Wednesday 3 February 2010

Birdless in Nanaimo

While I was taking my lunchtime stroll down to the water front today, I realised just how quiet the downtown Nanaimo and area it is, as far as songbirds are concerned.
In any reasonable UK town you'd be seeing or hearing a blackbird, song thrush, dunnock, robin, wren, goldfinch, greenfinch, starling, house sparrows, collared dove, blue tit, pied wagtail, etc. or, at least a selection of those and/or others.
Today, I didn't see or hear a single passerine.
At least yesterday, in a moment of Hitchcockian paranoia, I noticed a bunch of around 20 Northwestern crows hanging around menacingly, in a tree outside the office. Oh, and there are always the scabby pigeons kicking around, of course.
But on the whole, the bushes, lawns and skies of Nanaimo are bereft of smaller birds. Thank goodness for the gulls and seaducks to scan through once I get to the seafront.
I'm sure it'll all change soon, and I'll be sifting through hungry grounded migrants as they flit around any small piece of vegetation they come across. I hope..!

Talking of small birds, have a go at the mystery bird thing on the left - it's just for fun, and no-one has any way of knowing who votes for what, so your secret's safe if you get it woefully wrong. All pics will be of birds I have seen on Vancouver Island. Though that probably doesn't help. 

Depending on the response to this one, I intend to do one every couple of weeks. Believe me I have LOTS of terrible photos of birds I can stick on there.

 

1 comment:

  1. I will vote when I can find one of my american field guides... they're in the house somewhere! What, by the way, in your opinion, would be an "unreasonable" town? And is the scabby pigeon in the field guides as Columba pustulensis? I hope so.... just as I hope you have seen the lovely snap of a flying "Stealth Terrier" in the latest issue of mostlybirdingwithray.....says Ray in gloomy Lancaster, England.

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