Exploring Kootenay Lake

It’s that time of year.

Incoming.

That was fun.

For a few days now, others have been seeing Mountain Bluebirds around the Lake. I failed to find them until today. 

With the coming of spring, Mountain Bluebirds flow into this region in search of insects. They perch close to the ground, spot an insect and swoop down and capture it. 

A female Mountain Bluebird watches for insects from a bush.

It spots something and flies off after it.

It captures and flies off with an insect.

A male Mountain Bluebird sits on a perch watching for insects.

Now is the time to start watching Ruffed Grouse. There seem to be many of them about and their mating period is coming up: April into May.

I have two Ruffed Grouse that treat my yard as a portion of their range. Sometimes I see them; sometimes I don’t. Are they a male and a female? Probably, in that they are tolerating each other at the moment.

Ruffed grouse have two distinct morphs: grey and red (brown). The grey morph predominates in the norther portions of their range; the red morph in the southern portions. Presumably this has something to do with camouflage in different habitats.

Curiously, we seem to have both morphs around the Lake. Indeed, the couple in my yard seems to be one of each.

A grey morph Ruffed Grouse peers over its shoulder.

While a red morph Ruffed Grouse tries to look inconspicuous.

Some sources claim that we don’t have House Finches here; others allow that we have some. The latter sources are correct. 

The House Finch is an urban junky. It likes to hang out in cities where it mainly eats plants. But while seen in our local city, I have usually seen it in rural settings.

A male (left) and female (right) House Finch were hanging out among sparse housing.

Who needs yet more images of swans? After all, in my February goulash, I commented that it had been such a good winter for seeing Trumpeter Swans that I was discarding pictures of them.

However, much less common to see are the Tundra Swans. A decade ago, tundras seemed to dominate and it was uncommon to see trumpeters. But, in recent years the much smaller tundra has been a rarity. This winter, a few more tundras have been turning up locally. I don’t know what influences these things. 

Three tundras were seen in a mixed flock. The tundras are not only the smaller of the two species, but don’t have as heavy a bill and frequently have a yellow patch of skin between the eye and bill.

However, the much bigger Trumpeter Swans were also present, and I couldn’t resist getting a shot of one flapping its wings.

Two male Northern Flickers were fencing.

When seen from a distance, I thought that I was watching a courting couple. But no, both flickers were male. Cornell Lab comments on the flicker:

Early in spring and summer, rivals may face off in a display sometimes called a “fencing duel,” while a prospective mate looks on. Two birds face each other on a branch, bills pointed upward, and bob their heads in time while drawing a loop or figure-eight pattern in the air….

Leaving aside the silly redundancy in the name, these two males were fencing. However, as no prospective mate was seen, they were probably contesting ownership of the adjacent cavity nest. 

As dispute resolution goes, these flickers have handily bested most other species. They discussed the issue calmly while avoiding all injurious contact.

Two male flickers contend a cavity nest using ritual fencing.