Exploring Kootenay Lake

I saw a group of herons by the lakeside. Now, the Great Blue Heron is a solitary creature during the fall and winter, so this was presumably a group of siblings. At first I notice two together, but in all counted five but not always close together.

Two juvenile Great Blue Herons on the lake.

A heron landing is slowed by dragging feet, but maintained lift by deploying its alula on its wings. The alula are the short feathers in the centre top of the wing. Photo by Cynthia.

Some herons were seen in the the direction of the land.

A characteristic of young birds is that they are frequently curious about humans. This one flew right over me always looking down. When they are older, herons just fly away.

Two days ago, I published a blog that showed a juvenile male Pileated Woodpecker (blog.kootenay-lake.ca/?p=34868). It had only the faintest red moustache and yellow eyes. Now, either it 0r a brother has more developed features.

Like many birds, the Pileated Woodpecker is now encouraging its young to fly around. 

This male Pileated Woodpecker is likely a juvenile. Its crest is a bit small, its moustache is only slightly red, and its eyes have only the faintest touch of  yellow. Also, it did not seem to know how to find food on a tree.

During their migration period, the Eastern Kingbird is reasonably common around the Lake. The chicks have now fledged, but are still being fed by their parents.

The first two pictures are old and are included to merely set the stage. The rest are from the last couple of days.

On June 21, a parent sits in the nest.

On July 15 the parents are feeding chicks in the nest with a dragonfly.

Now, the chicks are fledged and a parent searches endlessly on the wing for insects. 

A parent has caught a dragonfly.

A chick sitting away from the nest opens a wing.

A chick eats a dragonfly that a parent supplied.

Another chick has received a dragonfly from a parent. Photo by Cynthia Fraser.

And proceeds to eat it. Photo by Cynthia.

I didn’t manage a shot of a parent feeding a dragonfly to a chick, but did get one of a parent feeding a snowberry to a chick.

A day ago, I posted one picture of two heron chicks in a nest <blog.kootenay-lake.ca/?p=34785> and said that locally there were, maybe a half-dozen Great Blue Heron nests, but not one was easy to find and all were inaccessibly distant. I revisited the site, but only one nest is marginally photographable. So, here are some more pictures from that nest.

The two heron chicks look at each other.

When they would exercise their wings, they would reveal some white pin feathers on the underside. These feathers are growing and are developing, so have blood flowing through them. The pin feathers are sensitive.

The heron chicks spent much time preening.

In the heat of the day, the chicks panted.

And I just don’t know what is going  on here.