12, 13 February

 

12 February

eBird Data: https://ebird.org/checklist/S80987941

Weather:  8am -3C wind SSE 8, 1pm -1C wind ESE 12

Tide:  11 am 3.4m, turning

13 February

eBird Data:  https://ebird.org/checklist/S81258634

Weather:  10 am -2C wind WNW 2,  2pm 0C wind calm, light snow throughout the morning, after heavy snowfall during night

Tide:  12 noon 3.1m, turning to rise

12 February

A cold morning.  Light overcast.  The paths are frozen hard, which makes walking much easier than dealing with mud.  

The other day I met a guy here who said he worked in forestry but who seemed to have a good sense of weather.  He explained this kind of cloud formation in a way that makes sense to me.

I often see this kind of wrinkled cloud over Parksville.  It's not something I remember seeing a lot elsewhere.  He says the air mass gets "piled up" between the Coast Range to the east and the mountains on Vancouver Island, and especially here, where there are two smaller Gulf Islands with mountainous backbones to hold things in place.  Interesting and probably not mere "mansplaining."  I often see (and have photographed) a clear sky above the Coast Range, clouds over the east side of Vancouver Island and light above the Arrowsmith massif.  

The tide has been low these past few days, leaving sandbars open and spaces for waterfowl.  A pair of kildeer (too distant to photograph) have appeared.  I hadn't seen them for some months.

In addition, there is a smallish flock of golden-crowned sparrows, who hang about my duck counting bench.  I don't recall seeing sparrows eating grass before but these little characters certainly do.  Note the green stains on the beak.  He looks quite fluffy--feathers do make for good insulation.

As usual, I checked the eagle nests--there were a pair of eagles near the downstream nest, possibly checking out the neigbourhood, but nobody on the upstream nest.  

On the return path, there was a Northern Shrike!  Wow.  But alas, he took off before I could get my camera organised.  Never mind, no doubt he'll reappear.  

13 February.

It took a lot of coaxing to get me on the path this morning.  There had been a heavy snowfall in the night, and for some reason, as I recall, I tend to sleep in when there's a heavy snow.  There is speculation that, as a species, we were meant to hibernate.  I could see this applying--or at least if not true deep hibernation ala marmot, doing a torpor as do bears.  I even took time to shovel the snow off my sidewalk, my neighbour's sidewalk, and my steps (few things nastier than snow frozen onto one's steps).  But eventually I hit the road and goodness me!  What I would have missed!  It wasn't particularly cold, certainly warmer than yesterday and walking was easier in the snow than I'd anticipated.

Photos were a bit tricky.  It was still snowing, so the more distant the shot, the more the autofocus was confused by all the flakes between the camera and the subject.  But the snowfall was intermittent in intensity and I got lucky a few times.

Paths and fields were quite lovely.

 

For some reason there were lots of raptors.

First, I saw two juvenile Cooper's hawks along the path.  It was snowing heavily enough at that point that I couldn't get a photo but that's certainly what they were.  

Not raptors but there is a patch of bamboo where there was a nice song sparrow.  I think the photo has elements of Japanese art...

Out towards the shore there was a quite splendid merlin--I think what is called a "black merlin."  I managed an ok photo of that bird.

There was also a flight of trumpeter swans overhead.  I heard them before I saw them.  Again the snow got in the way of a clear photo, but here are two of them.  

There was quite a low tide.  As usual I sat on my duck-counting bench (after clearing snow).  A peregrine falcon flew over, obscured by snow, but clearly recognisable.

Checking the eagles' nests along the river, the downstream nest was empty but two eagles were perched nearby, perhaps checking out the neighbourhood.  Upstream, however, was busier.  There were two eagles, one initially on the nest, one perched nearby.  These aren't great photos, but I hope they'll do for documentation.

I hadn't noticed the second eagle until I downloaded this photo.  I think he's feeding on something.

On my return walk, I checked the dipper bend, but no dipper.  Someone had built snowmen, though:

It was a fine morning all told.  Tomorrow there's more snow forecast and then a change to rain, which will no doubt return us to mud and slush.