Yet another wet day…

We are sure paying for those 3 dry months we had back in the summer!  A couple of times today it has brightened just enough to give a glimmer of hope ~ and then it settles back to rain….

the first thing noticed today was this….a sign has once more been placed in the middle of the path at a point which to me at least is completely illogical.

that is what it says and I’ve looked up the bylaw which is pages long but basically seems to say ‘if we put a sign up you have to obey it’.  What makes the habitat on one side of the sign different from that on the other side of the sign, must be beyond my comprehension.

looking, but not venturing past the sign, I could see that Bald Eagles were perched all along the foreshore of the park.

there were also large numbers of Red-wing Blackbirds in the area of the first bay…

Fortunately, I had taken this picture in my own yard earlier in the day, to show a closer view of one of the Black-birds.

I could see in the distance that this and every piling also sported a Bald Eagle on it and they were scattered over the flats.  No sign of any swans though which seems strange as they had been constantly with us up to the weekend, perhaps they are all down off of the park which I will get to again one of these days if it ever stops raining.

another view of the very wet flats area, some Mallard in the foreground and some Green-wing Teal along the far side of the water.  Also a few Gadwall and one lone Bufflehead were down there today.

some of the other birds braving the wet weather are the Song Sparrow…

Dark-eyed Junco, and Towhee, Varied Thrush, Steller’s Jay, Chestnut backed Chickadees and Red-breasted Nuthatch.

this fellow was perched up in one of the large fir trees in our complex and based on the numbers of white feathers in the general vicinity I’m wondering if he was digesting a meal of ‘gull’! 

Just plain miserable

The last few days have been just plain miserable.  Cold, but not quite cold enough for snow, which would at least be pretty, and very very wet with dense low cloud…

that is pretty much what it looks like and there just wasn’t much of anything visible.  No swans in sight and only a few eagles perched in a few perimeter trees.  Very uninspiring to say the least!

Miserable day!

What a miserable wet,cold day today was.  If I wasn’t a dog owner I never would have ventured out for a walk…as it was, it was a very quick one.

through the almost solid sheet of rain could see that there were a fair number of eagles out on the flats, and lots of swans all along the foreshore.

the ‘eagle trees’ over there at the northern edge of the park were also quite well populated.

the swans today all appeared to be Trumpeter Swans…including this family with 3 young ones that were settling down for a nap in this spot.

others were feeding right off of where we stood.  Trumpeters eat aquatic vegetation and you can see from the surface, there is a good bed of vegetation here…

this one was feeding in what must be a deeper spot, a couple of pairs of Gadwall were keeping him company…

and we’ll end off with another trio. 

Productive quick visit

A good part of today was spent at a meeting with concerned parties looking to see how we can go about educating the public to lessen the amount of pressure being put on the birds and other wildlife of the estuary.  A plan of action was initiated and developments will be posted as they happen…

All of this is leading up to the fact that I was later getting for my shortened walk (the path issue was not solved or even touched on)…

but what was immediately noticeable is that it was primarily a ‘white’ day.  There were some eagles out there, but close in, it was gulls and swans…

and what is really noticeable this year are the number of Tundra Swans.  This is a family with 2 young ones….never before have I seen Tundra Swans right down in this area which is our boat launch.

notice the amount of yellow on the bill of the closest adult – according to my Sibley’s bird book, this is the maximum amount of yellow you can expect to see….if there is more than this, then you are getting into the much rarer Eurasian ‘Berwick's’ Swan or even the again much rarer, Whooping Swan.

in this picture, the back bird is a Trumpeter Swan….

So after standing and watching the swans for a while we headed back towards home, only to find that the short area of riparian habitat was absolutely alive with…

Brown Creeper….

Chestnut backed Chickadees…

Golden-crowned Kinglets….and Bush Tits and who knew what else because it was at this point that someone decided to come and just stand there, so we did a loop of the complex and returned to the boat launch only to find that swans had nearly all disappeared or at least moved further along…

but a Bald Eagle was now busy enjoying a salmon lunch right at the foot of the boat launch…

Now, because photographers trying to ‘get closer’ is one of the major problems that has been encountered this year I am going to state it now, and no doubt over and over and over in months to come….none of the birds in this entry were disturbed by these pictures being taken.  All photos were taken with a small hand held camera with the equivalent of 800mm lens (in other words, no big threatening tripods or lens).  The photos were taken from a good distance, in the case of the swans, because both myself and my dog remained quiet and still in one spot, so the swans actually swam towards us allowing for the good close shots.  In the case of the eagle a careful eye was kept on the bird, if he stopped eating, we stopped until he was settled and eating again and we never progressed to the point where he showed stress, we simply took some pictures and then quietly retreated.

so we’ll end with the same eagle and his yummy mouthful!

