mt wells and mt macdonald

Today, nice cool, sunny day, I hiked up and over Mt Wells, down the draw across Humpback road and up Mt Macdonald to just over the summit. About 1700 feet in elevation in all. Not a Grouse grind but not too bad a climb. One day i will go back over Mt Wells when I have more time. 3 hours is not quite enough time.
    The wind was coming from the interior so it was getting cooler and icicles were forming on the dripping cliff ledges. I only wore a T-shirt and My Hoody, so the wind was blowing through and it was hard to keep warm when I wasn't climbing. My hands stayed quite cool the whole trip and thought I should have dressed a little warmer. Once out of the sun and down in the valley it felt even cooler.

 Very few birds were around, an immature bald eagle on Mt wells, was the only thing encountered there.
On Macdonald  a single Robin was scolding something down below the summit. A Pileated woodpecker flew through the valley on the west side and few minutes later a sharp-shinned hawk swooped down and landed for a few minutes on a snag before darting down through the tree tops.

I looked over to Mt Braden to see if any Golden Eagles were paying attention to one of the nests, but not. I headed back down to the valley encountering only a couple of deer browsing on the cliff  ledges. 

saanich inlet from Jocelynn hill

finlayson in the fog

Macdonald and Wells in the rain

Today I hiked up mt Macdonald while it was pouring rain. Lots of water coming down the draw. it has rained about 35mm  at the two hills in the last 24 hrs. I was soaked through and through, so I figured I might as well to Mt Wells also.  It didn't stop raining going up Wells either, and quite windy at the top. It did clear up to the north and there was nice rainbow on the way home. I stopped at Skirt mtn on the way back and a golden eagle was soaring back and forth along the ridge line. No photos today as the camera is not waterproof :)

deer carcass eaten by golden and bald eagles_

deer carcass eaten by golden and bald eagles_, originally uploaded by robinnestridge.

here is the carcass virtually 2 days after being eaten by the eagles. it snowed on the 2nd night and covered the carcass

finding a deer carcass on Skirt mtn

today I went to the group campsite at Goldstream park to see the golden eagles in this area. I walked through the campsite into the fields there and noticed a small bird on the top of a fir tree there, a Pygmy Owl.

It sat there, silent, as I tried my best to coax it down with a lot of tooting, but it just ignored me and was content to do nothing about me.
  I then hiked up from the last field, directly up the hillside through the open douglas fir and arbutus forest.
I noticed  a few eagles circling around over head through the canopy, one appeared to be a golden eagle, the others were adult Balds. I could hear a call up the hill that seemed to be a barking dog, but I thought it might be a golden, I headed that direction. The call continued off and on until I reached almost the top of the ridge.

I as I looked up to the top of the ridge I startled a Bald and Golden Eagle, they took off from the ground about one hundred feet in front of me and flew down the slope towards me flanking me, and avoiding the trees and branches as they flapped by me within 50 feet. I went up the hill and discovered they were feasting on a freshly killed deer carcass. I looked around and found a Bald eagle sitting in a tree, obviously it had been gorging on the deer. 

it then took off and sailed to the south.

As I returned to the field below, I looked up to where the carcass was, the golden eagle was returning to the site as well as the Bald Eagle.  I will have to return to it in the next few days and see I what I can find.

Jocelynn Hill on an icy day

lone tree hill in the distance, taken from Jocelynn hill ridge trail  

It was a low overcast day with the temperatures hovering around 1C. I hiked up the Jocelynn Ridge trail to the base of Jocelynn hill.The trail in  a few spots were completely iced over so little detours were needed.

 No one had been up so far today, but the trail was well travelled with broken frost on most of it. The birds were few, with a Hermit Thrush being the only brave one out feeding. Once I got to the view points I noticed a dark bit in a tree down the main ridge. It turned out to be a Golden Eagle sitting and watching for some prey.

 On closer look there is the eagle sitting waiting. I doubled back hoping to get a closer veiw and maybe a better photo.  but some old hikers came along and scared it off. I  followed the trail past my usual turn off and found it sitting again on the ridge edge.

It flew off as I approached close enough for a good photo.

mt wells Jan 1 , 2011

beautiful cool day to hike up Mt Wells for the first time this year. the trail was frozen and I had to pick my way up the open slope that had a lot of frozen rivulets on it. very few birds if any on the way.