"Free Beer, Free Beer".
Obviously this sounds pretty good. And this morning this is what i heard straight from the bill of a bird. A champagne bird. A lifer. From high on a conifer [i refuse to be more specific] an Empid flycatcher sang, 'Free Beer'. Now this flycatcher looked like the Willow Flycatcher that had been 'Fitz-bewing' over the swamp that we had just circled. And this flycatcher looked not too disimilar to the 'Schlipp - Schlopp'ing Hammond's Flycatcher. [And it didn't look too unlike the Least Flycatcher that I had seen and heard singing in a small coniferous woodlot adjacent to the Nakusp Sewage Ponds].
{And, for that matter, it looked spookily similar to the Dusky Flycatcher that I'd seen a few weeks earlier in the Okanagan.]
But it was different. It was an Alder Flycatcher. And the free beer -as it so often does - made all the difference.
This morning we [Pete, Paul [of brother Paul fame] had awoken at 5am to join a crew from New Denver on a bird walk around Summit Lake. The weatherman promised rain but in the end the weatherman was wrong. Distant thunder promised rain but for the four hours it took to walk six kilometres at birding pace the rain stayed away and some good birds were seen.
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| Eastern Kingbird |
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| White-tailed Deer and 'bambi' |
An Eastern Kingbird was the first seen. Followed by Willow Flyucatcher, Red winged Blackbird, a diustant Bald Eagle, Rufous hummers and then the warblers started; Yellow, MacGillvray's, American Redstart, Northern Waterthrush. Common Yellowthroat, orange-crowned and, finally, Yellow-rumped. Two Common Loons did a fly by. BH Grosbeaks, Red-naped Sapsuckers, Song Sparrows, Cedar Waxwings etc were seen. Spotted Sandpipers ' nests were spotted. Two Common Otters were seen swimming over the lake. Black SWifts, four, and a single Vauxs flew over. Kinglets, Thrushes - Robin, SWainsons, Veery, Varied were all seen and / or heard. Two Vireos - Warbling and Red-eyed were seen also.
REd-eyed Vireos have not long hit Nakusp. Three mornings ago one started singing outside the house at four in the morning. Asleep and confused I recognised only a new song and staggered into the streets to find the offender. Red-eyed Vireo! I need not have hurried as it sang all day and has done every day since. Apparently one common name for the species is the Preacher bird as it goes on and on and on.............
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| A poor photo of a distant and dark Great horned Owl |
The other other day I had yet another fruitful post school birding experience. Gary had been told - apparently in his capacity as the official Arrow Lakes News bird reporter - about a family of Owls in th ebackyard of a local mechanic. We were told they were Barred Owls. Now a Barred Owl is a bird I have heard but never seen so it was worth hunting for. So Megan, myself and Gary headed over to find them. A surprisingly large block of forest surrounded this guy's house and after twenty minutes unsuccessful searching Megan was beginning to tire and i was getting doubtful. It was like looking for a pin in a swimming pool of needles [to steal a darren Hanlon metaphor]. However almost as soon as the stolen saying was thunk a large owl fly out and around. It was not a great view but it looked bloody big!! Another 15 minutes of hunting it flkushed again and perched in good view - Great Horned Owl. Always an impressive find and a relatively rare bird for Nakusp as tight coniferous Forests are not usually its scene. No lifer but a great bird!
