I arrived at the French Beach campground shortly before sunset on Wednesday evening.   There were only a few other campers, and not much time before it would be dark.   Robins and Varied Thrushes were dominating the forest with only a few Pacific Wrens and a lone Northwestern Crow joining in the evening song.  I parked the van and headed straight to the beach.

It was a beautiful evening that only got better as the sun went down.

I gathered a few pieces of driftwood from the beach for a small campfire and went back to my site to write yesterday’s blog post.  The beauty of van travel is that everything is pretty much ready to go as soon as you arrive.  No need to spend a lot of time setting everything up. I had my tea, my fire and my laptop–the first time I’ve ever opened up a computer at a campsite.  Of course, I couldn’t send the blog until I was back in an internet-friendly zone last night.

After a good night’s sleep, the robins started up again around 6 am.  There were a few more birds in the chorus, but not really too many. The University of Washington’s weather radar is showing lots of bird movement–yes, all that blue is migrating birds–but only a few species are arriving in big numbers.

You can see the volume of birds moving, but of course, you can’t tell what birds they are until they come down.  The volume of robins, Orange-crowned Warblers and White-crowned Sparrows on the ground suggest they make up the majority of the movement.  This will change over the next few weeks.  I’ll take advantage of a rainy day soon to explain how to use radar to monitor bird migration.

 

Thursday morning, I had made arrangements to meet Cathy Carlson at Jordan River. She lives nearby and keeps an eye on the birds on this part of the island for everyone.   Sunrise at Jordan River was as stunning as sunset had been the previous evening.

Jordan River is a small logging community that is undergoing significant changes.  A good chunk of the property was recently acquired by the Capital Regional District.  They took over the oceanfront campground which had been threatened by development by the previous landowner.  Now they have closed it down as a safety precaution in case of a large earthquake that ruptures the dam on the Jordan River.  It’s a loss to the people that have been using the campground for years, but not as much as the loss that is going to be borne by riverside residents.  They are going to be removed from their homes, again as a precautionary measure.  Some residents have poured their hearts and souls (not to mention their money) into these properties for decades.

While I was waiting for Cathy, I birded the area.  The overgrown abandoned yards across the street from the beach have turned up some very interesting rarities over the years, so were well worth checking out. The usual suspects were present, but nothing unusual until I looked up t see a “whirlybird”, a small helicopter flying quite low overhead.I snapped a few photos before I realized that it was coming lower and lower.  A quick look around made me wonder if I was on the landing pad.  I scurried away, but it turns out the pad was just beyond the bushes I was investigating.  We learned later that this helicopter is used to take tree planters into the bush.

When Cathy arrived, we combed the beaches and shrubbery from the parking lot to the bridge.  At the bridge we found a couple of Violet-green Swallows and a single Northern Rough-winged Swallow–a new species for my year list!

As we crossed the bridge, one of the key players at Queesto, the company that is logging the forest, stopped to say “hi” to Cathy.  After a bit of discussion, she had secured permission for us to go up into the forest into a burned area to look for woodpeckers.   We picked up the gate key and headed back to Cathy’s to change vehicles.  Cathy’s husband Ted’s truck would be a much better choice for the logging roads.

After taking on a few provisions, we were off for an adventure of a different kind.  Once we were behind the locked gate, we didn’t have to worry about crossing paths with logging trucks, but we were definitely in an area that was new to both of us.  We had maps, GPS and my Spot, and had good directions to the burned area.  Thankfully, we didn’t get lost, and before long we found ourselves in the burn–and on the edge of a huge, colon-tightening, drop-off.  My Spot showed the area at 600m elevation when I checked the map later.

 

The view here was diverse to say the least, from clearcuts, to burned stumps, to dense forest, replanted areas and down the valley, Diversion Lake.

We looked and listened hard for birds, hoping for some high elevation species, but it was pretty quiet. At this point, we had only heard one Northern Flicker.

One thing we hadn’t considered in exploring this new terrain was how the heck we were going to turn around.  If we’d been in my Fit, that wouldn’t have been a problem, but we wouldn’t have made it up this far.  We moved the truck along the road until we found a wide spot.  From this photo, it looks like we had lots of room to turn around, but somehow, it didn’t seem like so much when a small mistake could send the truck –and the driver–hundreds of feet over the edge into the abyss!

We managed to work it around with only about an eight-point turn.  If we come up again, we’ll stop in a safer area!

We managed to find a few more species on the way down, including a Red-breasted Sapsucker, and even a butterfly–a Comma– stopped by for a visit.

Among female libido enhancer pills, it has distinct place for treating female sex diseases. viagra 25 mg Either you can chew or suck a piece of swordfish rather than a pizza, or a veggie omelet instead of a pile of sausages and bacon. order generic viagra cialis side effects However, technological advances in medicine and healthcare have facilitated an expansion of women’s involvement in a variety of severe to moderate pains. However, men http://deeprootsmag.org/2015/06/11/its-all-too-beautiful-nellie-mckay-sounds-off-oneverything/ cialis online suffering from diabetes, increased cholesterol levels and high blood pressure were excluded from the research. Once on the other side of the gate, we headed to Muir Creek in case there were a few early shorebirds.  There weren’t, but we got to see a Red Crossbill doing a fine impersonation of a spruce cone.

Last, but not least, we found a Gray Hairstreak butterfly that was amazingly cooperative and posed for a few photos.

By the end of the day, we’d walked more than seven miles and had a real adventure.  It was great to meet another local birder and see some new areas.

Friday started with the usual trip to Maber Flats.  Sadly, the current property owner has begun draining the fields, so it will soon be too dry for waterfowl or shorebirds.  A couple of years ago, Black-necked Stilts nested here.  The owner was gracious enough to leave the standing water until they’d left, but clearly he’s going to make sure that he doesn’t get that request again. With the water gone, the only birds likely to nest here are the Canada Geese–the very birds the farmers don’t want breeding.This property is under consideration for purchase by the Nature Conservancy of Canada.  I hope the purchase goes through, and the sooner, the better!

Friday afternoon, two calls came in.  Cathy Carlson was looking at a Caspian Tern at Esquimalt Lagoon, and Liam Singh got his lifer Townsend’s Solitaire below the summit of Mt. Doug.  Caspian Terns should arrive in good numbers soon, so I had to go for the solitaire!

There is a new parking lot on the Blenkinsop side of Mt. Doug. I parked there and hit the trail, which was amazingly steep and challenging for what I had assumed was the main route up.  I didn’t see Mary Egan’s car in the lot, so I thought they must have just left the area, but as I broke out of the forest, Liam and Mary were up the hill trying to relocate the solitaire.  I made my way up to them, but sadly, the bird was gone.  Liam and I looked for a while longer, but could see that rain clouds were on their way, so headed down.   I was surprised that the trail down seemed unfamiliar and quite a bit easier.  Turns out that the kinder, gentler trail (Mercer) can’t be accessed from the parking lot. The Blenkinsop Trail from the lot is much more difficult. Take it if you want a good workout with some scrambling, but I’ll be using the Mercer Trail the next time I have to go up from that side.

I stopped by Outerbridge Park to post signs about this Sunday’s Bird Walk (9 am- everyone welcome.  Meet at the parking lot.) and headed to Esquimalt Lagoon just in case the tern was still there.  Thankfully, the rain had stopped, but no tern.  Black Oystercatchers and Black Turnstones were among dozens of Mew Gulls, and Great Blue Herons were coming in to feed.

 

Many years ago, I counted 66 herons feeding in the lagoon all at once. These days, there are fewer, but they are always a joy to watch!