Return to Burde Street ponds

I guess once the Northern pintail shows up, that's it, the party is on.

Today, on my favourite walk, I saw little bit of everything and managed to photograph some of it between flash showers.

First eye-catcher was a wood duck. They are the type that looks like a decoy. Every decoy painter choses this dabbler for a model because their plummage looks unreally real.




Also new to the pond were groups of ring-billed ducks and an Audobon's yellow-rumped warbler flitting about. I plan to capture a photo of that adorable little songbird before it heads south again.

Instead, I captured the stately – and sedentary – swamp lantern (aka skunk cabbage).

Bird's eye view

Of Port Alberni.
Including a log boom in the Alberni Inlet (lower left) and Mt. Arrowsmith looking much less towering than usual (upper right).

New character at the pond

Signs of spring.

Noticed a new duck amongst the buffleheads and Canada geese at the pond on my run a few days ago.

Can we have and ID please? Northern pintail. Dapper duck. The bill is such a baby blue, it looks painted. (The one in front is an American widgeon, put that name to the tune American woman)
The Northern pintail is one of the first ducks to return to their northern nesting grounds in North America.

In French it's called canard pilet. That has a nice ring.
In Spanish it's known as pato golondrino.
Now, I don't know what the Spanish have against the pintail, or what they know that I don't, but the online Spanish-English dictionary says that golondrino means a boil in the armpit.

Day 1

First hummingbird banding session started at 6:47 last Saturday morning. That doesn't sound bad, but our crew of four met up an hour before to head down the road to the site.

6:47 was the first bird. A frisky, and cold, male rufous hummingbird. Young by my estimate.

The next bird was 10:07 a.m. A recapture, which is always exciting. Stan, the master bander, didn't know what year the bird was from (has to check records at home), but at the very least you know the little male hummingbird you hold in your hands has made at least two round trips to southern wintering grounds and back here.

That was the bright side. It was a cold morning to be sitting around doing nothing. Sure, the odd kingfisher, song sparrow and bald eagle livened things up, but it's still frosty right after sunrise.

Then the sun broke out over the trees and the mountains and it was a glorious day and we went home.

West Coasters

Thinking about a spring trip to the real west coast - Tofino, Ucluelet side of Vancouver Island - and I'm amazed I haven't been over since last September.

That was a great trip, though. Put my camping gear and bike in the back of the car, set up at Surf Junction (good spot, equally far from both towns and well-situated for the big beach and intimate Half Moon Bay).

Campground had outdoor jacuzzi and composting toilets, thumbs up on both.

I didn't drive at all while there, and popped back and forth between Long Beach during the sunny days and Half Moon Bay for sunsets.




Snapped some shots of tide pool life at Half Moon.




Here we have pisaster.

Notice the white sticky-looking strings between the sea star and the rock?

Those are tube feet. Starfish have this very cool hydro-mechanical system that operates these appendages on their bottom (non-dayglo coloured) side.

Tube feet are only found in echinoderms (which also includes sea cucumbers). The tubes and suction cup feet work thanks to a complex water vascular system that the early Romans would have envied.

The feet are for walking. Slowly.



Other Half Moon inhabitants (that I photographed) with interesting habits are anemones. Never mind the let-it-all-hang-out posture, look at the little flecks of stuff stuck to the anemone's body.


Bits of shell and other tide pool detritus. Makes them look sloppy. But a-ha. There's always a purpose. In an elegant little study, a young marine biologist (not me) demonstrated that the anemones purposely cover themselves to protect their bodies from damaging ultra violet light.

The undergrad put one group of anemones under UV light and in a short time they had collected a protective layer of sea crap. A second group, not exposed to UV light, kept themselves free of gunk. When that group was moved under the intense light they were soon shielded by broken shells and pebbles.

Further supporting this. The substance that gives anemone tentacles their pearly irridescent colours also reflects UV light to protect the delicate appendages. You rarely see stuff stuck on the tentacles.

To the outdoors

The first truly spring day on Sunday and I tried out a new trail in city limits.

