Exploring Kootenay Lake

Redheads are not common around the Lake, but there is something about a cold winter that draws them to the Nelson waterfront. About four dozen have been hanging around there for a while.

The duck is named for the striking red head of the male; the female (left) has better camouflage.

They are often seen with bills tucked into their feathers. It is, after all, cold.

Buddies. 

“Oh, it is good to be me.” 

In an adjacent bay, seemingly segregated by colour, are some Greater Scaups with greenish heads.

This winter started with visiting irruptive birds: Irruptive meets invasive (2017/11/20); Irruptive winter? (2017/12/4). The earliest arrivals were Common Redpolls and Pine Grosbeaks. Many irruptives are still here.

An irruptive is an arctic species that may or may not search for food locally in any particular year. Sometimes they appear; sometimes they do not.

Now, three months after these early winter observations, the area still boasts irruptive species.

Sometimes the Pine Grosbeak arrives in great numbers, but this year brought only a few. This female is feeding on waxberries.

Not seen early in the winter, Bohemian Waxwings have now arrived in numbers.

The Bohemian Waxwing is a beautiful bird with a crest and a yellow tipped tail.

This Bald Eagle was hunting a duck. This was not a good day to be that duck.

In the last two days, many swans have been reported along the West Arm of Kootenay Lake, and along the lower Kootenay River. Judging by the ones I have seen, they are Trumpeters.

They stopped by to feed on their way to the Arctic where they will breed this coming spring. 

There were eleven swans in this group.

They fed. 

They preened on the border ice and then stood around lollygagging.  

Having preened, some of the swans settled their feathers by flapping their wings. 

Most birds are limited in what they can eat for they have to swallow whole whatever is caught. This was illustrated three months ago in the posting, birds eat. However, the beaks of a few birds have a prominent hook which enables them to tear large prey into pieces to swallow a bit at a time. Many, but not all, of these birds are raptors — a striking example of which was last Saturday’s fortuitous observation of a Golden Eagle. Other delights are the Bald Eagle, and our favourite summer resident, the Osprey. Photographed last week were two other raptors, plus a songbird, all with hooked bills. 

A Red-tailed Hawk is a permanent resident. This one was watching for voles.

The Rough-legged Hawk is only seen during the winter; in the summer it breeds in the high Arctic.

The Northern Shrike is a songbird, yet, like a raptor, it uses its hooked bill to tear apart prey. The shrike is smaller than a robin and so is tiny by comparison to the hawks, above. 

I don’t see a Golden Eagle often. Indeed the last time I saw one was a half-dozen years ago and it was flying at a high altitude somewhat south of the Lake. Today’s golden flew low along the north slope of the West Arm — a region with sparse observations of this upland species. 

Mind you, Golden Eagles are reported more often than they have ever been seen. Usually the (erroneous) report is actually of a juvenile Bald Eagle, but I have seen breathless claims where the actual bird seen was a Red-tailed Hawk. Further, the Golden Eagle isn’t the gargantuan bird of popular myth. It actually averages slightly smaller than the Bald Eagle.

Yet, seeing this upland bird is indeed a rare treat — especially a close observation, such as occurred on this occasion.

A Golden Eagle flies low along the ridge north of the West Arm. One of the many features that distinguish this eagle as a golden is the colour of its nape.

Woodpeckers are not particularly common around here. Of a half-dozen or so species, only the Northern Flicker is likely to be seen regularly. Below are two species, seen five weeks apart: a Pileated Woodpecker (seen in late December), a Downy Woodpecker (seen in late January).

These two birds differ greatly in size. The Pileated, our largest woodpecker, is a dozen times heavier than the Downy, our smallest. And although both species eat insects and their grubs, the difference in their sizes gives each one access to resources the other cannot reach.

Weighing 250 – 350 g, the Pileated Woodpecker is nearly as large as a crow. Its weight restricts it to hunting on the sturdier trunks of trees, but its long bill allows it to probe deeply into that trunk.

Weighing 21 – 28 g, the Downy Woodpecker is light enough to scour insects from twigs, from which it is sometimes seen hanging.

One would not normally set out to photograph ravens. Rather like mallards (the ubiqui-duck) and blades of grass, finding a raven offers few challenges. Now and then, however, a raven offers an interesting image. 

A raven flies off with its prize — possibly a crabapple. 

January seems to be the month to get a picture of a perfectly camouflaged Ruffed Grouse — or not.

This grouse actually has rather good camouflage, but only in other seasons when, by moving ever so slowly through the brush, its mottled plumage blends beautifully with the foliage and dappled patches of sunlight and shade.

On a field of snow, however, the grouse is just comical as it tries to pass unnoticed by walking excruciatingly slowly. 

Confident that its camouflage renders it invisible, a Ruffed Grouse creeps across a field of snow.