Drove to Dawson Creek yesterday to spend the weekend with family. Today we moved some logs from a neighbours to the home place to be cut up for firewood. It took 3 trips with the trailer to move the logs home and most of the day was used up by the time we had finished.
As we were so busy i hasd no time to do any birding but managed a few new year birds anyway.
Eastern Phoebe
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Bluejay
Chipping Sparrow
Western Tanager
White-throated Sparrow
Pectoral Sandpiper
Spotted Sandpiper
Tomorrow I will try and go to McQueens Slough and Jackbird refuge and see what is there, the forecast is not very good for the day with a late snowstorm for tonight and tomorrow possibly mixed with rain. Sometime at this time of the year that is good for seeing migrants as they are forced down by the bad weather, I hope this is the case as otherwise it is going to be an ugly day.

Stupid mistake

This morning I was down at the Lake and saw a beautiful Red-throated Loon swimming and diving in an open lead in the ice near the community jetty. I rushed out shooting pictures every time the bird surfaced, getting some great shots. As it was a very bright day I was unable to get very good looks at the pics due to the bright sun and my tinted glasses. Very proud of my self I drove home and downloaded to the computer only to find that they were Black&white due to the fact that I had been shooting in Monochrome last night and had forgotten to change the settings. So much for my fantastic shots of a beautiful Red-throated Loon. It is a boring shot of a Grey-Throated Loon :). I now have decided that I should do my Black&white pics in Photoshop.

Ruffed Grouse

The Ruffed Grouse Male picks a special perch for the spring season. He will stay on this perch for hours drumming his wings rapidly sounding like an old engine trying to start. .they will stay on this perch day after day trying to attract a willing female.
This Grouse has been using this same log for at least 5 years. I check on him every year to see if he has survived another winter. In past years I was unable to walk my dogs on the road up to our neighbours because my Boomer knew where this guy was and would rush after him as soon as we were near his drumming log and chase him away.
My Pal Boomer Died last year which has been sad for me and I really miss him, but is good for the poor grouse, they can drum in peace.

Stuart Lake ice

It is May 3 and Stuart Lake is still covered in ice. I scanned the open area at the mouth of the river for birds yesterday. There is an amazing amount of birds in the open water.500+ Western Grebes, 100+ Red-necked Grebe, 25 Common Loon, several hundred Northern Pintails and many others that were lost in the crowd.
The area around home has White-crown Sparrows everywhere, several hundred in the area. They will be around for a couple of weeks then leave for the northern nesting areas. The spring birds are slowly arriving, we had our first and so far only Rufous Hummingbird arrive on Thursday. I hope it is a good year for them, we have had up to 250 coming to our feeders in past years.