There are times when life throws you a wobbly and such is the case for me lately, for the second time in as many months I have got the flu bug and had to stand down this week and let the troops do the job that they have been trained for.
They turned in a masterful count with record high count of swans #669 for the season and good numbers of hawks and eagles. Eleven birders turned up this week and a three car convoy took off from the dog park. What was lacking was any real report of what they got up to, Dorothy and Eric pulled out at lunch knowing all too well that the day was going to be long and left Kurlene in charge, talk about leaving the fox in charge of the hen house. A big thank you goes out to Daryl who took over the tallying of numbers, good job she has lot’s of fingers and toes with the high count this week.
I know they saw the Sandhill Crane this week on Sahilton Road and the American Kestrel at the exhibition grounds, with the majority of the swans located on the west side of the route, but that was it.
It is left up to me to fill in the report with what I have seen and heard while hacking away at home. During this time I have managed to give my beloved the bug and so I have not been able to rely on her support, finding things have been a task most unusual to me and locating a new box of tissues is like looking for a Great Gray Owl on Quadra Island.
A sad report has come out of Washington State with over 40 Trumpeter Swans dying in just a couple of areas this winter, presumed to be from lead poisoning, this comes from years of lead shot being used by hunters. The authorities are trying to identify the bad areas and will try and persuade the birds to forage elsewhere.
Lead shot is now banned in this country for waterfowl hunting, but it has, as usual, taken a long time for those in power to enact this ban.
There are areas in our valley that the swans and geese use on a every day basis that are littered with lead shot, Cowichan Bay, Somenos Marsh, Swallowfield Farm, Richards Trail have historically been hunted using lead and one can only assume that this deadly metal lies in wait for any foraging bird to ingest. Some of the worst cases of lead poisoning come when birds are forced to congregate in a single area to feed instead of spreading out in many locations.
Areas that have historically grown vegetables in the valley have seen lead shot used to disperse foraging birds from the crops, goodness knows what that has done to us that eat local produce.
I have watched as the population of Mute Swans have slowly diminished in Cowichan Bay from a once high of nearly 250 birds to present day numbers of less than 20. I am not saying this is due to lead, but it does seem strange that it would happen here where the birds have congregated each winter for many years.
We can only hope and pray that a terrible disaster does not hit our area and that the once endangered Trumpeter Swans can enjoy our hospitality here in the valley for years to come.
I am now starting to feel a little drowsy after finishing up my third bottle of cold medicine which, I might add, has no affect on this bug that I’ve got, but one can only hope and pray that this plague relinquishes it’s hold on my body and that I can return to counting birds instead of sheep.
Until next week.
Derrick