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Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Swans beat us there!

Had to go past Harrison Bay on our way to a number of appointments today and what was out on the bay but a whole bunch of swans...presumably Trumpeters but could be Tundra too - which ever they are they beat us as we won't be arriving on the shores of the bay until tomorrow.   I'll try to get pictures then....water levels right now are so low that birds as large as swans are quite a ways off shore.

Should also mention, because I keep forgetting too - that there are a number of Anna's Hummingbirds still around.  I haven't seen any but a neighbour has at least one male and one female coming to her feeder.  She plans to rig up a heat source for winter feeding.

Didn't get a chance to go for a walk today so no pictures, but it was another sunny day around here.

Monday, October 28, 2013

Blustery day

The sun continues to shine but today it was accompanied by some fairly strong winds coming out of the interior.  Winds like this are common in winter and are often a sign that cold weather is on it's way.


With the wind there was no sign of any little birds...but there sure were gulls out there....


lots of gulls....pretty much all Glaucous-wing Gulls.  Glaucous-wing don't have any black on them at all.  there are also a lot of Mew Gulls around but don't see any in this particular photo.


quite the feast out there right now!  Of course there were also eagles around but you had to look up....way up....


to see Bald Eagles today....some were so high up they were barely visible....


occasionally a few would dip down lower and I swear there were a few that were just having a wonderful time harassing a flock of ducks that could never settle long enough for me to even ID.  The eagles do hunt ducks when the supply of salmon is gone, but right now any eagle flying over low enough to see had such a full crop it was a wonder they could even fly!  Which brings us to this item....


these educational signs are now appearing in the area

Friday, October 25, 2013

An 'Eagle' sort of day...

A change in the weather brought low misty cloud


went for a walk earlier than usual, there were a number of Northwestern Crows down feeding with this Bald Eagle.


The cloud was right down on the flats.


you can see how little water is out there....that poor fish struggled and struggled...I don't know if it managed to get any further along or not.


at our usual walk time, the cloud had lifted a big....the pair of Common Raven were perched out there rather than flying around over head like they have been recently... and everywhere you looked...


there were perched Bald Eagles.  That is the most I've seen in the 'eagle' tree so far this year.


the interesting thing is that the majority of them are juveniles!


the bird on the far left looks like a 4 year old but the rest are youngsters 


I could see there were birds perched in trees all the way along the foreshore for as far as you can see....didn't walk too far as I didn't want to disturb them.  This early in the season, the young birds especially are quite flighty....later they will get used to the usual traffic flow and become more tolerant as long as people stick to the trails and don't do anything out of the ordinary.


you can see there were lot of eagles out there on the flats as well!

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Meadowlarks!

Today was promising to be a carbon copy of the last few days....lots of sunshine, some eagles flying around over head...as we were heading to the 'first bay' a couple of birds flew past, coming from the direction of the estuary, then five or six more flew over...their body shape was reminiscent of a European Starling, but they didn't sound like starlings....fortunately they stopped briefly in the very top of the two 'eagle trees'...still in silhouette I aimed the camera and hoped for the best....


and it worked.....they were Western Meadowlarks!  Of course this isn't the first time meadowlarks have been seen here,  I think they are probably quite common in mild winters out on the 'flats'...but it is always nice to see that they are still coming by!


over at the log bay there is less and less water and more and more Salmon, in fact haven't seen this many for a while - it is even starting to smell a bit 'fishy', which is a very good thing - it means there are lots of them returning to the area.  When we first moved to this area, close to 20 years ago there were days when you opened the door and didn't really want to breath it was so fishy....


This Northwestern Crow was perched in one of the poplar trees....at least I think it is a crow...I don't usually have a problem ID'ing them but.... it does seem strange for a crow to be perched all by itself, usually they are in groups...there was a pair of Ravens flying around over head...oh well, it was one or the other!


there was a lot of bird activity near the viewing platform - all in deep shade!  Saw a number of Towhees and Gold-crowned Kinglets have shown up.  Could hear Black-capped Chickadees and as I was maneuvering to try and to get a better angle of a lone Robin....this Red-breasted Sapsucker landed right in front of me, and I could hear another one back in the bushes on the other side of the trail.


and of course there were a few Bald Eagles around, including this guy perched right against the sun in the 'eagle' tree.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Pretty much like yesterday

No pictures today.  It looked pretty much exactly like yesterday.  When we set out there were somewhere between 60 and 70 Bald Eagles soaring overhead.  Taking a picture never works....they just look like little black dots and you can never get them all.  At the spot where the Bald Eagle was eating the salmon yesterday, there were several Raven.  I was about to take a picture when 3 fishermen walked down to the point by the first bay and started to walk across the little trickle of water - no problem with that, fishing is allowed out on the estuary - but was it really necessary for one of them to set off what must have been some sort of fireworks!  Every bird in the place, including all the gulls out on the flats took off....the gulls just sort of lifted, flew around for a minute or two and then settled again, but that was the last I saw of the Ravens.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Quiet day

A really beautiful day...perhaps too beautiful...inclement weather is always better for birding it seems...


of course it is never completely 'quiet' - stop and listen this time of the year and there is always the constant calling of gulls in the background, accompanied by the occasional crow and raven and of course the eagles...


there were a couple of Great Blue Heron out there today, look at the water though...it is becoming just a trickle ....two weeks without rain will do that.


there was one little spot of drama....the juvenile Bald Eagle on the left was attempting to defend his find....a little hardheartedly...


the adult then took over....here it was vocally daring another eagle that was flying over head to come near it's prize....


and then he settled in for a late lunch....it was so quiet that you could actually hear the flesh ripping every time it took another bite!

