The days have continued to be hot and hazy, and things are tinder dry. All the grasses have gone into dormancy, and the only green things on the landscape are the conifer trees. Poplar trees are losing their leaves to drought stress and it is unlike that fall will have any colour here at all.
Given the lack of other topics, I will now talk about birds.
It turns out that the hummingbirds have not all deserted yet. After three days of marked absence, the females started to returning, and looking for the feeder. I immediately caved.
This is a female Calliope hummingbird sitting in the holly bushes in front of our patio.
In the meantime, I have been doing a little bit of volunteering at a nature centre here, and one of their big draws is falconry displays.
One of the regular displays is a flying display. People gather in an outdoor seating area and birds are flown from post to post in front of the audience. They fly red-tailed hawks (below) as well as turkey vultures, and peregrine falcons.
A prime event is the Raptor Encounter, where people pay about $70 a person to get a chance to hold a raptor on their arm. A couple of birds were featured, including an American Kestrel and a Spectacled Owl (South/Central America).
People come away enchanted.
We had our first visitors here, our friends Doug and Gisella Cavill, from Gabriola Island. We were forced to explore a couple of pubs together. Overnight, miracles of miracles, we had a brief rainfall, which cleared the air and cooled the temperatures. This morning we could actually smell the vegetation. However, as the day progressed, the winds picked up, the smoke returned, and it is unlikely that much headway was made against the forest fires. Hopefully more rain will come soon.
I'll keep tuned!
No comments:
Post a Comment