Nature break

Bald eagle during a spring snow

It's been a long time since I've written here... and I wonder if anyone has missed me?
But now is as good a time as any, to jump back in and try to continue more frequently :)

 Right now I'm taking this evening off - away from the news and corona virus pandemic storm that has been growing and swirling around us all for the past few weeks, as I start my 3rd week of physical isolation. So that's all I'll say about that right now.

  This is a great time to review/purge and edit my (numerous) photos and to share some of them. I hope you like them :)

Bald eagle & misty mountain

One of our little chickadees- daily visitors most of the year.

Kingfisher by the lake

Song sparrow? Posing ever so briefly.

Stellar's Jay- all puffed up in the backyard.

Stellar's Jay drinking from our birdbath.

Canada Geese 

Bald eagle drying off after a wet morning.

Varied thrush under the feeder.

Woodpecker- not sure what kind though.

A toad in our creek- late fall (October?)

Close up of the toad on the rock :)

And that's it for now!

Please add a comment so I know you've been here :)

Keep safe.

Angie

Spring time in the Kootenays.

 Spring time in the Kootenays.

In a nutshell: We drove up to Trout Lake to see the gerrard trout spawning.

Here's a few scenery and wildlife photos, plus a short video.

A couple of weeks ago, we saw this badger, on our way to Cranbrook! Awesome!

Spring flowers in my garden.

Kaslo is our 1st stop on the way to Trout Lake.

Johnson's Landing- mudslide from last summer

The gerard trout spawning at the mouth of Trout Lake

 Early in May the gerrard trout spawn at the mouth of Trout Lake and Mother's day is the perfect excuse to go for a beautiful drive up along Kootenay Lake, and see them. 

It's become a bit of a tradition for us to witness this annual event, and enjoy our lovely scenery,  that we sometimes take for granted.

Trout Lake from the bridge.

 We went on the Monday after Mother's day, so there was no one else around for a long time, makes me nervous about bears. It was sunny and hot which encourages the spring run-off, and the fish are BIG!

The trout seem to just hang in place, but if you watch them closely you can see they are quite busy, and once in a while one would jump out of the water. 

Gerard spawning, just missed a jumper.

 There were many butterflies and birds of all kinds, including some common mergansers and a mature bald eagle. 

Hope you enjoy my photos :)

Mergansers

Spring run-off. This silty creek is flowing into the main river. Note the
difference in the water's colour.

Here's a short video of a jumping trout.

Saw an otter or two today...

Deer in our front yard

This past week, we've had major snowy mornings melting away by the afternoon.
Makes it hard to get up and go to work.

A pair of Canada geese.

But now it's the weekend and the sun's starting to shine, so Dave & I drove to Castlegar. We made some stops on the way home, to enjoy the sunny day and the beauty that surrounds us.

 I'm so glad we stopped at the Kootenay River bridge, 

I wanted to take pictures of these ice spikes. 

We spied a river otter (or two). They were far away and hard to see, but eventually one swam along the shore line, towards us, and I was able to get a little video and a couple of photos.

River otter

 River otter under the bridge.

Video of the otter swimming.

 Sorry about the poor video & noise. My camera's about 3 years old, and it's time to replace it. I've been shopping around for the past month, and last night finally made the decision and bought a new one. It'll have a better zoom, video, and bigger viewing screen (so I can actually see what I'm filming:)  I can't wait for it to arrive!!
 In the meantime, here's a National Geographic video of otters.

Ainsworth Hot Springs

There's something very special about having a relaxing soak in a hot spring, especially one with a cave and hardly anyone there.

Virtual tour- Ainsworth Hot Springs ...

Awesome views... outside, and in... I finally brought my camera out,

to get some photos from inside the caves.

(Something I've wanted to do for years.)

However I didn't expect so much condensation,

so only a few pictures were good enough to share,

but here they are.