Love, Death, and A Chickadee

This lovely story was posted on the Nanaimo/Gabriola Birding FaceBook page this morning. Warning: get Kleenex out now - you'll need it for your tears if not your laughter ...

http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/newsfrom187/entry/7268/

The Ravishing Red-Winged Blackbird

To read my new column in The Flying Shingle about Red-Winged Blackbirds (and to see lovely photo of one by Gabriolan Garry Davey), click http://www.flyingshingle.com/cgi-bin/coranto/viewnews.cgi?id=20121210463161577827

Enjoy!

Gabriola Christmas Bird Count Dec 30

This year the Christmas Bird Count takes place on Sunday December 30 on Gabriola. And, for the first time, it’s FREE to participate!

The Christmas Bird Count began in 1900 when Frank Chapman of the fledgling Audobon Society suggested a new tradition – rather than hunting birds over the Christmas season, why not do a census of them? Such a good idea! Today more than 2000 communities across North and South America participate in this annual tradition, the longest running Citizen Science survey in the world.

If getting up early to head out in the cold (maybe even snow?) to count birds doesn’t appeal to you ...

Fox sparrow - add him to your list!

consider the benefits for the birds. Researchers and conservation biologists use the collected data to study the long-term health and status of bird populations across the continent. In combination with other Citizen Science surveys such as the Breeding Bird Survey and The Beached Bird Survey, the data provides an up-to-date picture of the continent's bird populations, and the results help guide conservation practices and policies.

If you’d like to join us, please call Phyllis Fafard, the local organizer of the count, at 250-247-9956.

 

Citrine Wagtail in Comox!

It's a once in a lifetime event for most birders - a VERY rare bird was seen and photographed by Jeremy Gatten on November 14 in Comox. And it was still there yesterday afternoon. See the bird and read all about it on Jeremy's blog post here: http://naturalestnaturalist.blogspot.ca/2012/11/citrine-wagtail-twitch.html  Russell Canning also weighs in on his Rare Bird Alert site: http://bcbirdalert.blogspot.ca/

The sighting of the wagtail has been posted on the American Birding Association blog (http://blog.aba.org/2012/11/abarare-citrine-wagtail-british-columbia.html) along with directions for how to get to the Comox location. I suspect some American birders will be making the trek. It's a rare opportunity (for those who do this) to add this species to their Life List without travelling abroad.  

According to The Backyard Bird and Nature Store in Nanaimo, "The Citrine Wagtail is a small songbird that breeds in north central Asia and winters in South and Southeast Asia. Until now there have been no confirmed sightings of the bird in Canada and only one other in North America, when it was spotted in Mississippi in 1992."

Pretty exciting news ... but I can't help but wonder what it's doing here?

Freud visits Brickyard Beach

During my Brickyard Beach survey in October (see Beached Birds at Brickyard post) I didn't find any dead birds. That's the way I like it! But I did take some photos of this wild and wooly beach, including one of a bird!

Brickyard Beach



Black Oystercatcher 



 

Just for Fun: images of stone
Here are some non-bird photos from Brickyard that might remind you of a bird - or a person or an animal or who knows what? So in the spirit of a Rorschach test, "tell me what you see" (said in the voice of a certain noted dead German psychiatrist) ...

#1

 

#2

 

#3

#4

#5

So ... what do you see?

Nanaimo/Gabriola Birding on FB!

Myliss Johnson has started a FaceBook page for people to share photos and messages about birds on Gabriola and in Nanaimo. I am, obviously, delighted! Thank you for making this brilliant idea happen, Myliss. If you have a FaceBook account, you can participate by joining at http://www.facebook.com/groups/NanaimoandGabriolaBirding/permalink/282774345176971/#!/groups/NanaimoandGabriolaBirding/

I look forward to sharing photos and enjoying yours!

Two Great Blue Herons of Gabriola

Great Blue Heron Dies
On October 22, in the Sounder, I read about the three raccoons found dead and the Great Blue Heron found shot with a BB gun or pellet gun on the north end of the island. The heron was still alive but died of its injuries a day later at North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre in Errington. The GROWLS volunteer that took it to Errington suspected it was near starvation after being unable to hunt for two or three weeks.
 


Great Blue Heron found in islander's back yard.
Photo by Barry Boettger.

Great Blue Heron Lives!
Then, October 23, GROWLS volunteers and friends gathered to release a different Great Blue Heron that had been rescued by GROWLS volunteers some time ago and taken to North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre in Errington. There, the heron was treated and recovered nicely. On the 23rd it was returned to Gabriola to be released close to where it was found, near Sandwell Beach.  



Great Blue Heron being released from cage.
Photo by Tawny Maclachlan Capon.



Freeddom once again!
Photo by Tawny Maclachlan Capon.

Into the wild blue yonder. Blessings to you.
Photo by Tawny Maclachlan Capon.

 

So, while many people on the island actively honour and care for our wildlife, others - or at least one other - is killing them. So sad.

 

Thank you to GROWLS and North Island Wildlife Recovery Association in Errington.