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Recent Posts
- Spring arrives
- Wild Turkey mating
- Nesting on wooden pilings
- Perching on wooden pilings
- Trumpeter courting
- Injured swan
- Confused teal
- Mallard mating
- Hairy not Downy
- Two interesting visitors
- Otters frolic
- Devil’s cormorant
- Harrier
- Wing-flap preening
- In the bill
- Barred Owl
- Cygnet
- Swan migration
- Apostrophe’s abrasion
- Buntings and finches
- Weasel
- Golden-Plover
- Cloudbow & glory
- White-tail suckling
- Exotropia in bears
- Grizzly & Kokanee
- Bears in Park
- A week late
- Uncommon harasses rare
- Eagle juvenile
- Chipmunk
- Juvenile ospreys
- Juveniles
- Juvenile herons
- Osprey & chick
- Faeces disposal
- Ghost plant
- Snowshoe hare
- Skunk kit feeds
- Feeding swallow chicks
- Heron & fish
- Turkey Vultures
- Starling chick
- Eye to eye
- Nesting material
- Columbia spotted frog
- Striped coralroot
- Bald Eagle nest
- Grizzly sow & cubs
- Mallard rape?
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Category Archives: birds
Spring arrives
The temperature now rises above freezing day and night at the bottom of the valleys. The trees begin to bloom, and skunk cabbage sprouts in moist areas. Birds mate and build nests. Migrants arrive and some pass northward. This … Continue reading
Posted in birds, bugs, mammals, wildflowers
4 Comments
Wild Turkey mating
This posting either has two pictures or nine pictures depending upon your sensitivity. The survival of a species depends upon two things: food and reproduction. This is about reproduction. This posting is also about Wild Turkeys, a bird that … Continue reading
Posted in birds
3 Comments
Perching on wooden pilings
Wooden pilings have been a welcome sanctuary for a variety of wildlife, but it will end. This is the first of two postings, the first being on perching, the second being on nesting. In both cases they are restricted … Continue reading
Posted in birds, commentary
3 Comments
Trumpeter courting
One of this winter’s sweet delights has been how many Trumpeter Swan families and larger groupings are frequenting the shallows, shores and creek mouths of Kootenay Lake. A week ago Saturday, I spent two hours quietly watching about 20 … Continue reading
Posted in birds
7 Comments
Injured swan
I rarely see wildlife that is either injured or deformed. It may be that they are rare, or it may be that predators quickly dispatch them (or both). For the animal with an injury to persist, the injury would … Continue reading
Posted in birds
5 Comments
Confused teal
The Green-winged Teal is a rather small dabbler that is neither rare nor common around here. It spends its winters to our south and its summers to our north. Twice a year it courses through here as it goes … Continue reading
Posted in birds
8 Comments
Mallard mating
Birds mate quickly — in a matter of seconds. And while I had seen a mallard rape, I had not seen mallard consensual sex, at least until this afternoon. From the time of rushing to the camera and picking … Continue reading
Posted in birds
3 Comments
Hairy not Downy
I was watching a resident family of Northern Flickers flit between their favourite feeding areas, when to my absolute delight, another woodpecker flew over to join them. In the West Kootenay, we have a half-dozen or more woodpeckers that … Continue reading
Posted in birds
12 Comments
Two interesting visitors
The last week has been bitterly cold with bouts of steam fog and snow. Critters seemed few in number, but it has warmed, and recently there were interesting visitors. Two Trumpeter Swans came along the shore feeding midday. They … Continue reading
Posted in birds, mammals
2 Comments
Nesting on wooden pilings
Wooden pilings are used by a few species for breeding. Now that these pilings are on their way out, how will this change? Metal pilings are the new standard. This is the second of a two part series on … Continue reading →