Osprey diversion

Posted on August 16, 2016 by Alistair

 

Osprey chicks are still in the nest but are now as large as adults and easy to see.

Yesterday, I had expected to go on a nest-monitoring tour to estimate this year’s chick production. Alas, the tour was rescheduled, so, I headed out on my own — not to count chicks, merely to enjoy the birds.

Here are two shots from that jaunt.

A female Osprey comes in for a landing. She is banded. I have seen her a number of times before.

A Osprey family sits on what is a new nest this season. There are three chicks (the ones with speckled wings and orange eyes) and one female adult (second from the left with yellow eyes). Soon all will have migrated with the adults leaving first.

Of course, today is also the day of my Ogopogo talk.

 

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Haretage minuets

Posted on August 13, 2016 by Alistair

 

Haretage minuets: This posting offers insincere apologies to the Canadian series, Heritage Minutes.

I know that snowshoe hares are out there, but I rarely see them. It turns out I have been looking in the wrong places.

“I really like a good salad.”

“When asked to pose, I try to look my spiffy best.”

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Tadpoles

Posted on August 12, 2016 by Alistair

 

In late August, there is, what is called, a Toadfest at Summit Lake Park, southeast of Nakusp. The public gathers to help western toadlets cross the highway during their migration from lakeshore to uplands.

The problem of vehicles squishing thousands of toadlets as they cross a highway does not seem to exist at Kokanee Creek Park. There are toadlets, but a greater separation between water and highway.

Tadpoles roam ponds near the Lake. In another ten days, migrating toadlets will delight observers.

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Sandpiper migrants

Posted on August 11, 2016 by Alistair

 

This is the time of year to see non-resident sandpipers as they pass through our region. I already showed a Greater Yellowlegs. Here are two more seen this morning: a Solitary Sandpiper and … well, I don’t know what the second one is. 

A Solitary Sandpiper looks for delectables so as to refuel before continuing its journey south.

I did not know what this bird is. After a number of visually similar sandpipers were suggested, four experts now assure me that it is a Least Sandpiper. Thank you all.

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Blue bear

Posted on August 5, 2016 by Alistair

 

The bears keep coming. It is both the season and the year for it. 

To my eye (and to my computer’s colour meter), this bear is blue.

Black Bears certainly come in a delightful range of colours around here. Compare this colour with the last bear in a tree which was distinctly chocolate.

A blue Black Bear visits.

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Diminished judgement

Posted on August 4, 2016 by Alistair

 

To the list of useful devices for good wildlife photography, I may have added one more: supply your subject with a (possibly hallucinogenic) mushroom.

The Columbian Ground Squirrel is a skittish little beastie that is forever on guard and ready to vanish. So, it was unexpected that one nonchalantly allowed me to move closer and closer as I snapped pictures. When it finally had had enough of this encroachment, its departure was chaotic, heading first one way, then the other, then hiding its head in its tail. All of this was rather odd.

It was only when I looked at the pictures that I realized it had been eating a mushroom. Might this have affected its judgement?

A Columbian Ground Squirrel finishes off its mushroom in a state of some confusion.

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Ogopogo talk

Posted on August 3, 2016 by Alistair

 

Ogopogo is one of my favourite animals — each sighting is a thrill.

This posting is a shameless promotion of my forthcoming presentation about Ogopogo.

Seen around BC, this relative of Nessie is always described as a large serpentine lake monster. One mustn’t be swayed by the proprietorial posturing of the Okanagan tourism industry because Ogopogo sightings in Kootenay Lake extend back over a century. Indeed, on two recent occasions it was photographed in the waters adjacent to Kokanee Creek Park.

Title: Ogopogo Gait
Speaker: Alistair Fraser
Location: Nature Centre,
            Kokanee Creek Park
Date: Tues., 16 Aug. 2016
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Sponsor: Eco Society
Donation: toonie sought

It is at this park on August 16th that our favourite lake monster is featured in a presentation entitled:

Ogopogo Gait 
 a naturalist explains

Come and discover the leviathan that shares our waters. Learn what kind of animal is Ogopogo; Understand its seemingly erratic behaviour; Find out what are the most likely places and times for a sighting.

Along the way, this highly illustrated talk will romp over history, comparative anatomy, human perception, animal behaviour, the physics of swimming, marketing and even political posturing.

This stylized statue of Ogopogo in Kelowna has errors, but it is a passable representation of the lake monster seen around BC.

Second shameless promotion: Have Ogopogo talk, will travel.

 

Posted in commentary, mammals | 2 Comments

Bears in trees

Posted on August 1, 2016 by Alistair

 

There seems to be a rather large number of Black Bears around the valley bottoms this year, both scrounging on the ground and in the trees.

This is third posting showing a bear in a tree that I have made in the last two weeks. There are few times of the year when one gets to see this activity, and, indeed, rather few years in a decade. The last time I remember such a glut of bears in trees was four years ago. I wonder if this has been a particularly poor year for huckleberries on the mountainside.

A chocolate Black Bear was about five metres up a cherry tree. It didn’t like being watched.

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July goulash

Posted on July 31, 2016 by Alistair

 

This is an end-of-the-month collection of images, none of which has had a posting of its own.

An adult Great Blue Heron flies by.

A Bank Swallow parent flies in to feed a demanding chick. In July this has happened many times a day at many hundred cavity nests around the region.

I had been unsuccessful in photographing a juvenile Belted Kingfisher that visited with regularity. It always flew off when I appeared. Then one day, the presence of the juvenile (left) was challenged by an adult male (right). Both were sufficiently distracted that I manage a shot of both in flight. 

This sub-adult Bald Eagle has a supercilious look about it.

Owlet moths are unusual in that they fly during the day. This one, the Police Car Moth (Gnophaela vermiculata), sips from a celandine flower.

I have only seen a Black Bear cub in a tree once before, but did not manage a picture on that occasion. This one looks as if it is in its second year, having just been forced out of the family by its mother so she could breed again. 

Posted in birds, bugs, mammals | 3 Comments

Frustrated damselflies

Posted on July 30, 2016 by Alistair

 

It has been a frustrating season for damselfly couples: It seems that there is a shortage of suitable housing in which to raise a new family.

Usually by the end of July, damselflies have found partners, mated, flown off together, found accommodation, and laid eggs. This year seems to have been different. The problem is the availability of nurseries. Other years, many aquatic weeds breaking the surface of the Lake provide ideal egg-laying sites. This year, those plants have not quite reached the water surface leaving damselfly couples to search endlessly for accommodation.

Certainly, there is mating. Yet, this activity, which was so conspicuous in previous years, wasn’t this season. Rather, what was seen were couples searching endlessly for egg-laying sites. Here a male (blue) guides a female (yellow) in their search for a nursery.

When a more permanent site is not found, desperation seems to have driven one couple to pick a drifting leaf — who knows where it will end up? The laying is further complicated by the harassment of another desperate male who really wants the female for himself.

The situation is so desperate that one couple that actually found a tiny bit of floating aquatic weed is mercilessly pummelled by rivals. Another male has landed on the female’s back in an attempt to mate with her, and two other rivals hover overhead. What the female thinks of all of this went unrecorded.

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