What's up Peeps!
Well I don't know what happened to the price of Hive suddenly, started the day at .40 now below .30, hopefully it's just a quick tumble while the momentum regroups to make a comeback in a few days. I wasn't planning on writing anything, I was reading my big book but it's like 500 pages and was getting heavy to hold, my arms need a break.
Red Necked Grebe couple and their young. This pair seem to lay many eggs but only one or 2 per year hatch but when they do, it's a treat to go visit them and capture their progression as they grow up from eggs to their early swimming lessons.
Grebes like to nest in shallow water and away from the shores as much as they can for safety and away from humans making them hard to get a good nest but this pair is just a few feet away.
When approaching, if the hen starts hissing, back-up a few steps until she stops or she will fly away in fear leaving her eggs vulnerable to predators, often times up to no good sea-gulls...I mean, who called those guys!
A couple of pictures may have been posted in my ladybug account but the baby birds in the mother's plumage were not but are from a few weeks later that same year, all those eggs and only one hatched.
Spring seems to be holding stable for now, temperatures are staying steady in the low double digits in the afternoon, we are never truly out of winter's white snowy grip until May long week-end tho, anytime until then is fair game for mother nature. Sun pouring in the large windows brightning the once gloomy looking living room with the lack of sunlight and long early nights winter brings. My window sun crystals are filling the room and ceiling with rainbows reflections once again. In the winter, the sun doesn't reach high enough at the right time to make them "rainbow".
The backyard is looking a little blah and everything is still dead, no grass, no buds on the trees either but the snow is gone, the Blue Jays are back for their "post peanuts" and loudly announced their return. Goody, they remember this yard, perhaps another good summer for some close ups of all is silliness. Perhaps we will have a new offspring! There is a mating pair but last year the baby didn't come around when humans were present so I just watched from the window rather than try to get pics, maybe this year they will be less nervous. As a society we make jokes about "bird-brain" as being a sign of un-intelligence yet birds seem to have a pretty good memory even a pretty accurate facial recognition. I wonder if we will find new species in the neighborhood this year. Seems to have something new move in every year.
From last year's backyard batch, the Blue Jay got pretty comfortable and started interacting and staying when I refill the posts. The pileated Woodpecker, he's new. Meybe he will bring a family in the neighborhood, he likes the food and has been a regular visitor all of last year, not quite as comfortable with humans as the Jay.
The next backyard critter I hope to see this year, the Northern Flicker, well this one is a front yard critter, is also a variety of Woodpecker. He likes to pick at ant hills on the ground rather than feed from seeds or hang out in trees. There is no shortage of food for him. I'm pretty sure the entire neighborhood is filled with underground ant tunnel and they are large. Hopefully I can catch him feasting on the evening.
The return of the Jays isn't my first sign. My Spring omen is when I hear the Canada Geese do their flyover my house on their way to their favorite pond and nesting grounds. Many birds even migratory tend to nest where they were born and as they return each year, they re-claim the same nest if it's still available. Early Geese gets the nest, many come early when there is still a light snow covering in the ground while they move in early to claim their prime real estate for their next generation. It's too early for babies but I do have some left over from other years, I will be keeping an eye out for them as they progress. When they are young, they hide under the mother's wings but in only a few weeks, they become so unruly that the mother stops caring and not as over protective and will let them run wild as she follows along with a watchful eye.
Back to the pond life, for a city park...this really is budding with avian diversity you wouldn't expect, I have even seen swans and pelicans. The whole thing is really just a collection of storm rainwater manmade ponds to prevent the water systems from overflowing and flooding our flat city streets during flash rains. We are pretty dry here overall and when it rains, the ground gets oversaturated fast as it struggles to absorb the intense rate it comes pouring down, even if just for a half hour. We have sections of the highway that always gets flooded so these green areas are needed. Much of Edmonton was built near swamp or wet lands, keeping these water collection ponds help give the avian species urban refuge where they have always nested before we came along. The city's green belt help reduce the numbers of nest in busy traffic urban areas where their safety may be more at risk or disruptive to traffic.
