A Kokanee Winter: Dippers, Pygmy Owls and Salmon Eggs

Looking towards Kokanee Glacier

I have enjoyed getting to know  Kokanee Creek Provincial Park in winter. The spawning channel that runs red with Kokanee Salmon in late summer is now a frozen landscape of ice, snow and frigid water. The dippers are singing now and emerging from their “dipping” with salmon eggs. I spotted a Pygmy Owl out today calling from its perch high in a cottonwood tree.  A Northern Shrike  was perched in the same marsh last week and two Kingfishers  chased each other noisily between bouts of fishing in the spawning channel. Several deer tracks wind across the windblown snow of the frozen marshes and the park trails are icy from the tred of hikers and dog walkers.

The park  is quiet in winter.  As with many winter places, it feels haunted by summer – waiting for spring.

Kokanee Creek: ice and frigid water

A Northern Pygmy Owl hunting for food in a frozen landscape

A dipper emerges with two Kokanee Salmon eggs

An American Dipper on ice

All photos and writing copyright J.A. Siderius 2014.