For the next month or so, new birds arrive weekly. Monday’s observations were of a Killdeer couple (first two pictures) and a Red–tailed Hawk (second two pictures).
The Kootenay Lake website has one page devoted to the Killdeer and another to the Red-tailed Hawk.
Normally there is little in the plumage to distinguish the male and female Killdeer, but the first picture shows a somewhat plumper bird. Could it be pregnant? The second Killdeer seems to have grown a third leg (snicker).
I have a favourite spot to watch for Red–tailed Hawks in the spring. The row of trees still lacks leaves, and the hawk can sit there and watch for voles on a south facing bank upon which the snow melts earlier than elsewhere. The first picture merely shows the hawk in one of the trees. The second picture is a composite of two shots (taken less than a second apart) of it landing in another tree. That the Red–tailed Hawk is well named is clear.
