GBHE Reserve

I was out for a visit to the reserve today. After walking the Tower trail and Rotary trail down to and along the dyke road I was back in the parking lot and came across this cooperative hairy woodpecker just waiting to be photographed. He gave me the opportunity to shoot several frames with the Powershot SX60 and even more shots with the 80D.
Can you tell which is which?

1/320 f6.3 ISO 800

1/1000 f5.6 ISO 2000

GBHE Reserve today

Tagged Hawk at GBHE Reserve

I was out in the rain this morning at the reserve and spotted what looks like a immature Red-tail? wearing a wing tag ( 5M ) on the left. This bird is one of many tagged and removed from the Vancouver Airport to reduce bird strikes on aircraft and relocated to the Fraser Valley.

Further down the trail Brown Creepers were foraging along with chickadees and Gold-crowned Kinglets.

Fraser Valley Bald Eagle Festival

Hundreds of eagles on the Harrison River and thousands in the Fraser Valley feeding on the salmon that have spawned.

Vedder Rotary Trail

I was birding along the Vedder river this morning enjoying the views of chickadee's, Black-capped and my first Chestnut-backed Chickadee in this area along with Brown Creeper, Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned Kinglets when I heard a commotion in the brush and this Northern Pygmy Owl popped out beside the trail.

After I was able to shoot several frames he flew up above my head and settled while I captured more shots.

Whenever I come across an owl I'm always fascinated by how tolerant they are at being so close to humans.

GBHE Reserve

A really nice sunny day for a visit to the reserve. I started by heading over the bridge, walking  by the southern lagoon and had nice views of Ring-necked ducks and American widgeon. Lots of Dark-eyed junco's and Spotted towhees along the trail. At the Rotary trail I headed west and got a nice shot of a Varied thrush that I flushed from the path. A few fishermen in the Vedder accompanied by several Glaucous-winged gulls hoping for a snack. On reaching the dyke rd. I headed back to the reserve and on the way saw the pair of Bald eagles that nest amongst the heronry busy tidying up their nest.

From the reserve I decided to drive down to the Vedder Park to check on the eagles and was pleased to see her rebuilding the nest that was destroyed in the last windstorm. The nest has been built in a Cottonwood close to the doggy park.

These shots were from a considerable distance as she was collecting branches, my zoom was set at the equivalent of 1000.mm, not easy shooting.

Today on the Vedder

Had a good walk this morning along the dyke rd. to check out the young osprey's progress. The birds from #1 nest were in an adjacent tree, one adult with a juvenile.

Further along the dyke heading west the #2 nest on the Vedder River can be viewed from both the gravel heap and also the river bank as the water level is low.

This is the position on the bank I was able to see the nesting snag ( you can just make it out in the centre of the picture ) and get the following picture of an adult with young still in the nest.

Back at the heron reserve I saw my first green heron (above) at this location.