What a palmful of sunflower seeds will get you...

One of the first sights & sounds of spring, is the spectacular and magnificent Red-Winged Blackbird. They are loud, happy and songful. At first glance you might think that the male has all the decor, all the flare and personality... but behind every successful man is a beautiful and more successful woman- in a lot of cases, so they say...

Jill's car stinks like something dead this morning so I drove her to work so I could take it in and clean it for her. We aren't sure what the heck is under the dog blankets in the backseat, but we are going to find out as soon as I post today's story. So starts today, and why we drove to the beach with the dogs in the middle of the week- I had the car. We decided to go to Jerry's Cove and see the birds. Jill left a bag of shelled sunflower seeds in the front seat so we carried those to the pond.

We often attempt to hand feed the Red-Winged Blackbirds, unsuccessfully except for 2 rare moments where Eliza fed a male, and a few months later, I fed a female. We are careful to get the proper food for the birds we feed. We do not feed the ducks bread like I did when I was a kid, apparently it's not good for them. Now we buy duck food or seeds & nuts. I reached into the sunflower bag and grabbed a palmful. I barely had my arm out stretched when the first bird landed...

She landed with no hesitation and stuffed her beak full with seeds. A few other females hovered over me waiting for their turn to land. They were very respectful of each other and took turns filling their beaks to the brim before flying off. If you want a closer look at the pictures I post, just click on them and they enlarge... This was the first close-up look at these gals we have ever had! They have a wonderful orange smudge on their shoulders, well some of them do, their markings are so beautiful.

We stood there feeding them for about twenty minutes before walking the dogs around the rest of the park.

Eliza feeds the hungry nesting mothers. We saw a few fledgling Red-Winged Blackbirds in the reeds near the bridge. We left a handful of seeds on the railing for them. It must really work up an appetite learning how to fly, and teaching someone to fly. Why are baby birds almost twice the size of their parents? Can you imagine if that were true fro everything that hatched out of an egg? Giant Eagles, turtles & alligators...

So we ran out of seeds and I have another errand added to my day. Once you start feeding a few birds, they seem to really make a point of letting you know that you now have a new responsibility. I learned to keep a balance with Bawckey, my backyard wild crow pet. Our pets are on the raw food diet, and I was giving Bawckey the leftover cat food - because it was too expensive to waste and not to name names, but Pippi (our cat) is Picki. Anyways, I would set out the cat dish and this one crow would eat it. I went away for a few weeks and when I came back, Sparrow (my dog) & I were on our way to the coffee shop, he swooped down and scolded both of us. So now he only gets fed occasionally. I save those leftovers and then every once and a while I feed him, like once a week or twice. But the bird feeders on the other hand feed a lot of different guys, so we try to keep that full. And the suet paddles are there for the Northern Flickers, and monopolized by the Starlings - who happen to be Jill's faves.

I just have a thing for the Red-Winged Blackbirds right now though. The day Eliza fed her first one, I told my mom about it and she mentioned hearing something about them in the news that day. Turns out that this particular bird has a strange phenomenon surrounding it. One that worries me and gets my head thinking about the conspiracy to hide the real facts about why, thousands of these birds spontaneously fell from the sky, more than once. Fireworks? I doubt it. And this isn't the first time it has happened... I am glad our friends at the Cove are safe for now. I shudder when I think that this happens to be located on some pretty valuable real estate. Our country is not as protected as we all like to think. Our National Parks are in jeopardy, they are over used and under funded. No one should ever have to fight to protect nature, it should be protected naturally.

If no one wants corporations polluting our water and our precious ecosystems, how do they continue to do it? I personally want to try to stop all of this planet raping from continuing in my neck of the woods. I was part of an International Greenpeace demonstration a few years ago, well more than a few now - but groups of us all over the planet were trying to get corporations to listen by just collectively boycotting one company and showing them all that we had the power and wherewithal to pull it off. A group of us simultaneously walked onto ESSO gas bars and chained ourselves to the pumps and asked folks to buy their gas somewhere else. It was the first time I had participated in something that would certainly lead to my arrest. It was an interesting study in human behavior. We were calm and peaceful, but many of the customers got really defensive. A lot of them were shouting that the climate crisis threat was all a bunch of crap made up by tree huggers like Greenpeace. It's so funny how someone can shout something at you and actually think it's insulting, "TREEHUGGER!" Anyways, I was arrested and thrown in the slammer. But that's another story.

