Tag Archives: birds

Reblogs

Puffins! Puffins! Puffins!

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We are so excited to see so many Puffins on the rocks in Elliston, Newfoundland. The Puffins spend most of its life at sea, covering a wide swath of …

Puffins! Puffins! Puffins!

This interesting and lovely post from 100 Country Trek has wonderful puffin pictures. They are totally adorable, so please take a look at the rest of the post to see them. Cheers.

musings, nature, Photography

An Early Walk

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We have some very hot temperatures right now, so it’s important to go walking in the cooler morning hours. Penticton has many trails and paths from which to choose and with varying degrees of difficulty. Even in the morning, it was already quite warm and so we decided to take our time.

A view from a trail above Penticton

At one point, we were accosted by a gaggle of ducks and pigeons who were expecting handouts. This group is seriously used to interacting with humans.

This is a stick-up!

It might be 40C (104F), but really, I prefer the heat over -40C (-40F). I have one more subarctic winter to go before returning permanently to Penticton where my time will be mostly my own!

nature, Photography

Little Quail

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Quail are ubiquitous here in the Okanagan Valley. I often see them racing around, their cute little comma-shaped head feathers arriving ahead of them.

The male is on the left and the female on the right.

Although they can fly, they are amazingly fast runners and when chicks are nearby, the adults will suddenly burst into flight, distracting potential predators away from the little ones.

They are extremely social and live in family groups of 20 or more birds. They don’t migrate for the winter but will congregate in coveys of up to 100 birds to keep warm since at 25 cm, (10 inches) they are very small.

They are portrayed extensively on the art work of this area and there’s even a winery named after them.

Greetings from the quail of the Okanagan Valley!