Above is a row of preening pelicans after a hearty fish meal. The park is sectioned off with a main part for humans and the second set of ponds is a lovely loop walk around another pond claimed as a dog park but the diversity is better. The Geese and ducks like the busier parts of the park while many quieter species stay where it's quiet. They used to be just visitors but the last few years, they seem to have moved in and hopefully they nest here again this year.
Female Blackbird, she tends to nest in the bottom of cattails where she can be heard but invisible. Her male counterpart always ready to dive bomb and protect at any occasion. They will likely create a diversion away from the nest rather than act from it making it impossible to locate them most of the time. Often the female can be caught with large bugs like dragonflies in her mouth as she is an avid hunter.
I was looking for my photos of one of my favorite ever caught at this park but perhaps another time, I couldn't find them and got tired of looking. I have taken many photos over the years. Every year, I try to get the resident Blue Heron, he's magnificent and I did catch him fishing before but he is a little shy and tends to only come out of his nest when nobody is around. his nest isn't far. Sometimes just figuring out where he likes to fish and just sit still and he might eventually come if he feels safe to do so. Minimal movement and he'll fly away. This year I try my luck again. In the meantime, I had a load of pictures from the Grebe family so I thought I would share a few more. I try to return a few times per week before they grow too big and go off on their own in the pond.
The mother will begin to get vocal if any other birds other than her male start to get close to her and her young warning them to stay away. She seems ok with Geese and ducks coming close but not any other species.
The photo below, the mother likes to float on the pond and take a nap while the overactive young just enjoys the slow float getting used to his big new world getting ready to spot fish in the water and take his first dive for himself to try his luck. Until then, the father does much of the fishing for him enticing him to the water.
A chick this age does start to venture out near the nest area but will not stray far from the safety of his mothers plumage and will run back in at any time if he gets unsure of himself.
Now that I posted that spring is here, I expect to be burried in a foot of snow before I have time to press "publish" or before I can go bird hunting with the camera for new wilderness babies but another month or so it should be warm enough to re-establish my backyard reading spot waiting for whatever comes up. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the songbirds that now fill the void the howl of the cold harsh wind was once occupying just a few weeks ago.
My ankle is still out of service so who knows when I can walk again without making it too angry. Soon hopefully. Re-injuring an old injury sucks and heals slower than the last time, it will be fine tho. It's a kick in the pants just in time for work season tho. Go to work injured? Nurse my injury and miss out on spring work too? I remember last time I went to work when I injured it the first time, wasn't fun. I guess that buy me time to figure out what I'm gong to do with those plotting to harm me. It's not like I even feel safe going to work anymore anyway. Not sure what I'm going to do about that yet and life is expensive. going to have to figure out sooner rather than later. In the meantime I guess I just work on myself and self care.
We didn't get anywhere close to a full eclipse here in Western Canada but here I did watch it live from the TELUS world of science live stream they had circulating the day of the event. I wanted to remember it so I took a screenshot. So all other pictures in this post are from my Nikon Z-6 and the eclipse from the view of the TELUS Telescope, I can't say I wanted to stare at the sun directly or fry my camera light sensors or whatever else. Eclipse the old and bring in the new.
I did say I would work on the to-be-read book pile before I got more but I fell from grace a little on that front. I did read a few, enough to offset but now it looks like no reading progress again with the addition of 3 more. I'll probably take a break from my Meso-American 500 page brick and go for the newer lighter reads that just came in to give my arms a rest. I wont give away the topic yet but I'm really excited to read and post about the next batch. I did leave the ancient culture theme and went for a more fantasy land expedition of the mythical fire breathing avian world. It will take me a few days maybe a week to polish them off and figure out what think of the reads so give me some time.
Alright Have a HAPPY SPRING AND SEASON OF REBIRTH!