It’s early morning at the stream which empties into the harbour
and the sandpipers are busy feeding.
These birds are tall, with yellow legs, which gives them their name. The flock of starlings is busy nearby and some drop into the islands in the stream. Four of them are busy digging for grubs in the mud.
Then she appears out of the bulrushes, a female green-winged teal.
She’s the only one of her kind here, but she swims around, up-ending into the water to feed, unconcerned about the others sharing the stream. At one point, she too is on an island with the starlings, as she checks through the mud. Her green spot breaks the camouflage.
In one of the old trees overlooking the scene, an immature yellow bellied sapsucker is busy drilling into the old trunk. By the look of the trunk, this is one of his favourite trees. He makes his way around the trunk, drilling as he goes. He is driven!
Then another bird crosses the stream and lands on a dead branch near the woodpecker. From the profile I can tell it is a kingfisher. The bird, with the unruly topknot, stands on the branch motionless, watching the stream. I couldn't see it at the time but the photo shows the female has a white cross in front of her eye.
Meanwhile the sapsucker drilled for its breakfast behind her.
In the stream below, everyone is busy getting breakfast. The starlings are on the islands digging, the yellowlegs walks on an island, dipping its long beak in the water and the duck is dabbling.
They each have a place in the environment and co-exist peacefully, a testament to the wonder of natural selection.
This time watching the birds is one of my favourite experiences along the boardwalk.
30 comments:
Birds and animals could teach us a lot about co-operative living Marie, I love the way they just get on with the everyday job of finding food.. surviving in harmony.
Lovely to have so many beautiful birds to watch. And they all seem to co=exist..... until a big hawk comes looking for dinner!
5 critters in the last photo all doing their thing but keeping a decent personal space too.
Nice to join you on the walk with the birds, Marie. Nice place to visit, for all of us. :-)
I enjoyed my (your) early morning visit with the breakfast club. Your pictures are spectacular as usual.
Your birds are beautiful and I am jealous you have so many. But, I do have fifty varieties of sparrows. It is hard for me to say "sapsucker", and not "woodpecker".
Breakfast with such a variety of birds is wonderful ... I would have settled for the Sandpipers, one of my all time favorites.
Wonderful pictures of the birds captured on your early morning walk. I was fascinated by your kingfisher as we have only ever seen blue ones. We saw last evening on TV seaweed being collected from Prince Edward Island to be used to reduce methane emissions in cows. It looked as if the shoreline and bridge I have seen frequently here! Sarah x
Thank you so much for sharing feathered enchantment I will probably never see for myself. I came to being intrigued/obsessed with birds relatively late in life but now spend a LOT of time marvelling at them.
What a wonderful and pleasant way to start a day. A very nice and interesting narrative, Marie
The place place to be in this planet is near nature. You got wonderful photos!!
WoW!! what great birding day. your images are beautiful!!!
Thanks, Debbie. It was a great day!
Close to nature is my favourite place, Angela.
It was a great morning, Bill.
I have come to love birds as well, EC. They are wonderful creatures
The steel gray blue of the kingfisher didn't show well in the light that day, Sarah.
A farmer in western PEI made the discovery about cows and seaweed to reduce methane. Seaweed will be a great help in reducing greenhouse gases from cattle. Growing enough seaweed will be a problem however.
Love the sandpipers, Ginnie!
The sapsuckers are new to me this year, Joanne. I'd love to see so many sparrows.
Thanks, Linda. The breakfast club was fantastic!
It was a special morning, Jan.
I have photos of the starlings and duck close together, AC. The sandpiper kept its distance though.
I had seen a hawk swoop in there as I watched from a bridge. He was gone by the time a arrived at the head of the stream though, Shammi.
As I watched those birds, PDP, I had the same thoughts as you. They just did what they had to do, live and let live.
You did a great job of watching the birds, and an even better one of helping us watch them with you here.
Those are tall looking birds indeed, quite fascinating. Lovely shots and nice of you to share.
The birds made it easy, Ratty.
The greater yellowlegs sandpipers are big sandpipers, B.
Bird watching looks like great fun. Relaxing, too.
Your post has made me burst out into singing "Islands in the Stream," Marie. How fun is that! One day I would like to take up bird-watching. It is so fascinating, isn't it!
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