Exploring Kootenay Lake

The Grey-crowned Rosy Finch is not a bird that is often seen, at least not by valley dwellers. It breeds high in the mountains, usually in the vicinity of permanent snowfields.

So it was that on hike up to the Kokanee Glacier last Saturday, Doug Thorburn photographed one and noted:

I didn’t get to spot a nest, but I could hear them
feeding young somewhere nearby.

Doug Thorburn’s pictures are used with permission.

This catch up of recent birds is presented in the order they were taken. 

A Cedar Waxwing at Kokanee Creek Park

A Tree Swallow brings an insect to its chick in a nest cavity.
 

A Spotted Sandpiper chick is out foraging on its own along a beach.

A Red-tailed Hawk soars over Fish Lake. 

An Osprey nest with two chicks

One of the Osprey chicks is being fed by its mother.

At first thought to be a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, this bird is now determined to be a Red-naped Sapsucker. It tried its luck on a utility pole but soon gave up finding sap there.

Loons do not nest on Kootenay Lake because the springtime changes in water level are so large that a shoreline nest would be flooded. Yet, they do nest nearby on small lakes higher in the mountains, which is where I saw one last year. This year, the nest on that lake was much more distant across the water. I still managed some views, first of loons in waters near me, and then of eggs in the nest.  

 While the loons usually stay far from humans, on this occasion they were close.

This allowed some detailed views.

The nest was not always occupied but, on this occasion, it was.

When the loon was not incubating, two eggs were evident.

This backside view of a loon adjusting the position of its eggs with its bill is the oddest bird picture I have taken.

Bird chicks seem to like to be looked after by their parents long after such care is needed.

Last year, I posted pictures of osprey parents coaxing their chicks to go off on their own: It’s time you went. Today, flicker parents seemed to drive off their chick. I am not sure this is what was happening, but for an hour or so, adults were not only blocking access to the nest, but gently easing a fledged chick farther and farther from it.

This picture of a flicker chick in the nest cavity was taken a week ago by my grandson, Finn. The cavity is in a piling at the end of a long ramp to a dock.

This morning, the chick was out of the nest and on the ramp to the dock. For an hour or so, an adult (female, left) blocked repeated attempts by the chick (right) to move towards the nest.

The process of driving the chick off to fend for itself took place on the surface, in the air, and any handy perch. Here, the chick (lower left) is on roof of a nearby gazebo, while a male adult on the finial blocked its ability to fly off—or that is what appeared to be happening. As is evident from the picture, these are Red-shafted Northern Flickers.