This time from the Guardian – who also seem to have a bit of a Canada theme going. Who can blame them?
Hummingbirds halt controversial pipeline
Gotta love those cute little hummers!
You are currently browsing the monthly archive for April 2021.
Tags: British Columbia, Canada, Hummingbirds, wildlife
Tags: Beaver, British Columbia, Canada, wildlife
We have been blessed of late – here at the southern end of Vancouver Island – with a spell of good weather. The sun has shone upon our gardens and the temperature during the afternoons has several times crept into the 20s C. This is not expected to continue of course – it is still only April after all – but we have been enjoying it all the same. Next week it will rain!
The Girl – having been suffering a little cabin fever – suggested last weekend that we should go out somewhere for a walk. We have done plenty of such exercise in the immediate vicinity of our home, but getting away to somewhere else completely seemed like a good idea – in the service of our mental well-being.
The Girl suggested Witty’s Lagoon – one of the many bits of Victoria that she knows of old but that I have not yet visited. We duly set out for the southern-most tip off the island on Saturday last – taking the Olympus OM-D with us so that I could share photos with you good folk.
A short walk from the main entrance to the park – as one begins one’s descent to the lagoon – one comes across an excellent waterfall – Sitting Lady Falls. I leave it to the gentle reader to muse upon how that name might have come about:
The extensive but shallow lagoon lies behind the beach and is the point at which fresh and salt water come together. The result is a wildlife paradise:
The beach itself is unusual for the southern end of the island in that it is sandy; many of them are pebble. As is the case with other similarly located beaches the vista is of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and beyond that the Olympic mountains in Washington State of the US:
Pretty (spectacular) – ain’t it?!
Tags: Photo, Victoria, Walk, Witty's Lagoon
Herewith the long awaited third part of my pair of posts introducing the gentle reader – particularly those out-with Canada – to some of our more – er… extrovert local fauna!
In the last post I introduced you to the bullet-headed Northern Flicker and noted its love of drilling holes in things other than the trees (of which we have an abundance). Just this year – presumably in search of food; or just because they can – the Flickers have taken to drilling large holes (nearly 2″ diameter) in the end wall of my garden shed. I almost wondered if they were indulging in some lumberjack style-competition, so eager were they to turn the shed wall into Swiss cheese.
When they have drilled the holes they seem to lose interest in them – and indeed in what happens to them… and that’s where this little chap comes in. This is a Nuthatch. Nuthatches are also known for drilling holes in things, but they are equally keen to take over a hole that a bigger bird has apparently finished with.
What a cute little bird – I hear you exclaim…
Well – no… he isn’t! He is – if you will pardon my use of the vernacular – a chippy little gobshite! If he played rugby he would undoubtedly be a scrum half – and most likely a Welsh one!
On the Nuthatch Wikipedia offers this:
“The nuthatches constitute a genus, Sitta, of small passerine birds belonging to the family Sittidae. Characterised by large heads, short tails, and powerful bills and feet, nuthatches advertise their territory using loud, simple songs”.
‘Loud’ is they key word here. Now – the Nuthatch may only be about two and a half inches long but he ain’t afraid of no-body… and certainly not of me. Seeing him pulling the insulation out of a hole in the shed wall I remonstrated with the diminutive avian, waving my arms about and inviting him to get out whilst the going was good. Instead he gave me a mouthful back. When I climbed a ladder to see if he was actually building a nest in the hole he simply buzzed around my head uttering a string of what I took to be expletives. When I plugged the hole with something he scarcely waited for my feet to touch the ground before he was tearing it out again.
I was clearly going to have to take some action if I wanted my shed to remain intact. We are hoping to paint it this year but at this rate there won’t be much left to paint. As is my wont I turned to the InterWebNet for helpful guidance. There are many sites offering much advice as to how to deter woodpeckers and other such birds, but the most important of these is the site that advises that none of these methods will actually work in practice – and that the only thing that can be done is to cover the affected areas with bird netting, the which must be strung some three inches away from the surface in question so that the birds cannot reach it.
This takes a bit of work to rig up but I duly did it – all the while the nuthatch sitting a few feet above my head squawking loudly. As soon as I had finished the bird landed on the netting and tried to tear it apart. On discovering that this was not going to be possible the little creature turned a murderous gaze upon me and uttered the birdy equivalent of “WTF!“…
I would have a lot more sympathy with our feathered friends were it not that – the previous owners of the house having clearly been bird lovers – our garden contains within its bounds at least a dozen bird-houses. One of these was about a foot away from the hole that the nuthatch had determined upon.
A pre-owned home is obviously not good enough for these stroppy little birds…
“Just because everything is different doesn’t mean anything has changed.”
Irene Peter
Those who receive these postings by email digest will have found yesterday in their inboxes an unfamiliar message which may have caused in them them some alarm. There is nothing to worry about – but I am sorry that this strange new message came without forewarning.
