DARE TO BIRD

When we take photos of Owls, we must ask ourselves at what cost? - Photo: Melissa Hafting Update: The Mayor of Delta has written to the province asking for help to better protect the birds and their habitat from harassment at Brunswick Point. A few years ago, I wrote a blog post about the deplorable harassment I and others had witnessed in Delta (in particular at Boundary Bay). You can read it in full   HERE   Well nothing much seems to have changed in Metro Vancouver. Now Brunswick Point is the new "hot spot" that bird photographers are flocking too and some are demonstrating unethical behavior. Current "best practices" suggestive signage hasn't helped either. Take a read of today's news story at the Delta Optimist HERE Not long ago we watched a group of 15 photographers encircling a Short-eared Owl on the ground with food (a vole). Only for that owl to get so distressed and fly up trying to get away as they proceeded to get their flight shots as he lost ...

Young birder Bridget wanted to go birding together again before she goes back to Uni in the US. So we decided to go get her the Northern Mockingbird on Westham Island. This is a BC bird she needed.  We had so much fun and waited and waited for the little Mocker to make his appearance on the holly. While we waited we got American Pipits, Least Sandpipers, Dunlin, Black-bellied Plovers, Trumpeter Swans, Western Meadowlarks, Flickers and several Rough-legged Hawks. It was so birdy. The trees were filled with sparrows White-crowned, Golden-crowned and Juncos. Finally we spotted the Mocker on top of the holly bush and he sat there giving us all great views. I spied my friend Monica way down the road and we yelled at her to get on the holly tree and she did and we all had good views. I was so happy for Bridge too. We were enjoying watching a River Otter role over on his back and play in the field like a little dog.  Suddenly a Peregrine came swooping down and chased a single Black-b...

Peregrine Falcon adult and young at the Abbotsford Nest - Photo: Raymond Ng As anyone who follows my blog or on Instagram  knows I have been fighting to help bring awareness and to save the Peregrine Falcon nest that is slated to be destroyed Mountainside Quarries at the Quadling Quarry mine in Abbotsford. I posted about this last month. See HERE   for the backstory. Sadly, 2021 really has not started off on a good foot. 2020 was hell and now 2021 starts off with a white supremacist domestic terrorist attack in the States, COVID-19 numbers continuing to rise in North America, hate crimes rising across Canada (that is finally exposing its systemic racism) and we get more bad news. Yesterday, I was informed that the provincial government went ahead and issued the permit allowing the mine to destroy the nest of the most active breeding pair of Red-listed Peregrine Falcons on BC'S South Coast. The only mitigation method in place is to put up nest boxes and ledges and hope the falc...

Finally the Rodenticide Ban is on next week's Public Works and Transportation Committee meeting,  Tuesday Jan 19th at 4pm .  You can read more on the story in the Richmond News HERE If approved it would go to the following Council meeting  on Jan. 25th at 7pm .  The agenda with item #7 can be found HERE : Here is the wording of the item: 7. BANNING RODENTICIDES ON CITY-OWNED PROPERTY IN RICHMOND STAFF RECOMMENDATION (1) That the City discontinue the use of rodenticides on city-owned property for one year, as described in the staff report titled “Banning Rodenticides on City-owned property in Richmond,” dated December 10, 2020 from the Director, Sustainability and District Energy; (2) That staff assess the outcomes of the one-year ban on city-owned property and report the findings to Council; (3) That staff be directed to develop an integrated rodent management program, as described in the staff report titled “Banning Rodenticides on City-owned property in Richmond,” ...

I recently did a podcast with Birding Tools. We discussed the lack of diversity in Birding and my work with young birders and why it’s important to mentor youth in this hobby.  You can listen to it on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Podbean, Stitcher or iTunes for free. You can listen below just click play. More information on the program can be found HERE Also, Radio-Canada recently used my photos and audio and video footage in a recent print  story on Snow Geese take a look at the video  HERE .

