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photo gallery > Birds (9)
A "coastal sea", as our working area can well be described, is home to both stationary and transitory birds who depend on the ocean for food. While not a place where breeding and homemaking can really be accomplished, the sea is so nutrient rich that its challenges are more than worth the risk if suitable adaptations can be made.
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Bald eagle on Trial Island
Click image for full size view. The bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) is the only eagle unique to North America. The bald eagle's scientific name signifies a sea (halo) eagle (aeetos) with a white (leukos) head. At one time, the word "bald" meant "white," not hairless. Bald eagles are found over most of North America, from Alaska and Canada to northern Mexico. About half of the world's 70,000 bald eagles live in Alaska. Combined with British Columbia's population of about 20,000, the northwest coast of North America is by far their greatest stronghold for bald eagles. -
black oystercatcher
Click image to view full size. The black oystercatcher eats a variety of invertebrate marine life including mussels, whelks and limpets. Despite its name, it rarely eats oysters! It especially likes to eat creatures that cling to the rocks below the high-tide line. It usually forages at low tide and rests at high tide. It uses its long, sharp bill to pry bivalves like limpets and mussels off the rocks and then to open them. They also look for open mussels and disable them by stabbing the adductor muscle that holds the shell together. This keeps the shell open. The oyster catcher then pulls out the contents with the tip of its sharp bill and swallows its catch. -
Heron in upper harbour near trestle
Click image for full size view. This great blue heron appears to be drying its wings as my research has not revealed this to be a common, socially relevant behaviour. Adult Great Blue Herons have few natural enemies. Eagles occasionally attack them, and crows, ravens, gulls, birds of prey, and raccoons prey upon the eggs and young; mortality of the young is high, but often for reasons other than predation.
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heron leaving Race rocks
Click image for full size view. During an evening trip this heron was observed leaving Race rocks after standing in shallow water feeding on small fish. I have observed herons hunting much larger fish, 2-3 pound trout from a pond. When captured prey is too large to be gulped down immediately or has dangerous spines, the heron drops the prey back into the water and grabs hold of it repeatedly and violently with its beak until the catch is dazed or the spines snap. Then it can be swallowed more easily. Sometimes two fish are caught simultaneously. Other techniques are observed, but more rarely: for example, Great Blue Herons in flight sometimes dive underwater to catch fish; others hover over the water and submerge their heads to catch fish; and some swim in deep water and feed on fish found near the surface.
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Tufted Puffin
Click image for full size view. Tufted puffins are Northern Pacific sea birds that spend a majority of the year over the Pacific Ocean, but nest along coastlines from lower California to Alaska, and across the ocean from Japan to the shores of northeastern Asia. Every year puffins over-winter on the ocean. Their waterproof feathers and their ability to drink salt water and catch fish make staying long periods on the sea possible. They disperse widely while at sea but return to the colony where they were born, and usually to the same mate, every year for breeding. It is unknown how they do this, but it is speculated that they use sounds, smells, or visual cues from the sky or the ocean to find their way home. -
Juvenile bald eagle
Click image to view full size. As bald eagles age, their eyes and beak gradually turn yellow. The white hood and tail feathers grow in sometime in their fourth year. Eagles molt in patches, taking almost half a year to replace feathers, starting with the head and working downward. Not all feathers are replaced in a given molt. Until the bald eagle is mature, the replacement feathers are of different colors. As adults, the belly and back are dark, while the head is pure white. The distinct juvenile pattern, signaling that a bird is not ready to breed, may reduce aggression from territorial adults.
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nesting cormorant
Click image for full size view. The double-crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) is a member of the cormorant family of seabirds. It occurs along inland waterways as well as in coastal areas and is widely distributed across North America. Once threatened by use of DDT, the numbers of this bird have increased markedly in recent years. Breeding occurs in coastal areas as well as near inland rivers and lakes. They build stick nests in trees, on cliff edges, or on the ground on suitable islands. They are gregarious birds usually found in colonies, often with other aquatic birds, and have a deep, guttural grunt call. -
Metchosin turkey vultures
Click image for full size view. Although it has an ugly, bare-skinned face, the Turkey Vulture is beautiful on the wing. Seldom does this graceful and talented bird flap its wings as it soars over large areas searching for carrion. The Turkey Vulture uses its sense of smell to locate carrion. The part of its brain responsible for processing smells is particularly large, compared to other birds. Its heightened ability to detect odors allows it to find dead animals below a forest canopy. Like its stork relatives, the Turkey Vulture often defecates on its own legs, using the evaporation of the water in the feces to cool itself down. -
two black oystercatchers - chain islets
Click image for full size view. Black oystercatchers are non-migratory. They may move a little in the spring and fall, but they usually remain close to their nesting area. The black oystercatcher can be found from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska southward along the Pacific Coast to Baja California. The female black oyster catcher lays two to three eggs among pebbles in a shallow rocky depression or in a hollow on the beach above the high tide line. The nest is built by both the male and the female. They will create a scrape or depression in the ground and then pick up and toss shells, bits of rock, and pebbles into the depression with a backwards or sideways flip of their heads. They will use the same nest year-after-year. Both the male and the female take turns incubating the eggs.
