Exploring Kootenay Lake

2014 brought this blog a plethora of satisfying bird images. The selected dozen appear chronologically.

A male Mountain Bluebird looks at the camera and fluffs its feathers. 

A male Wild Turkey displays his finery for the girls.

A Bald Eagle took a few days to consume a large Rainbow Trout that washed ashore during the freshet.

Harlequin Ducks were seen on Kokanee Creek for the first time in over a decade.

This odd-looking structure is the backside of a Common Loon adjusting eggs in the nest.

Wood Ducks nest around here, but it is rare to see this secretive bird with her chicks.

A Raven unsuccessfully tries to intimidate a sub-adult Bald Eagle into sharing its fish.

A Great Blue Heron swallows a Large-scale Sucker whole.

A juvenile Cooper’s Hawk scans for prey.

The hawk would have liked to have seen these Bohemian Waxwings as they enjoyed rowan berries.

A Pygmy Owl with a bloody beak shows its claw.

A Dipper tried to eat the egg of a Kokanee salmon, but fumbled it.
        

Most loons have left the Lake for the Coast by mid-fall. A few stragglers can sometimes be seen in the winter, but I had not seen one previously. (All my earlier loon pictures were taken from April to October.)

In its nonbreeding plumage, this Common Loon is one of four seen in late December. Its breeding plumage is seen from March to October.

A view of a coot and a loon in the same scene is an unusual local sight. Normally, the loon is here in the summer and the coot is here in the winter. Being gregarious, this lone coot had previously tried unsuccessfully to hang out with grebes; now, it approached the loon. The loon promptly dived and left a still lonely coot.

Six Horned Grebes watched from afar. They knew better than to try to hang out with a loon.

“I am loon; admire my finery. The only other species I need have fins.”

The male Common Goldeneye Duck is in his breeding plumage from October to June. That presumably means that he is prepared to breed, not that he is about to breed. So, I thought nothing of it when three strapping lads swam by in mid December, each decked out in breeding plumage. What then happened was unexpected.

In December, three Common Goldeneyes swam by. Spring is a long way off.

Suddenly, despite the absence of females, they began to exhibit courtship behaviour: each tossed its head back.

This was followed by head pumping,

And water twitching. These actions are all courting behaviour.

Apparently satisfied that they now had their act together, they flew off: “OK, now let’s go and find the girls.”

I usually oblige my camera when it asks to be taken for a walk. Unfortunately, my camera does not always reciprocate my kindness by fetching an interesting variety of subjects. On recent jaunts, it has retrieved only birds, but at least it was fetching fetching birds. A dozen are below.

The Great Blue Heron is a favourite of mine—maybe I identify with its cragginess.

The Canada Goose is not a favourite. While it is lovely at a distance, it is messy on one’s lawn. Here are two of over a dozen flying by.

Nearby perched a goshawk. Etymologically a goose hawk, our local goshawk seems to lack a taste for geese.

The American Coot is an easy bird to find in the winter, but a difficult one to photograph. Pictures usually show featureless black plumage with an over-exposed bill. It is satisfying to capture both feather detail and bill shading.

Similarly, a distant view of the male Bufflehead Duck usually offers starkly black and white plumage. Only a closer look reveals iridescent colours on the head.

Black-billed Magpies prefer extensive meadows and grasslands, of which there are few around the Lake. This magpie was found in Harrop.

A Merlin hunts from a high perch.

It would have found these American Goldfinches tasty, but didn’t see them.

Ring-necked Ducks (male, female, male) float on the Lake.

While a Mallard leads Wigeons across the sky.

A pair of Bald Eagles sit in a tree. The larger (upper) one is the female. 

Finally another heron steps out during a snowfall.