Category Archives: birds

Finn’s chicks

  I went out to visit local nature with Finn, my 15-year-old grandson. We took many pictures. Here are two that Finn took of chicks being fed. We started the day by watching a flicker father feed his chicks. Daddy … Continue reading

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Osprey chicks

  This is the time of year to see fresh osprey chicks peeking out of nests around the Lake. Often the chicks are seen interacting with a parent. At another nest, three chicks look out at a parent in an … Continue reading

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Osprey and fish

  There was a time when local sport fishermen demonized the osprey: How dare that bird prey on (what was fantasized as) their fish? Clearly, we need to kill the osprey. Locally burned pilings still stand as a mute testimony … Continue reading

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Foster parent

  A brood parasite is something that one reads about, but does not actually expect to see. The story begins with the Brown-headed Cowbird, a warm-season species that lays its eggs in the nests of other birds and so outsources … Continue reading

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Factious ospreys

  Nature is not bucolic. Animals attack one another with tooth, claw, and bill. Other species are seen as either food or competitor — in either case they must be attacked. I have watched animals assault prey. I have seen … Continue reading

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June goulash

  This is a collection of images from June, none of which has had a posting of its own. Curiously, there are no mammals. Although I saw mammals, none of them produced interesting pictures. The first shore bird to arrive … Continue reading

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Wild Turkey presence

  When I was a child on the shore of Kootenay Lake, there were no Wild Turkeys to be seen. Returning to the lakeshore in retirement, I was surprised to see a few. Since that time, the proliferation of turkeys … Continue reading

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Osprey nest maintenance

  There is an osprey nest I have been casually watching. Usually a female is incubating there, but a male attends her. I have been waiting until chicks hatch and are big enough to peek over the edge of the … Continue reading

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Tufted sparrow

  Watch your surroundings long enough, and something distinctly odd may turn up — in this case a tufted sparrow.  The bird is obviously a chick. It did not seem capable of flight and merely sat on the edge of … Continue reading

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Unrelated cousins

  We have grosbeaks: similarly looking, heavy-billed, seed- and insect-eating birds that have been lumped together as a group for over three centuries. They are, what is referred to as a form taxon, a group based, not upon their biology, … Continue reading

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