Eagle feast & fight

Posted on August 2, 2015 by Alistair

 

This story began with the posting called an infestation of eagles. It is continued here as eagles feast and fight. The final posting will show an aspect of eagle behaviour that was new to me. 

Humans retreated and left the beach and fish to the eagles. Many eagles had taken an interest in the fish, but which one would get it? Not unexpectedly, it was the largest adult. Among raptors, females are larger than males, so it is probably a female who flew in and grabbed the fish (a sucker, from the look of it).

The eagle quickly set to tearing off bits of flesh and downing them.

Abruptly, the eagle hid its fish under its body and made agitated calls to something overhead.

This somewhat blurry shot shows the problem: a challenger for the prize.

The two eagles skirmished, but the first to arrive was larger and it prevailed.

The first (larger, female?) eagle triumphed. The challenger accepted the hierarchy and waited patiently for scraps. What happened next will be the substance of the next posting.

The skirmish picture (#5) was taken by Finn Grathwol and is used with permission.

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An infestation of eagles

Posted on August 1, 2015 by Alistair

 

Why the sudden infestation of eagles?

On occasion, Bald Eagles fly by or even visit, but at sunrise on Friday perhaps a half-dozen individuals started circling and landing. Only a few of these birds produced satisfactory pictures, yet, the story of the unexpected visitors proved so interesting, it will be spread over three postings. This is the first.

The first to arrive was a sub adult which flew into a tree above me.

Once it spotted me, it seemed distinctly unpleased and quickly flew off.

Then a progression of sub adults and adults circled over us, and…

an adult landed and glowered down from an adjacent tree.

Then another sub adult flew in…,

and the adult chased it around the Lake before driving it off.
Finally, my grandson pointed out the reason for all of this activity: a fish on the beach. Now understanding what an impediment we were, the humans retreated to a safe viewing distance and left the area to the eagles. Then, things got even more interesting—to be continued.

The eagle glowering picture (#4) was taken by Finn Grathwol and is used with permission.

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Mayfly emergence

Posted on July 31, 2015 by Alistair

 

As with the dragonfly emergence, reported earlier, mayflies shed their exoskeleton in late July and early August and take to the air. The arrival of the mayflies makes for happy fish, bats, and birds. 

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July goulash

Posted on July 29, 2015 by Alistair

 

Local Nature Tasting: savouring nature with a camera
Again, I have been invited to talk in the Science in the Park series at the Visitors’ Centre of Kokanee Creek Park.
The show will be on Tuesday, August 4th at 7:30 p.m. 

This is an end-of-the-month collection of images, none of which rated a posting on its own.

Sometimes noted is that by mid summer we already have all the migrant species we can expect until September. But, if we don’t see new species at present, we do see new members of those species, some of which appear below.

These two juvenile Great Blue Herons were hatched this year.

We cannot be sure if this American Redstart is a juvenile or a female (or both).

This Columbian Ground Squirrel was born this year.

This adult Red Squirrel seems to be eating a fir cone as if it were eating a corncob.

The yellowish belly of this Cedar Waxwing suggests that it is this year’s bird.

Nesting Pacific-slope Flycatchers were treated earlier. That this bird was probably hatched this year is evident from the buffy wingbars. They would appear whitish on an adult.

This unambiguously shows two Wood Duck chicks.

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Steam fog in July

Posted on July 27, 2015 by Alistair

 

Normally the harbinger of the fall season, the presence of steam fog in July is uncommon. Yet, I have now seen it a couple of times at sunrise.

Steam fog forms over the Lake when the water is warmer than the air above it. This is why it is common in the early fall and during cold outbreaks in the winter when the Lake does not cool as rapidly as the atmosphere.

On this occasion, we have come out of a warm spell, during which time the Lake has warmed, and into a brief spell of cooler weather. Clear skies at night bring gentle katabatic winds that spread cooler air from the mountain slopes out over the warm water. This results in steam fog at sunrise. As the day warms, the steam fog is soon vanquished.

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Eagle dramas

Posted on July 25, 2015 by Alistair

 

It was a drama I had only seen once before, but this time it played out in a rather different manner. 

A Bald Eagle is just too big to be able to hover over one spot except by flying into a rather high wind. And that is the way I saw it before: in a high wind, an eagle hovered over a merganser and tried to capture it. This time, the high wind brought a four-year-old Bald Eagle to try to capture a mallard, or probably, its chick. Given the appearance and the noise of the wind, the mallards may have been unaware that they were being targeted.

What happened next was unexpected. An osprey appeared, attacked the eagle, and drove it off. Why did the osprey do it? I haven’t a clue. But, the mallards swam off as if nothing had happened. 

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Merganser stuffing

Posted on July 23, 2015 by Alistair

 

Sometimes an event’s distance and rapidity make for low-quality, yet interesting images. This merganser swallowing a fish certainly qualifies.

It is fun to see a merganser eat a fish anytime, but this one seemed unconscionably large for the bird.

Stuffing the fish down its gullet proved difficult, so the merganser pushed it in with its toes. I had not seen this behaviour before.

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Third hummer

Posted on July 21, 2015 by Alistair

 

Chalk it up to inattention. I know that we regularly get three hummingbird species during the warmer months: Calliope, Rufous, Black-chinned. Yet, I don’t think that I have ever noticed seeing all three in a single year. This year I have: Calliope, Rufous, (and other postings) and lately a Black-chinned. 

I saw a Black-chinned male this last week, but failed to get a picture, so this link is to one from a previous year. However, I have been getting regular visits from a Black-chinned female. 

Unlike males, female hummingbirds are not easy to distinguish. A good view of a spread tail can prove diagnostic, but it only happens occasionally. This female Black-chinned presents a typically uninformative view.

Here is a fleeting view of a spread tail. On the female Black-chinned Hummingbird, the black band on the tail is broken by central green feathers. On a Calliope or Rufous it is continuous.

A female Rufous Hummingbird visited about the same time. Even this side view shows the continuous black band.

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Plume from afar

Posted on July 20, 2015 by Alistair

 

The picture, posted on Saturday of a (controlled) burn around the Sitkum Creek fire, was dramatic.

Doug Thorburn has sent me a picture that was taken about the same time and puts the matter in perspective. His view is from the summit of Mt. Asgard in the Valhallas. The smoke from the Sitkum fire appears beyond the top of Mt Dag (top left). From this distance of about forty kilometres, the world looks pristine and the plume tiny.

Doug Thorburn’s picture is used with permission.

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Nightmare continues

Posted on July 18, 2015 by Alistair

 

This picture was taken at 16:30 PDT today.

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