The clearing of a bushy area on my property produced an unexpected sight: two house mice. I have not seen a house mouse (or a rat) for sometime, but apparently at least a couple of mice were living in the brush on the now cleared land. Well, I prefer them outside rather than in the house.
The house mouse appeared groggy after abandoning the cleared area. I moved and released them into the distant woods. 
All these pictures were taken within less than half a kilometre near Harrop. Most were taken in the last two days, but the first was taken at the end of April.
Three male white-tailed deer, with small antler buds, were running along the lakeshore. As they bound, each has only one foot touching the ground.
A columbian ground squirrel has a mouthful of grass to prepare a soft bed for his underground nest.
In the summer months, the Chipping Sparrow is common across North America. In the winter months, it is mostly gone,
This picture is included largely to show the long tail of a flying adult Black-billed Magpie. 
Two days ago, we watched a juvenile Magpie. It hopped around on the ground for it was too young to fly. Look how short its tail is.
These two Common Loons are curious. They are a couple. The larger male is slightly in front. They were close to the shore (which is odd). They are in breeding plumage, yet are on this lake. Normally, by now, they will have gone to a higher lake in the surrounding mountains to breed. Also their eyes are not the bright red of breeding loons, yet they otherwise look like a breeding pair.
Er, a three-winged Killdeer flies away.
Pine Siskins are nomadic and irruptive. They are here one season and gone the next as they roam around looking for seeds in trees. Today, a flock of them was indulging in a offbeat practice of getting salt into their diet in a parking lot that had been salted by humans to melt snow and ice during last winter.
A small proportion of the more than 30 Pine Siskins eating salt in a parking lot.
Each spring, thousands of tadpoles spawn at various shallows around the Lake. This is a look at a small portion of one large population seen two days ago. Of course, most of these will die, many being eaten before they become toads that can then wander off into the woods. Since only a few tadpoles survive, that apparently justifies the initial large number.
This represents a tiny portion of the many tadpoles in the shallows.
Yesterday, I saw a Great Blue Heron for the first time since early last September. It was an adult in its non-breeding plumage. It has a white crown and a long plume extending from the back of its head. This is likely the only plumage that we will see this early in the year.
Soon, this adult will grow the breeding plumage with dense shaggy plumes on its neck and back. In August, we will see juveniles with dark crests and without plumes extending from their heads. And in September, the herons will again head south.
An adult Great Blue Heron seen in May.
The three dipper chicks are growing quickly, and the parents have a full-time job feeding them. Their nest is above the creek, and one or the other parent flies in every five to ten minutes with something they have caught in the fast-moving waters below. (It is not possible to tell the two parents apart, but both are feeding the chicks.)
A parent feeds the dipper chicks a mouth full of grubs from the creek below. Each time a parent arrives, the chicks stick their heads out and open their maws to accept the food.
On one occasion, an unusual bit of food brought to the chicks was a minnow.
The chicks kept their maws open, but they some-what withdrew when a minnow was offered.
Strangely, the dipper chicks did not accept the minnow, and the parent quickly flew off with it, This is odd, because dippers have caught and eaten minnows before.
Why did the dipper chicks reject the fish? I have seen dippers catch a fish maybe a half-dozen times. I have even seen a dipper bring a fish to its chicks before. I include one old picture of a dipper with a fish, to show that dippers are familiar with this as food. This dipper clipped the fish’s caudal fin (tail) so it could not escape.
Three dipper chicks are now looking out of their nest with their maws wide open. The parent is bring them food. I will now try to get a better shot showing the parent stuffing some food into a chick’s mouth.
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.
