19-22July


19 July

eBird data:  https://ebird.org/checklist/S145068016

Weather:  8:30 am  20C wind NNW 8,   12:30 pm 25C wind NNW11

tide:  10:30 am 2.3m, falling

20 July

eBird data:  https://ebird.org/checklist/S145119344

weather:  8:30 am 22C wind NNW9,  12:00 m 24C wind NNE 5 clear

tide:  10:30 am 2.7m, falling

21 July

eBird data: https://ebird.org/checklist/S145208950

weather:  8:30 am 20C, 12:30 pm 23 C partly cloudy

Tide:  10:30 am 3.0m,  falling

22 July

eBird data: https://ebird.org/checklist/S145208950

weather:   8:00 am 19C wind SE7,  12:30 pm 22C wind NNE 10, partly cloudy, brief rainshower

tide:  10:30 am 3.2m, falling

It's been some time since I've spent four consecutive mornings in the Estuary.  When I first settled in Parksville, it was my regular destination, but lately I've found myself involved in other projects and have done well if I manage two mornings a week.  I've regretted that;  it still feels like I belong there.  So these past mornings have been a gift, despite hot and muggy weather.

19 July

One of the highlights of this week has been encounters with youngsters--newly fledged birds exploring their habitat.  

The young eagle, who can fly independently for some distances, still returns to his nest, and roosts, flapping his quite impressive wings.


The family of mergansers have done very well--all seven youngsters are now well grown, but still swim in a group along with Momma Merganser.


I'm not certain why they were so busy preening in this photo.  I hope there wasn't some contaminant in the river.

Two sibs were having a conversation in this shot:


It's one of those photos that calls for a caption...

As I sat on my coffee and duck-counting bench (no ducks this season), a very young song sparrow was helping himself to the blackberries.


He seems to have found well-ripened berries, judging by his face.  If you enlarge the photo, you can actually see droplets of juice on his feathers.

There was smoke over the mainland.


And Arrowsmith's winter snow pillow is almost entirely gone.


20 July

Another warm morning, and evidence of the drought.


Grand firs are evergreen (well, duh!), and shouldn't be showing brown patches on their needles but there's quite a bit of this sort of thing appearing.


The river is down, although the trees lining it are still keeping their colour.

I often hear pacific-slope flycatchers in the forest, but seldom manage a photo.  This one was quite obliging. (I now learn that they have recently been lumped with Cordilleran flycatchers and re-named Western Flycatchers.  )


There's a spot along the river that has been re-vegetated (is that a word?), and the new growth seems very attractive to butterflies and dragonflies.


I think this pine white is quite elegant in its black and white tracery.

...Back to the children's hour--yet another song sparrow, really newly fledged and, I think, just ridiculously cute.


Not only does he still have the disheveled plumage of the newly fledged, but he's yet to learn about cleaning his beak after snacking.  Still, he looks somehow sweet and ingenuous.  (He did actually have two legs--one is holding the branch but not visible.  It's a bird thing.)

21 July

Oh frabjous day!  After two months absent, a dipper has returned to the river.  I really wasn't expecting to see one, with the water level so low in his usual habitat, but there he was.  I think he's not fully mature--his beak and feet are still rather light, and his wing feathers are tipped with white.


I'm not even sure I should be happy to see him--dippers tend to prefer clean, running water and as is evident, this little side stream of the river was decidedly scummy.  I hope this isn't an indicator of problems upstream.

A common but handsome dragonfly perched for me.


 

It's a female common white-tail.  The male's body is white.   There are quite a few of them just now, but they don't cooperate with photography all that often...

22 July

A morning that gave a hope of rain, with scattered clouds.  In fact there was a very brief shower on my way home, but really minimal.  It smelled wonderful, though.  

The foliage is looking increasingly dry.


A willow flycatcher sat at his usual perch.


The tide was higher than it's been at mid-morning.


Partly due to seasonal change--the autumn migration will soon be underway--and possibly due to the higher tide, I saw more shorebirds than I have since springtime.  There were two black-bellied plovers, far too distant to photograph, and a greater yellowlegs, also out of photo range.  I could hear the yellowlegs.  

The dipper was still at the river.  He appeared to be catching caddis fly larvae, smacking their shells on a rock, and feeding on the larvae.  




It was quite a process, definitely interesting to watch.   Dippers have such a variety of behaviours, including smacking their meals on rocks.  

As I made my way home, I found this elegantly built hornet's nest.  


I recently saw a picture of one of these with the caption, "World's worst piñata."  True!

Home, without taking a closer look at the "piñata."  Discretion is the better part when it comes to wasps. 

The cloudy sky gave a false hope over a falling river.




























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