Still need to explore further but an hour's walk didn't show me all of the Maquinna trail system here in Port Alberni.

I did like what I saw and know it will be a viable alternative, on bike or foot, to my favourite in-town trail.

The Burde Street Ponds, or Rogers Creek Nature Trail or whatever it's called is four loop trails that intersect at picturesque spots, like Rogers creek. Plus side branches I haven't wandered down yet. It's mature second-growth forest, steep hikes up cliffs, flat strolls on old rail bed. There are two ponds rimmed in yellow lilies at the right time of year, but always alive with ducks and beaver families and sometimes a turtle or two.







It's five minutes from my home. I can get on a loop and do an hour-long cross country run or take a 45-minute bird watching walk.



I've seen a barred owl mobbed by about a half dozen robins in broad daylight there. A warbler I'd never seen before. Woodpeckers. Winter wren. Cooper's hawk. All the other usual suspects.

I've been looking for salamanders for a few years and I saw one there. Right on the trail.

I love it. I use it a lot and I thank the people who created it very much.

Everything's coming up thrushes

I met this chap while out hummingbird banding.

One of the things I like about this project is that it gets me out at the crack of dawn bird watching. Something I never seem to be able to make myself do otherwise.

So you're outside, sitting still and quiet, and if there aren't many hummingbirds coming to the traps, it's great bird watching time.

The bird in the picture is a Swainson's thrush. One of those robiny species that I take for granted and tend not to pay much attention to.

So, I decided to put my raptor bias aside and learn a little bit about these birds.

First off, they are known for their song. Walt Whitman wrote about it, so did Henry Thoreau.

The reason their songs stands out is that thrushes have what's called a syrinx, or a double voice box that allows them to have air moving in and out at the same time. In essence, they can sing two notes at once and harmonize with themselves.

It makes a chimy, unearthly-sounding song. The hermit thrush's call is especially beautiful. You've no doubt heard them in the wood of the west – or the Swainson's or varied. If you hear a coach's whistle in the woods, there's a varied thrush somewhere nearby. In Eastern North America it's the voice of the wood thrush that inspires poets.

Speaking of the wood thrush.
A recent study involving the birds, fitted with geolocator backpacks for the first time, demonstrated that they migrate about three times faster than researchers had guestimated previously.

They fly about 500km each night and spend the day feeding and resting. Who wouldn't?

Another fascinating thrush tidbit is that they harvest pesticides from ants. People have seen these birds rubbing ants over their feathers. It's called anting, naturally. The most reasonable explanation seems to be that use the insect's defensive secretions to ward off pests.

Parasites are costly for any animal, and there are many examples of animals using natural products as pesticides (because going to the drug store is inconvenient, and they are staunch environmentalists).

Thrushes, it seems, take an ant bath.

Hummingbird banding

In a few weeks I'll return to a citizen science project I joined last year.

There's a group of dedicated volunteers in the Alberni Valley who've joined the Hummingbird Monitoring Network.

Each year teams from Arizona all the way up here to British Columbia collect information about hummingbird populations and their migration patterns.

From early April to July we put in about a dozen sessions heading out at sunrise with traps and calipers to catch hummingbirds, band them, take measurements and send them on their way. Follow this link to an article I did about the project.





I've always had some apprehension about the whole banding, radio-collaring side of biology. Now that I've seen how little effect it seems to have on rufous hummingbirds, I feel a little more like the benefits may outweigh the risks.

I also hadn't realized how little is known about what seems to be a fairly common and highly visible species.

That's something that big-name biologist Paul Erhlich talked about recently after releasing a review paper on the 408 mammals discovered since 1993. That's 10 per cent of the known species of mammals.

"Our analysis indicates how much more varied biodiversity is than we thought and how much bigger our conservation problems are if we're going to maintain the life-support services that we need from biodiversity," Ehrlich said in an interview about the paper.

Basically the author of the 1968 bad news book Population Bomb, says these discoveries attest to how little is known about the natural world. The world that a single species, humans, are busy altering in every conceivable way.

