Birds and Beaver in the swamp.

Beaver in the small pond Sheriff Creek sanctuary hauling a branch to the creek's outlet.

 

Appears that when he got there he ate it!

.

Yellow-rumped Warbler.

  

see

 

The young Mallards have finally learned to fly. Here they are taking off  at sunrise.

 

Great Blue Heron cruisn' by

 

Then our friend the awkward Cormorant.

First the Takeoff.

 

then the Landing

Just about when in head first.

 

next up 

Purple Finches

Male and Female

 

then the male alone.

 

now a Black Capped Chickadee. Millions in the Winter but seldom seen in summer.

 

  in a different body of water, 

A Ring-billed Gull and her brood

 

and, last one:

a young King Bird looking  a bit lost.

Northern Harrier(s), American Bittern Chick(s) Yellowbellied Sapsucker(s) & other things.

Only a guess but I think these are the 3 original, female mallards hatched this year, that I had been recording. Not of the later group of 7.

Over 2 days I watched these Northern Harriers cruise the Sheriff Creek's Marsh. While I never saw a "strike" there were many dives.
The smaller male, gray, was out in the evening.

And the larger female,brown, was hunting the following (mid) morning .

Between Harrier sightings, I watched as 2 American Bittern chicks got lessons in maneuvering around the marsh and preliminary flight lessons.
There are 2 young ones but only one appears at a time.

Watched over by mother,          "gearing up"

 Moving to launch position

Tentative steps with underdeveloped wings flapping.

then the jump.

and the result: missed! But learns the art of wading.















                                       Next up: Yellow-Bellied Sap-Suckers.

 Neither of whom have yellow bellies nor do they suck sap.
Very clever these bird naming Ornithologist wot?
Female on a Tamarac tree, no sap here. Bit of resin tho'

 

Male, with red cap and throat is not likely to get much sap from a dead tree either.

Same general area, A Warbler I could not positively identify from my "bird-books"

And a Double Crested Cormorant in for a landing.

Finally,
this is a fungus (I think),
One which I've never seen before.
Or else it's an alien invader.
I'll check its progress just in case.

White-Tail Deer and 3 days of other stuff.

Met this one at Stanrock.

And in the same general area:

Then we have a variety if insects:

Next, Kingbird flight school. Youngster flies out and back and gets further instructions.

This has to be one of the ugliest fungi ever. But colourful.

As best I can determine this is a Least Fly-catcher.

And this is also a "fly catcher"

Poor, poor fox and assorted other things

This unfortunate fella appears to have a serious case of Mange. (to my untrained eye).
Managed 2 photos before more cars came along and forced me to move.
Milliken Mine Rd. near entrance to Sheriff Creek.

 

appears to be just a young one too.

updates on Mallard  and Wood Duck families.
Mother mallard still herding her crowd. Not yet ready to fly.

and here are 2 of the 3 Wood Duck ducklings we've been following. Mother nowhere to be seen so I suppose they are on their own.

and on the subject of Wood Ducks, here is a young adult.

to add some elegance:

This next series of photos:

Quality not so great because i was shooting directly into the morning sun and the subject were silhouetted against the sky.
 But I included them here because they are interesting.

Northern Flicker feeding a young one.
First picture, the youngster lands.

then gets its footing.

turns  downwards with mouth open. Wings and feathers all askew.

then the parent shoves it in.

it would seem a better method would be to reverse the positions.