Pretty in Pink...

Spring came late to Vancouver this year. Record high rainfall and record low temperatures still cast wet, grey days worthy of wool socks over us. I usually don't complain about the weather, since it's pretty much out of my control, but this sort of weather particularly sucks if you like the cherry blossoms. There are something like 119 varieties of flowering Cherry trees in Vancouver, and too much rain shortens their life by weeks. When I lived on the corner of Charles & Salsbury, just off Commercial Drive, I lived in a big heritage house once occupied by Japanese botany students. Back in the 30's, they spliced Pear branches on the Cherry trees down the boulevard directly in front of my house. When these trees were in full bloom they were the darkest of pink, huge fluffy pompom blossoms of the Kanzan -- Prunus serrulata 'Kwanzan' Cherry Tree, and then around the base of the pink, there was this delicate spray of white blossoms from the Pear branches. It was so pretty. A few years ago the city really 'pruned' the trees back and hacked off all the Pear branches. They have mostly filled out again, but bothered me a lot at the time. It seemed disrespectful somehow. Probably because I knew that not long after these branches were grafted onto these trees, the Japanese students were all rounded up and sent to the POW camps in Salmon Arm because of the 'unprovoked' attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941. Of course we have since learned that there is a lot more to that one sided account.

Lucky for us, we have dogs, because we are thereby obligated to go out and walk a few times a day no matter what the weather. The Border Collie always wants to go out, the Pug likes a warm bed, but the big dog ALWAYS wants a walk. So this year, despite the rain, I took my dogs, Eliza & camera and walked amid the wet blossoms. Sometimes we were lucky and the sky would break for a few minutes. The birds were as busy as usual, maybe even more than usual actually. I was taking this Cherry Blossom shot when this little Black Capped Chickadee landed in my shot, what a guy!

This year we bought a new bird house for the back porch over at Jill's. It's really sweet. I hung it and not 5 minutes later a Chickadee popped his head in for a look at the new local real estate. They haven't moved in yet, I think they want to make sure it is in a permanent location before going to a lot of trouble decorating. This little Junko spends a lot of time under the cedar hedge next to the parking lot. I love his little Rosy breast. The House Finch is a real beauty, he feeds his fat fledgling all day long off the feeder, and this Northern Flicker proves everyone looks good in pink!

I am still carefully monitoring the Flicker nest across the street. They start their day around 5:15 AM. Their loud "PEER!" pipes up and then you hear the response from a half a block away. We saw them move their eggs a few weeks ago - you can see video in my archive - but then he mated with his other lady for a few days. Now he seems to be Pappa over 2 nests, with 2 ladies. We hope we see the fledglings. If they do hatch it should be over the next week or so...

They keep busy eating off of our suet paddles when the starlings aren't pigging out. I heard from the Prof at UBC who studies cavity nesting. She is stoked to see the video. She wondered if the egg shells were empty, but in the video you can see practically the whole egg, and as Eliza noted, when he flies, you can see the egg has weight he has to compensate for. It's all very exciting!

Eagle Vs. Poodle

If you live in BC and ever bother to look up, or if you're like me and spend most of your time staring at the sky, chances are you will see a Bald Eagle. I have often seen them circle overhead, traveling or hunting. Going from Burnaby Mountain to Deep Cove without ever flapping a wing, just riding the wind current across the water, or across the city.

That in itself is a wonderful thing, considering that this bird was once on the endangered species list. For now, here in Vancouver we still have quite a few large trees to deal with this kind of traffic, but with urban infringement we lose more and more habitat for not only an eagle's nest, but for all the birds and animals that live in that habitat.

In the Port of North Vancouver, there was a big old place that TV shows and feature films used to film in because it was abandoned, so you could work into the wee hours without disturbing residentials. It was called Versatile Shipyards. It's all expensive condos now, but just a few years ago it was these huge abandoned shipyards, covered with tons of corrugated aluminum, and built out of old growth douglas fir. Beams two and a half feet wide and forty feet long... hundreds of them. This place stood on some glorious old wilderness that once made ideal breeding grounds for these Eagles.

