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Carol Patterson

INSPIRING EVERYDAY EXPLORERS Through wildlife tales and trails

Carol Patterson

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Shorebirds: Tofino’s understated tourists

April 22, 2016 by CarolPatterson Leave a Comment

Drive to the western edge of Vancouver Island and you’ll find the surf-mad village of Tofino. Toque-wearing surfers cycle by, their surfboards clipped to a small trailer, the money saved on petrol buying them more time in this rainforest paradise. Motorhomes that were popular in the 70’s – and worn-out in the 90’s – limp along highway 4 as surfers coax more life from them; neoprene wetsuits dry on car mirrors as shaggy haired guys heat soup and discuss surf conditions.
IMG_4046

Weaving around the world’s hardiest surfers – waters are bone-chilling cold even in July – are other travelers who stroll the Pacific Rim National Park beaches. Some of them chow down on crab and mac cheese at Long Beach Lodge Resort, or hop a boat for a tour of Clayoquot Sound. Others are pecking the sand for their lunch, their trip to town accomplished by wing flapping. These are the shorebirds that fly thousands of kilometers from South and Central America to their breeding grounds in the north. They are the tourists not counted by visitor bureaus but Tofino is very popular with traveling birds.

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Plovers are one species of shorebird seen in Tofino

Behind the hotels and spas that pamper human visitors are the Tofino mudflats, gooey coastal wetlands that at low-tide serve up a nutrient buffet for sandpipers, whimbrels, and plovers. Shorebirds fly long distances, sometimes half-asleep with one eye open and one eye closed (similar to a red-eye economy flight for humans). In addition to being some of the world’s longest migrators shorebirds are also some of its biggest eaters. They consume about a third of their body weight each day as they prepare for migration and eat so much they poop every two minutes!

Tofino mudflats
Tofino mudflats

In late April, Tofino boasts impressive numbers of shorebirds. “Our most prevalent shorebird is the western sandpiper,” said Andy Murray, Tofino Sea Kayaking guide and naturalist, “150,000 Western sandpipers can pass through here in three weeks!”

The beach in front of Long Beach Lodge Resort is a comfortable place to look for shorebirds
The beach at Long Beach Lodge Resort is a comfortable place to look for shorebirds

The town celebrates these understated tourists by holding the Tofino Shorebird Festival each year. From April 29- May 1, 2016 you can take a kayak tour with Murray, learn to photograph birds, hop on the M.V. Lady Selkirk to look for Tufted Puffins and Rhinoceros Auklet, or if you’re really adventurous, journey to the offshore Continental shelf break to see pelagic birds.

If you decide to go:

Register for festival events at http://raincoasteducation.org/events/tofino-shorebird-festival

Reserve your hotel in advance. Hotel sponsors with great birding onsite are:

  • Long Beach Lodge Resort http://www.longbeachlodgeresort.com
  • The Wickaninnish Inn http://www.wickinn.com
  • Jamie’s Rainforest Inn http://www.tofinorainforestinn.com

Look for shorebirds at the end of Sharp Road (the turn-off is by the Dolphin Motel). Best viewing is mid-tide rising.

Warm up after birding with a Forest Sour cocktail at the Great Room. http://www.longbeachlodgeresort.com/site/cuisine/great-room.html

 

Filed Under: British Columbia, Events Tagged With: bird watching, birds, Birdwatching, festival, nature, tofino, travel, westcoast

Biodiversity Strategies for Cities?

April 12, 2016 by CarolPatterson Leave a Comment

Calgary_BiodiversityMy eyebrows reached my hairline when I heard my hometown had a biodiversity strategy. With over a million people, I hadn’t thought of Calgary, Alberta as a biodiversity hotspot. True, it has the most extensive urban pathway network in North America and I’ve enjoyed watching owls and eagles along the Bow River in the city center but isn’t a city a bad home for wildlife?
Surprisingly, there are more opportunities for critters than you might think. Next to parkland, wasteland, railway yards and industrial areas have high numbers of rare and important species. Perhaps because those areas have open spaces and few people. Some animals don’t coexist well with humans like the sharp-tailed grouse eliminated by off-leash dog use on Nose Hill but others adapt. Scientists have observed some urban birds adjusting their calls to be heard over traffic noise.

The City of Calgary tabled its biodiversity strategy in March 2015. With 80% of Canadians currently living in urban areas and with a projected increase of 90% in North American urban areas by 2030, it makes sense to develop biodiversity strategies that mitigate urban sprawl.

City of Calgary representative Chris Manderson says Calgarians understand abstract biodiversity concepts and 74% think biodiversity is important, but that doesn’t always translate to action in real life. As an example, he described comments people made on a ravine in their neighborhood, “some people asked if we were going to fill it in as it looks too messy.” Other comments included “a little too natural…because of this no one uses it” or “there are coyotes because of the ravine.” This ravine was important habitat for wildlife but not everyone connected their support of biodiversity with landscapes not designated as a park.

Manderson says the City needs to educate citizens on biodiversity. “We need to rethink our relationship with wildlife in our city.” Asked if provincial or federal jurisdictions are working with Calgary on their biodiversity strategy, Manderson said there was interest but it wasn’t a priority for them. It sounds like city biodiversity strategies are a new concept for many. Hopefully more city dwellers will soon be thinking about how they share the landscape with their animal neighbors.

