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

BC is Bear Country - fall time in the Kootenays.

Well it's that time of year
The long hot sunny days of summer, with colourful blooms, birds, and butterflies are fading away into long shadows and shorter, rainier fall. The Kokanee have been spawning, kids are settling into school, and it's time to shift into autumn mode.
 Harvest season is coming to a peak and everyone seems to be busy, picking, pickling, canning and  gathering firewood.
 We didn't really do a garden this year, but we can count on our walnut tree, which is just starting to drop a few walnuts- time to get out the buckets & rubber gloves :)
 There's so many things I want to write about, but right now, I've got bears on my mind since there's been 3 different bears in our yard this week & have been so many sightings in town and all around. I have some great pictures to share, here's a few and I'll add more later :

A bear on a hill

I'm so fortunate to have a good zoom on my camera.

We were getting firewood when I spotted this bear in the distance.

He's been watching us.

Usually, this is all I see- a brown blob in bushes.

A few minutes later, I saw another black bear.

                                                       A bear in the backyard...

When you're taking pictures of trees & stuff & see this silhouette in the background!

   

so you take a couple of zoomed photos...

but it's not holding still... or is the photographer moving?

nope it's the bear....

finally a couple of good shots!

A  healthy (brown) black bear watching us... and posing for just another moment.

 

A bear beside the highway

We stopped to watch this bear across the highway-

zooming in to see what it's doing/eating.

  

Spotted- it sees us in our car (a long way away)

Running for cover?

Hiding?

Nope- bringing a friend

Click here to See my Black bear/s video 

Note: While making this blog- we had another bear visit- next door... it was a big one! Here's another healthy looking brown (black) bear...

A pygmy owl.

Dave and I both heard the thud, when a bird hit our front window this morning. I ran out front to see what it was and if it was ok.
This little feathered hunter was spread out on the concrete and not moving, so we feared the worst. Dave knew right away it was an owl, I wasn't so sure, since it was so small! I didn't want to frighten or hurt him by picking him up... but he wasn't moving and the grounds' so cold now.






 So I waited a bit, then picked him up and examined him as best I could. He was cool and so stiff  with his foot curled up by his eyes... yet I could see he was breathing so I held him close to my chest and covered him with my hands, breathing warm air on his little body, hoping a little warmth and the safety of darkness would help him to recover.

I peaked at him a few times but he still wasn't moving and his eye was 1/2 open. Thinking he was a goner, we didn't take any pictures... and I cursed our big window...but after about 5-10 minutes he opened his eye and next thing he flew out of my hand- chattering as he disappeared in the neighbours trees!

  I was thrilled that he'd survived and wished him the best, regretting that we hadn't taken any photos!




A little while later Dave commented that there's a bird chattering in the trees, and maybe it's the owl, so I grabbed my camera, shoes, a sweater and went to investigate.

 I could hear and see a little bird chattering and hopping excitedly in the trees, so I looked around and found that he was upset by the presence of our little pygmy owl, who looked quite annoyed as he recovered on a branch.
Here's a link to the video.

I took a bunch of pictures using my zoom and then left him alone...

 a couple hours later he was gone. 

In the meantime I've made a couple of silhouette cut-outs and taped them to our front window, in the hopes that no more birds will hit that darned window!