It wasn't the lowest tidal day of the month, but snorkeling around Boundary Bay was downright pleasant amid the searing temperatures today.
One of the fortunate sand dollars that happened to find a stream of running water as opposed to the others drying out in the slightly higher sand embankments
Many cockles were also high and dry...this one lucked out in a pool
Metal structures next to the cairn colonized by many species of anemone
Plumose anemone, the only species I could identify
I don't think I've seen this species of jellyfish before
kelp crab
dungeness crab
The shallow ponds of water were hot. In addition to the clams and crabs that succumbed to the heat, there were also fish casualties as well.
The above fish clearly were freshly dead. One might think it's the hot temperatures alone that kill the fish, but it's more likely suffocation that did these fish in. Hot water has a less capacity to hold oxygen, and I can safely say that this water was at least 40 degrees.
To capture wildlife in photos or videos, getting to the wildlife is usually the first obstacle. With a bit of research in understanding where the animal might be, it's a matter of just going to the same place. Sometimes, you get lucky on the first try, and other times you need multiple attempts just to see the animal.
Capturing their behaviour is the next challenge. Hunting behaviour requires both the predator and prey not being distracted by a human, so normally requires some stealth on the part of the observer (us).
Wildlife films have made us accustomed to witnessing a successful hunt, but in reality, many hunts end up empty handed. Last week, I saw seals catch wild fish for the first time, and today, I witnessed another predator prey interaction.
It started off as another quiet day of birding at Boundary Bay. After about an hour, I started settling for photos of sparrows, lest I leave empty handed. As we drove away, I noticed parked cars along 72nd St, with several photographers aiming their cameras at what I initially thought were eagles atop telephone poles. In fact, it was a red-tailed hawk, whose gaze seemed fixed on the tall grass below.
It pounced down into the grass, and I had no idea whether it succeeded until it started flying off, vole in beak.
It wasn't until I looked at the images afterwards that I could confirm that the hawk's hunt was successful - all this happened in the span of a few seconds. An unexpected reward at the end of what could've been an uneventful outing had we left just a few minutes earlier.
The skies were as blue as could be today. The warm sun invited us to to join it outside for just a few more days before a forecast of rain befalls us for the coming week.
First stop was Boundary Bay, looking for, you guessed it, owls.
We usually have good luck spotting them out there, or rather, spotting a crowd of photographers, who have done the impossibly difficult job of finding the owls.
They were looking at this. See it yet?
Photographing with a smartphone through a pair of binoculars isn't too bad
Cropped:
Long eared owl
Long-eared owls are a little atypical of their raptor brethren, seeming to prefer dense thickets such as these. How then end up there, or how they can easily fly out is something I'd like to see one day.
Here's a video of the same owl, from one of the wildlife enthusiasts in the crowd pictured above:
The marsh flats of Boundary Bay support the owls with populations of rodents. It is also the entry point of a 25 km journey for a population of salmon.
Every November to January, chum, coho, and steelhead salmon swim upstream into the tributaries of the Serpentine river. Many of them target Tynehead Regional Park in Surrey, where there's a hatchery releasing fry into the river each spring. It's been four years since I visited to see the salmon run.
Before seeing any live fish, we saw (and smelled) the dead ones. There actually weren't too many clogging up the shorelines, indicating the run is either light this year, or that we were early. A parks person we spoke with remarked that while it did seem lighter this year, a heavier rain could bring more in later.
Coho in beautiful spawning colours, resting up before continuing her journey upstream
She is the swimming dead. Resting in an eddy near shore, she's done with spawning, and awaiting her fate.
A male chum, investigating whether the nearly dead female could be coerced into mating.
We got to Boundary Bay just in time to catch the sun rise this morning at 8am. While not as cold as last year, it was still below freezing. Bird activity was minimal compared with last year, with a few low flyby's by hawks from behind so that our only photos were tail shots.
Cooper's hawk
Northern flicker. A common woodpecker in residential areas of the city.
Saw-whet owl
Owls are always the highlight for me, and we would've missed this one down in the thickets if not for some experienced birders lying prostrate aiming their big lenses at this little thing.
I'm organizing a trip to check out the birds (hopefully a few owls) at Boundary Bay on New Year's Day (most likely AM). Leave a comment (or contact me) if interested. Search the blog for Boundary Bay to see what I've seen in the past.
At the beginning of December, I came out to Boundary Bay to see if I could get bragging rights to seeing the first of the snowy owls. The skies were clear and daytime highs were -4, making for some impressive views out to Mount Baker.
It was cold enough to freeze the mid-to-high tide lines to a slushy layer, giving the fantastic illusion of a frozen sea.
Maybe because it was too cold for the voles to come out, or maybe the birds don't like the dry frigid air blowing past their eye balls, but owls of any sort were nowhere to be seen, and only a few hawks prowled the marshes.
Cooper's hawk
Great weather for our dog
Three weeks later, and throughout most of the country, the weather has gotten colder. Here, on the west coast of BC, it has gotten warmer.
The west coast of BC was one of the only places hospitable enough to go birding today in Canada. The skies were overcast in our part of the world, but dry.
Great Blue Heron
Northern Harrier
Trumpeter Swans
A Northern Harrier, munching on a carcass thrown over a fence by a photographer (not me!)
And the highlight of the trip, seeing the snowy owls. The pair were a bit distant, hanging about on the rooftop of a building nearby - one of the last places I'd look - but the best technique to finding rare birds is to look where other cameras are aimed.
The ever-laughing snowy owl
The short-eared owls made an appearance today as well
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