March 12, 2008
Today was one of those days that amazed us when we got to the Great Blue Heron Nature Reserve here in Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada; we are putting the city, province and country in our journal today for those of you reading from out of the country.
There were more than a lot of birds present when we got to the Salwein Creek loop; the Red-winged Blackbirds were singing one of their many compositions to each other, while in the background, ducks quacked, song birds sang and a Flicker called, sounding close to a Pileated Woodpecker’s call. Click the triangle on the bar below for a quick listen to some of what we heard.
Towhees danced in the leaves with a forward, backward motion to stir up the insects, Robins wandered the pathways in groups, Juncos flitted past us and Song Sparrows stole quick glances at us in between finding something to eat.
A Male and Female Hairy Woodpecker checked out some of the trees along the Salwein Creek loop pathway.
Wood Ducks paddled behind the East Bird Blind in groups, looking for edibles and just keeping each other company.
As we were starting along the Salwein Creek loop pathway, we stopped in our tracks, a male and female Wood Duck were in the area; the female on the Nest Box specifically put out for the Wood Ducks to nest in and the male was on a tree branch nearby. We didn’t want to scare them away, so we stood at the far end of the pathway behind some shrubs and took photos from a distance. Soon another female and male joined them in the inspection of the Nest Box and the tree until some people walked along the dyke road and they all took off at once.
We stopped in at the Rotary Interpretive Centre and told Janet, Christine, Cynthia and Tony about our sightings and headed home for lunch.
We couldn’t waste the sunshine today, so we headed back to the reserve to get some more Great Blue Heron nesting photos. They are so much fun to watch.
We got over a hundred photos and headed off to the Salwein Creek for a short look around. We saw a cute little Grebe sink like a rock and rise up again to check us out before diving for its lunch. A female Scaup looked back at us as we walked along.
We were standing under an Oso Berry shrub and the sound of Honey Bees caught our attention. The plant was starting to flower and was incredibly crowded with Honey Bees, it was an encouraging sight to behold.
Salmonberry and Wild Currant plants are starting to come into full bloom, so the hummingbirds cannot be far behind as these are two of their favourite flowers to find nectar.
Double-crested Cormorants stood on their favourite log on the North Lagoon and as we passed we took a few photos.
We stopped in at the Rotary Interpretive Centre and somehow got Janet, Donna, Dick and Diana outside to look at the Eagles in the tree near the Rotary Interpretive Centre. We got a sound clip of the darker headed Eagle, Click the triangle on the bar below to hear it call.
While we were all looking at the Eagles, Leon came in to do some work on the Heron Webcams; they are really spectacular and if you visit the reserve, take a minute to go into the Great Hall to see the webcams of the Great Blue Herons at work on their nests.
We took a few photos of some pretty Crocus blooming, then said so-long to everyone for another day. It was a really fun day at the reserve and the signs of spring helped make it so nice.
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March 10, 2008
We have been really busy and haven’t updated our journal, so here is a delayed and very short report on our enjoyable walk around the Sardis Park pond on Monday afternoon.
There were the usual American Coots everywhere and of course we had to take photos of them.
As well, a few beautiful Scaup were present; they approached us and gave us their best sides to photograph.
The Northern Shoveler was particularly co-operative with us and we got quite a few photos of him as he sailed around the pond.
There were a few Bufflehead Ducks at the pond and American Wigeon were also there.
A couple of Gulls caught our attention, we wish that we could identify Gulls better but we are hoping to be able to educate ourselves to the intricacies of Gull identification as time goes on.
A flock of Bushtits stopped in a shrub next to the pond; unfortunately the light was not very good for taking little grey birds against a grey sky.
Also present were the Yellow-rumped Warblers that Gord had posted seeing on his Fraser Valley Birding website; again, the light was just not right for taking photos of little birds in shadowed areas.
Finally, a Great Blue Heron surprised us by standing on a log at the park instead of being with all the Herons nesting at the moment.
It was a really nice day and we did see quite a few more birds but our time constraints have limited the amount of photos we are posting for this journal.
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March 6th to 8th, 2008
We have been busy and haven’t updated our journal for three days but we did get out for short walks everyday, so we have decided to do a quick journal tonight and just put some of the representative birds that we have seen over the past three days.
The photos will not be in order of when we saw them and these photos are just a small sampling of all of the wonderful birds that we saw.
Buffleheads are one of the smallest ducks that we often see at the reserve at this time of year. The male is the one with white on his body, while the female is the darker one. They are diving ducks and frequently it will appear that there aren’t any on the lagoons; moments later there will be half a dozen or more.
