Category Archives: birds

Shrikes return

  The Northern Shrike is a songbird that eats other songbirds. Indeed, with its hooked bill, it is almost a wannabe raptor. Alas, it lacks a raptor’s talons and so must impale its prey on thorns as a way of … Continue reading

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Young Bald Eagles

  A newly fledged Bald Eagle takes four or five years to become an adult with a dark body and white head and tail. During those first few years, it has a strikingly different look.  Over the last weekend, I … Continue reading

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Disparate defences

  I think that I am on safe ground to suggest that prey prefer not to be eaten. Yesterday I watched two prey animals which had adopted rather different methods of defending against predators. They were a mountain goat and … Continue reading

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Cormorant liftoff

  The Double-crested Cormorant is a big bird — it requires a long runway to take to the air. The cormorant is demonized in Ontario where hunters are allowed to shoot the birds on sight. However here, the cormorant is … Continue reading

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Waggle-foot loon

  People are at pains to interpret the sounds and gestures of one another. They want to do the same for animals and feel that they do a good job making sense of the signals sent by their pets. But, … Continue reading

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Dowitcher

  When I casually started to watch local birds a dozen years or so ago, I posited that there was no point in paying attention to shorebirds — there were just too many similar ones. I adapt.  With time, I … Continue reading

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August goulash

This is collection of images taken this August that lacked a posting of their own, primarily because they were all taken within the last few days. I would have liked to include some mammals. Alas, while I saw some, there … Continue reading

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Two migrants

  From late July into October, we are visited by migrants. These are birds that bred to our north but stop here to feed on their southbound journey. They range in size and type from the hummingbird to the eagle. … Continue reading

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Predaters and scavengers

  Kokanee salmon flow up local creeks to spawn. Predators and scavengers gather to gorge themselves. Some come to feast on the living fish; some come to feast upon carcasses. Although these pictures were taken where the birds were feeding … Continue reading

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Passing birds

  Most views of animals in the wild are of solitary ones. But it is fun to manage a shot showing a couple of creatures in one scene. Such was the case this morning. A juvenile Great Blue Heron perches … Continue reading

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