Sitemeter

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Snipes

What a beautiful day!


Got down to the estuary fairly early...water levels continue to drop...


a Great Blue Heron was fishing across from the boat launch and I could hear a shorebird of some sort....


finally spotted a Killdeer on the shore.  Headed across the grasslands toward the first bay, 


some tap, tap, tapping lead to spotting this male Hairy Woodpecker....seems he has taken up residence as I see or hear him pretty much every time I go down there.  No sign of any Salmon in the first bay today but my husband continued on to the log bay and he said there were 5 or 6 there.


wandered down to the point and in this area spotted not one...


not two....


but a total of 7 Wilson's Snipe! and no you aren't crazy, there is only one in each of these pictures.  The problem with snipe is that you don't usually see them until they fly!


back on land, there were a couple of Bald Eagles in the 'eagle tree' by the viewing platform...they stay pretty hidden in foliage at this stage....by the way, eagles were very vocal in the area today but not many visible at a time, most are over by the Harrison River as that is where the main run of Salmon are at this stage.


still lots of American Robins in those Choke Cherry bushes...along with a few other species...


today that included this female Purple Finch!  

There was no sign of those Swans today.  I checked local sites again and still no mention of any swans, however my daughter on Vancouver Island said that on Friday she saw 10 or 12 swans flying in the Comox Valley and she too was surprised at how early it was to be seeing swans, so maybe they were early arriving Trumpeters or Tundras.  If they were Mute as I thought yesterday, they would be yet another species for our area....maybe they'll show up again.  There were lots of geese and assorted ducks but all way out off of the ever emerging gravel bars.


No comments:

Post a Comment