Return of winter

 Here we are, almost the last day of the month.....and winter has come back with a vengeance.

this is the way the estuary looked yesterday after more than a foot of snow fell in the previous 24 hours.  

Nevertheless there was a fair bit of activity including....

a few Trumpeter Swans and Mallards

a Great Blue Heron on the prowl....

and even a Northern Shrike!

Prior to the snow's arrival, things have been pretty much the same....

with large numbers of mainly Cackling Geese in the fields...

and Canada's as well.

there has been activity at all of the Bald Eagle nests....no one settling down for nesting yet.

Today....

the American Robins that have been around in large numbers pretty much all winter, were eating the berries of the holly trees...

out in the fields there were large numbers of Trumpeter Swans and Northern Pintails, along with some geese....Cackler's I think.

also saw a small flock of these little guys - Golden Crowned Kinglets.

One more day and it will be March....I expect once this current weather pattern breaks, signs of spring will happen quickly.

Long month.....

 February may have the least number of days of any month, but somehow it feels like the longest month of the year!  I guess because we know that spring is right around the corner and we can't wait for it to get here.

There just hasn't been a lot happening.  We've had some nice sunny days....

Other's not so nice but no snow....at least so far.

Some days there have been hundreds of Canada and Cackling Geese, other days none, partly due to Goose hunting opening for a month.

in the last week or so, there have been a large number of Northern Pintail, sometimes in the fields and sometimes out on the river.

it would normally be considered a sign of spring, but American Robin's have been hanging around all winter, although they are being seen more frequently now.

Downy Woodpeckers have been quite active, seen almost every day

and Great Blue Heron are seen regularly....

the fact that we are seeing Canada Geese on pilings, checking for nesting sites, is a definite sign that spring is coming....

as are the Pussy Willows that are starting to show up....now we need a dandelion to flower!

Ground Hog Day

 February 2nd, not only Ground Hog Day but also world Wet lands day.  We don't have any ground hogs around here, but we do have wetlands....

and this morning, they were still a little 'white' from the snow we had a couple of days ago.

the Red-wing Blackbirds calling though, predicted an early spring - at least it sure sounded that way.

over at Harrison Bay....the beach didn't look very spring like.....

but look the other way and the fields are greening up and full of very restless Canada and Cackling Geese

a Northern Flicker was down foraging on the ground...

as were European Starlings....but the real 'sign of spring'

were the American Robins!  Mind you it has been a strange year for robins.  Normally we don't expect to see them until towards the end of February but this past winter, they haven't really left, in fact the Christmas Bird Count for the area counted a record setting 575!  It will be interesting to see if we get another influx of them at the usual time, or if this is it.  

Woodpeckers have been quite active as well, especially the little Downy Woodpeckers.

while yesterday it was a Pileated that was busy working at the top of one of the broken off trees.

One thing for sure, spring will come....we just have to wait and see how quickly!

One month down

 With the last day of January, we were reminded that winter isn't finished with us, in fact we are barely half way through!

it was snowing lightly.....

yet the Red-wing Blackbirds made it sound like spring.

in the afternoon we walked over at Harrison Bay, and spotted....

a Peregrine Falcon - based on the colouring, a young one.

there were a lot of American Wigeon, but a few Eurasian as well.  Eurasian have a rust coloured head with a yellow stripe - there is one right at the back of this bunch and another right at the left.

there were Canada Geese scattered all over.  This one was with a couple of Northern Pintails and a Mallard.

It has actually been quite quiet for birds the last little while...

although while exploring the new trail system the other day, we came across

another American Dipper, but even more exciting was the spotting of .....

a Bobcat!

there are still Bald Eagles around, more young ones than adults these days.  The resident pairs are all hanging out close to their nests.

January moving along

 January is moving along rapidly!  It has been a pretty quiet, yet typical month.  Most days are kind of grey and cloudy, a few have been really wet, but most days we've been able to get out.

this is pretty typical of the weather, although right now the mountain tops are sporting fresh snow again.

There are still some Bald Eagles in the area, more young ones than adults

although there has been activity at all 3 of the visible nests.

Great Blue Heron are gathering in larger numbers, something they seem to do this time of the year before they head off to start nest building in another 6 weeks or so.

There hasn't been much variety in he waterfowl.  Mainly just Mallards and not even that many of them.

Song birds have been very quiet and sparse....

although we are still seeing some Robins, in fact some days we've seen quite a few of them.

Eurasian Collared Doves seem to be gathering together now as well.

Anna's Hummingbird males seem to be back out staking out territories.  Females are most likely nesting now.

One, not so common sighting...

was of a Northern Shrike.

What we are seeing quite regularly are members of the woodpecker family....

especially the little Downy Woodpeckers - there seem to be a lot of them around right now.

at the other end of the size factor is the large Pileated Woodpecker, also seen fairly often.

a hopeful sign today that the season is moving along, was this Song Sparrow, up and staking territory.

Speaking of 'territory', thanks to a new trail system under construction, we have been exploring another section of the IBA/WMA

called the Chehalis Fishing Trail, it follows the Chehalis River..

Chehalis River viewpoint

at the present time this is the turn around point (Coho Salmon in the water), but plans are for a bridge at this point so the trail will continue on...

seen along the way, an American Dipper swimming - I've seen them wading under water before, but never swimming on the surface.

Sounds like we may get a return to winter in the next week or so, we shall see how it goes.