Expedition Canada

Vivaldi's Gloria Thu May 4th Male Rufous Hummingbird - Selasphorus Rufus Steller's Jay in the front garden A debate is starting to rumble in BC as to whether the Rufous Hummingbird should replace the Steller's Jay as the official provincial bird.   The Rufous, which has just returned from its winter sojourn in Mexico, will be here until the middle of summer, when it will head back the 2500+ miles to avoid the BC  winter.  The one above has been a frequent visitor to our feeder, along with all year round Anna's  Hummingbird. I'm not overly convinced that a bird that spends less than six months 'in town' should warrant the title, beautiful though it is.  I do find it pretty amazing that something so small, weighing in at 0.1oz (3 grams), flies such distances.  Flying at speeds of 20 - 30 mph, that is 100 days in each direction. No wonder it is only around for 3 - 4 months.   The Steller's Jay is resident year-round in BC.    Others favour ...

And Ants Morning on Mixal Mon Jun 14th The instructions for the cabin remind us that all garbage must be kept inside because of bears and that mosquitos and ants are a fact of life in Canada, more so when you are surrounded by water.  Windows all have screens and doors are recommended to be kept shut.  They are not screened. Fine in theory, but on the warm days we have had the doors open.  So far we've only had few problems with either, other than a few night-time bites.  Outside, ants (and some are probably termites but I've not worked out the difference) are certainly  more prolific than in the UK.  Painted Turtle They even managed to discover the hummingbird feeder hanging on the  underside of the roof eaves.  Ant killer in the bowl on the top kept them off for a couple of days, but in the end the feeder had to be moved.  It was heaving with large black ants inside (drowned) and outside the feeder. We now wait to see how long it takes...

The New Norm   Sun May 30th It's amazing to think we have already been here for eight weeks.  The time has flown by and it already feels like the new norm.   Cedar Waxwing This morning I took my camera with me and was rewarded by the Cedar Waxwing pictured here.  The light was right, the capture worked and enlarged it's possible to see the feathery detail. The day started with spits of rain, once cleared I set up in the yard to see if I could capture some video footage of the Hummingbirds. Mrs Hummingbird pitched up and put on a display.  Mr popped by, but mostly to the rear of the feeder, so no decent footage.  This was using the 4k video record function on the Nikon D850.  It sounds as though a drone has pitched up every time they fly by, such is the noise from the beat of their wings some 52-62 beats per second! Quite pleased with the result, edited down from 4k off the Nikon D850.  No sound, as the as-yet-unused hot-tub provided too much ...