Breeding Bird Atlassing Field Trip

Red-tailed Hawk occupies a wide range of habitats and altitudes
Photo by Larry Halverson

Hillary Page from the Nature Conservancy of Canada and Cam Gillies from Eagle-Eye Tours are offering an atlassing walk to the Marion Creek Benchlands above Columbia Lake.  This is an area that NCC is on the cusp of purchasing and it has some beautiful habitat.  There are marshes, shrubby wet areas, aspen, grassland and forests.  The diversity of birds should be spectacular!   Flycatchers, warblers, and vireos should be abundant.  Hillary will talk about NCC's project and Cam will review how to atlas. 

Everyone is welcome including people that have not atlassed at all. Bring your binos, notebook, pencil and a lunch.

Friday June 3rd, 

Meet 8:00 am at the Hoodoos gas station.

Carpooling from there up to the property. 

Finish about 1 pm.

For more info on the field trip contact  cam.gillies@telus.net and to learn about the BC Breeding Bird Atlas go to http://www.birdatlas.bc.ca/english/index.jsp

Nocturnal Owl Survey

Photo by Larry Halverson

Great Horned is one of the most common owls in the Columbia Wetlands. It also the earliest nesting owl so now is time to hear them calling.

Most species of owls are secretive and nocturnal, making population monitoring a difficult science. Fortunately, volunteer owl surveyors across Canada are listening for owl calls in the night and documenting their numbers over time. The Nocturnal owl survey in British Columbia is now in its 11th year. There are 105 owl routes across BC and the Yukon.  In 2010,  86 owlers stopped 1205 times in the darkness to listen for owls. They detected 248 owls, an average of 2.06 owls per 10 stops, which is the second highest value reported in the history of the survey.  In the southern interior of BC the Northern Saw-whet Owl was the most common owl heard followed by the Great Horned Owl and Barred Owl.