More birds.
I once read an article by a woman who was interviewing an ornithologist while walking through a forest. They were talking about the birds who inhabited the woodland – there were something like 150 different species – and listening to the birdsong all around them. She asked the guy “How many of these bird calls can you recognize?” There was a pause as he looked at her a little quizzically and then he answered, “All of them”.
My head exploded. Can you imagine walking through the forest and knowing exactly what was, mostly unseen, living around you in the bushes, branches and up in the canopy? I thought that was just the coolest thing. (The journalist said she felt a little foolish asking the question.)
Well fast forward a couple of years, and now I can, to a certain extent. Thank you technology and the app called Merlin, developed by the Cornell University School of Ornithology. Now I can pull out my phone, press a “button” and it records the bird sounds around me and identifies them. It provides a picture of them, you can listen to other recordings of the different calls they make to verify it for yourself, and then there’s lots more information on the app about the birds themselves. You can also share your recording, add stuff to a personal life list and all kinds of other things I don’t use. Yet.
Sometimes I’ll sit on a bench in the forest contemplating the universe, and I’ll set the app to record and put it beside me. It often doesn’t sound to me like there’s lots of birds, but then I’ll look down at it and see that it’s picked up a dozen or so different sounds I haven’t been aware of. Slowly I’m finding I can identify a few more I didn’t know but this is a very slow process, I’m not consciously trying to do it, but I’m picking it up kind of by osmosis.
Recently I was in my backyard and I noticed that there was a new sound that I hadn’t heard before. It seemed to be pretty close by and it was loud and persistent. So I went to get my phone and found that it was a Cooper’s Hawk.That got me going, as hawks are not something I’ve been able to see very often although I know they’re around. Where there’s bunnies there’s hawks, and there are definitely bunnies around here. Still, I can’t recognize them in flight and I’ve only once before been able to see one up close. And I didn’t know what they sounded like.
So I pulled out my binocs and tried to figure out, by sound, where it was. Took awhile but eventually “Bingo” there it was, way, way up in a tall cedar on a property behind ours, sitting on a branch checking out the scenery below, and calling to a sibling who was replying in kind, somewhere over by the forest. I know this because when I checked the app for the different calls a Cooper’s Hawk makes I found out that what I was hearing was a juvenile.
Thrilled to find something like this, by sound this time. I’ve only once been able to see one, this back several years ago when one was perched on the wires right outside the front of the house. Also a juvenile. You can tell by the white feathered chest, which darkens to a golden brown as it becomes adult. Check out those claws. Run bunny run.
BC is Burning. Again.
There are over 400 wildfires burning across the province and a state of emergency has been declared, which allows the government the power to do things like prohibit tourists from being in certain areas like Kelowna, to free up space in hotels and campsites for the emergency responders and the people evacuated from their homes.
This weekend smoke is appearing in our skies. On Vancouver Island there are two out of control fires growing in Strathcona Park north of here and even one on Quadra Island, off Campbell River where prior to 2020 we rented a cottage for several summers.
This morning’s weather forecast has something new in it. As well as the usual “sunny”, “cloudy”, “sunny with cloudy periods”, “cloudy with sunny periods” we now have a new forecast terminology – “SMOKE”.
What I don’t see in the forecast for the coming week is “rain”. We’ve had only 3 or 4 days with rain since April.
Yikes.