Exploring Kootenay Lake

The Long-billed Dowitcher has now been here for at least three days. I posted some pictures a few days ago: Long-billed Dowitcher, but went back with Cynthia to see it again. Recall, it is mid-migration; it came from the arctic coast and will soon continue south, probably to Mexico. It still has a long way to go. Stopping here, it has spent all of its time just feeding. By Monday (Oct. 7) the bird had gone.

For days, this bird persistently thrust its long bill deep into the muddy floor of a shallow freshwater pond. The pond depth was often 2 to 8 cm, which is ideal for its feeding. The tip of a Long-billed Dowitcher’s bill has receptors that let it locate prey by touch. Seen here, it is sucking some prey up its long bill. Photo by Cynthia Fraser.

Generally, it eats larvae of insects with occasional plant matter and seeds. This is probably an insect larva. Photo by Cynthia.

Because its bill often was deep in sandy muck, seeing it bring something up above water happened quickly and rarely.

Here it took a short break to fluff its feathers. Photo by Cynthia.

Three days of steady eating has made it fatter. This picture shows the dowitcher and its clear reflection in shallow water.

We have four local species of chickadee: Black-capped, Chestnut-backed, Mountain, and Boreal. These are listed in order from common to rare. Nearly four years ago, I saw the Mountain Chickadee for the first time and posted. I encourage opening that posting, http://blog.kootenay-lake.ca/?p=29904, to see how they differ. Briefly, the common Black-capped Chickadee does not have a white bar above its eye.

One possible reason the Mountain Chickadee is rarely seen is that it only comes down from the mountains in the fall. Indeed, my first sighting was in December.

This Mountain Chickadee was with many Black-capped Chickadees scouring for food.

When I wandered our beaches since this last July, I have watched for migrant shorebirds. I do not mean the Spotted Sandpiper, the Solitary Sandpiper, or the Killdeer. Those are shorebirds that, while they migrate, do so by coming here. I was watching for those birds that winter to our south, and breed to our north, but stop by this region to feed on their way between their two homes. For three months, I saw nothing. Now, this was probably just sloppiness on my part. Then yesterday, I watched a Long-billed Dowitcher.

This Long-billed Dowitcher was in its non-breeding plumage. It had been along the Arctic coast, and was now heading to Mexico or extreme southern US. This is a long distance and along the way, it must stop and feed, which was what it was doing by stopping here. I have seen this dowitcher a few times before, but not often.

The Long-billed Dowitcher is scouring the shallow water and the ground for insects and aquatic invertebrates. 

It spent the whole day eating. Here it has found something it consumed.

Ospreys are vanishing. They have started migrating to central and south America. But, there are still a few adults around and one flew by yesterday with a headless fish. The bird had stopped by a rest stop and eaten the head to get those tasty brains. But, it then flew off, where I spotted the two of them.

A male osprey was still here yesterday. The headless fish is possibly a sucker.