Exploring Kootenay Lake

It was a calm time for the nesting osprey. The female was sitting on unseen eggs and occasionally turning them over, and the male went out hunting for a fish for his partner. 

Then, an interloper came by.

The male Osprey heads out to catch a fish.

While he was away, the female received an unwelcome visitor. It was another male osprey apparently looking for an opportunity. As he was preparing to land, she recognized him as an interloper and stood up and squawked at him to go away.

Being rejected, the interloper ceased trying to alight, and flew off. Now, it took me some time to figure out how she recognized him as being different from her partner. I am not sure how she did it, but it seems that he has slightly different markings on his crown.

Then her partner returned having not found a fish. She accepted him immediately.

A few days ago, I posted a male Rufous Hummingbird (https://blog.kootenay-lake.ca/?p=35547). Since then, I have occasionally been visited by a male Black-chinned Hummingbird.

Often, its gorget appears black and this hummer is just back and white. But when it turns the right way it shows a iridescent purple fringe on its neck.

Some birds breed earlier than others. Here are two early birds: Canada Geese and Bald Eagles. Ospreys have yet to produce chicks and Robins are just building nests.

These chicks of the Canada Goose were observed mid-April. Many have been seen since.

These Bald Eagle chicks are already large. This picture was taken on 10 May 2026. 

The same nest two weeks earlier. The chicks are smaller and fuzzier. Photo by Cynthia.

I have been watching for the other hummingbirds that we have had in the past. Alas, nothing but the Rufous Hummingbird photographed so far.

But, to my surprise, today I got a nice shot of the rufous male. Its gorget is glowing, its tail is spread, and (a first) its beak is also spread. All of this is against a dark background. So, I am posting it.

Kootenay Lake has a high proportion of Ospreys and for the next month they will be mating.   

Normally, it is a fairly orderly affair where the male flies in and descends onto the back of the female as is shown in the first picture taken nearly two years ago.

Yet, the Ospreys mating this morning could be described as acrobatic.

Ospreys mating on May 31^st 2024 at Taghum.

Ospreys mating at Harrop April 28^th 2026. While the mating started normally like the one above, at first they they did not succeed in making contact with their cloacae. Their stance then became more and more acrobatic as they attempted cloacal contact. At the stage shown, it took me a minute or two to even figure out what appendages were what. The male’s head is just to the left of centre while the female’s head is to the lower right, and to the left of her legs. The male’s wings are obvious in that they go up to the left. The female’s wings go to the middle left and middle right. The female’s tail goes to the upper right and the males tail is barely visible to the middle right. The crucial thing is the cloacae, which is to the back and unseen here. The jockeying for position lasted about 5 seconds and the cloacal kiss was another 5 seconds. So in about 10 seconds they had mated and separated. 

Last Saturday, I went to Waneta to do birding with a small group led by Paul Prappas and Carolee Colter. It was frustrating and exhilarating.

Frustrating because the birds they were viewing were almost always small and distant and so not particularly suitable for pictures (but satisfactory for a good scope).

Exhilarating because there were many birds that I had not seen before, or had only rarely  photographed. It just shows what you can learn from a good birder.

I start and end with birds that I had photographed before, but rarely.

Here is a picture of the Western Meadowlark taken eight years ago. It is included just to show the front of the bird. It was photographed near the place of the next shot.

 Here is Saturday’s Western Meadowlark mainly showing its backside.

 An unexpected delight was a hard-to-spot, singing Nashville Warbler.

And a Vesper Sparrow posed for a long time.

 As well as the occasionally photographed Western Bluebird. Photo by Dorothy Fraser.

A week or so ago, Rufous and Calliope Hummingbirds were observed in Nelson, so out went our feeders. A week went by and then I only saw a fleeting rufous and a fleeting calliope and then nothing till today when I got some shots of the rufous.

A female Rufous Hummingbird came now and then.

In one case, she or a sibling sat on a distant branch and stuck out her tongue.

Finally, the male Rufous Hummingbird came, and it even showed its orange gorget.

Recently, I posted two male migrants: a male Mountain Bluebird and a male Wood Duck. I have just managed to photograph the females of the species also. Both look somewhat different than the males.

Here is the female Mountain Bluebird.

And, here is the female Wood Duck.

In two days we have seen two nice migrants: a couple of Killdeer, and a Wood Duck.

Yesterday we watched a Killdeer come in to land.

It joined another and hobnobbed, but as long as we watched, they did not mate.
The female, with the browner mask and breast band is on the left.

This morning we saw a male Wood Duck close by. It is not as common as the Killdeer.