Island NatureExploring nature on Vancouver Island, British Columbia and beyond

As a birder I’ve been aware that populations of certain species of birds have been declining, but I was unaware of how dramatically the numbers of Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) had fallen until I heard Dick Cannings talking about it on CBC Radio’s BC Almanac (available in iTunes – episode 2011-08-23 at about the 14:20 [...]

I was up at Strathcona Provincial Park this weekend helping out with the Friends of Strathcona Park Wilderness Festival and had the good fortune to get a closer look at a Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis). Scarlet is a Mountainaire Avian Rescue Society ambassador and is present at many local events, giving visitors a chance to [...]

We keep an informal backyard bird list and this week a new year bird showed up to investigate our fuchsia out front and our garden in the back. We’ve got lots of flowers in bloom and it seems like this immature Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus) was stopping in for a quick feed. The hummingbird dropped [...]

On certain warm, summer nights in Courtenay on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Common Nighthawks (Chordeiles minor) put on a complicated and beautiful display that surpasses that of the annual Snowbird performance at CFB Comox. Last Sunday evening Common Nighthawks were out in numbers, and birders were reporting them feeding over urban areas in both Parksville [...]

Guest post by Marcie Callewaert Every summer a Barred Owl (Strix varia) visits our property. He makes himself known with his haunting calls each night and his bold presence perched on a branch or fence post during the day – watching for his next meal. This year, “Hooty” as we have dubbed him, brought a [...]

The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds Richard Crossley Princeton University Press Cloth Flexibound 544 pages 2011 I have to admit that I was initially pretty skeptical about the huge hype surrounding Richard Crossley’s new field guide The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds. It’s been described as “mind-blowing,” “revolutionary,” and “unconventional,” among countless other superlatives. What [...]

Every so often a bird will show up unexpectedly. Such was the case this weekend up at Jocie’s mother’s place in Black Creek. We were sitting at the kitchen table having lunch when we noticed a sparrow with strong striping on its head working around the rock garden. Jocie and I realized that there was [...]

I’m not sure but it seems to me that Chipping Sparrows (Spizella passerina) are becoming more and more common on Vancouver Island. I recall several years ago being surprised that another team had had several on the Comox Valley spring bird count in early May – our team never seemed to get them and I [...]

We’ve just gotten back from a fabulous weekend in Tofino where we attended several Shorebird Festival events hosted by Raincoast Education Society. The festival is over but if you haven’t had a chance to experience the incredible phenomena of spring shorebird migration you still have lots of time to make a trip to the west [...]

I’ve really been enjoying my lunch time strolls along Lever Road in Merville – there’s a good stretch of roadside habitat that includes mixed shrubs and conifers, some older red-alder, a small pond, and open fields along which both warblers and sparrows are active. I’ve seen quite a few Yellow-rumped Warblers (Dendroica coronata) over the [...]