Since I started this online journal back in 2012 it has utilised a service called Feedburner to send out the email digests. Shortly before I started so doing that company was purchased by Google. Various pundits warned even then that – because it was a free service – Google would probably shut it down before very long. Now – ten years on – they have announced that they are finally so doing.
I have thus been obliged to switch to a different service and the email that went out yesterday was just the latest post going out from that new platform. Now – I had no idea what format that message would take or what I could do to make it look more friendly – so the somewhat confusing missive that was sent did not look very appetizing and nor did it sufficiently explain the change.
I have now done some more work on it and I hope that it has a more friendly appearance. I will find out at the same time that the gentle reader does – when this post is circulated!
Please do get in touch should you have further questions or observations.
The extremely good news – from my point of view – is that I now have an appointment for my first COVID vaccination.
Hoorah!
It is not until near the end of April but I have no complaints about that. The mechanism set up in BC for booking said inoculation – on t’other hand – as the title of this post suggests, needs work!
It seems somewhat unfair to cavil at such things when the splendid efforts of all those concerned are focused on helping us normal folk to be able to get on with our lives. If I do so it is because I believe that anything that potentially puts people off getting vaccinated needs to be fixed.
Herewith my experience:
Having discerned that I could now register online for the jab I followed the instructions and rapidly did the deed. Easy as pie and no complaints from me. The next step was to await a message inviting me to book an appointment.
This message duly arrived a couple of days later – at about 1 o’clock in the morning. No reason why it should not do so – and because I was still up and about I decided to book right away.
I followed the link and connected to the online service – supplying the requested details at the appropriate points. I selected my preferred location for the appointment and the service offered me a calendar from which to choose an appointment date. I took a punt and took the first date offered. A message popped up informing me that there were no available appointments on that date. I tried another with the same result. It rapidly became apparent that the calendar had not been equipped with a way of showing which dates had availability and which did not. All I could do was to work my way through them until I found a date that could accommodate me. Eventually I found and chose such a date and selected one of the offered time slots. The site then asked me to re-enter my email address – though I had already done so and the service must have know it anyway to have sent me the invitation in the first place.
I typed in the address and was told that the time slot was no longer available. Presumably someone else had booked it whilst I was typing. Doh! I had to go round this annoying loop all over again… becoming even more frustrated because the site had forgotten the information that I had entered on the first go through.
Eventually a slot was booked and a page appeared containing a QR code and a message telling me to print this code and to take it with me to my appointment.
Now, as I suggested, I was doing this really quite late at night and I was so doing from my iPad – which does not have a printer attached or configured for it. A confirmatory email arrived but did not contain the vital QR code.
OK – now I am a big boy and – as regular readers will be aware – have a long professional history in IT. I can sort such things out, but I am a lot less confident that everybody trying to book a vaccination appointment in BC will have the same good fortune.
Chaps – you are doing a difficult and critical job tirelessly and brilliantly – but do sort out these glitches so that everyone can get the protection that they deserve.
Ithankyew!…
In the first of these two posts concerning the less than sociable habits of some of our local wildlife (“Wild? I was livid!“) I introduced you to that furry little critter – the racoon. I was delighted that my post struck a chord in at least some quarters…
For this second part we take to the air. This brute is a woodpecker – specifically a Northern Flicker (or just ‘Flicker’). Should your first thought be “That doesn’t look like any woodpecker I’ve ever seen” – you would find me sympathetic. Me neither! These brutes seem not to be native to Europe – sticking to the Americas… and they are big buggers!
The photo shows a flicker nesting in a hole that it has made in a tree. Canada is not short of a tree or two and I see no harm in some of its bird-life using those facilities to create homes. Flickers – however – are not much impressed with the idea of having to spend their days bashing their heads against a serious hunk of lumber.
One thing that they do love to drum on is the aluminium cowling that keeps the weather out of one’s chimneys.
What?!
Woodpeckers supposedly attack trees for one of two reasons – to make nests or to find food in the form of grubs and larvae buried in the wood. Neither of these applies in the case of the chimney cowl. No – in this instance the annoying avian is trying to attract a mate! Apparently the birdy belief is that the more noise the creature can make the more it gives the appearance of being a good catch. (We are – as you might expect – discussing the male of the species here)!
So – this spring we have been unwitting hosts to one of these bruisers. Apparently the best time of day to drum up some female interest is very first thing in the morning. Having one’s chimney cowls drummed upon by a flicker results in a racket that reverberates around the house – and continues in bursts until the bird either finds a mate or gets bored… or until one hurries outside and shouts abuse at it!
Wikipedia provides some comfort by informing us that – once the breeding season is done – these birds should lose interest in one’s rooftop furniture. Looking out of my window the other day I noticed our flicker atop our garden shed, in the company of another – presumably female – flicker. As I watched our flicker jumped on the back of the female, did the deed and hopped off. The entire act took about a second and a half. I could see the look on the female’s face. It was a look which said:
“You make all that racket but where it matters that is the best you can do? Not impressed, mate!”
Now – where have I seen that look before?
