12, 13 February

 12 February

eBird data:https://ebird.org/checklist/S102515311

weather:  8:30 am -2 C wind calm,  12:30 pm  7C wind WNW 8, hard frost

tide:  10:30 am 3.8 m, turning 

13 February

eBird data:  https://ebird.org/checklist/S102589366

weather:  8:30 am -2C, 12:30 5C, wind data unavailable, initially cloudy, then clearing

tide:  10:30 am 3.7 m, mid-tide, rising


12 February

A brilliantly clear morning but startlingly chilly--it's been milder for some days, but there was a hard frost this morning.

At 9 am there was, yet again, a very noisy and raucous "Freedom Convoy," which I gather had set out from Campbell River enroute to Victoria.  It was the loudest of the three Saturdays when this has happened and went on for longer.  I find it very upsetting.  I'd always thought (most) Canadians were more or less civil people, at least overtly, but this is goon behaviour.  

Nevertheless, I bundled up, put on my warmest socks and set out to the Estuary.

There was a pair of Eurasian collared-doves, I think posing for a Valentine.


The path to the Mills Road trailhead was a contrast between frost and early growth on the foliage.


There was patchy fog over the islands in the Straits.


I'm still trying, without any real success, to get a good photo of one of the harriers that hunt the Estuary fields. 


One day I'll do these birds justice.  This is getting into range, but not quite yet there.  

The river is now flowing calm and very clear.



Brown creepers are evasive little birds,  very skilled at making their way behind trees when they see cameras.  This one was a bit more cooperative.


13 February

Another clear, chilly morning.  I find it curious that the bird population seems lower on clear mornings.  Still, there were some interesting sightings.

Again, the path to the shore was frosty, and highlighted by the new growth on the wild rosebushes and osiers.


Offshore, the Salish Sea was calm, and there was an abundance of waterfowl.




It was good to see the blue sky and the sea.  There is beginning to be a scent of herring spawn (somehow a bit like cucumber), early, but possible.  

The pair of Eurasian wigeons that have been busily swimming about near the shore seem to have become aware of Valentine's Day and waxed romantic.



This is curious, since they shouldn't really be nesting down here, and I don't really have much of a sense of recreational sex among ducks.  Nevertheless, there they were.



I don't often take photos of great blue herons, but this one, hunting in the flats near the shore, seemed worth a shot.


The river continues to be clear and calm.


Something new to me--there were three--count 'em--three--female pileated woodpeckers in a stand of alder and a red-breasted sapsucker, all within maybe 20 metres of one another.  





The sapsucker seemed quite tiny beside the pileateds, although they're really not small birds at all.

It was, all in all, a good morning out, and I headed home ready for some hot soup and warm slippers.



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