Tag: Common Raven

Hollyburn Mountain

Gray Jay

Gray Jay (Photographer: Amy Hou)

A flock of at least seven Gray Jays waited for us on the summit, and demanded nuts. A couple of Ravens were keeping a watchful eyes on the snowshoers along the path.

Raven rolling in the snow

Background: me and Andrew made it to Cypress Mountain. the plan was cross-country skiing, but it was raining there and no discount for skiing in the rain. So I went for a walk around, hoping to see some birds (specifically, I was trying to get the Gray Jay who haven’t made it to my year list since I started birding). I took the free trail around the skiing area up till the first slope down, nothing. On the way back, almost at the trail head, a flock of 8 or 9 Chestnut-backed Chickadees and a single call by a Red-breasted Nuthatch. and a Raven.

Back on the road, as our attention was arrested by a Raven who kept shoving his beak into the snow, a second Raven came and start rolling over in the snow: tilting to one side, then laying on his back with feet in the air, and coming back up through the other side… The bird repeated this maneuver about a dozen times (admittedly, I cheered every time), before both Ravens flew elsewhere.

I can’t tell whether the Raven was taking a snow bath or playing – M. Brazil in his article Common Raven Corvus corax at play; records from Japan (Ornithol. Sci. 1: 150–152, 2002) reckons it’s the latter.

Smart Raven – the people on the other side of the hill were paying exuberant prices for snow tubing – but no prices were posted for just rolling over in the snow.

Birding Burnaby Mountain

The Burnaby Mountain forest was quiet most of the time, with the occasional worthwhile sighting.

The first bird I saw was a lovely, tiny rodent.
The second bird was a dazzling Pileated Woodpecker in flight, who perched to allow a novice birder an identification.

As I was trying to ID some sparrows on a tree, handsome Wilson’s Warbler popped-up and said: “Hello! Are you trying to see ME? Here I am!”
These Sparrows were hiding, but I had 3 Savannah Sparrows at Centennial Park.

A Raven called, first from a distance, then getting nearer; he then came flying and landed on a nearby tree and I saw his tail; he saw me, got a little scared and had to leave right away.

Turning from Mel’s trail to Trans Canada trail I encountered a Black Bear!
The bear wished for a quite trail. I made noise. A cyclist showed up and ventured in the reported bear direction, then a couple of hikers. I figured the bear went to seek some privacy elsewhere and continued my walk.

After the bear came a small Coyote, an Eastern Gray Squirrel and a Douglas Squirrel. In some trips the mammals are as good as the birds.

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