A juvenile bald eagle surveys the Kitimat River from a log on a sandbar. (Robin Rowland)

Once again this year I joined the Kitimat Christmas Bird Count, helping out the Kitimat Valley Naturalists. Here are some of the best shots from that day, Wednesday December 16. 2015.

Gulls huddle together on the shore of MK Bay at low tide. (Robin Rowland)

A great blue heron watches from an old stump in the Kitimat River estuary. (Robin Rowland)

A female mallard duck in flight over MK Bay at low tide. (Robin Rowland)

A scaup (duck) in intermediate plumage on a mound of reeds in the Kitimat River estuary. (Robin Rowland) (Corrected caption, duck was identified in the field as a ringed-neck but on further review of the photograph, the consensus of the naturalists was scaup)

A red-tailed hawk surveys Haisla Boulevard at the LNG Canada turnoff just as the light fades in the late afternoon. (Robin Rowland)

The next day, on my morning walk, the neighborhood’s resident ravens followed me through the bush. Ravens are intelligent and I almost think they are posing for the camera, for this is the third time that they’ve gone to the same trees, in the same sequence, when I was there with my camera.

One of the ravens directly overhead. (Robin Rowland)

And flying from branch to branch of bare alders. (Robin Rowland)

And perched on a conifer (Robin Rowland)