backyard birds

The seed's been out in our new feeder since Christmas, when our daughter found seed in her stocking for the feeder, but the birds only noticed it today. It was non-stop activity for the entire afternoon.

 

dark-eyed junco

has the chest feathers of a female house sparrow, but the head striping doesn't match

male and female dark eyed junco

one of the prettier visitors, a house finch

the small chickadees were the most timid

 I think it was our childhood subscription to Chickadee magazine that conditioned me to believe chickadees live in naturally snowy climates, so I was satisfied to have snapped a photo while the snow is still around.  

Largest snail in Canada

Well, the largest one you might find without diving. It's a Lewis' moon snail, and it lives in the lower intertidal area of mud flats. I found this shell in Parksville last week, and although it is half the diameter of the largest moon snails, its body would've enveloped my whole hand. 

Moon snails are predators, typically feeding on clams by drilling a hole in their shells and consuming the clams from their insides. 

More commonly found than the shells (at least in my case) are moon snail collars, a coil of mucous and sand about a foot in diameter that contains their eggs. 

Another low tide day at Boundary Bay

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.

Capturing predator/prey relationship

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.