Cardinal moving to ground forage mode after feasting on the berries.

 

Mallard with a wee feather on his beak.

 

Just a tad rugged coastline. (Jan. 2012)

 

Dainty nibbler.

 

Face to face with a serious Canvasback.

 

Love it when the late afternoon sky gets all fired up.

 

I reminisce frequently and fondly of the warm afternoon in May when fourteen different bird species, many of them migratory, stopped by our backyard for a sploosh in the bird bath. That included my first ever Scarlet Tanager. It was pretty surreal.

 

Canvasback having a siesta while keeping a wary red eye on things.

 

A swan slips silently into the night.

 

The House Sparrow...despite its boring name and muted colours it really is quite beautiful.

 

Ring-billed Gull swings in tight for a closer look.

 

Cootes Paradise afterglow.

 

Fox sparrow blending in with the fallen leaves.

 

Here are a couple of crows doing the clever move where the lead one flies upside down exposing its belly as a decoy to the hawk. When the hawk closes in for a belly attack, the trailing crow has a clear shot at the hawk's back. Not my best ever photo but I marvel at the crows' teamwork when taking on their nemesis.

 

Northern Flicker

 

Golden-crowned Kinglets

 

Cooper's Hawk

 

American Bittern

 

A fairly stoic-looking Herring Gull.

 

Always remember.

 

Tree Swallow and Bufflehead together but alone.

 

Mallard drake giving a wet little quack.

 

"It's a bit nutty" - Austin Powers

 

Chipmunk on alert on a twig.

 

Red-tailed Hawk

 

Morning rainbow.

 

Northern Cardinal

 

Cottontail's eye catches the day's last glint of dusky blue sky.

 

Wood duck hen drifting on a golden pond.

 

Four and twenty blackbirds sitting on highway lamp #75. (For those actually care or are counting, there are 28 and they're European Starlings)

 

I only take night photos once in a Blue Moon.

 

Turkey Vulture laying claim to a pretty large carp.