Extending from the last post that focused mostly on landscapes, let’s take a quick look at what we were able to see in the way of wildlife in the Kootenays on our short stay.
I think the first thing we saw along the roadside was eagles, they hang around the river valleys year round and we were able to catch a few in the Slocan valley on some cloudy days. There were 5 eagles all hanging around, the juveniles would often fly up to the adults making the adults decide it was time to go. Below is a little slide show of a few of these eagles perched and in flight or taking off.
On the trails we saw a few birds that have stuck around for winter. A new one for me was a varied thrush that was looking for food in the underbrush. The light was horrible and the thrush wouldn’t stay still so I had to take this shot at 1/1000 s which brought my ISO up to 12800. I’m still pretty impressed with the image quality at that high ISO especially since this is cropped down to around 5400x3600 from the original 61 Mega Pixels of the Sony A7RIV. The shot was taken at 600mm and f/6.3.
Woodpeckers seemed plentiful around town in Nelson. A pair of Pileated woodpeckers had been very busy removing a lot of the bark from an evergreen tree in the local park. I’m never sure if they are doing more damage to the tree or actually helping it out by getting the grubs out of the tree.
Back on the rail trail we came across a small flock of pine grosbeaks feeding on small red berries on snow covered trees. Both the Male and the female have some beautiful markings and colors.
Another new bird for me was seen by chance as we walked through Kokanee creek provincial park. I thought that I had seen a fish in the creek but was quite surprised to see a bird pop out of the water onto a rock. I had seen these only on an Attenborough special before so this was quite a treat to watch them hunt in the shallows of a fast moving creek. I managed to get a clear shot once one came up for a breather on a small rock.
Just in town there were things to see as well. Pretty pine siskin were often in the trees and around feeders in town.
A greater while fronted goose was keeping company with the Canada geese in the park in town.
Golden eye can be found in the lakes and rivers in the area.
Many of the birds above were new to me although they likely aren’t that hard to find in this area. The one bird that I was really hoping to find to add to my list of owls in North America was the Northern Pygmy Owl. For the first few weeks I had just glimpses of two in the woods above town. A trip down to Castlegar and some trails near the local college got me the first good views of one sitting at the top of a tree. I do hope that I will get more chances to see these little guys in better light and hopefully capture some in flights but for now this shot definitely made me happy.
Not a bad list of birds to find in winter before we took off to the Okanagan Valley. Animals however were not as easy to find with only one Big Horned sheep seen in the east Kootenays. With all the wildlife in the area, I’m sure it will be worth heading back to see the bears, cougars, elk, moose, and maybe even a wolverine if I’m lucky enough. Those will have to wait for trips into the backcountry. For now here is the one and only mammal from this tour.
Coming up next we explore the Okanagan valley while we continue to try to find a piece of land to build our next home.