As you may know I used to live for a bit in Saskatchewan even though I was born in BC.  The community journal "Of Land and Living Skies"  asked me for an interview for their  Fall 2020 issue . For those that don't know Saskatchewan is called "The Land of Living Skies." If you ever get the chance to watch the Northern Lights in SK you will know why it is called this. It is one of the things I miss the most about living in that province. The editor and magazine was very passionate about talking about and acknowledging systemic racism in birding and the barriers that people of colour face outdoors in nature. They discuss it in the magazine under "Love Letters to Nature" and I applaud them for it since they did not shy away from the issue as many organizations have who call it "too political. They said they stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. I was unable due to inconvenient timing to do an interview so they decided to do a repri...

I was featured in the December 2020 issue of the American Birding Association's Birding magazine. In an article called " Birding Close to Home - Essays from across the ABA Area." I have posted the article below but it is also available online .   A few more updates: A  photo I took of a female Pileated Woodpecker will be featured in an article about urban Pileateds in the upcoming ABA  Birding issue. Plus a photo I took of the Powell River Red-backed Shrike will be featured in Birdwatching Magazine and a podcast I did with Birding Tools will come out soon. In addition a interview I did with Audubon Magazine will come out in the spring  but more on all of this later. My essay featured in Birding magazine by the American Birding Association  Most importantly I want to end this year by wishing all my readers a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. 2021 cannot come fast enough in my opinion. What a strange year this has been. It will be surreal to se...

As you know I’ve been writing about the proposed Roberts Bank Deltaport Terminal II expansion on this blog for awhile. Did you know on top of this proposal Global Container Terminals is also proposing a 4th container berth at the same port? This project is called DP4  and would use 138 acres of critical intertidal bird habitat. This month BirdNote from WA State, did a podcast called "Watching over Western Sandpipers" highlighting the detrimental impacts of the proposed expansion of Terminal II and DP4. The environmental impacts will impact birds (especially Western Sandpipers), fish (especially salmon), orcas and other wildlife in the Fraser River Estuary. This will affect birds on both sides of the border. Sadly First Nations on the US side were not adequately consulted. They did an amazing job on this 30 min podcast and interviewed many relevant people and stakeholders including First Nations. The fascinating discovery of fatty acid containing Biofilm as a Western Sandpiper...

I was asked by Alice Sun (a former graduate of my young birder program) to do an interview and choose a few young birders to be featured in her new article for Wild Bird Trust (WBT) Fall/Winter Wingspan magazine issue. Take a second to read this and learn more about these inspiring young birders in the BC Birding Community.   The Young Birders featured are  from Victoria and Metro Vancouver. They are as follows:    Joshua Brown,  Katya Kondratyuk,  Sasha Fairbairn,   Liam Singh,  Rebecca Reader-Lee and Bridget Spencer. You can read and download the full magazine HERE Thanks to WBT for their wonderful feature of these amazing youth! Thanks also to the youth for taking part and being inspirational human beings. PS... yes the Red-tailed Hawk photo featured below that Rebecca Reader-Lee took was unfortunately entered incorrectly as an Eagle. To learn more about Wild Bird Trust or to become a member click HERE Young Birders featured in WBT 2020 Wi...

Peregrine Falcon with chicks at the affected nest in Abbotsford - Photo: Howard Bailey A Peregrine Falcon nest is about to be destroyed by a mine in Abbotsford. It is located at Quadling Quarry at 40251 Quadling Rd in Abbotsford and operated by Mountainside Quarries. This Peregrine Falcon nest is protected under the BC Wildlife Act, Section 34 (b) all year round. However the BC Govt is about to issue a permit to the mine to destroy it. Mitigation methods are supposed to be a nest box and ledge that the birds can use to nest in but there is no guarantee that they will use it.  Sumas First Nation was against the mine operating there and made it known to the Govt but there was no First Nations consultation and on April 29, 2020 the BC Gov't approved the mine operation. Birders, naturalists, conservationists, Sumas First Nations and environmental groups are writing in letters to the ministry and MLAs and premier to save this nest. Pam Alexis the MLA for the area has responded to me vi...