March 1st to 4th 2010
Our walks at the Great Blue Heron Nature Reserve have been full of spring-like activity on the part of the birds and wildlife.
When we got near the Willow shrubs, a low hum floated to our ears of Honey Bees gathering pollen for their hive hidden far in the forest.
Red-winged Blackbirds can be found easily now and the females have shown up as well.
Bufflehead Ducks are still paddling along happily on the lagoons.
A Woolley Bear Caterpillar made its way across a gravel path.
Black-capped Chickadees called to each other and “chatted” about their finds in the shrubs.
Click below to hear the Black-capped Chickadees
Double-crested Cormorants are still visiting the lagoons and sloughs.
A Brown Creeper surprised us when we were trying to find a Golden-crowned Kinglet that slipped away when the Creeper appeared.
A Downy Woodpecker found a nice snack of a centipede and made short work of eating it.
Male House Finches are pretty in their new spring outfits.
Northern Red-shafted Flickers call to each other as we travel the pathways.
Click below to hear the Northern Red-shafted Flickers
Green Frogs are starting to wake up from their winter’s nap.
Canada Geese are pairing up for the nesting season.
Click below to hear the Canada Geese
Pied-billed Grebes were fishing together.
Steller’s Jays were in abundance far off in the forest of the Salwein Creek Loop.
Junco’s are still visiting but not as many now.
Hooded Mergansers are paired up along the slough area near the Heronry.
A little Hawk stopped for awhile in the top of a Cottonwood, we think that it is a Merlin.
The Great Horned Owl spends its time on the old Red-tailed Hawks’ nest while in the distance we heard its mate calling.
Ring-necked Ducks paddle in pairs around the lagoons; a couple of afternoons they were keeping company with a Lesser Scaup.
American Robins hop and stop along the routes that we take.
Song Sparrows are chasing each other and singing as loud as they can.
Click below to hear the Song Sparrows
Green-winged Teal spent time at the East Bird Blind on the 3rd of March.
Spotted Towhees are also calling to each other now.
Click below to hear the Spotted Towhees
American Wigeon were found chatting away.
A good sized flock of Wood Ducks held spring races with each other while constantly calling over and over again. We posted a 2 minute video of them, make sure that you have your sound on; it may take awhile to load.
Click below to hear the Wood Ducks
A Raccoon slept in the “dreamin’ tree” on the Salwein Creek Loop.
An American Coot was busy grazing near the edge of the South Lagoon when it looked worried about something nearby.
We looked to where the Coot was looking and there was a Mink under the overhanging grass. It popped out of the overhanging grass and leisurely checked out the surrounding area.
A Peregrine Falcon showed up just as we were leaving on the 3rd so we managed to get quite a few photos.
We enjoyed visits with Tony, Dick, Yvonne, Barb, Mike, Val, Janet, Barb, Leon, Alice, Delia and Pearl, the busy people at the Rotary Interpretive Centre and we waved to Jean, Marilyn, Eileen, Mary and Cynthia who were also very busy. We enjoyed a conversation with Dave B. who was kind enough to stop for a chat with us. It was really nice to meet you Dave. We also enjoyed meeting and talking to the very talented wood carving artist Eugene Shkurhan. He has a show of his incredibly detailed carvings of wild birds in one of the glass display cases along the hallway at the Rotary Interpretive Centre. It is really worth taking a look at this fantastic display.
We also stopped for a few minutes at the Vedder River to see the little American Dipper couple picking up nesting material and taking it to their incredibly hard to visualize nest in the underside of a bridge.
We are not authorities on birds, wildlife, plants, cameras or photography, if you are doing research on any subjects, please refer to a more educational site for advice and double-check whatever you research.
Back To Top
|
