Blog of the Plague Year(s)

  Far too long since I'd been camping, very nearly a year.  I've had a bunch of work done on my camper, which took longer to complete than I'd expected, but I thought when it was finished, it was a good idea to take a short trip and see that everything worked properly.  It did.  In fact there's one 12 volt outlet that never did work before that works now.  Very useful, I can now run my fridge AND charge my phone simultaneously. I'd camped at Kin Beach, near Comox, years ago when I was doing my school visiting travels, and liked it then.  It seemed even better this time.   There was the best of autumn weather, dry, coolish, but  gloriously sunny. The campground is hardly wilderness, but has good forest.  There was an eagle nest just above my site--not occupied this time of year, but there was a brood of eagles raised this past spring.  There are also apple trees throughout the campground.  A cottontail bunny was happily feeding ...

20 September eBird data:https://ebird.org/checklist/S94941808 Weather:  9 am 12 C wind SW 3, 12:30 m 13C, wind ENE 7, cloudy, occasional showers Tide:  10:30 1.6m, falling 21 September eBird data:  https://ebird.org/checklist/S94983814 Weather:  8:30 am 13C wind S4,  12m 15C wind E 12  cloudy Tide: 10:30 2.3m, falling Two cloudy days.  A bit of rain on the 20th.   Neither day was very birdy but both had raptor encounters and the dipper showed itself on the 20th. I found the episode on the 20th a bit sad: The tree is a much favoured roost for raptors.  Eagles, the peregrine all spend time there.  I gather that the view of the tidal flats and its shorebird and waterfowl population makes hunting easy.  So here is the peregrine, who isn't really a very big bird, but near him is a tiny female kestrel.  She'd started on another branch and then moved closer, almost immediately after which the peregrine flew off with her following...

 eBird data: https://ebird.org/checklist/S94834625 Weather:  8 am 12 C, wind SSE 2, 12:30 m, 16C, wind NNW 10  Cloudy Tide:  10 am 1m, turning Morning after the first real storm of the season.  Yesterday was a day of 80 km per hour wind gusts and heavy rain.  Today looked threatening, but the morning stayed dry.  There were trees down, and branches and leaves scattered. The morning light looked like storm light. I'd expected to see more birds, but most of what appeared were big flocks of purple finches. This is just a small sample.  There are also starting to be smallish groups of siskins, but so far not in the numbers of last season. There was a splendid peregrine falcon, chowing down on what looked to have been a yellowlegs.  From the remains, it would have been hard to know whether it had been greater or lesser.  Peregrines are impressive looking birds and great flyers, but they always strike me as somewhat scary.  Most of t...

  16 Sept  eBird data: https://ebird.org/checklist/S94743009 Weather:  7:30 am 7C, wind W4,  12 m 14C, wind ENE 11 Clear Tide:  9:30  am 1.2m, rising One of the best days I can remember here in the Estuary, which is saying a lot.  Brilliantly clear, crisp weather, and an assortment of critters.    The morning began with a little commotion in the reeds along the channel that runs along the west side of the fields.  Sure enough, although I never managed a photo, it was a marsh wren.  I don't see them often here, but it's certainly their kind of environment. The snow was all but vanished from the Arrowsmith massif, although there is in fact a forecast of snow in higher elevations on the Island today. The tide was very low, and the Salish Sea had calmed from the night before, when I could hear surf throughout the night. Great blue herons are anything but a rarity here, but this one was posing quite nicely, so I took a picture. Ther...

11 September eBird data:  https://ebird.org/checklist/S94509021 weather:  7:30 am 15C, wind calm.  10:30 15C wind SE 4, cloudy then raining heavily tide:  9 am 4m, at peak, falling 13 September eBird data:  https://ebird.org/checklist/S94615449 Weather:  7:30 am 10C, wind W5,  11:30 am 17C, wind N8.  Initially scattered cloud, then clearing Tide:  9:30 3.2m, rising Finally, on Saturday morning, a good soaking rain.  Today (Monday) there is new grass sprouting, and the woods and fields smell heavenly. It wasn't all that great a morning for photography, but there was a red-breasted sapsucker, working away diligently. Today and Saturday were both days for what I understand to be charitably called "photos of record."  Not good photos but present the birds that I've seen. The rain threatened for a couple of hours: Then, as soon as I settled on my duck-watching bench and poured a coffee it began to rain, not heavily at first, but showing ...

9 September eBird data:  https://ebird.org/checklist/S94420458 weather:  7:30 am 15C, wind calm,  11 am 20C, wind NW2 tide:  9:30  3.7 m,  falling 10 September eBird data: https://ebird.org/checklist/S94462433 weather:  7:30 am 16C, wind WNW 6,  10:30 am 18 C, wind NNE 7,  cloudy initially, then clearing tide:  9 am 4.1 C, peak, falling The season is most certainly changing.  Not only is the weather cooling and becoming rainy,  the foliage looks different, and there are new birds appearing regularly, but also the salmon are starting to appear in the river.   Yesterday began overcast, with light over the coastal range.  The day cleared gradually. The foliage around the pond is beginning to show the season, as it does along the river. There have been high tides in the morning yesterday and today, and the river was running high, which will no doubt stimulate the salmon run. The last two mornings have been more ...

 eBird data: https://ebird.org/checklist/S94335513,https://ebird.org/checklist/S94326230 weather:  7:30 am 12 C wind calm,  12:00 21 C wind WNW 15, clear Tide:  10:30 am 1.8m A warm, sunny day, abundantly birdy.  Quite possibly among the last really warm days we'll have this season. It's really starting to show autumn, even when masked by the early die-off from the drought.   There still seem to be newly fledged birds. I wouldn't swear to it, but I'm pretty sure this is a very young purple finch, whose been at the blackberries from the look of his beak.  He certainly looked alert. And there was a juvenile fox sparrow (again, I think --I find some of these juveniles kind of tricky, but he has the right beak colouring and plumage is close). I'm not finding rarities, but I find the youngsters interesting.   Again, a very low tide, the other half of a big autumn tide-- Fog on the Gulf Islands, at least in patches, another marker of autu...