Spotted Sandpiper and more

Another beautiful sunny day!  Now it seems like spring. 

was sitting on the bench at the log bay…water levels have held steady the last day or so…

when suddenly one of the Spotted Sandpipers that I’ve been hearing, flew over our heads and landed on one of the floating bits of debris…

here is a closer look…

lots of bird activity…including the American Goldfinch – here a pair of them…female the lower..Goldfinch are late nesters…they won’t get down to business for some time yet.

All the species we saw yesterday were there again today…lot’s of various Warblers in the Willow trees…

had been hearing a lot of Orioles…then saw this bird fly down onto the fence…my first thought was a female Oriole, but then saw that it was a male Western Tanager…unfortunately couldn’t get a clear shot of it…

this male Bullock’s Oriole was up in one of the large cedar tree’s…the orioles seemed to be going back and forth from the evergreens to the deciduous trees.

while I was trying to get Tanager pictures, this male Rufous Hummingbird landed on a twig beside me…

in another area, excited chattering led to Bushtits…

a female Black-headed Grosbeak showed up…

and then a male.

There were lots of Evening Grosbeaks calling as well…just a typical busy spring day!

Should mention that earlier in the day I had been sitting out in my yard enjoying a cup of coffee in the sunshine when several Band Tail Pigeons exploded out of the large Broad leaf Maple they had been in, followed by an adult Bald Eagle that swooped down so low I could have almost touched it.  I don’t know if it was after the pigeons, or perhaps one of the many squirrels…there are several Eagle nests in the area and I guess there are hungry mouths that need feeding….

Finally….some sun!

Well it has been a few days since we’ve made it over to the park, so with the sun shining we set out.  First thing I noticed were all the dandelions going to seed in the vacant lots…figured there should be something interesting in there eating the seeds…and sure enough…

it didn’t take long to spot a Chipping Sparrow, amongst the White Crowned.  Didn’t manage a picture of today’s bird but this file photo was taken in the area back in 2006.  We usually see a few Chipping Sparrow each migration season as they head north and east,  The bright rust coloured crown is the defining characteristic.

headed along the trail and saw the Pacific Choke Cherry trees were starting to bloom..

here is a detail of the flower cluster.  There are a number of these trees located in Eagle Point park and the fruits they produce are another important food source for birds.

a bit further along, a White Crowned Sparrow at another dandelion…I’ve mentioned before how important this ‘weed’ is to birds…but it is also extremely important to another native – the Black Bear.  I’m surprised that there haven’t been any reports of Black Bear yet…but thought I’d throw in this picture of one that I took on Sunday on the way up to Manning Park…

 

although I am very happy to live in an area where Black Bears roam free I wouldn’t actually want to find myself this close to one…at least not while out on a walk!

Back to today, we reached the log bay, which is no longer a bay put part of the whole, and where there are no longer any logs visible…they are all under water.

there was lots of Swallow activity around these pilings, in fact both Tree Swallows and Barn Swallows were swooping past constantly.  Lots of bird activity all along the trail..

noticed this Gold Crown Sparrow…the ‘gold’ crown not visible in this shot

and then…a Flycatcher…again the problem…what kind?  I think the bill is too big for a Hammond’s, it was small…perhaps a Pacific Slope? I’ll settle on that, at least until someone corrects me!

they’ll be no fear of upsetting anyone by using this trail now….

the view from the viewing platform of what was the first bay…we’ve probably only got a few days left to actually even be able to get to the viewing platform..

there was all kinds of activity in this area…here an Orange Crowned Warbler – one of many…

here a female Yellow Rump Warbler – again one of many and I just noticed, a ‘myrtle’ rather than an ‘Audubon’.  There was also cautious activity at both the Bushtit nest and the site of the Black Cap Chickadee nest which tells me nesting is well under way…AND almost forgot to mention that while I was at the ‘log bay’ a pair of Wood Ducks flew past…

this file photo shows a male Wood Duck.  Wood Ducks have nested in the vicinity of the log bay for several years now.  I’m not sure just where as they are cavity nesters….meaning they nest quite high up in a hole in a tree.  They will also nest in special nesting boxes, but to my knowledge none have been put up in this area.

Will it ever stop!!

Will it ever stop?  I don’t mean the rising water….I mean the stuff coming down from the sky…rain, rain, and more rain…

First I’ll go back to yesterday where we did another run along Morris Valley Road…just for comparison as to where it was a week ago.  Notice too that there is a Saskatoon Bush in flower in the foreground.  Saskatoon’s are popular native shrubs in the dryer interior.  We don’t see that many growing wild around here, but obviously this one finds the edge of the road to it’s liking – which is good.  Birds love Saskatoon’s!

another look from further along the road…

and looking north.

