{"id":12189,"date":"2014-12-12T09:13:05","date_gmt":"2014-12-12T17:13:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=12189"},"modified":"2014-12-12T09:49:01","modified_gmt":"2014-12-12T17:49:01","slug":"fetching-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=12189","title":{"rendered":"Fetching birds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I\u00a0usually\u00a0oblige my camera when it\u00a0asks to\u00a0be taken for\u00a0a walk. Unfortunately, my camera does not always reciprocate my kindness by\u00a0fetching\u00a0an interesting variety of subjects. On recent jaunts,\u00a0it has retrieved only birds, but at least it was fetching fetching birds. A dozen are below.<\/p>\n<p>The Great Blue Heron is a favourite of mine&#8212;maybe I identify with its cragginess.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12188\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/heron141201as2.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Canada Goose is not a favourite. While it\u00a0is lovely at a distance, it is\u00a0messy on one&#8217;s lawn. Here\u00a0are two of over a dozen flying by.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12200\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/goose141210s.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Nearby perched\u00a0a goshawk. Etymologically a goose hawk, our local\u00a0goshawk seems to lack\u00a0a taste for geese.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12201\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/goshawk141210s.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The American Coot is an easy bird to find in the winter, but a difficult one to photograph. Pictures usually show featureless black plumage with an over-exposed bill. It is satisfying to capture\u00a0both feather detail and bill shading.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12190\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/coot141204as.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Similarly, a\u00a0distant\u00a0view of\u00a0the male Bufflehead Duck usually offers\u00a0starkly black and white plumage. Only\u00a0a closer look reveals\u00a0iridescent colours on the head.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12191\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/bufflehead141204s1.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Black-billed Magpies prefer\u00a0extensive\u00a0meadows and grasslands, of which there are few around the Lake. This magpie was found in Harrop.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12202\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/magpie141210s.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">A Merlin hunts from a high perch.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12187\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/merlin141201s.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">It would have found these American Goldfinches tasty, but didn&#8217;t see them.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12184\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/goldfinch141208s.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Ring-necked Ducks (male, female, male) float on the Lake.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12183\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/ringneckducks141204s.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>While a Mallard leads Wigeons across the sky.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12186\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/mallardwigeon141201s.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A pair of Bald Eagles sit in a tree. The larger (upper) one is the female.\u00a0<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12192\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/eagle141201as.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Finally another heron steps out during a snowfall.<br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-12185\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/heron141201bs.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; I\u00a0usually\u00a0oblige my camera when it\u00a0asks to\u00a0be taken for\u00a0a walk. Unfortunately, my camera does not always reciprocate my kindness by\u00a0fetching\u00a0an interesting variety of subjects. On recent jaunts,\u00a0it has retrieved only birds, but at least it was fetching fetching birds. A &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=12189\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12189"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12220,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12189\/revisions\/12220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}