Category Archives: birds

  On March 3, Derek Kite reported a leucistic goose on the Lake. Today, I also saw it, but now with its mate. Leucism describes a defect in cells where patches on the body’s surface lack pigment. The Canada Goose … Continue reading →

  A half-dozen or more Tundra Swans have arrived at Robert’s Bay. Almost all Tundra Swans can be identified by their yellow lores (lore: the region between the eye and the bill). Not all Tundras show this spot, and when … Continue reading →

Many animals put aside preserves for winter: humans do, squirrels do. Do finches? Over a period of a few days this January, Pine Grosbeaks cleaned the berries off a mountain ash in my yard. The first picture, below, shows a … Continue reading →

For over a week now, there has been a family of migrating swans feeding in the shallows south of the Kokanee Creek Park—swans and their entourage of ducks. As the lake level has been dropping, the swans have been squeezed between the … Continue reading →

Inadvertently, I ran an intelligence test on birds. I have a two-sided bird feeder that sits halfway between a window (for observing) and some trees (for perching). Of course, the birds regularly go to the side of the feeder facing the trees … Continue reading →

The Red-tailed Hawk has a remarkably variable appearance. Plans today had been to try to find a reported dark-phase hawk—the markedly less common form. Alas, that expedition was postponed. So, I went for a drive and, unexpectedly, saw a Red-tailed … Continue reading →

Swans are already flooding into the Creston Valley on their way north. I normally think of April as the month to view swans migrating along the West Arm, but everything seems to be early this year. For the last few … Continue reading →

The tops of pilings are fairly inaccessible places for anything but a bird. But, birds really like them. A piling provides a good perch for hunting, and a spot inaccessible to land predators. Atop pilings I have seen: kingfishers, eagles, … Continue reading →