Category Archives: birds

Bluet disaster

Posted on August 12, 2020 by Alistair

  Things were now looking good in the world of bluet damselflies. The previous posting, thwarted bluets, had reported on the problems of bluet couples: harassment and inaccessible aquatic weed for egg laying. However, now the aquatic weed had reached … Continue reading →

Posted in birds, bugs | 3 Comments

July goulash

Posted on July 31, 2020 by Alistair

  This is a collection of images from this July that did not have postings of their own. The idiom, snake in the grass, implies treachery. In reality, our garter snake is harmless. This Cedar Waxwing seemed intent on expressing … Continue reading →

Posted in birds, herptiles, mammals | 2 Comments

Flickers fledged

Posted on July 29, 2020 by Alistair

  There are only a few days during which one can watch flicker chicks being fed at the entrance to their cavity nests. When they hatch, chicks are small and rest inside the cavity, so each parent has to go … Continue reading →

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Finn’s chicks

Posted on July 23, 2020 by Alistair

  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 →

Posted in birds | 9 Comments

Osprey chicks

Posted on July 22, 2020 by Alistair

  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

Posted on July 19, 2020 by Alistair

  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 →

Posted in birds, fish | 2 Comments

Foster parent

Posted on July 9, 2020 by Alistair

  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

Posted on July 1, 2020 by Alistair

  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 →

Posted in birds, fish | 2 Comments

June goulash

Posted on June 30, 2020 by Alistair

  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 →

Posted in birds, bugs | 3 Comments

Wild Turkey presence

Posted on June 28, 2020 by Alistair

  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 →

Posted in birds, commentary | 3 Comments