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On Saturday I slept
in, went to lunch at the Golden Pita, and then went over to Colony
Farm Park in the afternoon. Afternoons aren't the best times for
all birds, but I hadn't been to Colony Farm in a while and I was
starting to miss the place a little.
So around 3:30 I found
myself walking down the path from the main parking lot by the
community garden. At several points, there were Golden-crowned
Sparrows out foraging on the path. Here's a trio of them.
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| On one side
of this path is a slough, and inbetween the slough and the path
are a few bushes and trees. In the top of one of them, I found a
male Red-winged Blackbird posing for me. I could hear the blackbirds
all around; they certainly don't mind announcing their presence. |
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| After crossing
the aluminum bridge at the end of the path, I headed across the
river on the big bridge. Once on the far side, I walked on towards
the Shaugnessy Street entrance. After a while, I found myself at
the little duck pond just downhill from the entrance. Out on the
pond were a number of birds. I sat and waited for a while for some
of them to come near. A few of them did, like this male Gadwall. |
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| ...and this
female Bufflehead. |
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| There were
also a pair of American Coots paddling around. Eventually one of
them came out from behind some tall grass and consented to being
photographed. |
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| And I also
found my Pied-billed Grebe friend. This guy (or one of his relatives)
is almost always there when I drop by this pond. I had my lifer
Pied-billed Grebe at this pond a few years ago. |
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PB Grebes are such
cute little birds.
Anyhow, that was about
it for the pond, and I moseyed back the way I came. When I reached
the path by the river, I found a couple of Green-winged Teals
in the slough on the near side. Here's one of them.
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As I followed the teal
and was taking pictures of him, I encountered a woman on the trail.
We stopped and chatted for a while, and she told me that she had
been watching an River Otter a little earlier over near the aluminum
bridge. The otter had been catching little fish and eating them.
So after we parted
I headed over to see if I could find the otter; it was on my way
back to the car anyway. Sure enough, maybe thirty or forty meters
east of the aluminum bridge, I found the critter. He was indeed
chomping on a fish.
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| I slid down
the embankment and set up my tripod in front of me. The otter had
finished his snack and swum back over to the near side of the slough
to pick up another. By the time I got the tripod up and the camera
ready, the otter had dived under. But where the otter had gone down,
bubbles were coming up...I guess the little guy was exhaling as
he hunted. I took some photos of the otter bubbles. |
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| Soon he
surfaced and started swimming down the slough towards my location.
It looked like he had something in his mouth, but I wasn't sure. |
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| He passed
right by me. |
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| After hanging
out in the water up the slough for a little while, he went back
past me the other way, and came out on the far bank. He climbed
up a bit and then looked around. |
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| Then I think
he noticed me with the camera, because he suddenly relaxed and became
Mr. Nonchalant, whistling a little tune as if to say he was just
out for a stroll, minding his own business. |
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| Then he
pretty quickly slipped back into the water. Once there, he showed
me his best Ogopogo imitation. |
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(For the nonlocals,
Ogopogo is the British Columbia version of the Loch Ness Monster.)
The sun had gotten
pretty far down, and the whole slough was in the shade by this
point. I decided that I probably had gotten the best photos of
the otter that I was going to get that day, and so I headed back
to the car. Once I was there, however, I decided to make a quick
bunny check over by the buildings. There is a population of feral
European Rabbits that typically hang out there.
Sure enough, I found
one bunny, a big black fellow. He let me get fairly close.
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| This bunny
was my last subject of the day. I'll leave you with one more shot
of him. |
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Next time, I'll bring
you a collection of miscellaneous photos from the winter, along
with photos of a wayward grebe that I found the day after this
otter and bunny visit.
Snappin' them bunnies,
Tom
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