Exploring Kootenay Lake

The Common Redpoll is an irruptive species: an arctic species that may or may not turn up locally in search of food in any particular year. This winter, they are here. They travel in flocks which descend on seeds. Locally, they seem to be partial to the common tansy, an invasive species.

The name, redpoll, refers to the red cap they sport — poll being an old word for head, as in “take a poll” (count heads), or a “poll tax” (a tax on each head). 

Flocks of the Common Redpoll are visiting the Lake this year. They fly frenetically between feeding on one bush of the (gone to seed) Common Tansy to the next.

While they are named for the red cap on their crowns, they also have distinctive black patterns on their faces that look like the ionizing radiation hazard trefoil with the bird’s bill poking through the centre. Here a redpoll is feasting on tansy seeds.

“I’m off to check out the seeds I see over there.”

It is November and the Hooded Mergansers are courting. This may seem a tad early for such an activity, but hoodies form their pair bonds in the late fall or early winter.

First, we need a base-line look for the pair when it is not courting. The male is on the front right and the female on the back left. The feathers on their heads lie flat. This picture was actually taken when the pair bond seems to have been established, three days after the following shots.

Two males were circling and competing for the female. Each male has erected the crest on his head to show his interest in her. This is probably also a show of aggression towards the other male. Here, the female has not responded by erecting her crest, but she does so after a while. 

Hoodie males show even greater enthusiasm by doing head pumping whereby each silently extends and shortens his neck. Typically, the bird does not face the object of its desire, but presents her with the more enticing side view.

Occasionally the male will rise high in the water.

However, in the most elaborate of the male courtship displays, he keeps his crest erect, throws his head right back, and calls. How could she possibly resist?

I see the Belted Kingfisher perhaps once a week. It is usually just foraging and, after a brief pause, it moves on to a different location to hunt.

Yet, over time one builds up a repertoire of kingfisher behaviour. The first five pictures are old; the last three are from yesterday.

The kingfisher is often seen watching for small fish while perched (2013 Oct. 10).

Or it might be flying (2017 Jul. 30).

Occasionally, the kingfisher is seen to hover over prey (2013 May 26).

Often enough, it manages to catch and consume a small fish (2016 July 25).

Now and then it is seen to squabble with another kingfisher (2016 July 16).

By way of contrast to squabbling, sometimes one can see two of them mate (2017 May 6).

It is not that I doubted that kingfishers pooped, but yesterday was the first observation.

What was unexpected was the sight of a kingfisher casting a pallet (burping up fish bones).

However, the best kingfisher shot of the day was this one.

One does not get to see Snow Buntings every year. Indeed, when you do see them around the Lake, it is likely to be for a short time in the fall. Even then, they are seen from a distance.

Snow Buntings breed in the high Arctic and seem to spend the winter well to the south of us. That they pass through our region now and then is a delight. The last time I saw them was four years ago. Curiously at that time, they were within metres of where they appeared in the last two days.

Snow Buntings forage on the surface for grass and seeds.

They do not forage alone, but in groups.

They foray in flocks of a dozen or more and frequently fly to check adjacent locations.

Not only do they forage in groups, they fly in groups. 

Here they go again. We may see them again in a few years.

Following upon the first observation of a Gray-crowned Rosy Finch at Kokanee Creek Provincial Park, I saw a Pacific Loon at the same location. Well, truth in advertising, I only saw it because Paul Prappas alerted me to its presence. Yet, his observation ranks as a first for the Park.

There is more than one species of loon. We normally see the Common Loon, but today’s sighting was of a species of loon rarely seen in British Columbia outside of Pacific Coastal waters.

A Pacific Loon (still in breeding plumage) graces the waters of Kokanee Creek Provincial Park.

Grey: In Canada, the spelling should be Grey-crowned Rosy Finch. It is named for the colour, grey, not a person named Gray.

This was an unusual observation: A flock of about six dozen Gray-crowned Rosy Finches flew around Kokanee Creek Provincial Park. Ebird.org records no earlier observations of these birds at the Park and says that the last time they were observed anywhere along the West Arm of Kootenay Lake was four years ago in Nelson.

Gray-crowned Rosy Finches summer to our north and winter to our south, but they are rarely seen passing through the area around the Lake. It was fun to see them in the Park two days ago.

This is a portion of the flock of Gray-crowned Rosy Finches.

The birds did not alight, so the only pictures managed were of them flying. 

These finches have a delightful flying style called flap-bounding flight. (See, flap-bounding redpolls.) Here three birds are bounding, that is, they are coasting with folded wings.