Exploring Kootenay Lake

Ducks seen along the lakeshore over the last few days ranged in weight from about 370 to 5000 g.

A duck of our winter waterways the Bufflehead Duck, at about 370 g, is second in tininess to the slightly smaller Green-winged Teal. This bufflehead is a male.

Still a fairly small duck, but at about 600 g, the Wood Duck is 60% heavier than the bufflehead. The female is on the left and the male is on the right.

At about 1100 g, the Mallard is about 80% heavier than the Wood Duck. There are a number of male and female mallards in this picture, but the giant in the centre is a Rouen Duck. At about 5000 g, it weighs over four times that of the mallard, but is a domestic breed of its smaller cousin. This escapee was also seen hanging out with mallards about two years ago (Rouen Duck).

In … Mount Revelstoke Park, mortality of siskins and other winter finches … has been seen frequently enough over the last 25 years that they are called “grill birds” by the local inhabitants, in reference to their propensity to be collected by the front end of moving vehicles.   http://iceandsnowtechnologies.com/articles/WildlifeSD.pdf

When I saw hundreds of Pine Siskins feeding on highway salt, I knew some would become grill birds.

As a vehicle approached, the siskins would take to the air.

But, depending upon the speed and size of the vehicle (which never slowed) the grill collected some.

No problem, the rest alighted again, sometimes continuing to feed amongst their fallen colleagues.

“In exchange for road salt, we happily do the danse macabre.”

The bird sources are consistent: the dipper is a bird of clear mountain streams where it dives and scours creek bottoms for comestibles. Yet, with the approach of winter, this unusual songbird often moves downstream to lower elevations — presumably to avoid freezing creeks. Around here, that means that dippers spread out along the shore of Kootenay Lake each fall. This behaviour seems to have been baked into them: Whether or not the creek freezes, when the weather cools, many start to hunt along the lakeshore. 

This is one of a number of dippers seen hunting along the lakeshore in recent weeks. It first dived from the rock at the picture bottom. It disturbed the water on the left, and then began to surface, upper right, having captured something in its bill.

Arising out of the depths, it clutches what is probably a caddisfly larva in its bill.

It does not swallow it in the water, but takes it to a rock in the stream.

And there downs its prize.

“Burp.”

The West Arm waterbird count has been conducted since 1974, but I am only a recent participant. Yesterday, most of the interesting birds were seen far out on the Lake and so did not produce good images. However, one land bird did.

A (fist-sized) Pygmy Owl was hunting from a tree branch in Kokanee Creek Park.

The Cattle Egret is a small heron that is a rare visitor to this region. Yet, given its expansionist history, it just might become more common in the future.

The Cattle Egret is remarkable in the way, in modern times, it has increased its range. Initially it was adapted to feeding among the large grazing herds of Africa where it picked up disturbed insects. However, it began to take advantage of ranches where cattle now provided the insects, both by disturbing the grass and by having parasites. In its search for new cattle herds, this egret spread to the ranches of South America by the 1930s, to North America by the 1940s, and eastern Canada by the 1960s. Along the way, it discovered the similar advantages of mechanical grass munchers, such as lawn mowers.

The Cattle Egrets shown here were not photographed here, but in time they maybe could be.

A Cattle Egret had been foraging on a cow’s back when a tail flip drove it off.

This egret waited for a passing lawnmower and after a brief chase, grabbed disturbed insects.

“If you have lawns to mow, I have a service for you.”