Flirty swimmers

 In a quiet pool beside the main flow of the river, I came across these hooded mergansers:

Male hooded merganser, Lophodytes cucullatus.

This little guy was swimming in circles, alone, with his crest raised. He was raising his head, then pumping it jerkily up and down, sometimes bending backward to rest his head on his back. I tried to get a video, but I was peering at him between branches of the evergreens; I got several nice videos of the intervening branches.

Double-header.

"When aroused by danger or passion, the male flares his white head crest, looking about as good as a duck can look." So says my bird guide book. This guy wasn't in any danger, so it must be passion.

I walked around a pumphouse to get at the pool from the far side, without trees in the way. By the time I got there, the hoodie had acquired the beginnings of a harem:

Male and a pair of females, swimming in sync. He's got his crest down now; the females are displaying  theirs.

 And from this side, I got a short video, but without the head pumps.

A female common merganser joined the hoodies for a minute. Usually I see these in the current, fishing. She is larger than the hoodies, about 64 cm. to their 46.

She is also crested, like the hoodies, but her crest is a bit ragged. Her mate has a sleek, green head.

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En una lagunita tranquila, separada de la corriente rápida del rio, vi estos patitos, Lophodytes cucullatus (Serretas capuchonas). Vi el macho primero, nadando a solas, haciendo círculos en el agua con su cresta alzada. Levantaba la cabeza, luego la subía y bajaba como de golpe, a veces doblándola hacia atrás hasta reposar la cabeza sobre su espalda. Traté de hacer un video, pero lo estaba observando entre ramas, y logré solo sacar videos de ramas.

    1. El macho, exhibiendo su cresta inflada.

    2. Tranquilo, con su reflejo.

"Cuando está estimulado o por el peligro, o por la pasión, el macho infla su cresta blanca, mostrándose tan guapo como lo puede ser un pato." Así dice mi libro guía sobre estos pajaritos. Aquí no había ningún peligro; le inspiraba, pues, la pasión.

De allí di la vuelta a una instalación de BCHydro, para llegar a la laguna desde el extremo opuesto, con acceso sin árboles. Cuando llegué, el patito macho ya había atraido dos hembras:

    3: El macho con sus dos hembras. Ahora él no trae la cresta levantada, pero sus amigas sí.

    4: Desde este lado de la laguna, logré hacer un video, pero sin las posturas coquetas.

    5: Una Serreta Grande, hembra, entró por unos momentos a la laguna. Normalmente, veo estas en la corriente, pescando. Estos patos son más grandes que las Serretas Capuchonas, midiendo 64 cm, mientras las Capuchonas miden hasta 46 cm. Las hembras de esta especie tienen la cresta, aunque no tan arreglada como la de las Capuchonas; la cabeza de los machos (Grandes) es lisa y verde.

Playing catch up

Life is just too full of life.

I put a few grass florets under the microscope yesterday evening. Took a series of photos, compared them to listings in my guidebook, posted them to iNaturalist.  I was too sleepy, once that was done, to post a couple of photos of a brown-headed cowbird, as planned, and left it for today. But then I got up in the middle of the night to take photos of a moth beside my bed. 

I still have photos lined up for posting from the middle of last month. I'm thinking I will never, ever catch up.

So today I'm adding all the rest of my bird photos to the cowbird post. Ten photos, four folders cleared. That will help.

Molothrus ater. One-legged, chocolate-headed cowbird. 

Beside the cookhouse, Strathcona Lodge, Upper Campbell Lake.

Waiting for the Saltspring Island ferry. Adult gull, pink-legged.

This may be a youngster. Hard to tell.

A large flock of gulls hung around waiting for our ferry, maybe hoping for handouts.

Parking lot pigeon, Crofton beach.

Robin at the birdbath.

House Sparrow, Crofton Beach.

And these two last photos are poor, but just for the record; distant ducks at the beaver pond.

Male Wood Duck, Aix sponsa, among the water lilies.

Female Hooded Merganser, Lophodytes cucullatus.

Tomorrow, a bunch of water scenes, I think. Green water, blue water, white water.

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¡El mundo es tan lleno de vida!

Ayer por la tarde, examiné unas florecitas de pasto bajo el microscopio. Saqué fotos, las comparé con descripciones en mi libro guía, y las subí a iNaturalist. Y hecho esto, tenía mucho sueño y dejé para hoy subir aquí dos fotos de Tordos cabecipardos. Me fui a la cama, pero a medianoche me levanté para sacar fotos de una palomilla nocturna que vino a descansar en mi mesita de noche. 

Y todavía tengo fotos que están listas para subir desde mediados del mes pasado. Se me ocurre que nunca podré ponerme al corriente.

Pues, hoy estoy añadiendo todas las fotos de pájaros, sea donde sea las saqué, a las de los tordos. Diez fotos, y cuatro archivos finalizados. Un paso adelante.

