John Gordon/Listening to Birds

Monday, 9 March 2020

Wednesday, 4 March 2020

Backpacks and Birding

Murrayville Library

Langley

Everyone welcome

Tuesday, 3 March 2020

Saturday Birding Walk

SATURDAY MARCH 7 TH

LATIMER POND AND STOKES PIT

JOHN GORDON Time: 9:00 am to noon.

Join John to explore Latimer Lake and walk to Stokes Pit. Enjoy the natural world coming to life in the spring: early flowers, catkins and possibly the first swallows. Meet at the Park, 19258 – 28th Avenue. Park along 28th Avenue. Phone 604-533-7171 for more information and to let us know to expect you

Gadwall

Brown Creeper

Pacific Wren

A Langley Field Naturalists Walk

Brydon Lagoon/Less is More

The Garden Wild

or whatever that means

When your patch comes under the scrutiny of planners the knee jerk reaction is to question where, what, when, and why and how.

Dear Friends of Brydon Lagoon, especially those who can attend might want to raise objections (or not) to the idea of an observation deck in the middle of the pond (goodbye mergansers and buffleheads) as well as children's playground (goodbye birdsong)

Personally I think things are just fine at the lagoon and the best thing is to do little more than leave it to the birds, beavers, coyotes and deer.

Please forward this link

Full article and open house times

to anyone who may be interested and if you can attend the meeting (see below) make your thoughts known.

An excerpt from the Langley Advance News

"Next Wednesday, March 4th, Langley City residents will have another opportunity to shape the future development of the Nicomekl River District.

Scheduled to run from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Nicomekl School multi-purpose room, at 20050 53rd Ave., the event will see City staff present a “draft concept” of a plan that would create a four-zone district along both sides of the Nicomekl River corridor between 196th Street and 208th Street.

Zones would include the “Garden Wild” on the western end, which would see the area around Brydon Lagoon kept as natural as possible, the “Living Room” for residential development, the “Library,” where educational and interpretive programs would operate, and the “Front Porch,” on the eastern end, which would aim to encourage use of the corridor trails and other amenities"

"Less is More"

John Gordon

Langley/Cloverdale

BC Canada

Anchovies:Bounty of the Ocean

White Rock Pier

February 3 2020

*I have been so busy lately I never got round to posting these images and video.

In December 2018 a severe winter storm cut White Rock pier in two. Almost nine months later it re-opened to much fanfare. The long anticipated opening was greeted with much anticipation by the public but especially birders. Finally we could "get out to sea"

The timing could not have been better as it coincided with perhaps the largest congregation of Northern Anchovy ever witnessed in Boundary Bay. As of February 3 the anchovies were still hanging around the pier. An important food source, anchovies have been described as the 'Bounty of the Ocean'

Many species including salmon, Brown Pelicans and sea lions depend on them to maintain healthy populations. A recent die-off of Brown Pelicans and California Sea lions has been tied directly to the collapse in anchovy stocks.

The iconic White" Rock"

The pier which re-opened just before Christmas was the perfect vantage point to watch the spectacle. California Sea Lions, Harbours Seals and countless species of birds put on a show. Many, even the locals had never witnessed anything like it. The event made the national news drawing even more visitors, a boon for the local restauranteurs who had hit hard times when the pier was shut down following the storm.

Thousands and thousands of Northern Anchovies washed up on shore.

The wintering bird population have been taking full advantage of the situation. Normally the phenomena takes place out at sea and out of sight. Thousands of visitors have been drawn to experience perhaps a once in a lifetime spectacle.

A beachcomber walks along the beach in White Rock.
Above: Note the Glaucous Gull( the all white gull) with black tipped bill on the shoreline.

This Black Turnstone was seen feasting on the anchovies at the base of the pier.

Some of the more savvy were seen hauling away bags of the nutritious little fish for dinner. The anchovy is similar and related to the sardine, albeit the meat is darker.

Glaucous-winged Gulls and Red-breasted Mergansers on the look-out for a meal.

Although seal lions eat mostly fish they will take seabirds during time of shortage.

Everyday was different at the pier. Some days there were hardly any gulls as was the case February 2, 2020.

Other days most of the gulls were Glaucous-winged or hybrids sometimes referred to as "Olympia Gulls"
The exception was dark chocolate brown Western Gull in the foreground.

California Sea Lions herding anchovies into a bait ball.

Impossible to accurately count, just a portion of one thousand-two thousand birds or more birds at the pier.

More about Anchovies

Anchovy Frenzy Video

"It's ~~never~~ NOW too late to see the anchovies
but who knows, they might return"

John Gordon

Langley/Cloverdale

BC Canada

Sunday, 2 February 2020

Yellow-browed Warbler featured

My picture of the Yellow-Browed Warblers from Panama Flats is featured in the Handbook of Birds of the World. I had a quick look at the site and it looks very interesting especially for the hard core birder.

yellow-browed-warbler-canada