May 10, 1943 July 24, 2020 Born a 4th generation Californian and growing up in Beverly Hills, John used to jokingly describe himself as consistently downwardly mobile but no less happy for it. His youthful interests became lifelong pursuits. He was drawn to science, particularly astronomy, reading, chess, music, sailing, and camping. He spent time…
John Scull came to the Cowichan Valley in the early 70’s and has been working ever since to make it a better place for all of its inhabitants. John helped resurrect the Naturalists Club in 1983 along with Syd Watts, Sheila Sanders and Keith Muir. He managed our publicity for many years and continues to…
It takes a lot of determination and perseverance to be a swan counter because sometimes we go and we don’t see much at all and then all of a sudden some birds pop up and all are happy. It was a bit like that today as we went to many locations and found the cupboard…
It was a strange old day with most things going down and the sun going up once more; well it was a Wednesday so what do you expect. 9 birders set out from the dog park and for the second time ever I had my son along for the day. Those young eyes paid dividends…
I sometimes look back and think why did I ever start counting birds, I know the data comes in very useful, but I was a regular bird watcher once and chased rarities all over the provinces like a mad thing. Today made me realize why I and others do it when you pull up on…
South side: We had a wonderful turnout of 10 counters, some of whom loved the sunlight on the clouds behind Swuqus (Mount Prevost) but were less enamored of the icy wind blowing off the bay. A flying beaver took off during the count, but the birds were not particularly disturbed by it, and there were…
Today was Bob’s Day and I dedicate this weeks report to all the Bob’s that watch birds. This week we had our own Bob Nation along for the trip and my did he bring us luck, with a record count of swans for this season over 400 and 4 Tundra Swans to boot. 6 Snow…
What a day we had 8 counters were subjected to early wet conditions to heat and sun by lunch, no real surprises although 7Â Snow Geese on Dinsdale’s Farm were nice, these birds had been around for a few days. This year we have been having trouble finding swans in the north end of our…
Wet brewer’s blackbird I really don’t know what to say about this week, although snow was not an issue as last week, this week we needed Noah on our team as the heavens opened, Barry commented that he had never known a a Wednesday when it rained right through the whole count. As usual some…
As you might have guessed the count did not take place because I did not do a snow dance after checking all the steps I thought better not try that, So there was a big dump of snow today. What you will get today is a halftime report as we are half way through this…
Cowichan Bay, southside. I forgot to send out a reminder last week and everyone else forgot to check the calendar at www.naturecowichan.net, so only Linda Hill and I were there to do the count without a telescope. It was chilly and overcast, but the sea was perfectly still, reflecting the sky and the mountains, e were…
It appears by the numbers that I should phone in sick more often as the Trumpeter Swan numbers were the best of the season and 13 Red-tailed Hawks equaled our high count for the term. I am not sure what i did to deserve this horrible cold although a did spend the day with another…
It is hard to imagine a Wednesday without sun but today 6 birders endured a day without our sunglasses, not only that, we got some well needed rain to go with it. Barry is not much of a “no rain dancer” and so I guess we payed the price for his two left feet and…
There is no weather forecaster in Canada that can beat the force of a Swan and Goose counter doing the no rain dance, with rain in the forecast and me still suffering and hardly able to walk i called upon Barry; little did we know that Barry had just returned from Dancing with the Stars…
Only Linda Hill and I were there to do the count without a telescope. It was chilly and overcast, but the sea was perfectly still, reflecting the sky and the mountains, We were accompanied on our walk along the shore by two river otters. We saw on the south side of Cowichan Bay: 71 Bufflehead;…