So – in what is clearly now going to become part three of this two part post I will introduce you to a final creature. Bet you can’t wait!
HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
1921 – 2021
RIP
There have already been many tributes paid to Prince Philip, who died today at the age of 99. There will be many more such in days to come. Our thoughts are with The Queen; she and the Duke had been married for seventy three years.
On such occasions it seems inevitable that all and sundry will trot out their anecdotes concerning the prince. For what it is worth – here is mine:
I was only once in the same space as the Duke – way back in the mists of time before the turn of century. I was invited to attend a Gala Dinner somewhere in the midlands of the UK in support of a charitable foundation that I can no longer can recall. Philip was doubtless the patron of said charity and was the guest of honour at the gala.
Now – it happened that on the night in question a very important (if such a thing there could be!) football match was taking place. I believe that it was the semi-final of some footie contest between England and Germany (or West Germany – depending exactly when this took place). There was much grumbling amongst the attendees of the dinner – many of whom would have preferred to be at home watching the game.
For a while the Master of Ceremonies – who was in any case making regular announcements – kept the assembled throng up to date with the score from the match, which England were at that point leading. Then all of a sudden the announcements dried up. Word went around the room that Germany had equalised and that Philip had decreed that no further updates should be given.
Several courses later I chanced to look around the room – which seemed less crowded than it had before. I was slightly surprised to observe that the Duke and I were amongst only a very few men left in the room, all others being of the fairer sex. Again, word went around that there was a large screen TV in the kitchens, the which had been thoughtfully provided so that the chefs could keep an eye on the game. Now – I have no interest in such matters and the Duke clearly could not slip out to have a look… so thus we remained.
Yet another while later and there was a muffled groan from somewhere offstage and all of a sudden a hoard of be-tuxed chaps wearing disconsolate expressions filed back into the room. It seemed that England had once again (as was/is their habit) lost on penalties.
I like to think that the Duke had been wise enough to have privately predicted the potential outcome and had thus made a smart choice.
Tags: England, Loss, Memories, United Kingdom
Nature is a wonderful thing – a miracle of creation – a gift – an inspiration… and we all love and revere this fragile planet’s wonderful wildlife…
Should you doubt any of this for a moment all you need to do is to get onto the InterWebNet and try to find some inspirational quotation that has anything – and I mean absolutely anything – bad or negative to say about what lives out there in the the great outdoors. Good luck with that quest…
Now – you won’t catch me arguing against Mother Nature. I am – as can clearly be seen – outnumbered and outgunned. I do sometimes think, however, that the fortunate fauna get away with behaviour that would land us poor human saps in big trouble.
Take the cute little critter at the top of this post. He (or she) is a raccoon. Isn’t he adorable?
No – actually he is a little bastard! It is entirely fair enough that – when we are done with our foodstuffs and come to throw out any organic detritus such as peelings and scrapings – the furry little rodents might see that as an opportunity to get a bit of a free feed. I don’t mind that. I also don’t expect them to consume everything that we throw away, but why do they need to spread everything that they don’t want all over the sidewalk?
Our local municipality kindly provides us with a stout little green bin for such waste – with a lid that comes complete with a decently solid catch. That doesn’t deter the raccoons at all. They know how to open those suckers. I have taken to keeping our organic waste bin in the garage, where the raccoons cannot reach it, but our waste is collected early on a Monday morning and the bins must be placed at the end of our drive late on Sunday nights.
Raccoons know what day of the week it is! Dunno how – but they do…
I noticed that our neighbours – who clearly have way more experience in these matters than do I – have invested in some bungee ties to add a layer of protection to the existing bin catches. “Good idea” – thought I and The Girl duly sourced a tube of assorted bungees when next out and about (Canadian expression!).
Tying your bin lid down with bungee ties just annoys the heck out of the raccoons. They managed to get the bungees off and open the catch, but it entailed them kicking the can some fifty yards up the road to do it. Being vindictive little so and so’s they got their own back by spreading the organic waste over an even wider area than usual.
Sorry to have put you out – guys!
Now – annoying as these pesky little varmints are they are far from being the only wildlife that takes something of a frontier approach to living in the same (admittedly huge) space as do we. In a way this is quite a Canadian attitude anyway – so it is at least appropriate.
In the second part of this post I will introduce you to some other charming creatures…
For the first time last year I posted to this forum a ‘Happy Easter‘ (insert ritual festivity of choice!) greeting, to compliment that which I have been regularly posting at Christmas-tide since this journal began.
I have decided that this is a good thing to do and it will thus become a fixture – though the moveable feast element of Easter and the fact that us (semi)retired folk sometimes don’t know what day of the week it is may render the timing somewhat erratic.
Not this year, however, as I know for a fact that it is Easter Sunday tomorrow (it will be today for most of you if you pick this up by email circular) and so without further ado…
The Kickass Canada Girl and the Imperceptible Immigrant extend to all who happen upon these scribblings:
A Very Happy Easter – take good care – stay safe and may all our fortunes turn for the better as the year progresses.
Tags: Easter
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