Highlight of the day

A lucky shot of this very distant Long-tailed Weasel, seen yesterday (24 March 2014) while several of us were waiting by our cars at the Pine Creek Sewage Treatment Plant on 194 Ave SE.. Thanks so much for spotting this little guy, Wayne! Not easy to see something that is still wearing its white, winter coat against the snow. I managed to get a second shot, too, showing the long tail with its white tip, which I'll post sometime. As you can see, spring is here in name only. So glad I forced myself out the door - I go on so few walks any more.

Not a whole lot of birds to be seen on this walk and all were too far away to photograph, but it's good to see that some of the birds are gradually returning:

Canada Goose-4000+
AMERICAN WIGEON-6
Mallard-1500
Bufflehead-60
Common Goldeneye-300
BARROW'S GOLDENEYE-1 m
Common Merganser-7+
Bald Eagle-3 (2 ad./1 juv.)
Ring-billed Gull-2+
California Gull-10+
Northern Flicker-2
Black-billed Magpie-16
American Crow-1
Common Raven-2+
Black-capped Chickadee-3
European Starling-40+

"The long-tailed weasel is the product of a process begun 5–7 million years ago, when northern forests were replaced by open grassland, thus prompting an explosive evolution of small, burrowing rodents. The long-tailed weasel's ancestors were larger than the current form, and underwent a reduction in size to exploit the new food source. The long-tailed weasel arose in North America 2 million years ago, shortly before the stoat evolved as its mirror image in Eurasia. The species thrived during the Ice Age, as its small size and long body allowed it to easily operate beneath snow, as well as hunt in burrows. The long-tailed weasel and the stoat remained separated until half a million years ago, when falling sea levels exposed the Bering land bridge, thus allowing the stoat to cross into North America. However, unlike the latter species, the long-tailed weasel never crossed the land bridge, and did not spread into Eurasia." From Wikipedia.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-tailed_weasel