"You’ll enjoy the smell and use of your own private Japanese Cedar hot tub and the sounds of frogs and birds at night, sitting on your balcony looking into the beautiful gardens. Additionally, the access to the beach was lovely and we would often walk down for a morning walk and would see otters, eagles, and lots of other wildlife." Callista R, Apr ‘22
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49 Species and counting...
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The few photographs on this page, being those that I consider interesting and good enough to share with you, represent a mere fraction of the birds species that we see without having to move off the deck; talk about the armchair naturalist! The reason for this lack of pictorial evidence is simply that I haven't been very motivated to photograph the wildlife until now; I don't consider myself a wildlife photographer and have been content to just live within nature without feeling the need to record the other animals, unless they are part of a landscape I'm photographing, when wildlife can deliver the decisive moment.
More recently however, I've been getting into photographing the wildlife for it's own sake. Luck and good timing both play their part in capturing an image that tells us something more about the subject than just what it looks like. Then to place it within an exciting composition, that's a real buzz! I am reminded of "the thrill of the hunt"; but isn't a great photograph better than a dead animal? Or is that just me?
More recently however, I've been getting into photographing the wildlife for it's own sake. Luck and good timing both play their part in capturing an image that tells us something more about the subject than just what it looks like. Then to place it within an exciting composition, that's a real buzz! I am reminded of "the thrill of the hunt"; but isn't a great photograph better than a dead animal? Or is that just me?
The Full Roster ~ Every Bird I can remember seeing here
American Goldfinch | American Kestral | American Robin | Anna's Hummingbird | Bald Eagle | Band-tailed Pigeon | Barred Owl | Belted Kingfisher | Black-headed Grosbeak | Brewer's Blackbird | Brown Creeper | Bushtit | Canada Goose | Cedar Waxwing | Chestnut-backed Chickadee | Chipping Sparrow | Common Rosefinch | Dark-eyed Junco | Downy Woodpecker | European Starling | Golden-crowned Kinglet | Golden-crowned Sparrow | Great Blue Heron | Gull | Hammond's Flycatcher | Hairy Woodpecker | Merlin | Northern Flicker | Northwestern Crow | Pileated Woodpecker | Pine Siskin | Purple Finch | Raven | Red-Breasted Nuthatch | Red-breasted Sapsucker | Red-tailed Hawk | Red-winged Blackbird | Roufous Hummingbird | Spotted Towhee | Swainson's Thrush | Three-toed Woodpecker | Tree Swallow | Turkey Vulture | Varied Thrush | Western Tanager | White-crowned Sparrow | Winter Wren | Yellow Warbler | Yellow-rumped Warbler
more Bald Eagles
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You might just pull up at the bottom of the drive and see an eagle sitting on a branch in front of you across the road; and if you are like me you'll pull out the cell phone, snap a quick pic., and be on your way. After all, one can't spend all day watching eagles...
During March the "Herring Run" attracts more wildlife in general, and eagles in particular, to our shore. Whist there may be many more in the trees lining our bank, they are difficult to see because of the dense foliage. When they rest in the snag, it gives us the opportunity to see them clearly. Here, they look bedraggled; they are wet and drying off after fishing.
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Five eagles in the snag, 2 adults and 3 immatures, with another about to join them
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↕ Bald Eagles, Feeding Frenzy, Herring Run 2018
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I challenge you to click on this to enlarge it, and count the number of eagles in this feeding frenzy taking place off the North shore of Hornby Island; photographed from the deck. There must have been a sizeable shoal of herring near the surface, and the red pleasure boat just drifted picturesquely on the edge of it all.
Taken on March 11th. (2018) at the time of the annual "Herring Run", the largest wildlife event of the year... |
Ravens
↕ Eagle & Raven sharing a branch, very unusual!
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If any bird is part of the scenery, it's the ravens. This family group are around most of the time, but at a distance. They rarely land in the garden unless it's to raid the fruit trees; apparently too busy flying back and forth, playing, and bothering each other in the tree tops.
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Ravens in flight ↕
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Even more present in the background is their calling and talking to each other, and the whooshing of their wings pushing through the air, that accompanies the wind through the trees and the ocean waves to form our soundscape.
"Each morning, we woke to the songs of the thrushes and robins and the raucous music of the ravens. It’s hard to forget the sound of their wings whipping the air—a sound that became familiar biophony after six days. That and the buzz of the hummingbirds." Tom & Gillian, July ‘21
Squabbling Ravens ↕
Merlins
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A small falcon that catches small birds on the wing; a few times I've seen a merlin tearing its unfortunate victim limb from limb on a nearby tree stump. More often I've seen them flying straight across the garden extremely fast, and I've witnessed a couple of high-speed hunts, the would-be meal weaving left and right, with the merlin locked on and gaining.