One morning at 5 AM, while working on a Disney movie at the time, I had reason to find myself down at these really old shipyards, and standing out on the end of a sixty foot pier. I had been standing there for about fifteen minutes, watching the sun come up to my left, and listening to the water lap against the struts. I happened to look to my right, I guess for the first time, because standing beside me about six feet away, was the biggest prehistoric creature I had ever seen. It came up to just under my shoulder in height and it's body was twice the size of my dog's. It looked at me with his giant yellow eye and slowly opened his wings, which hung off of huge muscular shoulders. I realized it was a Bald Eagle - about the size of a seven year old child. He held his arms out for a second, standing still looking at me, like, 'watch this'. Then at the same time he slowly looked away, he just tipped forward and dropped off the end of the pier.

His body arced back and his wings reached out sharp on either side of his huge brown body, his huge feet stretched tight against his powerful white tail.

The drop was about ten feet to the water, in that short distance he caught enough air to glide across and then up, higher and higher. He flapped his wings only a few times to gain more lift, and was within moments high above me, and halfway across the inlet. I was awestruck. Looking up in the sky you think they look big, but there's no real scale to judge. Seeing an giant old one standing just a few feet away was just something profound. I realized that he was there the whole time, and was just so big, he didn't register in my head, so I didn't even see him-

I have always meant to go to Brackendale, near Squamish, BC in the early spring. They do a Bald Eagle count there every year because it's the place where the salmon spawn and Eagles nest and breed. Next year for sure.

The other day we went to Deep Cove. we saw a Bald Eagle flying overhead with something white & rather large. We hoped it was just a Seagull, and not a cat or dog. There were crows chasing it relentlessly, but the Eagle just flew, low above the trees and disappeared from our view. When we got to the beach, we saw 3 more Eagles hunting. I took some video of the ruckus the crows can cause when one of the Eagles decides to land on a familiar roost. See video, below...

We keep our pug on a leash whenever there is an Eagle sighting. They have been known to grab small dogs right out from under their unsuspecting owner's nose. We had always hoped this was just an urban myth, but time and time again we hear first hand accounts. No one ever blames the Eagles, they are just hunting. Loss of food and habitat makes wild animals look elsewhere for survival. Lots of birds and animals adapt to our sloppy ways only as a last resort, they don't want to be domestic - they have no other choice. Apparently this year there are practically no salmon. None for the fishermen, none for the Eagles. And now, with dear Japan's compromised reactors relentlessly weeping nuclear devastation into the Pacific Rim, we have no idea what next year, or century for that matter- will hold.

There are several Bald Eagle Cams you can watch online. They are smart enough to NOT publish the actual physical location of these nests, so that thousands of folks don't show up to see it, but there are hundreds of Eagle nests all over the lower mainland and on the islands. If you have the dream to see a nest with your own eyes, it's possible with out even leaving the city. They are profoundly huge. Like the size of a VW beetle, suspended ninety feet above in the top of a giant fir, usually.

Redwinged Blackbird, You were always waiting for your moment...

This will be short and sweet because of a few glitches happening on BLOGGER. My Crow post from yesterday disappeared and I am not sure if this one holds a similar fate so, that said - the wonderful topic of the Red Winged Blackbird & all it's delights will be revisited.

Here are a few pictures of these delightful and wonderful songbirds. I have always heard their delightful calls, and never really thought to see who was singing it. I have always loved birds, but never thought to learn any more about them than they presented to me as I walked under them, watching them fly, or roost in branches. It always surprises me to discover that there are a lot of birds that actually nest on the ground, and not just birds protected by water. Birds like certain owls, and vultures nest in burrows on the ground!

The Red Winged Blackbird nests in the rushes in ponds and bogs. That makes for some really beautiful photography for us. The males with their black feathers against the dried reeds with he flash of scarlet is stunning to watch.