1. Molothrus ater. Con una sola pata, cabeza color chocolate.
2. Lo encontré en el Centro de Educación/Resort Strathcona, a la orilla del lago Upper Campbell.
3. Gaviota, esperando el trasbordador que me llevaría a la isla Saltspring.
4. Creo que esta gaviota es un joven.
5. Una bandada grande de gaviotas esperaba el trasbordador.
6. Paloma en el estacionamiento al lado de la playa en Crofton.
7. Petirrojo en un jardín aquí en el pueblo.
8. Gorrión común, Crofton.
9. Y estas dos fotos salieron muy pobres, pero sirven de recordatorio. Este es un Pato Joyuyo macho.
10. Hooded Merganser, Lophodytes cucullatus, hembra, entre los lirios acuáticos.

Para mañana, escenas con agua, creo. Agua verde, azul, blanco.

Divers in green water

I don't know how it was that I saw them, driving by on the dirt road, dodging potholes with half an eye on the scenery: tangles of bare branches and last year's maple leaves, deep green ferns and whitish snags and mossy trunks. And there! Just a flash, a spark of white at the bottom of a slope. Moving. Alive. I parked and scrambled down the bank to see what it was.

Hooded mergansers, two males, one female.

Zooming in.

The birds were diving in a wide spot in a creek. I counted four males, with their showy white heads, and three or four females. These are harder to see, blending in against the reflections of sticks and weeds.

Three males, two females.

And two males.

I couldn't get any closer to the creek, because the ground underfoot was soggy and unstable. And the mergansers kept to the far side, even after I'd spent some time pretending to be another snag.

What I saw from the side of the road.

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No sé como es que los vi al pasar, bajando por un camino de lodo, tratando de evitar los hoyos más grandes, echando un ojo cuando podía al bosque alrededor; una vista compuesta de ramas secas enredadas, las hojas viejas de arce caídas hace meses, helechos verdes, troncos de árbol cubiertos de musgos, o troncos muertos blanquiscos. Y ahí; un destello, un punto de blanco brillante, allá abajo. Se movía. Vivía. Estacioné el coche y abrí camino entre los arbustos para bajar hacia el agua.

Son los patos "serreta capuchona', Lophodytes cucullatus. Los machos tienen la cabeza blanca tan llamativa; las hembras se visten de café y gris, y se vuelven casi invisibles contra los reflejos de hierbas y ramas.

Vi cuatro machos, y creo que tres o cuatro hembras.

In lieu of beavers

"Let's go check on the beavers," Laurie said. It was raining and miserable in Strathcona, so we cancelled our plans for the afternoon and went home to Delta, and down to Cougar Creek to see how the beaver were doing.

We didn't see them, as usual. They've rebuilt three dams, and something was swimming about underwater, blowing bubbles; an otter or two, or a beaver. We never saw anything break the surface.

But there were ducks, and new spring growth, and reflections on the water; we weren't disappointed.

Reflections of trees in duck-disturbed water

Wigeon and squiggles

Male hooded merganser, between dives.

His mate, far in the distance

Mallard pair, on mirror-like water

Indian plum, just starting to bloom

I love how these early salmon berry blossoms start out all crinkly.

Laurie just had to take this view of a wild rose tangle; stems and thorns. Wicked thorns.

Robin hunting for worms in the grass.

Blogger has been uncooperative tonight; it wouldn't load any of my photos, nor would they upload to Picasa for Blogger's use. I linked these from Flickr, but over Blogger's protests. If they're not showing up, let me know in the comments. Thanks!

Sunset over Reifel Island

We started out for our afternoon walk late, delayed by conversation with neighbours, and slowed, once on the road, by the fast-dropping sun in my eyes as we drove west. We arrived at Reifel Island about the time we normally would be leaving, with less than an hour before they started closing the gates.

I'm glad; otherwise, we would have missed this.

A hot orange sun slips over the horizon,

painting dried grasses with warm light,

and highlighting the red-brown of a hooded merganser.

The sun drops out of sight, but the orange light spreads upward,

tinting even the sky opposite.

The moon rises in the east, over pink mountain peaks. It will turn red towards morning, so another visitor tells me.

A Skywatch post.

Good catch!

Or lost opportunity?

Watch this pair of hooded mergansers, fishing in Cougar Creek Park:

Handsome. He knows it, too.

Gone fishing.

"Look what I caught!"

"Oh! Is that for me? How sweet of you!"

"No, it's my fish. Go catch your own!"

"He ate it! I can't believe such rudeness!"

"In that case ..."

"... there are other fish in the sea.* Just as handsome as you, and bigger, too!"

*I think she actually said, "... ducks in the water," but I've translated the idiom, not the literal words.