WHEATEAR FESTIVAL CONTINUES

It was a beautiful , sunny, springlike day as I parked at Columbia Beach wondering if the marvellous Northern Wheatear was still in the area. After all, this would be an excellent day for travelling. I was disappointed that I was all alone, but it was only 8:30 AM and too eary for anyone travelling by ferry. Despite the invigorating sunshine, all was quiet as I trudged upstream between French Creek and the houses. The only sign of life at the end of the houses was John Brighton who made a quick stop before going to work. Disappointed but not discouraged, I carefully worked my way back. By the time I reached the mouth of the creek, all I had seen were several Savannah Sparrows. Undeterred, I continued north of the beach access. Near the second house, 2 birds flew from the seaweed onto a stump. One was a Savannah. The other was the Wheatear! I may be reading too much into this, but I think the Wheatear was happy to see me. I was about 60 feet away when I set up my tripod and camera for a distant picture just in case it flew. It didn't fly. Instead it hopped towards me. It stopped at about 25 feet and posed for a few shots. Then it decided to fly towards the creek. As I followed, I was joined by Rick Hilton from Courtenay. (He's not related to Paris.) We caught up with "Wheatie" by the house on the point.

Wheatie was enjoying the sunshine. It lounged on the log for about 10 minutes before searching for breakfast.

It didn't take Wheatie too long to find breakfast. A juicy grasshopper proved to be a fine appetizer.

Wheatie looked like it was resting, but its eyes were still searching for anything that moved.

When Wheatie spotted a potential snack, it would stretch out for a better look then pounce for the fatal snatch with its unerring bill.

Finally, it was time to rest again, and Wheatie did its preen, clean, and stretch routine.

Wheatie didn't want me to leave, but I knew it would have lots of company. Rick (Courtenay), Brian (Vancouver) and Stephan (Burnaby) were already there and I knew Len and others were coming.

On my way home I stopped at the local newspaper office. The editor was busy so I left my story idea of the Wheatear and my phone number. When I got home, I had a phone message from the editor. He liked the Wheatear story. I am going to try to take every opportunity to get "bird" stories into the news as a way of improving public awareness of birds and nature. This is a good place to start.

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