Archive For The “birds” Category
A visitor to my backyard mountain ash tree the past couple of days (February 9 and 10, 2023) a Townsend’s Solitaire (myadestes townsendi). It is a thrush, usually found further inland along the Pacific Northwest but rare on the coast, especially in winter.
UPDATE: February 13, 2023. The Townsend’s solitaire back on Monday afternoon.
And two bald eagles over MK Bay on February 11.
Early summer is often a great time to photograph birds in the Kitimat Valley.
An immature (about two and half years old) bald eagle near Kitamaat Village. (Robin Rowland)
An immature (about two and half years old) bald eagle near Kitamaat Village. (Robin Rowland)
A soggy crow near Kitamaat Village. (Robin Rowland)
Fledgling starlings in flight in the wetland waterfront of Kitamaat Village (Robin Rowland)
A pair of bald eagles at MK Bay. (Robin Rowland)
A western tanager in a tree near MK Bay. (Robin Rowland)
A western tanager in a tree near MK Bay. (Robin Rowland)
A mink (neogale vison) on a driftwood log at the Kitamaat Village beach, February 12, 2022 (Robin Rowland)
It was a cool, over cast Saturday afternoon when I accompanied birders from the Kitimat Valley Naturalists on the monthly shorebird count.
Just after we arrived at our first stop, the Kitamaat Village seawall and beach in Haisla traditional territory, I (and the others) saw something out of the corner of my eye, a flash of black with a tail scampering along a driftwood log on the beach. A few minutes later the animal appeared again, coming up from another log. So while the birders put up their scopes and scanned the shoreline, I walked up on a pile of dirt and kept watch for the mammal.
I kept watch. It was dashing along the logs and under others. Had the camera on high speed burst mode and missed it about twenty or so times.
Then the mink decided to pause (or to do me a favour) and stopped on one log, looked up and I captured this portrait. It looked around and then dashed into a hollow log and disappeared.
A mink (neogale vison) on a driftwood log at the Kitamaat Village beach, February 12, 2022 (Robin Rowland)
Cloudy day. Sony RX10M3, Iso Auto shooting at 2000 ASA. 1/1000 at F4.
A lot of other usual shots, even at low tide the beach is far off so it’s often hard to get good shots.
Then I spotted a bald eagle high over Douglas Channel.
A bald eagle flies over Douglas Channel. (Robin Rowland)
Then I got lucky again, the eagle flew right toward the beach, coming in for a landing.
Bald eagle coming in for a landing at Kitamaat Village beach. (Robin Rowland)
And then perched on a driftwood stump.
A bald eagle perches on a driftwood stump in late February afternoon sun at Kitamaat Village, Feb. 12, 2022. (Robin Rowland)
A bald eagle perches on a stump in Kitamaat Village, (Robin Rowland
Look closely and you will see the white head of a bald eagle perched in a tree at MK Bay, taken from MK Bay West Park.
The weather in Kitimat has been awful during most of the fall, cold, windy, rainy, foggy and generally miserable. Not unexpected in a La Nina year.
I went down to Kitamaat Village for the monthly bird count in a rain squall. So the visibility was pretty bad. As I was about to leave, a half dozen northwestern crows landed right beside me, in the pouring rain and stayed long enough for me to shoot their portraits.
