Biking by the dyke and seeing Bald Eagles

Today was another beautiful day. Too tired from yesterday's hike so I decided to stay home and go to the dyke when I feel rested enough.

The sky was so clear today that I could see the beautiful North Shore mountains from Terra Nova. I don't have panorama setting on my camera so this is the overlapped version of the beautiful scene that I enjoyed today.

The view from the distance.

This beautiful day also brought a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) pair to this tree. I wonder if they were looking for a home to settle in or if they are already settled (not sure since I haven't been here for a couple of weeks now). I also wonder if one of the eagles was the same one I saw earlier last month. Nevertheless, I truly hope they will stay so that I can come visit them every weekend. As you can see from the pictures, one was standing guard while one was inside the nest.

And of course, no visit to the dyke can be complete without coming across a Great Blue Heron (actually, I was just wondering about that before I came this first one). Talking about perfect timing.

I saw a couple of interesting birds today, such as this male Green-winged teal (Anas crecca), which is one of the most common teals around here. The male can be recognized by its chestnut head with the dark green ear patch highlighted by white lines.

A male Green-winged teal (Anas crecca)

Then I took these pretty pictures as the clouds slowly covered the setting sun.

I came across the lonely Snow Geese all on its own feeding on the this field. It feels very strange to see only one here when I had seen a few hundreds on the same field before.

I also observed this male Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata) followed by two females, this species is a resident here and breeds throughout British Columbia. One interesting fact from here: "When flushed off the nest, a female Northern Shoveler often defecates on its eggs, apparently to deter predators." I wouldn't want to be the offspring who was born smelly.

I also saw a female Greater Scaup (Aythya marila), I think. It was moving back and forth so it was very hard for me to take a decent picture. But at least I can identify a female Greater Scaup when I see one now, thanks to last time's mistake.

Two things I like about writing a blog are: 1) It keeps me in check with my connection with nature and forces me to write about it (so that I can come back when I am older and reminisce the old times); 2) It also forces me to identify the creatures that I saw and to search a few interesting things about them that I can put on my blog.

I am very thankful for the weather this weekend so that I can go out and enjoy the beautiful Georgia Depression.
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