I am one of those who is unfamiliar with breeds of domestic ducks. So, when a giant Mallard turned up amongst a flock of familiar Mallards, it was worth recording.
It seems now that the giant is a Rouen Duck, a domesticated mallard that has been bred for its weight. This one has gone native.
The Rouen Duck dwarfs the Mallards it now accompanies in the wild.
If it didn’t look like its ancestral species, one might have guessed this was a goose.
Although the Red-winged Blackbird is abundant through much of North America, it is not all that common around Kootenay Lake. The fields and marshes this bird prefers are in short supply around the heavily forested lakeshore—except, at the south end of the Main Lake where large flocks were seen this week.
A flock of Red-winged Blackbirds forages in a field. They are readily identified by their coloured epaulettes. 
The males like to perch on poles and reeds and display their red and yellow epaulettes. That this male is immature is evident from the orange edges on its otherwise black feathers.
The female Red-winged Blackbird not only has better camouflage colours, but attempts to stay hidden. 
The raucous posturing of the males makes them an inviting subject for photographers. 
Named for its mule-like ears, the Mule Deer
also has a rope-like tail with a black tip.
We have two species of deer around the Lake: Mule Deer and White-tailed Deer.
White-tailed Deer are seen mainly at the valley bottom (discussion of white tail, facetious comments).
Mule Deer are seen mainly on the mountain slopes. It has always struck me as a little odd that every description of this deer mentions not just its ears and tail, but also its black brow. Yet, my sightings have only shown the faintest trace of such a feature.
This changed yesterday when I finally saw a Mule Deer with a truly black brow.
The first Mule Deer seen yesterday had only the normal touch of darkness on its brow.
However, the second one had clearly read the guide books and had chosen to conform to the script.
Dabbling mallards stick their tails in the air as
their bills sweep the shallows for things to eat.
Waterfowl adopt one of two different foraging techniques: diving or dabbling.
Divers, such as loons, grebes, mergansers, might be seen anywhere on the Lake, but are often found far from shore.
Dabblers, such as mallards, geese, and swans, generally forage in the shallows close to shore so their bills can sweep the bottom for things to eat. Little pits are left where the bills have probed. These pits are revealed during the low water of late winter and early spring.
Dabble pits are revealed during low water.
Myriad small columns of ice rise out of the ground. These are ice extrusions.
Typically, these are seen when the daytime temperature is above 0C and the nighttime temperature is below. During daytime, water drains into the cavities within a porous soil; during nighttime, the freezing water expands forcing little columns of ice up through the ground. Those of us who remember the home delivery of milk to a cold doorstep in the winter are already familiar with the process whereby the cap of the milk bottle was lifted atop a column of frozen cream.
Sometimes an extrusion is long enough to bend and droop like a petal under its own weight. This sinuous form prompts some to call them ice flowers, but they, despite that descriptor, should not be confused with frost flowers.
Although an ice extrusion and a frost flower both appear as small frozen structures above the ground surface, each is distinctly different in origin. The ice extrusion arises from the freezing of what was initially liquid water in the ground; the frost flower arises from the condensation of what was initially water vapour above the ground.
Myriad ice extrusions arise from the ground.
As I watched two coyotes this morning, I sensed a pattern. So, I looked through all my (dated) coyote pictures for a decade and the pattern became clear: I only see coyotes hunting from December through April. Now, I live at the valley bottom. I am sure that the general coyote absence during the summer is merely a consequence of their having moved higher in the mountains as the snow recedes.
Two coyotes emerged from the brush alongside a tertiary road. 
They ignored me standing nearby, but soon drifted across the road and into the woods on the other side. 
I was sitting by my doorway when some yard birds asked if I would help them with their passport photos. These are notoriously head-on shots without a smile.
Black-capped Chickadee: “I don’t like it; you made me look like an egg with feet.”
Steller’s Jay: “I never cross the border, so why, when close, do I get bills for use of another country’s data plan?”
Red-breasted Nuthatch: “I must fly to live, but I fear that my black bandit mask might get me on a no-fly list.”
I saw my first swans of the year this morning: two Trumpeters. Mind you, I discovered later that I had not been the first to spot them, but that did not diminish the delight in seeing them once again.
Both Trumpeter and Tundra Swans migrate through our region in the spring and sometimes in the fall. Many people watch for their passage.
Two pictures of this morning’s Trumpeter Swans are below.
There are ponds and marshes on the west side of Kokanee Creek Park. They offer a superb area for observing birds and dragonflies. While wandering through them, I never gave much thought to how they might have formed. That is until Derek Kite pointed out the obvious in his comment to my recent posting, bank slump. They are earlier channels of the ever-changing creek, albeit now modified by beaver dams.
A shot of the ponds and marshes shows how they trace older paths of the creek.
A view from a greater height shows the present path of the creek in the background. In a few years, it will break through at a bend and provide even more ponds for the birds.
