24 March 2024

 
 


I spent a day on Bowen Island with Doug. We counted 37 bird species on our two hikes there. This photo shows a stand of dead trees at the end of Killarney Lake. They built a small dam at the end of the lake to raise the water a bit and, in doing so, they drowned this small grove of birch trees. This is the reflection of those trees, which I've inverted in Photoshop.


T'aanuu and I had two long days of birding again last week. The warblers and swallows are back but so hard to photograph. You will have to be contented, Dear Reader, with some waterfowl that don't move around so much. Male bufflehead above.


Male wood duck.

We all perturb the world as we move through it. As a birder, I am aware of the need to move slowly (although I often ignore this strategy due to impatience). As humans move through the bird world they send out ripples of disturbance that scare birds. Just as an aside, I've come to appreciate that one of the things that makes Reifel such a great birding spot is that the birds there are habituated to a lot of human activity so they tend not to be as skittish as 'normal' birds. So the secret of birding is to stay still long enough for nature to return to its unperturbed state.


Today, Sunday, Mary, T'aanuu and I went down to Point Roberts where we were rewarded with large rafts of scaups, scoters, and bufflehead. There were also a few harlequin ducks thrown into the mix. They were obviously feeding on fish under the surface as they formed these tight circles of diving birds.


Horned grebe.


Great blue heron.


Common goldeneyes.


Killdeer.