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Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Oh so quiet!

I really can’t remember another year like this one!  It is so quiet, bird wise it is almost scary…I also don’t remember seeing as many sick birds as I’ve seen this year…Evening Grosbeaks and Purple Finch in particular, or so few Swallows…numerous people have commented on how few Swallows there are around, of all species…but then I don’t ever recall a year like this with the water levels either…

falling water on the 11th.

over the past weekend, water levels dropped substantially ~ I can’t tell you how much in relation to the marker post, because someone who can’t steer straight ran the post over on the weekend and it is now laying submerged in water…but yesterday, I could walk part way down the upper part of the trail…

rising water on the 12th

and today, the water is once more rising and filling in the path…all this caused by events 500 or even a thousand miles away where unprecedented rainfalls have caused rivers in the north eastern part of our province to raise, ultimately all this water ending up in the Fraser River, and thus past us….

Yesterday it was dry

Yesterday, this parking area was bone dry…

Little fishes

Today, there are little fishes swimming on it again!  So where does that leave the birds?  Well in 3 weeks or so, shorebird migration should be under way…unless water levels start to drop quickly,with no ‘shore’  they won’t be stopping here!  The chattering of the Orioles is no more, obviously the family at the boat launch have now left the nest and moved on…if I really listened I could hear a few in another area.  The numbers of Hummingbirds has decreased dramatically as well, whether they are just now sitting on eggs or if they’ve moved on to those alpine or at least sub-alpine meadows as they gradually emerge from the snow cover…I don’t know. 

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