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.
Tag: Common Raven
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.
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.