Recently a young Turkey Vulture (cathartes aura) has become a frequent visitor in the yard of a Gabriola Island couple. Not knowing the sex, they call it Vic the Vulture – for either Victor or Victoria. Vic usually comes around every other day and spends up to an hour in …
I was on vacation in Mexico years many ago when I noticed the tall black seabirds standing on the rocks, their wings held out from their sleek bodies like ballerinas. At the time, I wondered if the pose was unique to some crazy Mexican birds. Years later, waiting in Nanaimo …
I remember the first time I saw a Dark-eyed Junco. We’d just moved to Gabriola Island, seven years ago, and were still busy unpacking boxes when I stopped for a break, looked out the window, and noticed several black-hooded feathered creatures rummaging in the winter garden. I thought they must …
Last summer I watched an exhausted-looking Chestnut-backed Chickadee valiantly feed a demanding Brown-headed Cowbird chick about four times its size. Here’s the cowbird, waiting (impatiently) while the harrowed chickadee gathers food to bring back to him. The year before I’d watched a female Song Sparrow in our back yard feeding …
One of the most abundant and studied bird species in North America, blackbirds have captured the imagination of poets and musicians, from Shakespeare to Paul McCartney, for centuries. Maybe that’s because they maintain such an air of mystery – in spite of their bravado. Certainly the male Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius …
Frogs are croaking, insects are hatching, and the mini-daffs are in bloom. It’s spring! These days I wake to the glorious song of the House Finches, whose song first piqued my curiosity about birdsong. Did you ever wonder (as I did) how such tiny creatures belted out such beautiful melodies? …
Here on the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, more Trouble (with a capital T) is brewing for the birds – in the form of the Trans Mountain (TM) Pipeline expansion, owned by Kinder Morgan. (You might be familiar with this oil giant owned by former Enron executives.) The expansion, often …
The Pacific coast of British Columbia is home to two species of hummingbird, the Rufous (Selasphorus rufus) and the Anna’s (Calypte anna). Like many winter-weary Gabriolans, Rufous hummers spend the winter in Mexico. Then, in the spring, they begin their migratory journey northward, usually arriving back in BC during the …
Of the innumerable and untold advantages of having a birder in your family, a big one is just how easy they are to buy for at Christmas. Birders are happy with anything that supports their habit. Me, I’d welcome a forty pound bag of black-oil sunflower seed. Or a carton …
Once in a while someone asks me why I feed the birds. Usually the question stems from plain old curiosity. But periodically the overtone is: wouldn’t it be better not to interfere? To let the birds get their food naturally, from native flowers and plants? It’s a fair question. Certainly …