"I think what people miss is that the human economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the economy of nature, which supplies us from our natural capital a steady flow of income that we can't do without," he said. The income is the host of services that intact ecosystems provide.

Ehrlich and his wife, Anne Ehrlich are the originators of the rivet-popper hypothesis. As in an airplane, nature has some built in redundancies. So you can remove rivets on an airplane wing and still fly, but at some point, you pop one too many and the wing falls apart.

They say it's the same with natural systems. We can keep taxing them and breaking them down, but at some point they will collapse. Without a full understanding of the systems, and their components and interplay, it's anybody's guess when that will happen. What the last rivet will be.

Dog gone

I heard there was a Great Dane at the Port Alberni SPCA and I thought to myself, "This is a message from the universe."

And the message is, don't leave this town. Stay put, get a big dog and settle in.

Great Danes don't turn up at the SPCA very often. Great Danes are bred and they cost and that's another issue for me because I need to get a dog from a rescue centre, not a designer breed.

I had to go see. Had to see the dog to know what to do. I cruised over to the pound and heaved a sigh of relief when the woman told me the dog had already been adopted.

Stupidly, I decided to have a look at the dogs that remained. Just for fun, I told myself.

Ten minutes later I was sobbing in my car in the SPCA parking lot. I could have taken any one of those wonderful animals home. One of them I really wanted. None of them deserved to be dropped off, possibly facing death if they don't get picked.

I have wanted a Great Dane for years. I'm not in a position to commit to a dog right now. My lifestyle, my work, just wouldn't make it fair to the animal.

I won't be popping in there again anytime soon.

Alberni Valley Hiking part II

Here's another hike I like.

This one follows along the Alberni Inlet starting just south of China Creek.
Part of it follows an old (1913) Canadian Northern Pacific Railway grade which never was put into service.

The 4km trail has a little bit of everything. A steep descent on a rocky path through old growth. Views of lovely Underwood Cove. Flat stretches lined with flowering current that hums with hummingbirds in May.

Then when you get to the rail bed proper, you walk between sheer rock walls created from blasting that make dark tunnels. Electric green moss on tree trunks jumps out against the damp charcoal backdrop.

From time to time the foilage opens up and you get views of the long inlet heading out to sea via Barkley Sound.




Near the Franklin River logging operation is where the path winds up and where this poor Douglas fir is being choked for no apparent reason. Obviously the cable was put around the tree to do some job long ago and it's just never been taken off.

There are plans to join the CNPR trail into the town's network, and eventually run it all the way down to Cowichan Lake, relying some on logging roads, and beyond to the Galloping Goose trail in the Capital Regional District (VIctoria).

This ambitious plan would create an alternate route for exploring large chunks of Vancouver Island on foot, or by bicycle. Governments are putting money into trail building, so it looks promising.

Hiking

All set for a fresh hiking season, I set out on a trail today that climbs up above Cameron Lake on Wesley Ridge to mountain tops that give a view of Georgia Strait to the east.

My trusty guide book also promised a 360 degree view further on, but I lost the trail in the snow so I headed back down to an arbutus bluff overlooking the lake. I had my lunch and went home very satisfied with the challenging two-hour hike.
The second viewpoint will be something to look forward to later in the spring or summer.
Along the way, I saw a varied thrush, and a merlin and heard a red-breasted nuthatch.
That little taste made me want to share some of the other great hikes I've enjoyed on central Vancouver Island.

Last July, I tackled Teodoro, a gorgeous climb up above Sproat Lake between Port Alberni and Tofino.
Like so many trails, finding the start was a challenge and when I returned to my car about four hours later, I had a flat tire.
Still, no regrets.



The name Teodoro lead me to research how it came to have such an exotic moniker, and there's a good story there.

The local man who built the trail named it for the Mexican environmental activist Teodoro Cabrera Garcia who, along with Rodolfo Montiel Flores, was tortured and jailed in May 1999 for opposing forestry company Boise Cascade's logging in the Sierra de Petatlán in southwestern Mexico where they live and farm.

