Category Archives: birds

  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 →

  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 →

  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 →

  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 →

  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 →

  The cormorant is an interesting bird. It has a long history of interaction with humans, and most of this time the cormorant was presented as surprisingly bad. I encountered one this last weekend, but observations of it are not … Continue reading →

  I don’t see a Northern Harrier very often; the last time was five years ago. So when one visited today, I wondered what it was. This one appears to be a female, or perhaps a juvenile. The harrier was … Continue reading →

  Swans are now heading south to escape the ice, but last February they were heading north to breed. Consequently, twice a year they are feeding in our area as they pass through.  Last February, I posted about spread-winged trumpeters: … Continue reading →