Mute Swans

I was out at Esquimalt Lagoon a few days ago. It's a bird sanctuary and I was wondering what kind of birds were there at this time of year. I didn't see anything surprising but enjoyed these Mute Swans when they came swimming along the shore. Mute Swans are not indigenous and these are descended from escapees from Beacon Hill Park long ago. They have naturalized themselves at Esquimalt Lagoon and also at Albert Head Lagoon just a little further west along the coast.

From Songhees Point

Coming home from downtown yesterday I realized it has been some time since I posted a photo of the oldest part of Victoria taken from Songhees Point, so I stopped and took this one. It's quite a warm looking photo but our temperatures have been hovering around freezing in the mornings and just barely above during the rest of the day.

Employee of the Month

I noticed that the birds were behaving irresponsibly with the feeder, eating recklessly and dropping a lot of perfectly good seeds on the ground so hired this squirrel to clean up the mess.

At the Feeder

Fern recently installed a bird feeder in the back yard and I took some time yesterday to observe the surprisingly busy traffic. As well as trying out some new shooting techniques it also enabled me to continue with my quest to learn to distinguish all those little brown birds that populate our environment. Below are four that I have tentatively identified. If you're a birder, please feel free to correct me as I'm still not very confident when it comes to these little brown birds.

Mistakenly identified as a Pine Siskin. (See note * below)	House Finch
Fox Sparrow	Dark-eyed Junco

* Re: Top left photo - The Pine Siskin is similar to this but after looking at various field guides I feel quite sure this is actually a female House Finch. The red-capped male House Finches are relatively easy to id and since they are regular visitors in the same flocks, this adds additional weight to the case for this being a female of the species.

Another View

On Sunday afternoon both Fern and I independently sought the shoreline. Her photo, published yesterday, was taken from Saxe Point Park. I didn't go quite so far west and stopped at Fleming Beach and Macaulay Point Park, and took the photos above and below.