Wednesday 22 January 2014

#80

Today, while doing school, my mom said, "Is that a bird?" I swung open the back door, and what is calling, but a Blue Jay! Congratulations Mom!!!

Upon heading outside, I spotted the jay flying across the woodpile at the back of the yard with a large nut in its mouth, and then situated himself in the middle of a short conifer to dissect and eat his nut. After his filling meal, he floated over to a massive evergreen at the left side of the property, and started to imitate such things as Black-billed Magpie and Steller's Jay. After a good while amusingly watching the Blue Jay on my part, the corvid decided I had paid attention to him enough, so he moved to another, but more distant tree, doing his unique "queedle - ee - dee" call all the way.

Numero 80 for the year, and I give all the credit to my mother for hearing, then seeing it!

Thursday 16 January 2014

Glaucous Gull!!!

Finally. I finally busted my clean record of no Glaucous Gulls in British Columbia today.


I was at Kinsmen Park in Kelowna today, and I was searching through around 70 Herring Gulls, 9 Glaucous-winged Gulls, 10+ Glaucous-winged X Western Gulls, 8 Ring-billed Gulls, and 1 California Gull for something uncommon. I did pick out 2 Thayer's Gulls in the group, which is always nice, but the bird to come was the best of all. Briefly putting down my binoculars from scanning, I saw a very white gull swim out from a group of Herring. Raising the binos back up revealed a very large gull with a light gray back, thick neck, heavy head, thick beak, and the tell-tale feature: white primaries.


I had found my nemesis Glaucous Gull!!! An adult at that. Happy dance time......! :)



Glaucous Gull



Tuesday 7 January 2014

Birding over the weekend

Here is a recap of the birding I did last weekend.

January 4th :

I went to Rotary Marsh, here in Kelowna; on a gorgeous sunny day, with a cool, brisk breeze swirling around. On the outermost pond of the complex, I was greeted with a sight I just had to photograph. There was golden sunlight pouring down on the tall grass by the water, and a heron situated in the most perfect location and position. Also in my frame of view were three Gadwall swimming away. I called this picture "Nature at its finest" for the whole gist of the photograph.


Nature at its finest - Great Blue Heron and three Gadwall

Walking along the path that skirts the inner ponds at Rotary Marsh, I was counting far too many people walking up and down the path. I mean FAR too many. ( 50+ in five minutes of walking! ) I guess they were there for the same reasons I was - fresh air, the great outdoors, and all of that beautiful sunshine. But I was there for two other reasons; birding and photography.

Getting back to the birds, I continued on, looking over the 100 plus Mallard busying themselves in the crowded pond. There was a lone male Bufflehead though, apparently keeping the Mallards in line, as he dove up and down in the middle of the other ducks.
Rotary Marsh's paths fork as the main trail reaches Okanagan Lake. The left fork loops around, and continues on almost forever along the water until it reaches Bennett Bridge. I took the right fork, which leads to a jetty at which you can scan the lake all you like. At the point, there are usually many dozen bay ducks out in the water ( scaup, Redhead, Canvasback, Ring-necked Duck ). Not today, though. No ducks were to be seen excluding the omnipresent Mallards nearby. A few minutes of scanning the lake did produce some rewards, however. I counted 2 Horned Grebes, 1 Red-necked Grebe, 1 Pied-billed Grebe, and 200 American Coots. After a few more minutes of waiting, I noted Hooded and Common Mergansers, and a few more Gadwall; which flew past for a picture.


Gadwall

On my way back to the car, I watched two Sharp-shinned Hawks fighting as they flew passed. That was an interesting sight!

Next up was Sutherland Bay, which is about a 3 minute drive from Rotary Marsh. At the bay, there was more of the same birds I saw at Rotary Marsh, but this Ring-billed Gull was preening and posing nicely for some low-angle shots.


Ring-billed Gull preening

January 5th :

I happened to be in Salmon Arm on January 5th, so naturally, as a birder, I had to check out Salmon Arm Bay for a quick visit. In general, there were not too many birds around, as the whole bay was iced over, but in a tiny, LITTLE patch of water near shore, I found a cute male Green-winged Teal, which was a year-bird. Other birds around the bay were : Mallard, Bald Eagle, Song Sparrow, American Goldfinch, 2 Marsh Wren ( those are fun to get in the winter ), and this Black-capped Chickadee.


Black-capped Chickadee

Thank you for looking, and good birding to everyone!