I’ve been obsessed, which is putting it mildly, with Owl since first seeing it in the forest last summer when I was able to watch, photograph and video it active and hunting. After several encounters I then went months without spotting it. In recent weeks the owls have been very active in the forest as spring brings with it the canoodling and nesting, working full tilt to feed the young. I hear them just about every day now either when walking in the forest at the end of the road or as the sound carries to my backyard. Then last week I finally had the thrill of another sighting through my binoc’s, deep in the woods.
Last week I discovered the Cornell Bird Lab streaming of an owl nest webcam on YouTube and I’m hooked. Forget about binge watching Netflix, forget cable, forget other YouTube or Vimeo browsing. I’m hooked on what is, most of the time, watching an owl breathe. With moments of uber-cuteness thrown into the mix.
Owl Babies Waiting for Lunch
These reality show owls are Barred Owls which is the same kind as are in our forest. The eggs (3 of them) were laid March 5th and hatched April 6, 8 and 10 which makes them about 3 weeks old. The web cam is set up over a wooden nest box 30 feet up a hickory tree and sends video and audio through 200 feet of ethernet cable to the house. You can watch the action 24-7 as the box is also equipped with an infrared light – not visible to the owls so as not to bother them.
You can hear the sounds of the songbirds in the forest around the nest, and even the adult owls hooting away. The mother spends hours sitting in the nest sheltering the babies with her body but every now and then she takes off for awhile to join her mate hunting, so in her absence the babies nestle and jostle each other, keeping each other warm.
Checking up on the babies has become mesmerizing and quite addictive. They are growing so fast, changing daily. The difference in the first and last born is very apparent. They will not be in the nest for much longer. Till then, I’m busy.
In addition to the live stream you can watch the selected greatest hits of the owl cam (eggs hatching, babies being fed, Mom and Dad doing the hooty thing – Whooo coooks for yooooou) here:
You Tube Cornell Lab Barred Owl Nest Greatest Hits Playlist
The Brant Festival
The estuaries and beaches of Qualicum Beach and neighbouring Parksville are famous for being something of a birder’s paradise as a gazillion migrating seabirds stop here for R&R and refueling on the local herring spawn on their long trip to their summer nesting homes in Alaska and the Arctic.
During the months of March and April the beaches are closed to dogs to make sure the resting birds are undisturbed, (not that that stops some people) and there is even a celebration of this annual spectacle in the Brant Festival named after one of the migrants, the Brant goose. This year I decided to go check out some of the tours on offer during this loose collection of outdoor activities.
So one Saturday morning in early April I ended up on a semi-private tour (me and one other couple) of the beach and estuary habitat, led by an ornithologist from the University of British Columbia who also grew up in this area and knows every inch of this geography and the creatures who live and visit here. Home run. The tour was supposed to be for a maximum of 12 people, but there were only 3 of us. Not only was I hanging out up close and personal with a knowledgeable bird scientist clearly in love with his subject, but the couple running the tour, plus the buddy of the scientist tagging along were all long time passionate birders and nature lovers. I just had to shut up and listen to learn all kinds of things about the local habitat and its residents and visitors. I was all ears, sponging it all in.
The beaches and near waters were teeming with birdlife, huge flocks of various seabirds intermingling. As each different kind of bird was pointed out – oh this one came from California, a transient, that one with the pink legs lives here year round, these yellow legs stick around all winter, and so on. It was as if a big overwhelming blurry scene became clearer and clearer as the focus adjusted and what was once to me a less than interesting group of indistinguishable creatures became part of a fascinating story in the hands of this group of nature enthusiasts.
Two days later I went back to the places where we had been that morning. Where the beaches had been packed with birds the day of our tour, they were now strangely empty and quiet. We’d caught them just in time. After a few weeks of R&R, the migrants had left, on their way to their summer digs.
Gulls flushing on the beach – an eagle is circling above
Where Does Food Come From?
Another Saturday I visited a local market farmer whose place I walk by often on my walks, not far from where I live. The farmer is a young woman who has been on the property for only a year and a half. She raises poultry, sheep, goats, horses, ducks and pigs as well as 3 children and appears to be having a great time, enthusing about the different heirloom breeds and so on. I can’t eat factory farm chicken and pork anymore – once an image imprints, it can’t really be erased – but I live in a place where I can get meat from happy animals at the local farmers’ market. Until this tour I hadn’t visited any of these farms.
It was reassuring. These animals looked great. The soon-to-be-broilers were scampering around under the trees and the pigs were lying around in the mud in their own forest and meadow area, getting fat and raising piglets. They all looked very happy indeed.
Which begs the question – so why eat them at all? Musings for another day. Maybe.
More bird portraits from the farm:
Brant goose photo from Audubon.org
I’ve been planning an upcoming trip to the big city (Victoria) and on this visit I decided to do something new. I’m going to buy some pot. But that’s not what’s new. What’s new is that this time, for the first time, I’ll be buying it in a store.
What I want to know is why, a month before the anticipated announcement of legalization, or whatever it’s going to be, Marc Emery, the pot activist and owner of dispensaries in certain cities across Canada was arrested, with his wife Jodie, at the Toronto airport about to board a trip to Spain. A day later they raided some of his businesses.
Meanwhile, as the Toronto police spend their resources on this political revenge bust, elsewhere, we face a shocking situation of fentanyl overdose and death. Fentanyl, an opioid once largely used only in hospitals and in treatment of chronic pain, has in recent years, because of its high potency and low cost, been cut into street drugs such as cocaine and heroin, with devastating consequences. Last year 922 people in British Columbia alone died from street drugs deliberately laced with the drug. I find these numbers really staggering. Imagine if the equivalent of 10% of my town ended up dead, poisoned by drug dealers who don’t give a shit. The Downtown East Side in Vancouver where most (by no means all) of the deaths have occurred must be a sadder neighbourhood than ever.
