17, 19, 22 March

 17 March  no data available,

19 March

eBird data:  https://ebird.org/checklist/S131320760

weather:   9:00 am 4C wind calm,  1:00 pm 9C wind NW8

tide:  11:00 am 3.1m, turning upward

22 March

eBird data:  https://ebird.org/checklist/S131553182

weather:  8:30 am 5C wind WNW 5, 12:30 am 10C wind  NNE 9

tide:  11:00 am 2.8m, falling


17 March

...and I forgot to wear green!  Ochone, the pity of it all!  But a magnificent day.  

I'd agreed to team up with some folks from MVIHES (Mid-Vancouver Island Habitat Enhancement Society) to do some planting along the Englishman River upstream from my usual haunts.  At this point along the river, it's part of a park managed by the Nanaimo Regional District.  Quite wild and beautiful.  

It wasn't really hard work, although it's now some years since I've done planting like that.  Last time was in Australia--at least here we didn't have to look out for snakes or lethal spiders!  An agreeable crew, we got our work done in good time, sat chatting and eating cookies and then were all given MVIHES volunteer hats!  Wonderful.  Now I can look more official when I wander places I'm not really authorised to wander.  

Sorry, no photos of the morning.

Then I decided I'd make my way over to the French Creek Eagle Refuge and see whether my cellphone actually worked in that forest.  I've been asked to lead one, maybe two, groups of folks to guide them through the iNaturalist process of using a smartphone to record observations.  It seemed a good idea to see whether there were glitches before I led a group.  

Stopped at the French Creek Social Hall (formerly the French Creek Marina Pub) for a couple of fish tacos.  Not the all-time best, but I'd run up an appetite digging holes in the riverbank.  

Then headed over to the trailhead for the Eagle Refuge, and spent a couple of hours trying to get my phone to have problems.  Nope.  Works fine.  I did a bit of study of my own, trying to improve my tree recognition.  I think I'm making some progress.  


Just as an exercise, I went to town on this pacific crab apple, photographing first the tree and some blossoms, then some mosses etc growing on it, then sending them all off to the iNaturalist site.


Pacific crab-apple

Shield lichen



Pin-cushion sunburst lichen


Oak moss

  Sure enough, identifications came back quickly, although as I look at these photos, I can see things I may have missed.  I'll need to recruit my botanist friend to go into more depth.

I then spent time studying the sitka spruce, noble fir, and Douglas fir in the area and I think I can distinguish them, now.

As I'd driven to the trailhead, I saw that the herring spawn was underway along Columbia Beach.  Big flocks of gulls, many eagles and sea lions, and of course, lots of folks with binoculars and cameras.




Unfortunately, the light slightly dimmed the colour of the herring milt, which produces a brilliant aquamarine.  There was a line of milt along the beach, visible in the above photo.  

It is always a striking event.  I stayed, watching for a couple of hours, along with several of my ANat associates, who had also come out to watch and photograph.

All in all, it was a very fine day.

19 March

Somewhat overcast, but a good day to be out and about.  Shrubs and trees are beginning to blossom.


I think this is what is called a cherry plum, and introduced but established species, very popular with birds once the fruit forms.  

Bewick's wrens haven't been much in evidence of late, but this one was obliging.


There were several great blue herons in the marsh--this one cooperated with photos.


22 March

A gloriously sunny day.

The Arrowsmith massif still shows a mantle of snow. 


 We can hope that it will yield a substantial run-off into our watershed.


The trees along the river are starting to bud, and are almost radiant.

There were green-winged teals offshore, elegant little ducks.


Song sparrows are common, but sometimes photogenic.


There was a true rarity in this area--a yellow-shafted flicker, more often seen to the east of the Rockies.  Unfortunately, he was showing his nictating membrane--not very cosmetic.  Still, an unusual bird.




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