Giving thanks 2008-10-13 14:07:00 Rob Butler blogs: This is a time to thank all the birders, biologists, conservation groups, scientists, and citizens who give their time, skill, and efforts often for free to protect birds and our environment. I encourage everyone to take some time to...(read more) Read more:Giving
Birds in Decline 2008-10-11 17:47:00 Rob Butler blogs: Birdlife International's recently released report on the 'State of the World's Birds
' indicated that many species of birds were declining on censuses around the world (www.birdlife.org). In North America, the declines were notably strong...(read more) Read more:Decline
Birds Around Us 2008-10-10 18:46:00 Rob Butler blogs: Welcome bird bloggers. British Columbia's rich variety of habitats from ocean seashores to deserts and mountain tops are home to hundreds of varieties of birds. And Vancouver is located in one of Canada's birdiest regions. The Fraser...(read more) Read more:Birds
World Endurance Flight 2008-11-03 22:57:00 Humans have long looked at bird flight with wonder but a new study raises the level of awe to a new height. My colleague, Bob Gill and his co-workers attached miniature satellite tracking devices to a shorebird known as the bar-tailed godwit on their Alaskan breeding grounds. The vast open Pacific lay between them and the south Pacific winter grounds. The birds fed voraciously in Alaska Read more:Endurance
, Flight
, World
BC Bird Atlas 2008-10-29 22:20:00 Bird atlases that appeared on bookstore shelves several decades ago pale in comparison to today's sleek electronic versions. Online technology has meant that birders can enter and view maps from their home computers in real time. Canadian technology is leading the field here and abroad. Bird Studies Canada's scientists have developed the on line tools to a fine art. They have partnered with severa Read more:Atlas
Young Naturalists Club 2008-10-23 16:32:00 The award-winning Young Naturalists Club of BC is for children aged 5 to 14 years. The program, originally developed by Daphne Solecki of the Vancouver Natural History Society, has grown so that the YNC is now its own entity run by a dedicated and energized executive. The unique program brings families close to nature through local events run by local families. Children receive NatureWILD, a quar
Wildlife Around Us 2008-10-23 16:18:00 Not far from our doorstep live whales, birds and other wildlife that few people see. Yesterday in the Gulf Islands, Dall's porpoises rode our bow wave, harbour porpoises fed along tide rips, and a Minke whale breached in mid channel. A few pairs of marbled murrelets, many gulls and a few flocks of scoters swam in the passages. Many of the sea ducks will return to our shores for the winter in the n
The Snows Return 2008-10-20 23:10:00 The Snow Geese have returned to Westham Island on their annual migration from Siberian breeding grounds. You can see them from the road leading to the George C Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary on Westham Island west of Ladner. The geese use the marshes when the tides are low and fly to the fields to feed during high tides. The best views are during high tides when the geese are in the fields. Remem Read more:Return
Indian Arm 2008-10-17 22:02:00 Rob Butler blogs: Eelgrass is a seagrass that grows on soft sediment beaches along the Pacific Coast. It forms dense beds in places like Boundary Bay, Qualicum, Parksville, and Sidney Island, and smaller beds are widespread in the shallows. Eelgrass is an important nursery for many species of small fish that are included in the diet of fish-eating birds such as herons, loons and kingfishers. Today
Environmental Optimist 2008-10-16 17:51:00 We must not lose sight of the good news stories and the positive things we can do amidst the barrage of bad environmental news stories. A few months ago, we put out a request for about 20 people to help with a habitat restoration project by the Pacific WildLife Foundation. We were overwhelmed by the number of people who volunteered on a rainy weekend and by an even larger number who arrived at the
City Crows 2008-10-15 19:42:00 Rob Butler blogs: The afternoon rush hour for crows has begun. Each evening,about 10-20,000 crows gather in the woods near BCIT and Highway 1. They come from as far away as Port Moody, Coquitlam, Richmond and Kitsilano. Other roosts have sprung up in Richmond, Langley and Surrey. Why crows fly for up to 45 minutes to join a large roost is not known but my guess is that roost sites provide a relati Read more:Crows
Ancient murrelets 2008-11-21 00:12:00 The Ancient
murrelet is a small seabird that nests in underground burrows on the Queen Charlotte Islands of British Columbia. The species is unusual among seabirds in that its day old chicks leave the burrows under the cover of darkness for a life at sea. By daybreak, the tiny chicks will be many kilometers out to sea with their parents. Few people have traveled to the remote nesting islands to se
Atlas talk this Thursday 2008-11-19 23:18:00 Rob will speak at Mountain Equipment Coop, 130 Broadway in Vancouver at 7 pm November 20 on the BC Breeding Bird Atlas
. BC's rich diversity of landscapes holds more species of breeding birds than any other province in Canada. Over the next five years, the BC Breeding Bird Atlas project will be looking for the adventurous to tally birds near home and in the remote corners of the province. Read more:Thursday
Plastic, ducks and mega migrations 2008-11-19 22:41:00 In January 1992, about 29,000 plastic toy ducks went AWOL from a container ship in the middle of the Pacific. The toys set off on an epic ocean journey. Some circled the Pacific several times before coming ashore in Alaska. Others went south to Australia and Indonesia, while a few went north to enter Bering Strait and travel in the pack ice across the Arctic Ocean. By 2000, a few began to show up Read more:Plastic
Arsenic in woodpeckers 2008-11-13 16:50:00 In today's Sun, Larry Pynn reported that woodpeckers in BC carry high levels of arsenic. The source is an arsenic compound (MSMA) used in BC in the recent past in a bid to reduce outbreaks of mountain pine beetle. Two scientific papers published by Christy Morrissey and her colleagues showed that BC woodpeckers forage on treated trees, they carried high, but variable amounts of MSMA, and that
Green space is healthy space 2008-11-07 13:36:00 Green spaces might provide health benefits to humans in addition to a place for birds and other wildlife. Researchers in Scotland reported in the Lancet that people in England living near natural green areas had lower mortality from all causes and circulatory disease. The strongest association was found among people surrounded by green areas but the benefits were also present in more develope Read more:Green
, healthy
Clever crows 2008-11-06 20:50:00 Crows are clever. If you have any doubts about it, click on Joshua Klein's video in which he teaches crows to use a dispenser. The crow family includes a number of other avian Mensa members - the raven, jays and magpies. These clever birds have a complex social life that requires them to keep track of each other. They recognize individual humans and remember faces for months and per Read more:Clever
Feeding birds 2008-12-16 21:46:00 The winter deep freeze makes me marvel at how birds are adapted to cope with conditions we would find severe. It is remarkable that tiny birds such as bushtits and chickadees emerge each morning after a 14 hour sleep ready for a new day. How small birds survive is by stoking their fires with lots of fat during the day. They will spend most of the waking hours searching for food that they can lay d Read more:Feeding
Christmas Bird Count 2008-12-01 18:23:00
If you have ever wanted to learn a little more
about birds but didn’t know where to start then the Christmas
Bird Count might
be right for you. The annual Christmas Bird Count is a fun outing in which bird
watchers across North America tally as many birds as possible over a 24-hour
period in designated count areas. It can be a madcap dash to find the rare and
unusual species that were spot
A Gift for Conservation 2008-11-26 17:21:00 Last year my family decided that rather than give gifts to adult family members, we would give a donation to a charity of their choice. There are many causes that could use our support and it feels good to help out while avoiding the shopping pandemonium at this time of year. Conservation
groups rely on donations and the present economic situation will make their efforts more trying than usual. Wh
Recommend Site To A Friend
