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By keithric
#84781
By the sound of the subject, you might think I'm about to launch into another discourse on weather. Relax, not this time — except to say that while Spring is definitely on its way, the snow still lingers, providing some unusual, occasionally humorous photo opps:

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Quail boss tests the ice:
"Hey, Boss! Be careful out there! You're not as light as you used to be!"


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"Hey yourselves! Leaders lead! That's what we do!
And lay off the fat jokes! Go look in the mirror!"


I've been reading Guy's thread about common birds, and thought I'd add a few here, too, if that's okay. This Robin has been around for a couple of weeks patiently waiting for the temps to rise. He'd been feeding off the miniature pear trees that had somehow been spared—until the BOWAs finally came round and pretty much polished them off....
A common shot, but I like the way it turned out....
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American Robin lamenting....

I've shown you lots of predators; now I'd like to share a few ducks.
In winter, in Kelowna, you see, the ducks stop here!
Buffleheads, in Thomson Marsh, are devilishly difficult to get close to. This shot is really as good as I could manage at this location.
There are better places where BUFFs are more accessible, but this is one taken close to home....
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Bufflehead through a cattail keyhole....

This is a more likely image of BUFFs in the unfrozen sections of the marsh:
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Buffleheads take off, eh!

We are, on the other hand, truly blessed with many ducks including Hooded Mergansers that we can get very close to, like this pair of males, one adult, one juvenile in Lower Mission Creek, which has been choked with a ice up to two and a half feet thick in many places this year. Last year, it never froze at all!
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Hooded Merganser adult male

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Hooded Merganser juvenile male

For a week or so, a Common Merganser female hung out with the Hoodies,
and on this day gave her best impression of an out-of-this-planet penguin:
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Common Merganser female

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Common Merganser female

Of course, she can look like a conventional, common merganser, too....
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Common Merganser female swimming

From December through February, Lower Mission Creek is the wintering stage for a handsome raft of Common Goldeneyes.
The challenge is to wait until the light is just right, usually more towards the end of their stay:
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COGO raft - or is it a COGO Pyramid Scheme?
Thanks to ebirdman (Paul) from Langley for this notion!!

COGOs can look very common or very distinguished, depending on their mood, my mood, the light, the water, you know....
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Common Goldeneye - 3

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Common Goldeneye - 4

And sometimes, they engage in underwater antics that lend themselves to abstract art....
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Common Goldeneye art

Well, that's enough for this time. I'll have one more post before the end of the month to wrap up the winter of 2016-17. Hope you found something of interest in this post.... :wink:

Cheers! :D
By ogopogo
#84786
yeah, 'my mood' gave me a chuckle. the "Quail on ICE" look pretty plump so they must be finding enough to eat. love the merg tentatively testing each step, the pretty light on the Goldeneyes (a 'Raft', didn't know that), the Art shot is interesting, and always wonder at the single Robin in Kelowna (when we have hundreds/must be our holly berries), another pretty detail shot. good there is one pear tree to sustain him. the waxwings are indeed voracious eaters. had 34 CEDW land and clean out a berry hedge in mere minutes last Spring. and they have radar, showing up at the same spot each year to see if it's still there.
what next Keith?
By SueCoastalObserver
#84787
Excellent series Keith. The Common Goldeneye shots are stunning, and their abstract art is awesome, I bet it would sell. I don't think I have ever seen a Merganser Penguin, only seen Common Mergansers planted on a rock right beside the water where they could just plunk back in, neat to see. Will be watching for your "winter wrap up" but maybe you better hold off on that for a bit, I just peeked out the window, . . . it snowed again last night here in Langley!
By Slabs
#84813
Love it! The front-on shot of the single quail is remarkable! Never realised how colourful they can be.

Thanks!

Alwyn
By keithric
#85036
Thanks to everyone who took time to have a look. I greatly enjoy viewing what others around BC are finding in their back yards, too! :D

Thanks, Mel, for the 'painting remark,' Owlet for getting my sense of humour, and Neal, Alwyn and Vince for taking time to comment.

Ogopogo wrote
...always wonder at the single Robin in Kelowna (when we have hundreds/must be our holly berries)....
Just want to assure you, Cheryl, that we have lots of robins up here, and often see a large flock of them in early winter. By February, however, the numbers drop considerably. I'll see three or four together one day, and then perhaps scattered singletons (mostly males) in different parts of my beat on other days. I think these are ones that nest in the marsh. Not sure how the 'finding a mate for the new year' works for them, however. :?

Several folks mentioned the California Quail. We see them scuttling in cover or near feeders in winter, but as spring begins to peek through the snow, they extend their range and become more visible again for a while. A never ending source of interest for me, they're pretty much taken for granted up here ....

Thanks, Sue for the specifics in your comments, always appreciated. Since the original post, we've had only a trace of snow, but the "snice" continues to hang on like an Osprey to a trout! We're at least two weeks behind last year's El Niño spring....

And finally, for those interested, in Whitey, the Harlan's Hawk, has now relocated to the area previously ruled by Harri, "the Red-tail who thinks he's a Harrier," and he now hunts the fence line, harrier-like, but stopping to pose like the pro he is (something Harri never did) as in this shot from March 3:
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Whitey has moved east - 1

I'll be posting my 'Winter Wrap-up" (thanks for that title, Sue!) tomorrow....

Cheers! :D

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