Sunday, May 30th we woke up to sunshine. Spent the day just wandering and looking for birds and anything else of interest. Birds were obviously in the middle of nesting, so quiet and secretive, but even so, by the end of the day we’d complied a pretty good list….so in no greatly organize order, here we go…
Here is a section of the trail that runs along the river….this section would be directly behind the spot we were camped in…
there is a Spotted Sandpiper on that log….there were a number of Spotted Sandpiper all along the river…
here is another section of the trail….this is closer to the bridge…you can see that a section of it has collapsed into the river…
Some more of those ‘Canada Violets’…
and in more forested areas….Early Blue Violets….
also in the more forested areas, this white wild flower is Baneberry ~ this plant will sport bright red berries later in the summer ~ not to be eaten though as they are extremely poisonous!
Growing in the same damp, forested area is this green flower, known as Black Sanicle – don’t ask me why!
Apart from a couple of junco, this area had been very ‘bird less’, hence the flower pictures….and this little guy….a one eared Chipmunk. If you’ve ever watched these cute little critters interact at times, it isn’t surprising that occasionally someone looses an ear!
another walk took us down to the south side of the bridge…
this picture is looking down the river from the day use picnic site….
found some Red Columbine in flower in the picnic area….
Sometimes this is a very ‘birdy’ area, but not on this particular day. Did spot this little guy that I think is a ‘Hammond’s Flycatcher’ ~ came to that conclusion after pouring over ‘flycatchers’ in my ‘Sibleys’
some Red-breasted Nuthatch too, this one was looking for creepy crawlies on the undersides of the leaves….no doubt taking them back to a nest of youngsters….
Most of the bird activity was concentrated right around the campground side of the bridge….here a pair of Violet Green Swallows (male on left, female on right) were perched on part of the bridge itself….these swallows nest on the bridge…
this robin obviously had a hungry brood somewhere close by as well….
and here we go, another Swainson’s Thrush….the ones here were acting a bit more like I expect Swainson’s Thrush to behave….sneaking about in the denser parts of the forest….
hard to see, both here and then, is this hummingbird. I have no idea what kind…I suspect it is a young one….
a flash of red and yellow….again, right by the bridge….led us to spotting this male Western Tanager….
he was heading down to this sheltered back eddy in the river, to have a bath.
a Warbling Vireo in the choke cherry bushes….
and remember that pair of Red breasted Nuthatch we saw nest excavating, when we were here a month or so ago? well they were now busy feeding fledglings….here is one of them at the nest hole (not the one on the right, the occupied hole is behind the bird…
there was it’s mate, coming home with a mouthful of food…..
Out on the river, if you look really closely at a branch coming up from that log pile….
You’ll see a pair of Belted Kingfisher. I wish I could have got a better picture because I have never seen a pair of Kingfisher together before. The male is on the left, while it is the female with the rust coloured ‘belt’ that gives these birds their name, on the right.
another species, busy at it’s nest, was this Mountain Chickadee…in this case, doing a bit of house cleaning….kids' are messy you know! and not house broken.
One final evening walk….
with the shadows lengthening but the sun still shining on the hill across the river….
and one final bird glimpsed….in this case, a Pileated Woodpecker, working away up in one of the massive Poplar trees.
So would this be the last day of our trip? Would we be home tomorrow? stay tuned!
No comments:
Post a Comment