Monday, October 21, 2013

Thicker fog today

Yesterday's fog returned over night and lingered longer today.


but by the time we set out just after lunch, the last of it was dissipating.


We (my dog and I) made it over to the log bay...Spotted Towhees, Robins, Steller's Jays and more of those annoying little Pacific Wrens were all along the trail.  Those black specks in this picture are Northwestern Crows.  I mentioned yesterday about the numbers of them we had seen on Nicomen Island yesterday, well today there was a constant stream of crows at the estuary.  Crows of course are always found here at this time of the year, but it isn't often we see them quite like this.  


nearer at hand there were a number of ducks, all Mallards from what I could see, various gulls and in the middle of it all...the spawning salmon.


also one of those Greater Yellow-legs Sandpipers.

The whole time we'd been walking Bald Eagles flew over, most heading from the gravel bars to various trees at the estuary edge and on the hillside.


here are a couple of adults in the eagle tree by the viewing platform....


and another one further down...


then a juvenile flew in...unfortunately, even though the bird was obliging, the sun wasn't in the best place for getting a crisp photo.

As we headed towards home I had been thinking that I hadn't noticed any Killdeer, despite hearing some earlier in the morning...  About then my dog did one of her, 'I'm going to sit here and watch routines'....I was madly trying to figure out what she had spotted - she usually does this when she wants to watch geese or ducks or salmon....


and then I spotted them....a couple of Killdeer right in front of us!  (only one in this photo).  Once I'd convinced her (the dog) it was OK to move on we headed towards home where the trees and bushes along our boat launch were absolutely alive with...


Black-capped Chickadees.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Found by the fog....

This morning, the fog that people closer to the coast have been coping with, finally found it's way out to the estuary....


I actually like fog, you can get some interesting photos sometimes....this morning it wasn't very thick, just sort of misty...here we have the 'first bay' where there were quite a few spawning salmon....


there was a lot of activity out on the flats!  This just shows one small section.


here is another section....gulls galore!  Several times I'm pretty sure I heard some Sandhill Cranes out there too.....Sandhills do occasionally show up here but it is years since I've actually seen one so I could get a shot to actually prove it!


made it over to the log bay for the first time in a while....shocking how low the water is...and a reminder that even though it is dry now, Salmon were spawning in there so there are now salmon eggs in the gravel that can be destroyed by people walking on them....so stay up on the paths.


another illustration of why everyone should stay on the trails...when I headed out there were Mallards and those Greater Yellow-legs Sandpipers happily poking about in the shallows...when I returned they were no where in sight...why? because someone decided they had to walk along the foreshore.


fortunately this Bald Eagle that was further up, had been left undisturbed to finish his breakfast.


It didn't take long for the fog to dissipate....this is looking across to the far end of the estuary.... 


a short time later we had to head into town and did a quick drive down to the end of the estuary...fogs all gone now!  Should mention the activity this morning wasn't all out on the flats...Robins, Song Sparrows, Steller's Jays, Starlings and Juncos were all over this morning, also lots of Pacific Wrens....seem to more Wrens this year than usual but so far I haven't been able to capture one (with a camera of course!).  And wanted to mention that on our way home this morning, from the time we left Mission until almost Deroche there was a steady stream of crows....thousands of them all across Nicomen Island...have never seen anything like it!

Friday, October 18, 2013

Disturbing incident

Anyone who has followed this blog for a while knows that unfortunately, what is witnessed down at the estuary, isn't always good and often involves dogs, or to be more correct, irresponsible dog owners.  I am a dog owner myself and I have often argued, and am living proof from the photos in this blog, that it is entirely possible to walk a dog in a sensitive habitat and not cause any disturbance....it just requires some common sense, a bit of training and a thing called a 'leash!'

This afternoon I was at first frustrated when I witnessed a dog owner with two dogs running loose all along the foreshore and in the water where we all know the salmon are now spawning, I was then infuriated when this same owner started urging one of the dogs to 'get the fish', there was much shouting as the dog was worked up into a frenzy attempting to 'get the fish'.  How can someone be so irresponsible!  I was so disgusted I just turned around and went back home - there would be nothing to see anyway.

Now to the good news....it was late in the afternoon when we made another walk attempt....


you can see the beautiful weather continues, we've seen none of the fog that they are getting closer to the coast.  You can't make it out in this photo but there were all kinds of gulls on those ever growing gravel bars out there.


with the disturbance no longer happening along the foreshore, the birds were coming back...this was one of a number of Killdeer....


a few were snoozing in the last rays of sunshine.


a pair of, I think 'Greater' yellow-legs Sandpiper were running around....


and a Great Blue Heron was happily fishing....a Wilson's Snipe flew past as I took this picture.  The sun was already behind the mountain....


so this is a lousy picture but shows that the Bald Eagles were active and feeding on spawned out salmon...I didn't want to disturb the heron by going closer for a better angle!

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Beautiful days....

Well aren't we having a wonderful stretch of weather!  For various reasons didn't get down to the estuary until late this afternoon....


as I approached the area I could hear shorebirds....so I was madly scanning the far shore for any sign or movement...


then I realized they weren't on the far shore - they were right there....Killdeer - at least 6 in this picture.


here is a closer look at a couple of them.  


a Great Blue Heron was busy fishing just off shore.  There were some Green-wing Teal poking along the edge of the water and some Mallard sleeping on the shore.  Also on the shore...


a couple of Northwestern Crows eating a fish while a gull looked on.


The water levels have really dropped again over the last few days.  This is the 'first bay' and there were a number of Chum Salmon spawning in there.  Eagles were flying back and forth....


This juvenile, one of several Bald Eagles perched in various trees.  As for small birds, could hear lots of Chickadees, a flicker and a woodpecker (I think that Hairy  that has been hanging around)...were pretty much it.