Tsai's Nature Blog: Vancouver Jan-Apr 2017

Jan 7,2017
White Rock Pier
Some Long-tailed Duck photos would be nice, but they didn't come close to shore even at high tide. So a few diving substitutes are

Common Loon

Pied-billed Grebe

Not always a sea-dweller

Harlequin Duck

An antenna for remote-control? no, it's a GPS tracker. I did not find out which organization is studying this one.

American Wigeon

Eurasian Wigeon and American Wigeon in the back.

The males look very different, but the females are much harder to identify.

Eurasian Wigeon

Brunswick Point
Two Bald Eagles chasing dinner, they didn't catch the gull.

Jan 21

Boundary Bay

Bald Eagle

not chasing breakfast

Northern Harrier

this male caught a vole and landed on the dyke to avoid being harassed by other raptors.

A female Northern Harrier trying to steal a Red-tailed Hawk's food.

Short-eared Owl

Feb 13

Ambleside

Just before breeding season is a good time to see ducks in parks because they have freshly-molted feathers.

Bufflehead

Wigeon hybrid

Mallard

Grouse Mountain without grouse

Mar 19

Reifel

Mallard

the patch on the secondaries may be different on different individuals.

blue

Purple

Ring-necked Duck

a ring necked male

the shared characterist between male and female is the ring bill.

Wood Duck

male wood ducks do not take care of their ducklings

a female looking out from her nest box

wigeon hybrid

Sandhill Crane

Fox Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

Boundary Bay

Long-eared Owl

Iona

Only some caged starlings

Mount Baker

Mar 20
Delta

Snow Goose

When the geese first arrived in the fall, they were mostly white. By the end of each winter season, their head would have turned brown from the iron-containing soil around here. These two seemed to have enjoyed a mud bath.

Great-horned Owl

They are big, but they still need to be alert, regardless if they have grown up because there are two nests of Bald Eagles near this tree, and eagles have been documented taking down great-horns.