Warblers 2025

May 08, 2025 by Matti Aleve

All of the warblers we have seen this spring. All of these have been seen in out backyard except the redstart.

May 3rd black throated blue warbler (daughter’s photo)

Photo not available:

Chestnutsided warbler - seen but unable to capture photo
Pine warbler - heard, very loud, could not find

Sam Smith Park - Apr 27, 2025

April 27, 2025 by Matti Aleve

It was a beautiful day for bird photography in Sam Smith park this morning. Bright sun, cool air, birds are starting to pass through in their spring migration, not a lot, but some.

We heard a belted kingfisher fly overhead but did not catch where it went. Heard a lot of ruby crowned kinglets, and saw a few. There were a number of white throated sparrows as well, not sure if they over wintered here or are just passing through heading north.

Lots of activity in the tree swallow field. Was photographing one swallow on a tree, when another swopped in from behind and chased it away.

Just a lot of activity in general around the nesting boxes

There was also this very hard to miss American goldfinch sitting in a bre tree against a blue sky, it was practically glowing with the sun behind us. Also came across this ruby crowned kinglet flittering around in a spruce tree.

Grebe Season

April 30, 2023 by Matti Aleve

It’s that time of year and the red-necked grebes will be making their nests and having chicks. In recent weeks the grebes have started getting their summer colours, but they haven’t started making their nests yet. We did see that the volunteers at the Friends of Sam Smith Park have started putting out the nesting boxes.

We are relatively new to the grebes of Col Sam Smith Park, watching them the last couple years. From what I gather, they aren’t very common in the area but they frequent this park. We’ve noticed that many seem to over winter here as well. The grebes will nest in boxes provided by volunteers, but the will also make their own nests.

In early May the grebes start doing their mating dances.

Shortly there after they start making their nests

By June the chicks start to hatch. When we watched them last year, it did seem to take days, if not a full week for all of their eggs to hatch. This day we saw the grebe pair tending their nest, while one baby had hatched. They seem to take turns incubating the eggs and fishing for their young.

Once all of the babies have hatched they start moving about more and away from the nest. The little baby grebes climb on and off their parents backs. Some times they will swim for a short bit then climb back on their parents back.

Snowy Owl - Jan 2, 2023

January 02, 2023 by Matti Aleve

We found the snowy owl in its usual place again today on the docks in the marina. This time positioned a little better to allow us to get some nicer pictures.

The owl is always a little difficult to see, as it sits far out on the dock, staying far away from people. At first when we heard it was there, we were looking in trees, but after thinking more about its habitat, this makes sense. Spending summers up in the arctic, there are no trees. Sounds like the snowy owl is diurnal and most active at sunrise and sunset, so may be worth heading back early one morning to see if it is a little more active.

This was taken a few days ago, as you can see, the owl is quite hard to see and actually has plenty of places to hide. A short while after this picture was taken, some crows showed up and almost seem to want to harass the owl.

Today however the owl was alone and perched up a little higher, so we were able to get some better pictures. These were taken by (not so) little one.

It was also a little warmer out today, and we were a little later getting out to the park, so there were quite a few more people out, and plenty looking for the owl.