Now to find out what died/is dead in the backseat of Jill's car... Have a nice day, if you are so inclined.

Mail Strike tomorrow? Can I get mine via Owl, instead?

When I was little and we lived in a small town called Ajax, my sister joined Brownies, and my mom became a Snowy Owl. I was too young to join, but played in the back of the gym while the group met. I loved that my mom was a Snowy Owl. In my mind this meant she actually was and would at some point transform into one when the time was right. My mama used to tell me grand stories about the forest where she grew up when her papa worked in the lumber camp near Burks Falls. There was magic in them and she knew about it, so it was no surprise to me that she would achieve owl status. I was under the impression that all I had to do was turn 7 and I would witness this secret transformation.

We moved from Ajax to the country just as I was about to turn legal Brownie joining age. Which came as a bit of a relief, because although I likes the little belt with all the leather pouches, and the sash and shirt with the crests of achievement, I really was not into wearing the leotard and the skirt. I was more of a jean jacket/jeans girl and still am.

There's a place in Delta near the Reifle Bird Sanctuary that takes in wounded birds of prey. Aptly named O.W.L., (Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Society) is such a cool place because they save these specific animals, and you can go there and look at some of the birds that were too wounded to be released back into the wild.

I am lucky enough to know a wonderful person named Bri Fudge. She is a living Saint to Animals. She posted photos on her Facebook wall from one of the places where she's a volunteer/animal advocate. These pictures she posted of her volunteer work at O.W.L. got me an inside look at a really cool place. I was blown away. A few weeks later she took us & a few of her other friends, on a tour of this wonderful magical place that is in dire need of funding. As soon as you walk into the main office you are greeted by Sarah, the absolutely incredible looking Barn Owl. She is stunning. It's hard to take your eyes off of this beauty, and you wonder how you have gone a whole lifetime without making a point to see one in real life before.

Outside there are a few giant cages that house a few lucky birds that now have a new way of life other than the one they were born into. Most of these birds were hit by cars and brought in by folks that stopped to see what was lying in the road, so they are lucky to be alive. Others hit windows or get caught in extreme weather. Sometimes the Eagles come in with their talons locked together. The priority is to release the wounded birds, but sometimes, it's just not possible if the bird is to survive.

Two residents are a pair of Great Grey Owls that live in a cage together. Samson & Delilah are so beautiful and totally owl shaped owls. They were hard to get a good photo of because they were hanging out in the back of the cage on this cold January day. I asked Bri if she goes into that cage and she said only when she has to. These two owls have dedicated their lives to caring for ANY baby bird brought into the society. They are very loving and know just how to rear a baby that can be released into the wild. This ability causes them to be extra protective of their space, and they have been known to attack if you enter their cage. I say those scars are a badge of dedication to be worn with honour.

I asked all sorts of questions, like the hard one - they are birds of prey, do they get fed live stuff? The answer is yes they do. And the things they are fed are raised just for these birds. They are raised without medication, and live happy healthy lives until they are fed to the birds. They collect toilet paper rolls and stuff to put in the mouse cages so they have a nice life, before they have what the Buddhists would refer to as- a Sky burial... even though these wonderful birds in particular can't get to the sky I like to believe it still counts.

This pretty female Snowy Owl wanted to show me how stunning she looks with her wings all flexed up so when I was alone at her cage taking a few pictures, she posed for a nice shot. I had no idea that these birds burrow on the ground. All this time I have been wandering the forests looking for owls, and many of them spend a of of time on the forest floor!

I was working on a wonderful little island called Bowen, and returning from the landscape center around 5PM when I saw a Barred Owl on a Hydro wire. I stopped the car on the side of the road, jumped out, and took a few shots. I was standing right under him snapping away. He was eyeing something rustling in the grass about a foot from my boot. I left before I bothered him too much. I was so stoked to see him. I look for him each time I round that corner, but have not seen him since.

Jerry's Cove- Where's that at?

