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.

Recently I saw my first photograph published for the world to see. Well, other than the hundreds published here on this blog. This time it was in our local weekly – the Parksville-Qualicum Beach News. I’m famous! I call it my Five Seconds of Fame which I calculate is about the time it takes to turn the pages of this paper.

Here’s how it happened.

I was walking by my next door neighbour’s house recently on my way to the forest, camera bag slung across my shoulder and binoculars (my walking necklace) around my neck. Tom was working in his front yard, I stopped to chat and he told me about a project he’s been involved in these past months.

He has been monitoring the local nests of large birds, part of an island-wide citizen scientist project of observing and counting Eagles and Great Blue Herons coordinated by the BC Ministry of Water, Land & Resource Stewardship. Here in Qualicum Beach there are four eagle nests, one of which is in our forest. I know about that one, I’ve been watching it for years. I’ve seen the adult pairs sitting up on the snags, know the tree the nest is in, have heard the youngsters’ distinctive cries when they get older but still haven’t fledged. On the bottom of the tree, you can find the feeding debris – lots and lots of bones and feathers, as well as white eagle poop on the leaves of the understory bushes. But the nest is very high and from the bottom it’s impossible to actually see it.

This year however, the eagles have not returned to that nest but instead have moved over to a new nest on the other side of the forest by the golf course. Of the four eagle nests Tom has been monitoring two are active this year.

The second one I also knew about but again these nests are very very high up and from the bottom of the tree you can see nothing. Tom started to explain how to actually see them from another angle a street away, but then gave up trying to explain it in words. “Get in the car, I’ll show you.” And away we went.

The first nest I took a shot of one eaglet in view. Tom said there were two, so the other one likely was sitting down out of view. It was far away and at the far reaches of the long lens I carry with me but I got the shot.

Later I returned to the second nest he’d shown me how to access with another longer lens and was excited to get the shot of these two eagle youngsters looking out towards the beach, waiting for a parent to return with lunch. Young eagles retain the brown colouring until they are about 4 years old, which is when their heads transition in colour to that distinctive Bald Eagle white.

Tom was thrilled I was able to photograph the nests as part of the project’s requirements was to enclose pictures of the monitored nests. He’d been doing his best with a phone camera but these nests are really high and far away.

And of course I was also thrilled to finally get the opportunity to witness the nests and photograph them. Hundreds of shots to get just the right one.

A day or two later Tom texted me to tell me that he’d become aware of a Great Blue Heron nest in another part of town. So once again we piled into the car to see what we could see.

We were standing in a wooded area, looking up, way up to where we could make out the nest. As we were looking through the binocs, trying to see what was actually in the nest, a juvenile eagle flew through the trees right beside us and landed on the top of a low tree nearby. Oh oh. For the first time I was actually telling the eagle to get lost. These chicks are eagle lunch.

I took a lot of pictures of the nest. As I said, it was very high in the tree, a lot of branches were obscuring it, the birds were moving and I couldn’t see clearly through the lens exactly what I was looking at. Tom and I thought at first we were looking at one adult and one chick. I returned again later in the day when the light had changed and clicked away again.

When I got home and uploaded hundreds of shots and was able to see more clearly what I had, I found to my delight that what we’d been looking at was actually 3 heron chicks. And Mom (or Dad) was perched on a branch not far away below.

Tom sent the nest photo in to the local paper to share the sight with all who happen upon it.

When I was watching the heron nest, I noticed that there was a lot of activity in it – a lot of wing flapping as the chicks were testing them out and exercising them. It looked like they were soon to fledge and we were hoping that they’d soon be ready to leave.

A week or so later Tom, who was continuing to monitor the nests, got in touch with bad news. Remember that eagle hanging around? Well, two of the chicks didn’t make it out. Lunch.

Sad. But. Nature is Nature.