Shorebird Sculpture at 72nd Street I spent the weekend in Vancouver hitting some of the Lower Mainland’s birding hot spots including the 72nd Street access to the Boundary Bay dyke. I arrived there fairly late in the day so there wasn’t too much in the way of birds aside from the ubiquitous Northern Harrier. Any of the dyke access points …
Bird Watching
Backyard Birds – January 18-24
Just a quick backyard feeder update for the week – not much change in the number or kinds of birds visiting the feeders. We’re still getting both a male and female Downy Woodpecker regularly and the Ruby-crowned Kinglet makes appearances daily to visit the suet feeder. The single White-crowned Sparrow has been joined by at least one other adult and …
Trumpeter Swans at Woodhus Slough
Trumpeter Swans (Cygnus buccinator) gliding over the water at Woodhus Slough. I headed out to Woodhus Slough this morning to do some casual birding with the kids and to check out how last week’s heavy rain, high tides and storm had affected the slough. The change was dramatic – while the dyke separating the slough from the ocean hadn’t been …
Miracle Beach Birdwatching
Miracle Beach Provincial Park on Vancouver Island, British Columbia provides a good place for both forest birds and marine birds. It has a great mix of “old growth” Douglas Fir, Big Leaf Maple, and open, well established Red Alder (in the campsite area) as well as stream habitat alongside Black Creek, productive estuary habitat at the mouth of the creek, …
Campbell River Christmas Bird Count 2009/10
A full day of birding today on the Campbell River Christmas Bird Count. Fortunately the weather cooperated and while it was cool, the rain held off. My team did fairly well considering that our access to the ocean was only at the mouth of the Oyster River on Vancouver Island, and even at that included only birds south of the …
Guess that Gull
I admit that I struggle with identifying gulls. Not only do you have to deal with four years of different plumages, you have to deal with hybrids as well. It can be extremely challenging and there are many opportunities to second guess yourself. In situations like those, sometimes it’s better to simply close your eyes, wait until the gull leaves, …
Little River Ferry Christmas Bird Count 2009
I’ve been meaning to do the Little River Ferry Christmas Bird Count (CBC) since it was inaugurated by Guy Monty in 2003. For one reason or another was unable to, until this year. This count is one of the few in BC that really focuses on “off shore” birds because the count circle essentially is the Strait of Georgia between …
Birding at Buttertubs
Open water at Buttertubs Marsh from the vantage point of a viewing tower. No ducks here! Yesterday I headed down to Nanaimo to pick up my brother-in-law at the ferry and planned the day to include a little morning birding at Buttertubs Marsh. Buttertubs is accessible in a couple of places but I find that the easiest access point is …
Comox Christmas Bird Count 2009
It’s all over but the owling and I don’t think many of the birders on the Comox Christmas Bird Count who braved the cold wet day today are up to spending another couple of hours out listing for owls. As I mentioned in my pre-count post, I was the team leader for Area 11 which encompasses a large area of …
2009 Comox CBC – Pre-count Scouting
I’m leading a group of birders in Area 11 on the Comox Christmas Bird Count (CBC) this year and headed out today to do a pre-count reconnaissance of the area. The last time I birded this territory was back in 2004 with my wife and my mother-in-law. I knew that it had a variety of good birding habitat so when …