Okanagan Part 2

One of my favourite things to while we were camping was to walk along the canal with my dog.  One day I went for a couple of hours and had a wonderful time strolling past horse filled pastures, flower covered fields and old barns and paddocks.  I saw a tonne of birds, everything from Red-Winged Black Birds, Cedar Waxwings, Osprey and Finches.  One of the birds I was most captivated with was the Sandpiper.  There were quite a few of them nesting near the path and it was fun seeing their different tactics when it came to defending their nests.  One of them was particularly feisty and would fly madly back and forth in front of me (driving my dog crazy)!  Most of the other ones would just vocalize from a distance, but not this one!  She was a bold little thing. 

I came to know one Sandpiper quite well over the course of my walks.  As I discovered on my second walk, she had a nest with four eggs in it right on the edge of the path!  It was hidden pretty well, but was still too close to where people walked for my comfort. 

Here she is standing guard (her nest was under the green shrub directly behind her):

And, here is her nest with her wonderfully camouflaged eggs:

When I went back two days later, three of the fours eggs had hatched!  I was able to get so close to them that I had to use my macro lens to get the shots.

Mom kept a very close eye on me and tried to distract me by bobbing up and down and vocalizing.  I didn't stay very long since I didn't want to stress them too much.  (The next day when I went back they had left the nest, leaving behind one dud egg.)

Another amazing opportunity I had was to shoot a Red-Necked Grebe sitting on her nest (with Dad floating nearby).  She was very protective (understandably) and would squawk at me whenever I got too close.  I only wish I could have been there to see her swimming around with her babies on her back.

One day I was sitting in our campsite and just happened to have my camera on my lap when a beautiful quail jumped up on a stump right infront of me!  I swear he was posing LOL!

I think that's all I'll post for now.  Yet more later!