Blog – Page 128 – CrazyM Bird & Nature Photography

Sharp-shinned & Red-tailed Hawks

This afternoon’s walk was to Reifel. While admiring the Black-crowned Night-Heron in the usual trees just beyond the entrance, something a lot smaller caught my attention.

A Sharp-shinned Hawk was roosting in the tree just above the herons. It was carefully watching the song birds around the feeder at the entrance.

A few times it suddenly launched and swooped in on them, returning unsuccessful. On returning to the same place a little later there were now two in the same area.

The Sharp-shinned Hawk is the smallest accipiter, not much bigger than a Robin.

I have seen them here recently, but usually as they go streaking by through the trees. A pleasant change to have them sit still for a short while. Especially since it has been almost three years since I last managed a shot of one.

At the end of the afternoon and as the sun was starting to go down,

… the young Red-tailed Hawk showed up again in the trees around the ponds.

American Kestrel

Birding and bird photography often takes you off the beaten path or major roadways. With this in mind, I frequently travel the back roads amongst the farm fields. One bird I am watchful for is our smallest falcon, the American Kestrel. The last couple of days there has been one frequenting some fields in the south Ladner area. Unfortunately it has always been too far off for any photos. On my way home at the end of the day it did alight briefly on this fence post.

Hopefully it sticks around for a while and the weather improves for some better chances.

Water Birds & Owls

It was still pretty grey when I headed out this afternoon, but at least it was not raining. My destination today was Brunswick Point. After arriving, and before heading out to the point, a quick check of Canoe Pass was in order as a couple of things caught my eye. Canoe Pass is that portion of the South Arm of the Fraser River that goes into Ladner Harbour. The first thing that I noticed,

… was this Long-tailed Duck. There were some Western Grebe out there as well, but they were even further off than the Long-tailed.

Next up were some Red-breasted Merganser.

It has been a few years since I last photographed one of these.

Bonus bird of the afternoon was this Barrow’s Goldeneye.

The Barrow’s Goldeneye is a new addition to my life photo list. So, some interesting waterfowl from the birding perspective, unfortunate the weather was not better from the photography side of things.

Of course the the usual Double-crested Cormorant were on the pilings of the old Brunswick Cannery (photo).

Once on the dyke trail around Brunswick Point things were fairly quiet. The usual Northern Harriers and one Short-eared Owl were active over the marsh. About half way along there was a change from what has been the norm.

There were four Snowy Owls roosting in closer to the dyke.

My last few visits to Brunswick Point they have always been some distance out.

While not as close as the ones at Boundary Bay have been of late,

… it was nice to see the ones here in closer providing better views. The numbers are not as great here either, I counted seven today. There is usually twenty plus in the bay area.