Now back to today…I’m afraid we weren’t about to venture out for a long walk in this weather…just did a loop down to the boat launch, where the water is definitely creeping upwards..

there is the marker post, with the water only about 6 feet from it’s base now.

another look at the ‘lake’…this is from the furthest dry point you can get to..

and even that point won’t be dry for long…although it looks like it is all ‘land’  on that side…it isn’t….there is water right beside the path…

as for birds…could hear a few but primarily I think they were all sheltering from the rain.

more water, a rare migrant and Orioles

Two nice days in a row…a bit of a record this year!  Before I get to today I want to report the sighting of a rare (for our area) migrant that I saw yesterday as I was heading out for a lunch date….

a Western Kingbird!  I didn’t have a camera with me at the time but the bird was doing exactly what this one in one of my file pictures is doing…sitting on a fence wire.  Yesterday’s bird was right beside highway #7 just across the Harrison Bridge so definitely still within IBA BC033!  This added another species to the list – up to 169 now.

Made it over to the log bay today….you can see it was pretty windy…and also that the top log is well on it’s way to being submerged…

looking northwards….this view won’t change much now, except at the edges…it is just going to be water for the next 3 months or so.

ditto, looking this way, in fact I expect where I’m standing to be under water probably by the next time I make it over there.

likewise at the other end, I expect this will be the last view like this for some time.  I could hear a Spotted Sandpiper in this area but couldn’t see it…

Just before the battery in my camera died I spotted this male Bullock’s Oriole, one of several I heard down there….so this gives the opportunity to talk a bit about this favorite (at least for me) summertime visitor.

The first few years I lived here, we never saw an Oriole…then one summer, a neighbour was shocked to have one come to his hummingbird feeder.  The bird continued to come all season long, and then the next year, it returned…this time, with a mate.  The rest, as they say, is history!!  We now have quite the population of them.

The female Bullocks Oriole is pretty much all yellow…as this file photo (taken in my former backyard) shows…

for Orioles, raising a family is a ‘family’ affair!  Both parents work at building their hanging nests…they favor Poplar trees for these nests which are usually situated not as high up in the trees as you would expect.  Unlike most birds, the eggs don’t hatch all at the same time so the young don’t leave the nest all at the same time…that is when daddy takes over…as in the above picture…busy feeding this fledgling.

of course mom doesn’t get out of all the feeding chores….

in this series of pictures, taken in my former backyard…mom is busy preparing a wasp for the hungry youngster…

it isn’t just mom and dad that help raise the family…often the youngsters from the previous year will join in as they take 2 years to mature.  Unfortunately pictures I had of the ‘teenagers’ seem to be missing…this is another adult male at an Oriole feeder.

Orioles have a number of different calls that you will soon recognize, one of the calls is a rattling call similar to that of the Steller’s Jay but in a lower register.

Raccoon

Took a day off from my usual routine to go out for lunch with friend, so didn’t think I’d have anything to report today…but as usual, it is a rare day when something interesting doesn’t happen….

will start with a view of the boat launch…water levels have really come up over night…the lower section of this path is now completely underwater…you can see today was a much nicer day in the weather department!

but what was really surprising was spotting this Raccoon in our yard during daylight hours.  Raccoon are very common in the estuary area, but actually seeing one isn’t quite so common.

We think this must be one of last years young…mom probably has a new family and he is now out on his own…

of course the rising water is also pushing the creatures that were used to being able to roam all over the ‘flats’, into a more concentrated area.  This guy was not terribly perturbed, taking time out to do some grooming while I tried to find the right angle to get some pictures….

Wet walk

Well after a slight miscalculation on my part…today’s was a very wet walk.  As we set out there were only light showers and the clouds appeared to be rising and breaking up…wrong!  it was just reloading!

our path is under there somewhere!

thought the Beaver might be out and about in the wet dull weather…

obviously he had been, from this bit of his handiwork laying in the path…this area will soon be in accessible so the Beaver will have it all to themselves for a month or two or three…will be interesting to see what they create or how much they change it.  This was quite a large Willow Branch…food? or a potential lodge?

over at the log bay the rising water is obvious, that next log is almost under water now…

did a quick scan of this shoreline hoping for that Spotted Sandpiper – nothing…in fact except for hearing various calls, there just wasn’t much of anything in sight.  A pair of Geese flew over and I saw a Red Tail Hawk…there was something white way over at that point of land but think it was a floating pail…with the rising water we get all sorts of debris…

One last look and we made our dripping way home.  The good news – the torrential downpour didn’t start until we got in the door and continues as I post this!