is blowing now and it is raining as a warm weather system comes sweeping in from the southwest.

A fairly busy day….

Another dusting of snow rec’d last night….so I took a camera on our morning walk  ‘cause you just never know…

The pair of Raven were down by the water….this is one of them, the other was a bit further along…

Mid day…once again most of the activity was located over at the log bay…there were over 70 ducks in this area, nearly all Mallard with a few Green Wing Teal.  A Northern Harrier had been coursing over the area as we approached…there were Song Sparrow, Spotted Towhee and 2 Fox Sparrows scratching about.  The Red Wing Blackbirds were also there, as was the Belted Kingfisher (as elusive as ever as far as trying to get a picture)

I looked back and there was the Great Blue Heron again…seems to like that spot!

Heading back towards home there were a few more Mallard, another Heron, 1 female Common Merganser and 2 Killdeer – that is one of them in the above picture – the first Killdeer I’ve seen down there for a while.  Oh, and again, only 2 Bald Eagles.

There is a snowfall warning in effect for our area – will see if this one actually materializes…even if it does, warm wet weather is supposed to move in again for a day or two….