Being a bike-rider and a bit of a birder, I keep an annual NMT bird list. NMT = "non-motorized transport" - so, any birds you can see within walking, cycling, skiing, paddling distance of your home. There's an astounding variety of habitats I can reach, ranging from intertidal mudflats to old-growth forest to open alpine areas, and even, if I push it, that most prized birding habitat, a sewage lagoon.
One of the more distinctive spots is the Grebe Islets, two rocky pieces of land visible from a cliffside park in West Vancouver. I rode there in the fog on Wednesday, timing it miraculously so that the fog was just lifting as I arrived. All kinds of birds proceeded to pass by or pop up from the back sides of the islets, and I could paint while I waited for them.
Today I took the long way around Stanley Park on the way home from a downtown urban-sketchers meetup. I found 28 black oystercatchers huddled on a near-shore rock - a remarkable number of these remarkable birds. They were unfazed by a skinny-dipping couple woo-hooing loudly into the water nearby, but a passing eagle sent them into panicked flight. The one gull remained, with a "Uh, what's happening?" look.
No comments:
Post a Comment