Exploring Kootenay Lake

Bohemian Waxwings have been here this winter, but they are not nearly as common as they have been other years. A few flocks were seen, but they remained distant. Finally, some flew close.

A Bohemian Waxwing flies by showing the red waxy tips to its wing feathers.

There are a number of reasons I don’t make use of commercial picture-sharing sites, but one of them is that I like to tell the story of what is going on — often spread over multiple images.

Yet, now and then, a picture just stands on its own. Such was the case with yesterday’s Red-tailed Hawk alighting on a tree branch. 

There has been a slight uptick in recent observations of the Varied Thrush around the region. This orange-coloured cousin of the robin (also a thrush) is a permanent, but sparse, resident of the region. In the winter, a few more of them can be seen as others migrate through the region.

I have recently spotted the Varied Thrush in a few places, but principally hanging around the rowan trees, where it seems to like both berries and the insects it finds there.

Unlike the robin, this thrush is remarkably skittish: if it realizes that you are watching, it is abruptly gone. 

However, the real reason for this posting is that I managed a picture showing it flying. I discovered that in all of my previous images, it is perched. Indeed, the vast majority of the online images also show it perched — it seems that it is difficult to take a shot of the Varied Thrush flying.

A male Varied Thrush forages in a rowan tree.

It then flew to a different location, and in doing so, spread its orange wingbars. 

The Red Crossbill is a colourful nomad. Its bill’s strangely crossed mandibles is an adaptation to enable it to pry seeds from cones. However, Red Crossbills seem to assemble in different groups, each apparently associated with, and probably adapted to, a particular conifer species. This specialization leads flocks of Red Crossbills to travel widely in search of their ideal food. They appear for a few days, but soon travel afar.

That crossbills pry seeds from conifer cones is clear, but I have never seen them do it. Rather, I have always seen them alongside and on roads satisfying their passion for salt.

An interesting characteristic of this bird is its range of hues: from red to orange to yellow and beige. 

The species is named for the brick red colour sported by some of the males. Although this bird is looking right at us, the crossed mandibles are evident.

By way of contrast, this female is beige.

While the species is named for the brick red of some of the males, there are many males that are distinctly orange.

And then there are the first-year males that are a striking yellow.

While the previous Red Crossbills were seen in trees alongside roads, they were merely using them as staging posts to enable them to feast on road salt. This is a female crossbill. Salt is ejected from ice as it freezes and so forms a thin saline solution on the ice surface. Consequently, the crossbill merely has to lick the surface to get the salt.

Crossbills were not the only finches seen foraging on road salt. Here are three pine siskins and two goldfinches.