Tag Archives: birds

nature, Photography

Spring Birds

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Over the last few days I’ve noticed that the ducks and geese are beginning to prepare for new little ones.

Canada geese.

The geese mate for life but something about their recent behaviour tells me that they’re becoming expectant; perhaps they’re waiting for the double-digit warm weather so that they can build nests and raise their young.

Hooded merganser ducks.
Coots.

At this point, the coots just seem to be eating; of course, many of them will soon be migrating to their nesting grounds.

And then we have the mallard duck crew. They’re pairing up too. Here’s a short video showing how quickly they come running and flying toward us for a quinoa snack.

Snack time!

Happy Thursday.

Reblogs

Sandhills at The Salton Sea~

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With all their birdie buddies! The heavy rains have filled the seas making happy and healthy birdies (click to enlarge). The Sandhill Cranes have …

Sandhills at The Salton Sea~

I hope you enjoy these amazing photos of sandhill cranes from Cindy Knoke. Cindy has many more fantastic wildlife photos on her blog.

Commentary, nature, Photography

Duck Update

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The duck creek is open and our resident duck flock seems to be doing fine.

They appear to have come through the cold snap pretty well with feed from the city and snacks from passersby (including us).

I’ve noticed that even the small flock of over-wintering Canada geese have been accepting food as well; they’re usually quite standoffish, but any port in a storm. They’re probably wishing that they had migrated!

Happy Tuesday.

Commentary, nature, Photography

Misty Skaha Lake

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This sudden, very unusually cold weather has caused the lakes to discharge a lot of mist since the water is so much warmer than the surrounding air. Some people have photographed mist spouts, but I haven’t been fortunate enough to see any of them.

One nice side effect of this cold weather is that’s it’s sunny, but I’ll be happy to say to good-bye to the sun as it begins to warm up (and consequently cloud up) tomorrow; thankfully, we are supposed to be at near seasonal temperatures by Friday.

Coots, ducks and geese crowding together at the edge of Skaha Lake. They didn’t seem to be too bothered by not being of the same feather!

This Arctic blast has been very hard on all the non-migrating birds and the animals that just aren’t used to these cold conditions; farmers are also very concerned about the tree fruit orchards and the wineries about their vines. As an indication of how unusual this weather is, a local environmental group just released instructions on how to help hummingbirds that are going into torpor because of the cold.

Setting sun over misty Skaha Lake.

The eastern part of the country is now being walloped by a huge storm that has moved north from Texas. I don’t follow football but apparently a game has even been cancelled as a result!

Stay warm, everyone.

nature, Photography

Snowfall

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Two enormous storms are sweeping across the Pacific and are hitting British Columbia’s northern coast, Vancouver Island and lower mainland with a huge force of wind and rain. They are even reaching into the interior. At the higher elevations, the rain is actually snow, and it is coming down in huge amounts. Here in our deep valley, we are seemingly escaping the worst of it, but we did get a little snow yesterday.

Once there’s snow, our resident duck flock is more reliant on food provided for them and as soon as they saw us heading their way, they lost no time in mobbing my M who started scattering some yummies for them.

Lunch time!

It doesn’t take long for them to devour a large bag of quinoa, especially when it’s cold.

We did get some snow collection over night but much of it melted today.

Happy Wednesday.

Commentary, nature, Photography

New Year’s Birds

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While out for our New Year’s Day constitutional, we saw lots of birds.

First, there were some quail. I always find them hard to photograph because they’re so quick and they blend in so well. I love that cute little head feather.

Next, we saw lots of coots with their distinctive white beaks. They were very happily swimming along, looking for a bit to eat here and there. Suddenly, we saw the coots madly scrambling away to a pier, half swimming, half flying. And then we saw the reason why.

A bald eagle was swooping low, attempting to grab a straggler. I didn’t get a picture of the frightened coots because I was mesmerised by the unfolding drama, but I was able to get a couple of shots of this amazing raptor.

The coots were able to hide in the lee of a pier, thus preventing the eagle from getting a good angle on a quick snatch, and once he saw that he was out of luck, he quickly headed away. M and I were amazed at what we had just seen, though!

Happy Tuesday.

nature, Photography

Duck Snacks!

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M and I recently stopped to give our resident duck flock some cooked quinoa which they love. As soon as they realised we were stopping with treats, we were mobbed.

Flying in from every direction …
… they gathered at M’s feet.
Yum, yum, yum …
… it’s so hard to find a tasty bug right now!
It helps to have friends …
… who can feed us so well!

Have a ducky Saturday.

nature, Photography

Gullible

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While out walking I saw a row of seagulls on a gravel bar near the lake shore.

I liked how their bright white contrasted with the blue of the water and mountains.

They almost look like a row of snowballs, but I’m really glad they’re not!

Our shadows are visible in the watery sunlight. It was only about 5C (41F), but quite windless and there was no precipitation of any kind – especially no white stuff!

Happy Monday.