↕ Merlin in Flight
In late August '22, I've had 4 consecutive and unusual sightings. The first was from a large downstairs window - suddenly a raven flashed infront no more than 6 feet away, with a merlin literally 'on it's tail'; adjacent to the window the raven did a sharp left and flew directly away from me, the merlin turned with it and I clearly saw those barred tail feathers fan out in the maneuver, before the merlin veered off a second later leaving the raven to continue unmolested. It was all over in an unforgetable 3-4 seconds. A day or 2 later I saw a merlin chasing gulls over the ocean, wheeling around in circles after one, then another, but the gulls seemed to evade it quite easily and it gave up.
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Merlin at Rest (Adult Male) ↕
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The next day I was eating supper on the deck with only my iPhone to hand, when a merlin landed on the gate at the bottom of the garden. He sat there for a minute or 2 but I dared not move, except to take some really lousy shots on the phone. Then finally I was rewarded, when another day or 2 after that I was on the back deck when a merlin (probably the same one) flew past me within a few feet and came to rest on a branch on the other side of the garden. He graciously stayed there long enough for me to fetch the camera, then posed for some lovely portraits before flying away.
Turkey Vultures
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Virtually always seen on the wing, silently circling above us; wherever they choose to roost overnight, it's usually in the treetops out of sight. Needing to warm up on a bright Summer morning, we caught this one sunning itself in our neighbour's dead maple next to what is now the guests' back garden.
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Canada Geese
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Large flocks of Canada geese live on our side of the island, flying back and forth between the pastures intended for grazing livestock on the farms a few blocks either side of us and the ocean. They perform this ritual several times a day (and at night), and they are usually very vocal! Occasionally one has landed on a topped tree to use it as a "honking post".
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Hairy Woodpeckers
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These are the most common of the 5 species of woodpecker and their cousins the sapsuckers that we see in the garden, the others being Pileated Woodpeckers, Norther Flickers (sapsuckers), Red-breasted Sapsuckers, Downy Woodpeckers, and just once I sighted a pair of rare Three-toed Woodpeckers, with their distinctive yellow crown and barred back, which makes it 6 species!) However, more often than seeing woodpeckers, we hear them drumming on a hollow trunk, sometimes answered by another, more distant...
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↕ Hairy Woodpecker, female
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"I know you're in there..." ↕
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Look closely at the bark on the dying maple that the hairy woodpeckers are feeding on, and you'll see that it's covered in hundreds of tiny holes, mostly in verticle groups of three, for some strange reason.
Woodpecker Hunting Marks are made when exploring; they have a keen sense of hearing that aids them in hunting for prey underneath the wood. The woodpecker will tap the wood to listen for any hollowness or irregularities that may indicate a beetle or ant gallery. By tapping at the tree, any bugs within will get disturbed, causing those bugs to move and the noises created allow the woodpecker to zero-in and grab its next meal. (Extracts from: https://natureidentification.com/woodpecker-holes-and-other-sign-on-trees/ ) |
↕ Sap Wells in a Red Cedar. Found on numerous trees on the property, this one is next to the beach.
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Sap Wells can be considered a type of passive trap as the sapsucker revisits these wells to feed on both sap and bugs attracted to the sap. The damage caused from sap wells can be extensive and can expose the tree to fungal and other microbial infections.( https://natureidentification.com/woodpecker-holes-and-other-sign-on-trees/ )
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
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As ubiquitous as the ravens, chickadees are around every day; unlike the ravens, these bold little titmice will land on a plant within reaching distance of you to hunt for insects, urgently cheeping away, as if it had some important information to impart!
Known for their acrobatics, they can hang upside-down under the eaves looking for a meal, and they often forage on our cedar shake roof; so if there is a bird trapped in the roof space you can bet it'll be a chickadee.
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Gulls
↕ Gulls and Approaching Storm
Having grown up in a seaside town, seagulls are so familiar to me that they really are part of the scenery, not usually given a second glance. Then, trying to identify the species isn't easy... They start life with 4 years' development to becoming adults, with the accommpanying plumage changes, plus the seasonal plumage cycle on top, these variations adding to the confusion that different species flocking together, as they are prone to do, already generates! Enlarge the image below and you'll see what I mean. Plus, there's a big variation in sizes; e.g. the gull, centre, back row, is much larger than the one in front and to the left of it; different species or juvenile/adult? So, for now at least, they will have to remain just "gulls" to me, and I can live with that.
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Red-tailed Hawk
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I've only seen a red-tailed hawk a handful of times, and this one sat on that branch for a long time. Although I was able to identify it with binoculars, the light and the technology wasn't good enough at the time to capture any shadow detail. However, it did have an elegant silhouette.
Besides the Eagles, Vultures and these guys, the other raptors we see are the occasional Merlin chasing down some hapless small bird or perched on a stump consuming same; the very occasional American Kestral, and earlier this year, a big Barred Owl sitting on a fence post let me approach quite close before taking flight; no phone/camera on me at the time, darn it! |
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Robin Fledgling vs. Sour Cherry
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