The Experience of Birding
This fancy adult Cooper’s Hawk gave the little birds fits when it came up off the trail in Jericho Park Tuesday morning–but they lost interest when they saw that it was carrying a fat brown mammal. Even for a Cooper’s Hawk, this one was unusually bold, dining on his branch just a few feet above …
It finally stopped raining, so after Gellert’s quick swim at Acadia Beach (complete with Pileated Woodpecker), we headed back to Jericho to see if anything was astir at that birdiest of Vancouver parks. The first pond has been let down for some reason, so the abundant Mallards of dubious provenance were shoving themselves through the …
Continue reading “A Bad Day to Be a Worm”
I’ll be leading a few field trips over the next couple of months, and hope that those of you who are in the area will join us. Southwest Wings, August 4-5: California Gulch for Five-striped Sparrows and other “Arizona specialties.” Tucson Audubon, August 11: Puerto Peñasco for shorebirds and seabirds. Nature Vancouver, September 6: Iona …
Continue reading “Some Upcoming Opportunities”
Well, rats. As the breathless tone of yesterday’s entry reveals, I was excited yesterday morning at Jericho Park to find the bird above, which I gleefully ticked off as a Western Gull–or something very, very close to it. As I pondered, though, the pale eye and, especially, the orange tint to the orbital ring started …
Continue reading “The Conscience of a Birder”
It doesn’t happen very often, but the end of last week was bright and clear and almost warm. Alison and I spent a quick late afternoon hour at Jericho Park, enjoying the lingering Eurasian Wigeon drake and admiring in spite of ourselves the Bald Eagles overhead. There are two nests at the west end of …
Continue reading “Blue Sky in Vancouver!”