Waves of weather!

My goodness what a strange day!  About the only weather we haven’t experienced today is snow.

Thanks to yesterday’s discussion with district personal, and my now much smaller area for viewing….and knowing that birds don’t stay in one place for very long, I felt the best line of action is to visit the ‘allowed’ area more frequently…

so when the rain let up, I did my first visit of the day….it was very busy with Swans, Bald Eagles and miscellaneous ducks all in quite close..

There was a lot of Bald Eagle activity…you can see the river was really choppy as it was quite windy.

by the time our normal walk time arrived – it was raining – the swans were still there but the numbers of eagles seemed to have decreased…

a couple of alder trees were covered in flocks of Pine Siskin.  I was hoping to spot a Common Redpoll among them but it was so wet and dark it was impossible to see…I think, when I really zoom this up, there is one, but couldn’t swear to it.

here is a more detailed look at some of their antics as they feed on the tiny seeds of the alder cones.

had only just got home when the sun came out, so grabbed the binoculars and went back in hopes that the Siskin might still be there, but of course they weren’t, so took some pictures of the Swans in the sunshine….I’m pretty sure these were Trumpeter Swans, although the fellow to the left has me confused!  I could hear all kinds of Tundra Swans down off of where the log bay is, but couldn’t see them from my location.

these two little female Bufflehead were also there…

and a pair of the Gadwall were close enough for a sun lit picture…now, as I post this….it is absolutely pouring again!

December dilemma….

A new month, a new dilemma….but lets start with the fact that it finally stopped raining!

all that rain has, of course, brought water levels up a bit…

It was nice and quiet (as in no people) when we started out, so there were a number of Bald Eagles lining the near shore….

and a number of Trumpeter Swans right in close as well.

now we get to the ‘dilemma’ part.  This, of course, is the view from the area of the path that gets blocked, then unblocked, and blocked…today it was once again ‘unblocked’ BUT the question is who blocked it?  Because I spent a considerable amount of time talking to parks staff and it wasn’t them….but of course the whole issue of the path across the grasslands was again raised….of even more concern now that it appears in recent weeks that more than one path is being created.  I was told today that there are official letters from Fisheries, among others, saying that this path is not to be used.  If that is indeed the case, then I would be the first to stop using it as protecting the environment has to be the top priority.  To that end I have promised to, at least for the time being, cease walking the ‘forbidden’ path – so this is the last view of this area you will see for the foreseeable future.

this Hairy Woodpecker was working on a log in the ‘forbidden zone’ today…

and speaking of ‘hairy’, just walking the path at the park can be down right ‘hairy’ with some of the situations you meet – today being one of them.  Nobody doing anything ‘wrong’, just not the nice peaceful place it used to be.

Gulls were extremely vocal today….the little pond, and I guess a bit of an outlet from it, was just packed with gulls…

here is a close look at some of them.  I think there are at least one, if not two, Western/Glaucous Wing crosses among them. (darker bird right in middle and one on extreme right)

more gulls further out, along with this group of swans, these ones being Tundra Swans….and a few Mallard in the foreground.

last, but certainly not least, this adult Bald Eagle was having a good stretch…

Dreary end to the month

The month of November is ending on a dreary note, partly due to the weather…

but more so to events witnessed during the month.  This should have been a month celebrating the natural phenomenon of the eagles arriving at the estuary to feed on the returning salmon. The eagles and the salmon arrived right on schedule but so did the people, in numbers we haven’t seen before.  This wouldn’t be so bad if all persons were respectful of the birds, the fish and the habitat as a whole.  Unfortunately, over and over again we witnessed that not being the case.

How is it all right to allow your children to splash in the water and throw stones at the spawning salmon, or to let your dog splash in the water among the fish, or probably worst of all….wade along in the water with a video camera filming the salmon as they fled in front of you!   How is it all right to stand and shout at a bird to try and get it to fly so you can get a picture?, or to tromp across the habitat to get to the waters edge so you can get ‘closer’ to a feeding bird….thus interrupting the birds meal and causing it to fly off, let alone the damage being done to the shore where salmon eggs have most probably already been laid, and disturbing any wildlife sheltering in what should be undisturbed habitat.  It was reported to me recently that at one point 30 people were lined up along an area of shoreline where no one should have been.

Then there is the issues of canoes and kayaks that have been mentioned earlier in the month.  Thankfully, it was witnessed yesterday that after being contacted, one of the local canoeing groups, honored the 100 meter space that it is suggested be left between the water craft and the birds.

In response to all the issues raised and witnessed during this past month, meetings have all ready been called to see what can be done to make sure that in future years the pressure on the area is lessened.