Sunshine and Swans

Finally a sunny day!

I have to mention that this morning when I went out to fill my feeders I heard Swans heading north.  By the time I grabbed my camera they were too far away.  You can always tell when they are leaving as they call the whole time and are very high up.  When they are just moving about the valley they fly quite low and are usually quiet, at least until they land.  When they are on migration it is like they are so excited to finally be under way that they can hardly contain themselves.

There wasn’t a lot in the way of birds today, especially ducks, although there was one pair of Canada Geese….did see quite a few Spotted Towhee like this guy that was up ‘trilling’ in a tree….

and this female sunning herself on a log – in fact just sitting and soaking up the rays seemed to be the activity of choice today…

this Fox Sparrow was doing the same thing and can’t say as I blame them….I did a fair bit of it myself.  Unfortunately, even though tomorrow is the first official day of spring….we have another ‘s’ word in the forecast – let’s hope they are wrong!

A breath of fresh air….

I don’t often go for a walk over to the park on weekends, especially when the weather has taken a turn for the better, but this afternoon I just felt like I needed a breath of fresh air, so headed out with camera and for a change, no dog and was pleasantly surprised at the amount of birds and complete lack of people!

First to be encountered were a number of sparrows, there were a pair of Fox Sparrow (one only in the picture), as well as some Song Sparrows…

They were busy eating the tiny seeds of the Hardhack bushes…and since the Fox Sparrow were most co-operative and will be leaving soon – we’ll concentrate on them.

lot’s of Dark-eyed Junco as well – the ground seemed to be hopping with them the entire length of the trail….

the area of the log bay was a busy place….a Great Blue Heron out there…

he looked at me….

and then went back to intently peering at something – have no idea what!

House Finch were coming down for baths…here a female

next a male….

Steller’s Jay were busy too, not exactly sure what they were doing.

had been hearing a Northern Flicker calling and finally spotted him on one of the pilings….

seemed to be busy working on this excavation…not sure if just getting bugs or if this might be a potential nesting site…would be great if it was as it would be an easy place to keep track off…

I don’t come down to where I can see into this bay very often…but thought I’d take a peek today and I see that it looks like the Beavers have been busy rebuilding a lodge in the back corner.  There used to be a beaver lodge back there but it had been torn apart the last few years.  Hopefully it will be left alone now.

heading back towards home, here is the Flicker from a different angle..

and one last shot of him….

Black-capped Chickadee were busy as well.

loved this little guy hanging right upside down!  By the way, I noticed that some of the buds on the Salmon berry bushes are showing colour today.  Hummingbirds should be showing up almost any time once that happens, in fact I thought I heard one again today but couldn’t spot it if it was there. I’ve got my feeder out just in case and I see a few others out as well.  It has become a bit of a contest to see who attracts the first hummer of the season.

Today the only ‘spring time’ birds I saw were the American Robins like this guy.  A few Yellow-rump Warblers have been spotted in the valley, along with a few Mountain Bluebirds so pretty soon we should be seeing some migrants.

Merganser sort of day

Had hoped that today would be nice and sunny as promised, it was trying not having much success…

I noticed right at the mouth of the first bay…

a bunch of Hooded Merganser…continued our walk over to the log bay where I could hear a Killdeer but didn’t spot it until it flew.  There was one pair of Geese at the edge of the sedges, and the usual little birds, mainly Black Capped Chickadees today, also lots of Varied Thrush and a few Robins…

back at the other end there was a male Common Merganser with a ‘harem’, the were sitting in the shallows preening their feathers…

a little flock of Green-wing Teal were busy in another spot…

while we were watching the Teal the little flock of Hoodies decided to do a ‘swim by’

so since they are one of my favorite ducks, I’ll post a few pictures…

and that was pretty much it for the day.  I’ve heard that there are Mountain Bluebirds showing up in the valley so will have to keep eyes open in case any decide to veer over this way.

Northern Saw-whet Owl!

Finally, with a bit of a break in the weather, today promised to be a good day…I just didn’t know then how good it would be!

we set off and first of all, before we even got to this point, noticed the bushes were absolutely alive with birds – I think everyone was as happy as we were to not be getting snowed or rained on!  There were a number of ducks in this area…

including quite a few Green-wing Teal…and since they didn’t immediately fly – I took their picture.

and also a Great Blue Heron – this one an adult, you can tell by the feather fringe – the heron that has been around the most, recently is one of last years young.

and because the Picasa program that I use for editing my pictures has upgraded itself with a whole bunch of nifty options and because it gets boring taking (and no doubt looking at) the same pictures day after day…I’m going to start throwing in some variations…like this one.

continuing on, the whole length of the trail was busy with all sorts of little birds, including lots of Black-capped Chickadees

at the log bay there was a pair of Canada Geese (another of those photo options)

and American Robins…some, like this guy down on the foreshore..

and others up in the bushes.

not many Red-wing Blackbirds around today but this guy was making the weirdest calls!

House Finch were singing (this one a female)

started heading back and all of a sudden I could hear Steller’s Jay’s mobbing….they were coming from every direction!

and when Steller’s Jay’s mob, that means there is a little owl around and sure enough – there is the owl.  I had thought at first it would be a Northern Pygmy Owl

but no! the little guy was a Northern Saw-whet Owl!!!  The first one I have ever seen here, although I have heard that other people have seen them.  This picture shows the size in comparison to a Steller’s Jay.

here the poor little guy has his beak open trying to defend himself against the screaming hoard of 30 or 40 jays…

and here is a great picture of the little guy before the jays drove him off. 

This makes 178 recorded species for the area.

Oh no! Snow?

This is becoming so not funny!  Here we are almost the middle of March and we’ve had some snow every day for at least 3 days now and this afternoon it is getting quite serious with everything turning white.

Despite the inclement weather there were several pairs of Canada Geese spread along the foreshore – all being quite vocal.

the only bird visible at the log bay was a Robin out on the gravel (not in the picture)

back at the first bay,

a Great Blue Heron…

and also a Killdeer – I’ve mentioned hearing them for the last while, today wouldn’t have been the day I would have expected to see one.  There were some Gold-crowned Kinglets around and I think House Finch singing at the log bay but everybody was so tucked down in the bushes that you couldn’t really see them.

Going backwards?

Seems like this season is going backwards instead of forward…

snow low down on all the surrounding hills….in fact woke to snow right here at ground level this morning – thankfully it didn’t last…

The Great Blue Heron was huddled in the grass today – snow pellets were landing on him at this point…

despite the dismal weather, there were Robins from one end of the park to the other and you could hear them calling from every direction.  At one point 17 of them flew over with no diminishment in the numbers of them calling.  A Northern Flicker was also calling and there were Gold-crowned Kinglets in the bushes, but not a lot else.