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Rob Butler 3 days ago
This year marks one of the most important anniversaries in science. 2009 is the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth in 1809, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his book 'On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection'. There are many celebrations of these anniversaries for this great man. One of the most ambitious celebrations is the building of a replica of the HMS Beagle as a legacy. The 2009 replica will be built of larch and oak planking on oak frames but unlike the 1831 Beagle, the modern version will have diesel auxiliary engines, and modern navigational aids - radar, GPS, satellite communications - and modern safety equipment. The ship will be built in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire in the UK.
Rob Butler 3 days ago
Readers of his blog have heard about Important Bird Areas IBAs). These are sites that meet or exceed internationally agreed upon criteria that make the sites stand out for significant numbers of birds. The Fraser River Delta is one of Canada's premier IBAs because it hosts such large numbers of birds each year. Canada launched its own IBA program in 1996 as a partnership between Nature Canada and Bird Studies Canada. Yours truly was at the inaugeral meeting held in Montreal and on the technical committee that reviewed the sites. The list of sites is available on line. Now all the IBA across the entire western hemisphere have been published in one book - Important Bird Areas Americas. It can be ordered on line. Undertaking this massive project was a herculean effort. Hundreds of meetings with thousands of people in North, Central and South America resulted in a mass of data to rank sites. Thousands of candidate sites needed to be assessed from Canada to Chile. My colleague ...
Rob Butler 6 days ago
The following birding events are taking place around Vancouver BC. All levels of birders are welcome to join the Wild Bird Trusts monthly survey of Maplewood Flats in North Vancouver. The survey is made on the first Saturday of each month. Meet at 8 am in the parking lot of the Pacific Environment Science Centre, 2645 Dollarton Highway. On the second Saturday of each month , meet naturalist Al Grass at Maplewood at 10 am for a nature walk. Al is one of the longest serving naturalists in Vancouver. Wild Birds Unlimited holds a walk each month around town. On November 21 at 10 am meet Al Grass at the George C Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary. The walk lasts about 2 hours. Bring binoculars if you have them. Also on November 21 and 22, the Fraser Valley Bald Eagle Festival will begin. The festival is timed when eagles descend on the spawning salmon in the Fraser valley. To find out more go to their web site.
Rob Butler 6 days ago
My recent visit to the Galapagos was highlighted by a trip to a breeding colony of Waved Albatross. This is the only exclusively tropical albatross and it is confined to nesting in the Galapagos. The huge birds arrived via winds flowing on to the island. I also saw them cruising the ocean around the islands and it reminded me of the Black-footed Albatross off the BC coast. The Black-footed Albatross breeds mostly on the Hawaiian Islands as well as a few other central Pacific islands and travels to the North American coast to find food for it young. I watched many of them cruise by our boat during a trip last summer off Cape St James in the Queen Charlotte Islands. If you have not seen an albatross before, you might tag along on a whale watching trip out of Tofino to see these ocean going birds. Albatrosses have suffered terribly in recent years by their habit of snatching baited hooks on the long line fishery. Fortunately, an international campaign to reduce the catch of ...
Rob Butler 9 days ago
One hundred and fifty years ago, Charles Darwin published his famous book 'The Origin of Species'. There have been many celebrations this year to mark the significance of this hallmark publication and it was an incentive for me to make a visit to the Galapagos Islands where Darwin was to find his inspiration. Darwin's account of his exploration of the Galapagos in The Voyage of the Beagle does not indicate that he thought the islands were anything more than an oddity. It was later that he would discover that each of the islands had its own fauna and that got him thinking about how new species might evolve. I recorded my first impression in my notebook: 'My first walk ashore on the Galapagos was life changing. I had heard about the tameness of the Galapagos fauna but I wouldn't have imagined so many species were totally unconcerned with me being just outside of arms reach. Crabs, flamingoes, iguanas, and sea lions sat idly by". Along with a group of friends, I spent a week in ...