In 1995, the Idaho-based logging company, which also operates in Canada, signed a deal with the state of Guerrero to buy large tracts of land. Mexican farmers watched as entire forests were logged and hauled away by the truckload. The deal, made possible the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), caused a dramatic surge in the rate of destruction of one of North America's last old-growth pine and fir forests.

Teodoro and Rodolfo organized farmers to speak out against the clear cutting of the forests, which they also depended on for their livelihoods. They were on their way to stage a demonstration in the capital of the state when they were stopped by federal police officers. Without warning, the police began shooting, killing 17 and injuring 20 more.

The two men were taken to a military camp, beaten and told to confess to drug trafficking.


Their case drew international attention, including that of Amnesty International, and the men were finally released in November of 2001.

Eventually, Boise Cascade left the area, claiming that the inconsistency of wood supply had forced them to close shop. Many were convinced it was directly related to the activities of Garcia and Rodolfo.

I've planted Boise Cascade blocks in northern Ontario where only the bears know what they're up to.

Beading

This is a craft I've done since Grade 3 when three Cree women came to my class at Opasquia Elementary during one of our well-intentioned aboriginal education sessions.
Yep, I'm a child of the 70s.

I still do beadwork, these days mainly to cover logos that I've ripped off of new purchases, especially knapsacks and camera bags.




The funny thing is, in my desperation to remove the branding, I almost always slice the new fabric with the stitch ripper. I blame this on the company's effort to make the embroidery indestructible so that the label is never lost.


To rid myself of the corporations' logo, I damage my nice new things.


Needless to say, I loved Naomi Klein's No Logo and remember a conversation at university with friends who wondered why I removed what they called cool logos. In other words, the branding marks of companies people like, like Apple, or Roach, or MEC.


Whether I like the company or not I do not want to walk around with anyone's mark on my back. Not without payment for advertising for them.

Tell me a story

I started reading Rawi Hage's Cockroach in the bathtub on Sunday. For no reason at all I read it out loud. I may read the whole book that way. I've never done that before.

Threats to birds

This is what a pine siskin looks like after it has hit a window. The two biggest threats to passerines, or perching birds, are house cats and obstructions (like windows).
It's estimated that there are half the number of these small birds travelling back and forth between breeding and wintering grounds in the Americas.

Other views of the Valley

Besides the idyllic views, there's also still an industrial waterfront in Port Alberni.

While the paper mill has cleaned up its act a lot over the years, it still dominates the waterway in the central part of town with smoke stacks (discharging only steam, I'm told) visible from everywhere.

While it may have cleaner discharge, the once grand operation still gulps water through big pipes and has left a fibre mat on the ocean bottom that smothers life trying to reclaim the once toxic estuary. Meanwhile the company may be on its last legs and no one seems certain of what level of environmental clean up they are responsible for.

Views of the Alberni Valley

It may be grey and foggy now but these photos remind me that I live in a really nice place and that can be just as true on a grey day as a sunny one.

The Sports Park in Puerto Vallarta

I loved this place.

It was just down the road from my hotel and while I usually take a break from exercise on holiday, I decided I would go for a run at the track every second morning. Nothing too strenuous, just enough to counter the desserts I ate every day at lunch and dinner.





Morning and night this free, outdoor sports facility was well used by locals. All ages, all abilities. One morning there was a track and field meet with kids from a private school that involved a three tiered podium and a horn section that bleated a fanfare when medals were awarded. Meanwhile the rest of us still got to used three running lanes and feel part of the event.



The complex stretched over several city blocks and besides the track there was an outdoor weightlifting area, boxing gym, many basketball courts, an open air aerobics studio and skateboard park.

