The Mayne Island Big Day Bird Count is a part of the Global Big Day; an annual celebration of wild birds coinciding with International Migratory Bird Day. This event was first held in 2015 by Cornell University, a leader in wild bird science. Cornell manages the website eBird.org and tracks Read more…
If you were to ever invite a turkey vulture to dinner, it’d be a long, drawn out, rather repelling affair: The meal would begin by not beginning, as turkey vultures don’t have very sharp beaks and therefore need to wait for other scavengers such as eagles or ravens to tear Read more…
2022 Christmas Bird Count There are many factors (weather, temperature, visibility, number of counters, food supply, suitable habitats, etc.) that influence the outcomes of the annual Christmas Bird Counts (CBC). Either singly or in combination, they can cause great variations within count areas, between adjacent count areas and the whole Read more…
If you stand underneath a large Douglas fir this time of year, it may not be as quiet and still as you’d expect. Chickadees peck at the cones, chittering juncos scavenge fallen seeds, a nuthatch clings upside down on the trunk and regards you curiously, flickers hunt insects in the Read more…
It is autumn and hundreds of gulls are flocking to Active Pass, feeding off the annual flood of plankton. If you stand on the Miners Bay Dock and watch as they twist and turn and plunge into the water, you might notice two bald eagles swooping in amongst them, their Read more…
Do you recall the phrase “If you build it, he will come” from the 1989 film Field of Dreams? Well, in the case of the elusive Wilson’s Snipe, we might rephrase it to “If you build it, s/he will stay.” This past spring, the owners of Hedgerow Farm on Mayne Read more…
Looking out across sunny, cold Bennett Bay earlier this month reminded me of an unusual encounter I had two summers ago. Kayaking past numerous pairs of mother and baby seals lining the rocky edges of the islands, I saw a dark grey bird bobbing along, feeding on creatures hidden under Read more…
Intrepid Birders Brave the Elements to Census Winter Birds on Mayne A rather dramatic headline for this article, but honestly the count day—December 18, 2021—dawned with heavy rains and wind: conditions that are not ideal for birds to be out and about or for birders either. Nonetheless, many of the Read more…
If you’ve been out exploring the coastal bays of Mayne this winter, did you happen to notice a black and white bird the size and shape of a bathtub rubber ducky buoyantly bobbing up after a dive? These little sea ducks, Buffleheads, are beautifully patterned: males have iridescent purple heads, Read more…
Tiny Wonders It can feel a little unnerving when, while quietly weeding your garden, you notice hovering a few inches in front of your face a beady-eyed, four-gram bundle of energy staring you down over a very sharp beak. Feisty and pugnacious, these irrepressible little jewels measure just 8-12 cm Read more…