Category Archives: birds

  The Pygmy Owl is our smallest owl. In the warmer months, it lives high in the mountains, but sometimes it visits the valleys in the winter. This year, there are many Pygmy Owls here and I have treated them … Continue reading →

  Some winters, I hardly see even one Pygmy Owl. This year, I cannot stop seeing them. We saw three different ones in a short time yesterday. It gave me the opportunity to try photographing one in flight. As daytime … Continue reading →

  After showing a male Pileated Woodpecker foraging on a piling a couple of weeks ago <http://blog.kootenay-lake.ca/?p=33997>, Cynthia found another foraging pileated. This new one was a female. So, I am showing both. First, I will reproduce the male from … Continue reading →

  Some winters, I have been able to photograph a Pygmy Owl.  This small owl spends most of its year at high elevations, but sometimes seeks the valleys in the winter. Unusually, it hunts by day and will sit quietly … Continue reading →

  This may well be one of the first Pygmy Owls in the valley this winter. They spend their summers in the high mountains where they are rarely seen. They are sometimes with us at the valley bottoms in the … Continue reading →

  Yesterday, I was watching a Pileated Woodpecker scrounge for grubs and ants in a piling. I took many pictures hoping to capture something interesting, but in the end, I only show one image and the bird is just sitting … Continue reading →

  Trumpeter Swans visit Kootenay Lake twice a year, but sometimes for an extended time. When two of them stopped by briefly to feed on October 25, they were probably not heading north to breed, but south to winter. The … Continue reading →

  These two birds are uncommonly seen around here. I posted a collection of pictures of the Clark’s Nutcracker last week.  This is just a single picture of one of a dozen of them about a half-kilometre from where they … Continue reading →