Crow harasses eagle

 

The battle went on for about ten minutes: a crow took on a Bald Eagle.

But the eagle didn’t try to tackle the crow, it just kept flying away.

Eagles generally like to raid the nests of others for food (now is the time for this) and crows do not like to lose their chicks, so crows actually tackle eagles and drive them off. The odd thing is that the eagle, a bigger more powerful bird, just flies away and avoids the fight. 

Now, it has been said that the eagle cannot be bothered to fight back, for it might be injured. But, the eagle will fight back with a bird that is closer to its own size, such as a osprey. Why then does it not want to tackle a much smaller crow? It is likely that, being smaller, the crow is much more manoeuvrable than the eagle, and so the risk to the eagle is correspondingly greater.

A crow drives off a juvenile Bald Eagle.

 

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Bobolink &

 

We are about as far north as the Bobolink gets in our region of British Columbia. It has travelled here from central South America to breed. Seen yesterday morning was a male, but I haven’t yet seen the female.

The male Bobolink was singing as it perched on a bush in the grasslands of Kokanee Park.

It flew off, but only to a nearby bush.

It turned out that there were two birds close to one another and I sometimes followed the wrong one. The other was an Eastern Kingbird. Here, it is flying off.

 

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Tadpole

 

It is June and the tadpole season is upon us.

A few of the hundreds of tadpoles in the shallow, clear water of the lake.

 

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Cattle Egret

 

Amazingly, a Cattle Egret appeared in Nelson yesterday. It was well outside its normal range. It was also in its breeding plumage. 

I have seen the Cattle Egret once before, but a long way from here. It was (appropriately) feeding on cattle’s parasites. I start with an earlier picture because it is seen here in its non-breeding plumage.

A Cattle Egret on cattle in Maui in November 2016 lacks its breeding plumage.

A Cattle Egret in Nelson in breeding plumage was first spotted by Sachi Snively.

It spreads its wings in peparation to flying.

And takes to the air, but does not go far. Photo by Dorothy.

 

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Two hummingbird species

 

Three weeks ago, I posted pictures of our three hummingbirds. The males arrived first and of the three, two were illustrated with iridescent chins (blog.kootenay-lake.ca/?p=34515). 

Now, the females are here, but one species, the calliope, has not returned. So, this posting will show just the rufous and the black-chinned. However, a female is shown, and the male appears with and without displaying its chin’s iridescence. 

First is the rufous, then the black-chinned.

The male Rufous Hummingbird is normally seen with a simple black chin.

But, when it is seen opposite the sun, its chin turns an iridescent orange.

The female shows a series of spots on the chin that occasionally are iridescent.

Usually, the male Black-chinned Hummingbird is seen without iridescence.
 

But, when opposite the sun, its lower chin lights up in iridescent violet.

Our female Black-chinned Hummingbird has practically no chin adornments.

 

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Heron & metal piling

 

Twelve years ago, I wrote a post about birds and pilings (blog.kootenay-lake.ca/?p=8842). In it, I noted that many birds like the wooden pilings and often rest on them and even nest in them. For these birds, wooden pilings provide a refuge from many predators and a good view of the lake and adjacent shore. For people close to the lakeshore, this also provides them with a entertaining view. On wooden pilings, I have seen many ducks, geese, raptors, woodpeckers, swallows, corvids, herons, kingfishers, and gulls. What is not to like? 

But some time ago, people began to shift from wooden to metal pilings which have both the advantage of lasting longer and disadvantage of being unfriendly to birds. The latter has a conical top upon which the only bird I have seen capable of sitting there is a kingfisher. Now, many years later, I watched another bird try: a Great Blue Heron. It wobbled, couldn’t get a grip, and left again about one second later. Sigh.

A juvenile Great Blue Heron fails to perch on a metal piling and promptly leaves.

 

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Dipper and fish

 

Dippers eat mostly aquatic insects and insect larvae. However, they will occasionally take other invertebrates, as well as small fish or fish eggs. For the longest time, I had only ever seen it eat juvenile fish (alevin and fry) in the winter, presumably when invertebrates are uncommon.

It came as a surprise to see a dipper feeding a small fish to its chicks in a nest. Mind you, the chicks are still deep in the nest so I did not see them actually eat the fish, but the fish was delivered to them, and the parent left the nest without it.

A dipper stopped on a rock in the stream to look around for predators. It has a fish in its bill. It then flew up to its nest and fed it to its chicks.

 

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Black bear cub

 

Come summer, I often see bears  in my neighbourhood on the West Arm of Kootenay Lake. They are almost always black bears, and always look heathy, whether boar, sow, or cub.

So far, this year has been unusual. I have seen two bears in the late spring, both cubs, and both looking worse for wear. The grizzly cub was healthy, but scrawny. The black bear cub was also gaunt. Why were they both on their own, apparently without a mother? 

The black bear cub paused and looked up. It is missing fur and has a possible injury on its left rear hip. The missing hair might be the result of mange.

As the gaunt cub hurried away, the possible injury and missing fur is clearly visible.

 

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Spring azure

 

Spring azures are small (22-35 mm wingspan) springtime butterflies. They were seen on a slightly darkened patch of a back-woods roadway where a large mammal had urinated. Many mainly male butterflies group there and sip nutrients, particularly salt, that are needed for mating.

Now, the spring azure is a fairly common butterfly in North America, but as they are only seen in the spring, and have a short lifetime, they are inconspicuous when perched and easy to miss. The delight occurs when they fly and the upper side of the wings are revealed. They are a marvellous blue (thus, the name).

On a forest road, a group of mainly male spring azures sips urine for its salt. When perched, this butterfly has its wings up and shows the camouflaged grey and black markings. But. when flying the delightful upper wings are seen.

A male spring azure flies off and reveals its top-wing colour. (The female butterfly has more black on it.) It will mate and die, having had only a couple of days as an adult. This is a difficult shot to get as the spring azure is a fast flier. 

 

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Black-chinned fought

 

I have been watching hummingbirds in an attempt to get pictures of the female Black-chinned and the female Calliope. It has been unsuccessful so far. However, I did spot an unusual feature on a Black-chinned male: evidence of a battle.

I had long been aware that the Rufous Hummingbird was combative during the breeding season when it would challenge other rufous males. But, nothing was ever said about the black-chinned. Well, here is evidence, a black-chinned with a few other hummingbird’s feathers in its claws.

This Black-chinned Hummingbird has some feathers of another hummingbird in its claws.

 

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