{"id":27931,"date":"2019-12-31T06:58:40","date_gmt":"2019-12-31T14:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=27931"},"modified":"2019-12-31T06:58:40","modified_gmt":"2019-12-31T14:58:40","slug":"december-goulash-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=27931","title":{"rendered":"December goulash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This is a collection of images from this December, none of which has had a posting of its own.<\/p>\n<p>A Coyote hunts for voles in a field. <br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-27882\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/coyote191214s.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Each winter, Nelson&#8217;s waterfront plays host to a variety of interesting water birds. Already having received postings have been <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=27647\">coots<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=27689\">Barrow&#8217;s Goldeneyes<\/a>. Here are four Greater Scaups. The males have black heads, the females, brown.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-27932\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/greaterscaup191228s.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This is a view of border ice as seen from the bank of a creek. The circular patches are methane bubbles that have formed as a consequence of dead organic material having first settled on the stream bottom. Then bacterial decomposition released methane, which rose as bubbles, but became trapped under the ice. <br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-27933\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/methanebubble191209s.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A bighorn ram curls his upper lip back in the flehmen response. This gives him an enhanced ability to detect the pheromones of ewes in oestrus. Apparently, he hopes that the rut is still on.\u00a0<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-27934\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/bighornsheep191214bs.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>For a while centred on 2017, this region experienced many hares. Hare populations are notoriously cyclic and by 2019 the visibility of hares had plummeted. However, all the hares have apparently not vanished, as is evident when a fresh snowfall reveals their tracks.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-27953\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/hare191218s.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A dipper flies underwater as it forages for Kokanee eggs and aquatic arthropods on the creek bed.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-27935\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/dipper191218s.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Nicknamed for being <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=27848\">leucistic<\/a>, Lucy (Goosey) was spotted earlier this month for the first time in a half-dozen years. Seen again at the month&#8217;s end, she is apparently now hanging about nearby.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/goose191230s.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-27956\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The final picture is here merely for the fun of it. It is a Common Merganser that has just lifted its head after scanning underwater for fish. That it is a juvenile is evident by the yellow eye and white patch between bill and eye.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-27954\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/merganser191228s2.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"720\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; This is a collection of images from this December, none of which has had a posting of its own. A Coyote hunts for voles in a field. Each winter, Nelson&#8217;s waterfront plays host to a variety of interesting water &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=27931\">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":[9,11,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds","category-mammals","category-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27931","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=27931"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27965,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27931\/revisions\/27965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}