I love Canada. That's why I recently voted against the 'person responsible' for running my country right now. (That's in quotes, because I am not sure if he's actually human, and quite sure he is irresponsible.) I worship nature. I am inspired by it, and in awe of it. In Canadian nature, anyone can easily find beauty in it practically everywhere you look, without even trying. But like a lot of other places on the planet, Corporations are really compromising the natural state of everything and I am not sure that my elected officials are doing enough to protect this beautiful country, or planet.

Maybe you heard about it maybe not - but there is a catastrophic oil spill going on in Alberta. In April a major pipeline broke and made a huge industrial disaster. The company responsible 'apologized' & A$$hole running our country put a media gag on it until after the election. So as not to rile the constituants, and because he is down and dirty with off-shore drilling and digging deep to suck our planet dry for personal profit. An oil slick, right smack dab in the middle of wilderness, in a precious marsh, and in the middle of breeding time. Clean-up is not happening as fast as the locals who do worship their land need it to be happening. I won't go into a huge rant about the TAR SANDS, I am attempting to keep this light hearted - but I also want to be informative. Any words you see in my blog that are coloured differently than the usual text can be CLICKED on for further detail...

Now back to today:

Today was yet another day we loaded the dogs into Jill's car and went to Jerry's Cove, commonly known as Jericho Beach. This is the place where everyone in my family loves to come. The dogs can run, Sparrow can chase sticks, Hawksley is off leash most of the time, unless we see a Bald Eagle, then he's on leash. We come here a lot, it's glorious. There's a huge duck pond with a beaver family living in it and building dams all over the place. And right now, it's baby bird time!

You can go here and walk right past the ponds to the beach and spend your time looking at the water or walking the shores, that's what I've been doing for the past 19 years, anyway. Tossing tennis balls or sticks for Alice or- now for Sparrow. Or you can come during Folk Fest and not even recognize the place because of the stages, and food booths, and throngs of people/folk.

It is just recently that I have actually gone out of my way to see birds and watch and photograph them. Much to Sparrow's chagrin, the distraction from me playing with him is not something he is impressed by. I have always noticed birds - of course and watched them or whatever, but now we go specifically to watch the habits of the birds around the pond and get some good pictures. This is all because of Mr. & Mrs. & Mrs Flicker across the street probably. They demanded my attention and my camera, then it became like a challenge to get a decent shot of the birds I see. Then one day at Jericho a Red-Winged Blackbird landed on Eliza's hand and started eating seeds!

She walked up to the edge of the pond and held out her hand and this male RWBB just landed right on her fingers. He had followed her from back near the little wooden bridge and sung a few songs at her. She had the feeling he would eat from her hand, and so she tried - he didn't hesitate a second. We returned to this spot for few days taking their photos, attempting to feed them again. Might have been more successful without the truffling Pug & Frisbie focused Border Collie...

I got some nice shots though. Months later I was there alone and a female landed on my hand and had a few seeds. Her little feet were cold and soft, she held on tight to my thumb and forefinger and ate some seeds for about forty-five seconds before flying off into the rushes. They are delightful.

Today, we saw so many different birds. It was noisy with birds. Probably because we haven't seen the sun the way we should be so they are taking advantage of the warm light and getting out of the nest. We were particularly lucky to see a Belted Kingfisher! He was hunting, and first caught my eye when he plunged into the water and emerged with a giant frog in his beak. He darted out of the water and up into the Willow hanging over the water and quickly swallowed the entire morsel of whoever that was.

Eliza stayed back with the dogs an dI wandered up slowly. He was too busy hunting to even care about me taking his photo. I took these pictures, and left him to hunt. We watched a crow chase him back and forth across the pond a few times and then he took off fast. The crow thought he won that battle, but the Kingfisher came all the way around the forest a few minutes later and started hunting from the Willow all over again.

This day at Jerry's Cove was just another day at the beach for us. How lucky are we? Lucky enough to know I have to pay attention to nature, and what my impact is on it. I want to be able to continue to have these days. Even after the catastrophe in Japan. So for all these beautiful birds that need clean water, I say NO to off-shore drilling, and NO to endless consumption of fossil fuel. We have the capacity to make great change. Let's just get at it already... start by going out into nature. See all that you have to lose.

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.