Black-capped Chickadees are one of our favourite song birds at the reserve and they are starting their nest right now. They are a regular sighting for all of you people from out of the country. They love sunflower seeds and often will become tame enough to eat them right out of your hand.
Common Mergansers are diving birds, and the one pictured here is a female. We have seen one with over a dozen chicks following after her, some even riding on her back.
The Canada Goose is recognized everywhere. We have sighted this pair standing in trees, we find that this is not common for their species but we have been told that a pair has nested in a tree here at the reserve before and we think that these two are related in some way to the ones that nested in the tree.
House Finches have rather beautiful, strong voices and we often hear them singing very melodically. The male has a vibrant red colour in his crown.
American Robins are very common to North America and we do take them for granted. It is one of the first birds that children in North America can identify. Most people have seen at least one Robin pulling an earth worm out of some lawn somewhere.
Pied-billed Grebe is another diver and one of it’s identification marks is the stripe across it’s bill. We have seen these little guys actually sink like a rock when they want to get out of sight quickly.
Great Blue Heron are the reserve’s namesake; they are nesting at the reserve at the moment; it would be good timing to visit the reserve see them.
Ravens are very, very large crow-like birds. They glisten in the sun and have a very loud raucous voice.
Ring-necked Ducks are very visible at the reserve at the moment and they really do have a burgundy ring at their neck. More visible is a white stripe across their bill. The male is the one with the dark head and the female has a brown head.
Last on our list of some of the birds seen over the last three days at the Great Blue Heron Nature Reserve is the Wood Duck. They are the male with a carnival of colours and the female with her quietly reserved greys, purples and blues. They usually nest in a tree hollow or nest box and their chicks start following around after them sometime in May.
Another thing that we want to address is the volunteers that work in many different areas of the Great Blue Heron Nature Reserve. We would like to say that they are dedicated and wonderful people and without them we don’t think that the reserve would be there, so thank you to all of you great volunteers that we enjoy talking to when we visit the reserve.
That’s it for now, people. We hope that you enjoy your well deserved weekend. Thanks for taking the time to look at our journal.
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March 5, 2008
We walked around the Salwein Creek Loop this morning for a little exercise and everywhere we went there were American Robins. They are considered common in British Columbia and often ignored by people here but they certainly can be photogenic and colourful.
There were a couple of Grebes swimming on the North Lagoon and the Belted Kingfisher stopped in a tree before flying off to find some fish somewhere in the Salwein Creek.
Chickadees were busy building a nest in an old dead stump; they were very busy taking the wood chips to another branch and carefully scattering them so that predators would not find their nest.
A Canada Goose stood on one of the posts next to the pathway at the North Lagoon.
We stopped at the South Lagoon for a moment and looked over to the Heron Nests, Bruce said “Here comes a Heron, Here comes another one, Here comes a lot of Herons” and just as he said, first there was one, then two, then all of a sudden about 50 Great Blue Herons were flying across the South Lagoon toward us. It was a magnificent sight, unfortunately we didn’t have the smaller lens on the cameras and all we could do was get a few flying Heron shots and watch in amazement as they flew over our heads and off into the woods behind us.
We stopped in at the Rotary Interpretive Centre to say hello to Tony, Janet and John and headed home to have lunch, at the parking lot we had to stop for a moment to take a couple of photos of a female Red-winged Blackbird and a Brown-headed Cowbird.
We got back to the reserve and headed straight for the Great Blue Heron Rookery; a young Bald Eagle, an adult Bald Eagle and a huge Golden Eagle were flying through the woods chasing each other when we were walking along.
Of course, we took way too many photos of the Great Blue Herons and the nest that was being argued over yesterday was completely empty today. There were a lot more arguments and nest building going on.
The pair of Great Blue Heron that were building the new nest yesterday, where we saw the first stick being placed, now had the start of a very fine looking nest.
We recorded some of the sounds that the Herons and Eagles were making this afternoon, the first sounds are the Herons and the second part is the Bald Eagle. It is a very short sound clip and if you click on the player, you will hear some of what we heard today.
The resident Bald Eagles were busy calling to each other and looking very Eagle-like.
One of them sat at a nest and called to the other, finally they both sat just watching and waiting.
We decided that the sun was getting low on the horizon, so we started back to the Rotary Interpretive Centre. We stopped momentarily to take a few photos of some Wood Ducks, then stopped in to say hello to Janet, Donna, Alma and Nora before heading home for our second barbeque of the season. Great weather today and even though it is winter we know that spring really is on the way. A few crocuses blooming in the garden at the entrance to the reserve really made us feel that it is.
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