Tundra Swans

Spring Migration - Photo by Larry Halverson

The first Tundra Swan this spring (a single bird) was spotted in the Athalmer sloughs on March 7th. By March 18th the swan numbers increased to over 50. 

The Columbia Valley is one of 3 main migration corridors for swans moving through British Columbia from their wintering grounds in the western United States to their breeding grounds in Yukon and Alaska. The valley with it lakes and wetlands is an important staging area for swans to “fuel” up before continuing north. Their peak migration is during the later part of March and the first 2 weeks of April.

Muskrat Lodge

Muskrat Lodge near Wilmer, BC
Photo by Larry Halverson

Muskrats are an important player in wetland ecosystems. Their influence on vegetative structure can affect invertebrate communities as well as bird abundance and diversity. Muskrats are a food source for a number of animals like mink, coyotes and eagles. Muskrats can also serve as indicators of ecosystem health by responding  to various toxins and chemicals that commonly degrade aquatic habitats.

As wetland loss becomes more prevalent, the maintenance of functioning wetlands and aquatic systems like in the Columbia Valley become even more important. So conserving viable Muskrat populations may be critical.  

Parks Canada use Muskrats numbers to measure wetland health - researchers simply calculate Muskrat populations by counting their lodges. See “Visiting the Muskrat Lodge”

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.

Chickadee Love Song

Black-capped Chickadees in the Columbia Valley 
have already been heard singing their love song

Most everyone can identify the bird that sings a rapid, nasal Chickadee-dee-dee. It is the call the Chickadee uses to challenge intruder or to express alarm and it can be heard anytime during the year. However in April, which is the beginning of the courtship season, the Chickadee adds a less familiar tune to its vocabulary. It sings a sweet two-toned whistle of two or three notes, the first being higher and longer than the last one or two. This "love song" sounds like feee-bee or if you listen closer to lunchtime it sounds more like cheezzee-burger. The song can be heard from now until the early part of the nesting season. It is a delightful ditty, which means spring is here.

Wings Over the Rockies

Wings Over The Rockies Celebrates it 's 15th Year

Columbia Wetland Stewardship Partners are once again involved in ths years celebration of the incredible bio-diversity of life in the Wetlands of the upper Columbia Valley. Participants can chose from over 70 high quality educational events including a wide variety of field trips, river paddles, evening presentations and an art exhibit. Pynelogs Cultural Centre will once again be the hub of activities, and field trips will take participants to surrounding forests, grasslands, and wetlands. Some events will be coordinated with Parks Canada to help celebrate their 100th anniversary. Others will involve local ranchers including a BBQ at the historical K2 Ranch. The Festival will also showcase the flight cage for injured raptor rehabilitation, which the Invermere Veterinary Hospital is building in partnership with Wings Over the Rockies. 

Read Dave Quinn's excellent article about Columbia River Headwaters and the bird festival in the latest Westworld Magazine

Living Next To The Grocery Store

 Great Blue Heron Rookery -- Columbia Valley National Wildlife Area. Wilmer, BC

Photo by Larry Halverson

The larger nest on the right belongs to a Bald Eagle. Eagles are known to chase herons off their nests and prey on the hatchlings left behind.  So for this eagle it must be like living next to the grocery store.

Biologists say that in some cases eagles are pestering the herons so relentlessly that some of them even abandoned eggs and chicks and forsake their traditional breeding grounds.

For more information see biologist Marlene Machmer's report, which looks at the potential links between the failure rates at heron breeding colonies in the Columbia Valley and disturbance by Bald Eagles and humans. 

Cottonwood forests of the Columbia Wetlands provide key habitat for a number of wildlife species. In 2008 - 187 active heron nests were recorded in the East Kootenays

Beaver Scent Mounds

Beaver Scent Mound - Columbia River Feb. 14, 2011

Since beavers are primarily nocturnal they rely more on smell than visual communications. 

February is the beaver’s breeding season and the time of year that male beavers are busy building scent mounds. The mounds are made of mud and are topped off with a yellowish secretion from the castor gland near the beaver’s tail. They are usually built near the edge of water and close to beaver lodges and trails. These scent mounds serve in warning off transient beavers that the territory is already occupied and prevents confrontations.

Beaver Lodge

Beaver Trail