 Oyster Catchers are remarkably cool birds.... The species here on Vancouver Island are all Black with bright orange beaks and pink legs! What a concept! They are very chatty birds and quite social, often gathering in groups, but the pair featured here , seen mating (last week of July at sunup) seemed quite unusual to me. I wonder if they lost their first brood to Eagles and are starting over? Whatever the reason this couple were the bird stars of a recent rowboat camping trip Hope you enjoy the images.... Cheers and all the best... TerryV 
0 Comments
 A few evenings back there was an abundant flying insect hatch and out of the blue arrived a fleet of NightHawks (15-20) (I hadn't seen these birds around in ages). They are voracious insect eaters and swoop across the evening sky and are able to swiftly find flying insects and with their large trap door beaks, gobble them down! Beautiful , graceful birds with a wide and narrow wingspan of around 20 inches. Hope you enjoy these photos that I was able to click at a distance!   To many of us there is something deeply satisfying and refreshing about a simplistic camp out in a remote place... Nothing but nature surrounding us! A beautiful way to recharge ones joy for life!  The dawn of another beautiful West Coast day!  Harlequin Ducks search for small crabs and other yummy breakfast treats   The look on this Bald Eagle made me wonder if she was plotting something :)  No Ospreys nesting this year at the farm, but this beautiful female flew past and soared high above.  A beautiful male Kestrel landing after a failed attempt to grab a starling    Turkey Vultures gracefully glide across farm sky watching the haying below, hoping to grab a vole...
 Mid June 2017 .. This image was from my first visit to the Nest at the Bay (Sidney BC) where "Little Eagle" ( a retail hawk ended up in an Eagles nest and was raised with their family. "Feeding Baby" was one of my most popular images but I shot 1000's of others over 6 weeks and documented this incredible act of nature.
For more of this event, click Little eagle from the group of pages, or scroll down the side bar to June and July 2017 to view the posts as they occurred. Thank you for looking and God Bless .... TerryV  Some mornings it pays to rise early before the sun... Today was no exception as the morning sky and all the living creatures around the Bay came to life in incredible technicolour! Mount Baker (before sunrise) above looked so pastel and dreamy amidst the orange glow of the promised day! I hope you enjoy these images ... Safe travels and happy trails to everyone... TerryV   Great Blue Heron above reflecting the early rays of sunshine
 Oyster Catchers chatter as they fly erratically around the waterways ( five O C's sound like 25.. very noisy and loud) And look at their paint job!!!   (speaking of cool paint jobs!) Those red feet are crazy!!!! Pigeon Guillemots sit in a nest carved in sandstone cliff   So the blue moon isn't actually ...blue in colour...Its called a blue moon when there are 2 full moons in a calendar month (which just occurred in May) Last nights moonrise over the ocean was quite spectacular and as it rose the moon cast beautiful reflections onto the ocean. Hope you enjoy this sequence... Cheer's. TerryV  After catching a fish, Mr O always does a funny shimmy shake to rid himself of excess salt water! Photos above show this ...
 Above.. Mr Osprey finds a fishy area in the bay and dives right in but misses the fish and flies off for his bath ... surprised the Herons but they quickly went back to their morning fishing.  After disturbing the Herons and missing his lunch, Mr Osprey circles around and lands close to shore in the brackish water where a small creek drains into the ocean along the S W corner of the bay. This bath lasted quite a while and he looked very exuberant and happy! (in the background you will see the herons jousting for the best fishing location while Mr O splashes)  (slide show above... 7 frames)
The Osprey bath went on for a good 10 minutes which was a first for me to observe!  Female Rufous Hummingbird makes steady visits to these flowers   Very young Annas Hummingbird visits the garden  Even the occasional English Sparrow makes an effort to collect some sweetness
 I shot this cropped image last evening from a small rocking rowboat. Though I never actually saw these birds as I was shooting, look what appeared in my image! Can you correctly ID all the birds in this photo??? Let me know!!! :) I am planning another trip to this spot in the near future to get better images (tides and winds permitting) Took me around an hour to row my boat to this location and just under an hour back. Caught at one point in a strong rip and we were going backwards...     Above .. A group of Cormorants cling to a tiny Islet ...I must row back here soon!!!
Today I want to give a huge thank you to all Moms, both human and all creatures on earth. Such a huge sacrifice to all of us to engage in birthing and raising us Thank you Mom and all Moms for bringing us into this world!!!!!!!!!!!   Above 2 images show female Great Blue Herons on their nests , the top one has hatched babies which can be heard as they chatter in Heron gabble... And the lower photo shows another Heron Mom hunkered down & patiently awaiting her kids to hatch.  |
Archives
July 2026
Author
Summer 2023.. I just received notice that my blog has been awarded a distinction of being one of the top 10 photography blogs in Canada.
* All images and content copyright Terry Venables and NaturalImagesCanada *
|
Natural Images Canada
