May 10.
..some birding happening in the next few days. On Saturday the 13th, International Migratory Bird Day, there will be a series of events and walks originating out of the new Arts and Culture Society building, formerly the health centre. Several local birders will conduct walks to Bridge Creek which is down in Centennial Park. If you have a pair of binoculars by all means bring them along. And if today is typical of this time of year bring footwear that is waterproof. Walks will probably go rain or shine. The idea of international migratory bird day, at least from my point of view, is to focus on local habitat that is essential to migrating birds, whether it is from a nesting, feeding, or shelter point of view. I consider the willow rich portions of Bridge Creek and similair creeks in our area to be vital to Warblers, Flycatchers, Catbirds, Veerys and many other songbirds. So this event, for me, isn't so much about identifying birds as it is about associating our migrant bird population with particular habitat requirements. Sounds all too exciting doesn't it? But it could all be covered in one question or series of questions..What does that particular bird find here that will keep it returning to this spot? What can we do to insure that this element is preserved?

On Monday I attend the third annual Bradley Creek creek-sit. I lived for a while right beside this creek and it was during these years that I became convinced of the importance of the willow, grass and forb lined shores to bird populations. It is easy to associate waterways with waterfowl, and they too benefit from healthy and natural waterways, but songbirds must have this habitat to survive. The number of nesting Warblers, including Orange-crowned, Wilson's, Redstart, Yellow, and Yellowthroat, found in a one mile portion of this creek system is impressive. This is where I saw my first Catbird, as well, and found that they nest annually here. The gist of the creek-sit is for the humans to gather on the banks with coffee and assorted snacks and watch the activities of the birds of the creek.

The following is a bit I wrote on the total migration picture:

The word 'home' evokes a wide range of images. To humans it can mean everything from the place of your birth, the structure where you sleep, eat, and take shelter, the place where your family resides, or it may even be the place where the heart is.

If you were a species of wildlife that was at risk and we wanted to insure you future survival, one of the strategies we would employ to help you would be to define and secure the place you call home.

But what about the case of birds that migrate? Where would you say the home of the migrant bird is? Is it the place in the north where it is born and returns to breed? Or is it the place in the south where it goes to avoid a sure death in the cold of winter? Or is the home of the migrant bird along the migration routes where twice a year it spends a good deal of its time?

The answer I believe is that a migrant bird would call all of them home, if it could speak on such matters. In other words the home of a bird that migrates stretches from its breeding place in the north to its wintering place in the south and everything in between. Each of the three components, the north range, the south range, and the migrations routes, is like a room in its 'house'. Remove any of these three vital places in its home and all its kind will perish. So in many cases a migrant bird's home as long as a continent and often, even longer.

These 'homes' were probably established some time after the last ice age when radical changes ended and habitat types began to take shape with the appearance certain kinds of vegetation, climates, fairly fixed watercourses, and landforms. Once in place, these migration patterns probably continued, with minor modifications, for thousands of years.

It is probably only in the last 100 years that migrating bird species are once again feeling the pressure of radical change. But it is not weather or climate related this time. It is human created. As the human population continues to grow, it alters the landscape in which it lives for numerous reasons. Many of these changes happen without consideration for other creatures that use the same land. Migrant birds are particularly at risk, because, as stated above, they rely on all three parts of their home to remain intact to survive.

Most people would agree that our lives are more beautiful with birds in them. Birds are part of the natural world that in which the human creatures evolved. Very few people would intentionally destroy birds, but destruction of their nesting places, their southern habitats and lack of suitable habitats along their migration routes are the most effective methods of insuring their destruction. Unfortunately, as a species, we have never been as capable of destroying other species as we are today.

What harm could it do, you might ask, to remove some willow habitat along a creek? In the case of our own location, where birds have come for countless years to nest, it means a season without adding the newborn birds to the species' numbers. It means next year the same will be true. And each year as habitat disappears and fewer birds find places to nest it is just a matter of time before the law of averages puts that bird species in jeopardy.

International Migratory Bird Day provides an opportunity to focus on the vital bird habitat which we in the South Cariboo, find ourselves.

It is obvious that we share this planet with many other life forms that give us joy. But this relationship, like any other, if taken for granted, may be lost. We have never tested before, as a species, how many natural life forms we may do without, before it adversely affects our own existence. This relationship with the other creatures of the planet, like love, should not be tested. Whatever it takes to secure its continuation should be embraced wholeheartedly and all efforts that guarantee its continued existence should be greatly indulged and encouraged. I guarantee we shall not die from such a show of love, encouragement, nurturing, and tolerance. In fact it is possible that, by such a display, we might all enter a new and unexperienced level of enlightenment...where our vision of what our home can be is found to be big enough to be the home of all species. And isn't that the home we all come from, not the tattered, plundered, shell of a gutted domain, but the one with all its original lifeforms in all their intricacy and diversity. I would be proud to call such a place home.

May 3