Fall Begins

The southeast storms have begun, flocks of birds are flying south, the minkes have mostly disappeared, the chum are running, the days are shorter than they are long and the wood-stove is going. All this, and it's not even October yet. The summer has been filled with fantastic sightings but mostly from places other than home. That said, however, I did see minkes from home on 6 occasions this past summer. Orcas, humpbacks, lags and porpoises also passed by on occasion but not as frequently as the minkes did.
A few other noteworthy things happened during the last month. First, the white-crowned sparrows finally fledged 2 chicks on August 24th. I have a feeling there was an earlier failed attempt based on the photos I took of them mating earlier in the summer. Shortly after that, there seemed to be only one sparrow around for the longest time. It would sit in the arbutus tree and sing from dusk till dawn. I figured it had lost it's mate but then in mid August I noticed 2 sparrows. By the 24th there were 4, 2 of which were chicks. The following pictures show one of the parents with food for one of the fledglings and one of the fledglings shortly after it landed in the back of my truck. By early-mid September they were all gone.


























Second, on September 24th I caught 3 northwestern garter snakes on Village Island and let them go in my backyard here in Alert Bay. I had been debating whether this was a good idea or not for some time and finally figured it is worth a try as the species already occurs in both places already. The only differences are that the density is much higher at the old village site on village island than it is my backyard and that village island seems to contain different colour morphs while the snakes in my backyard are all mostly brownish. The ones I brought home were a young brown one with a red stripe, a regular coloured brownish all over one and a pure black one that almost looks bluish from certain angles. The red striped snake and the black snake are shown below.


























Third, and lastly, I saw a Pacific Golden Plover from home today. With the tide quite high there was not a lot of real estate left for this bird so it was hanging out on and near the seawall. This is the first time I have seen this species from home. Other migratory species seen today include, Greater white-fronted goose, orange-crowned warbler and savannah sparrow.