Great Skua

Jenny and I went over to Vancouver this weekend with our friends Dave and Susan, to see a gig by British Sea Power at the Biltmore.
The ferry journey was a bit disappointing to be honest, the only birds of note being a few rhinoceros auklets and a common murre. Otherwise, it was the expected gull, cormorant, loon and duck species.
On the plus side, the gig was fantastic and we had a great time.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with this wonderful band, I have attached a YouTube link of them performing the bird-related instrumental track Great Skua - at least it's in keeping with this blog theme... (just in case you're not aware, great skua is a bird).

Indeed, the guitarist Martin Noble (far left in the vid), is a keen birder himself and was part of a very British indie-rock trio who made a superb BBC Radio 4 programme, by the name of In Search Of The Holy Quail. The other two bird-loving musicians involved were Guy Garvey of Elbow and Marc Riley, my personal favourite BBC 6 Music presenter and former member of seminal post-punk band The Fall.



Over the next few days I shall be upping sticks and moving south to Victoria. I am hoping for one last visit to the estuary, Holden Creek and Quennell Lake, but if I don't manage it, there will be few postings until I get settled. I will miss this great area, and I admit that I am rather sad to be leaving the Nanaimo River in particular, and the birds that I may have found there this coming spring!