Ghost resort

This is the development that sat between the place I stayed and the ocean. It really pissed some guests off but I found it added intrigue to the otherwise white-bread Hotel Zone.
The story I got on the 13 story building was that an East Indian billionaire started the project but died before it was finished. A family dispute over his assets and some intervention by the Mexician government has resulted in the building being left in this state for 12 years now.
It's a major landmark on the Bay of Bandaras as it's the only structure that tall on that stretch of the beach. I used it to gauge how far I'd walked during a day because I could see it from anywhere on the shore and know my room was next door.
The property is fenced to keep squatters out and some poor guy enforces that as a 24/7 security guard. He doesn't keep the animals out, though. This is where I saw iguanas and green lizards and many bird species climbing around the palm trees and also darting in and out of rooms.
The waterway in the first photo is where I photographed the herons and egrets below.

The Birds

Where ever I go they capture my attention. Members of the kingdom aves.

There are about 10,000 bird species in the world and 1,000 species make Mexico home for at least part of their lives. That compares without 500 different kinds of birds that visit British Columbia.

The photos below are all herons and egrets, but on this little waterway that traveled to the ocean between my hotel and an abandoned development next door, there were many other species.

The water was shallow, didn't look particularly clean and there were only a few trees for shelter on one stretch of the bank. I am always surprised at how much wildlife a little scrap of marginal habitat supports.

Snowy egret

Green heron

Great egret

Yellow-crowned heron

Twistin' by the pool

Yep, I only had to get up off my chaise lounge and walk about three metres to get this shot.
Didn't take long to rule out paying $100 for a jungle tour, when I had an intriguing complement of wildlife on my doorstep to entertain me while my blistered feet rested between the off-site adventure days.
Books and iguanas, iguanas and books, with the odd egret thrown in for variety.

The Malecon

This is the infamous strip in Puerto Vallarta called The Malecon.

I have to say, I found PV had more to offer on a walkabout than the other two resort areas I've been to, Cancun and Mazatlan.

What makes this gorgeous waterfront walk even more interesting is its collection of statues by Mexican artists that range in style from classical to surreal.

Thanks to that little touristy initiative, I learned about (and fell in love with) the work of Sergio Bustamante. This, in turn, led me to the art walk around old town where I discovered Jonas Gutierrez, Daniel Garcia and Fernando Aguila.

As I do in many places, I walked around for hours at a time, until I had blisters all over my feet. Then I'd spend the next day recovering by the pool or on the beach (plus taking exercise at the outdoor sports park, more about that soon) until I healed enough to wander again.

Good trip.

I made a friend

When asked how my vacation was, all I really need to say is David.

We met at a restaurant and chummed around PV a bit. 

He's from Mexico city and had only lived in the resort town for a short time so he felt a little like a tourist himself.

He's an aspiring musician and his myspace site is www.myspace.com/superchetu

At least I didn't poo in the pool

These ducks lived at the resort where I stayed in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Staff at the resort took it upon themselves to see that they were fed and watered each day. Most of the time they sat on a brick wall on a small waterway next to the pool area but at a certain time each day they would come over to the pool and just wander around. It struck me as comical to watch the ducks walking along as though they'd booked themselves a winter getaway like the rest of us.

Today's neighbour in blog world is:

comiccaption.blogspot.com

Why wait?

I clicked on a blog based on having listed the same book as a favourite and discovered a woman who I want to know.
We already have things in common: both Aquarians, both loved Half of a Yellow Sun, both scientists. both women.
Then there's there other but somewhat connected factors she's in Accra, Ghana, a country on my list of future plans, she has a photojournalist amongst the list of bloggers she follows.
I feel like I'm meant to meet this person and I found her with a simple click.

Today's neighbour in blog world is:

saosuki.blogspot.com

I return, maybe not triumphant, but I return.


It's a new year and I'm needing a reason to be writing and shooting outside of what I do at work. Let's just see if blogging will provide that impetus.

After I go to Mexico that is. Everything starts after I go to Mexico.

Long time no post

No real reason, just busy with life. Here's some favourite shots from the last while.

A humpback whale sounds in the  Strait of Juan de Fuca, October 2006

Quiet flowers in Fossli Park, Sproat Lake B.C.,  July 2007

A Martin Mars Water Bomber blows its load near Port Alberni, B.C.,  July 2007



















Abandoned at Brady's Beach, Bamfield B.C.,  August 2007