I live in the valley and the only grouse I see in my yard is a Ruffed Grouse: residential grouse, replacement grouse. To increase the odds of seeing a Dusky Grouse, I visit the high country.
Although breeding season is over, a male Dusky Grouse seems to be showing off for the ladies.
A female demonstrates the advantage of cryptic plumage: When distant and stationary, she just vanishes.
“I believe I speak for game birds everywhere in thanking you for choosing a camera for your shooting.”
This is an end-of-the-month collection of images, none of which rated a posting on its own.
Sub-adult Bald Eagle
Not all Kokanee Salmon spawn in creeks and rivers. Some, such as these, spawn along the shore of the Lake.
A Wild Turkey displays some of its finery.
A Red-tailed Hawk hunts from a utility pole.
A Chipping Sparrow was found in the sub-alpine.
A Sharp-shinned Hawk was feeding beside the road when it was disturbed by a passing vehicle.
An American Pipit is an elusive bird of the summer alpine.
Grizzly Bears are omnivorous: pine nuts, tubers, grasses, rodents, moths, scavenged carcasses, but particularly when fattening up for hibernation, salmon. In the fall when rivers and streams are filled with spawning kokanee salmon, a grizzly grows fat. This year, however, the kokanee run is sparse and a number of grizzlies that depend on it are looking gaunt. Some may not make it through the winter.
A somewhat scrawny grizzly bear was foraging along a lakeshore. It did not look as if it were finding much.
It headed for a meadow and started eating grass, a grizzly staple, but not something that is rich in fat.
Time to sit awhile and ponder limited options.
If it is possible for a grizzly to look doleful, this is it.
Yesterday’s sighting was a first for me: a bull elk with a full set of antlers.
It is late September and Ospreys are migrating south to locations such as Costa Rica and Venezuela. Ospreys migrate as individuals — not as a flock or even as pairs. Adults depart first leaving juveniles to find their own way, often weeks later. Most of the ospreys around for the next couple of weeks will be juveniles. These are birds that will only return as adults in two or three years. So, now is the time to see the distinctive markings of the juvenile.
Three features distinguish the juvenile from the adult:
• Feathers atop the wing are edged with white. It is imperfectly seen here owing to the oblique view of the top of the left wing. It is more evident in a shot from an earlier year, riveting orange.
• The adult’s eyes are yellowish; the juvenile’s eyes are somewhat orangish.
• The juvenile’s breast is buff, a feature that fades within weeks.
A juvenile Osprey was hanging out in the vicinity of its nest, although its parents seemed to be long gone. In response to a nearby human, an adult would usually fly away, but when this juvenile spotted me walking along the beach, it twice circled close overhead. Maybe it is still exploring the features of its new world.
Falcons are small raptors built for speed. We have two: Merlins and Kestrels. I watched each this last week.
A Merlin was harassed by three Crows. They were merely a nuisance for this highly manoeuvrable killing machine.
After driving off the Crows, the Merlin seemed to assess the photographer as an unworthy target.
Similarly, a Kestrel spent a moment apparently deciding if the photographer were worth eating.
However, if capturing a photographer was not one of the Kestrel’s skills, capturing a vole was.
There was a pleasant consistency in seeing the eponym and its namesake in quick succession. First seen was the Wild Turkey; next was the Turkey Vulture. The vulture was named for the resemblance of its featherless head and dark plumage to those of the turkey.
A flock of Wild Turkeys was foraging in someone’s yard.
Soon afterwards, three Turkey Vultures were seen flying over open fields as they looked for carrion. This is one.
This is another.
In response to an overflight by a Red-tailed Hawk, Red-winged Blackbirds took to the air. My guess is that they did so because a perched bird is an easy target, whereas a small airborne bird is a difficult capture. The smaller bird is more manoeuvrable than the hawk. Seemingly realizing the difficulty, the hawk left the blackbirds alone.
Flying is arduous, particularly for large birds which have less muscle power per unit weight than small birds. However, little birds cannot soar, big birds can.
If any bird stops flapping its wings, it will glide to a lower elevation — unless there is an updraft in the air that counteracts its descent. Then it can stay aloft for hours. After days of rain, some days of sunshine have provided these big birds with thermals. Thermals are large bubbles of buoyant air that rise from the sun-warmed surface. While soaring in a thermal, birds fly in circles so as to stay within the ascending air of the thermal. Below, three birds soar in the thermals of recent days.
Although a passerine, the raven often soars. Its cousin, the crow, only manages it for short stints.
In addition to hunting from a perch, a Red-tailed Hawk often hunts while soaring.
A frequent sight is that of a soaring Bald Eagle. This is a juvenile.