To learn more about Calgary’s plans go to http://bit.ly/22o2wCW

TWEETABLES

Biodiversity Strategies for Cities via @Reinventure. Click to Tweet.

My friend, @Reinventure , is sharing the importance of biodiversity plans for the future: Click to Tweet.

Isn’t a city a bad home for wildlife? via @Reinventure. Click to Tweet.

Filed Under: Alberta Tagged With: ab, adventure travel, biodiversity, biodiversity strategy, calgary, chris manderson, city of calgary, travel

Sandhill cranes one of North America’s greatest wildlife migrations

March 12, 2016 by CarolPatterson Leave a Comment

IMG_3335
Ever wonder what wildlife viewing was like when John Muir and Aldo Leopold were alive?

I have and wondered if it’s possible to see a fraction of what they witnessed before economic growth and urbanization destroyed many wild areas.

It turns out you can still get an inkling of what they felt when surrounded by a large biomass of living creatures. Each spring hundreds of thousands of Sandhill Cranes pass over Nebraska’s Platte River. By mid-March thousands of cranes are gathered along the river and in neighboring fields and photographers and birdwatchers flock to the area (pun intended).

Two years ago, I huddled on a wooden bench as the cold sunk into my bones, squinting through a small opening in a wildlife blind as cranes landed on the dark marsh. The guttural cries of several thousand Sandhill Cranes washed over me and made my birdwatcher’s heart smile. I wasn’t too late to see one of North America’s greatest migrations!

The cranes stay in Nebraska for several weeks to add much-needed body weight before flying north to breed. When they arrive in their nesting areas it may be weeks before the food becomes easily available.IMG_0673

The best places to see the cranes are between Kearney and Grand Island, Nebraska including:

  • Iain Nicolson Audubon Rowe Sanctuary near Gibbon is ground zero for crane watching with tours and viewing blinds that get you close to the birds without disturbing them. http://rowe.audobon.org
  • The Crane Trust Nature & Visitor Center in Alda also has blinds for great viewing. http://cranetrust.org
  • To learn more about cranes come for the Audubon Nebraska’s Crane Festival and enjoy lectures, a play and tours. https://nebraskacranefestival.org
  • Don’t miss the chance to sample Laotian cuisine at the Vientiane Restaurant in Grand Island. The flavors will stay with you as long as memories of the cranes.

To see how it feels to sit among thousands of cranes watch my video click here.

The migration usually lasts until mid April. If you are wondering if it is worth traveling all the way to Nebraska to see a bunch of birds, consider that Dr. Jane Goodall loves to watch the crane migration. If one of the greatest animal lovers on the planet considers it worth her time to visit Nebraska, perhaps you should too!

Carol

Filed Under: Nebraska Tagged With: adventure travel, birds, Birdwatching, nature, sandhill cranes, travel, wildlife seekers, wildlife viewing

Book Review: Discover Canada: 100 Inspiring Outdoor Adventures by Leigh McAdam

March 9, 2016 by CarolPatterson Leave a Comment

Discover CanadaLeigh McAdam encourages people to get out and explore Canada with this guide to self-locomotion. Covering the country from coast to coast and every season she offers choices for hiking, biking, skating, rafting and paddling. Each adventure includes main attractions, time needed, cost, and guided options. This isn’t just a book for daydreaming. McAdam has selected activities and destinations that are affordable for the average traveller. Her difficulty ratings may not match your abilities so read the criteria carefully. If hiking 18 kilometers in a day sounds like more than moderate exercise, peruse the easy options. But get moving. This book will have you hankering for outdoor adventure!
TWEETABLES
Discover Canada: 100 Inspiring Outdoor Adventures. Click to Tweet.

Get outside and explore Canada with this guide to self-locomotion: Click to Tweet.

From coast to coast @hikebiketravel has you covered with her new guide to outdoor adventure: Click to Tweet.

Filed Under: Interesting People Tagged With: adventure travel, biking, canada, hiking, leigh mcadam, paddling, rafting, skating, travel, travel canada

Texas turtles with jobs

March 8, 2016 by CarolPatterson Leave a Comment

turtle in texasI love turtles. Not the chocolate kind or the teenage-mutant characters made famous in the 1980s but the hard-shelled ballerinas of the ocean. I almost swallowed my snorkel the first time I saw a wild sea turtle. Watching colorful angelfish in Maui several years ago, a turtle larger than my suitcase floated into view. It gracefully maneuvered around snorkelers in its pursuit of seaweed, chunks of vegetation disappearing down its throat as excess water squirted out its nose.
Since that encounter I look for turtles whenever I’m at a coastal destination, even one more often associated with longhorns and oil barons. Everything is bigger in Texas, including the number of turtles found here. There are only seven species of sea turtles in the world and five can be seen in Texas – the green, loggerhead, Kemp’s ridley, leatherback and hawksbill. In keeping with the Lone Star state’s entrepreneurial spirit some turtles even hold jobs! A few lucky tourists visit them each week at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Service in Galveston to learn how turtles help scientists.

Fishing kills hundreds of thousands of turtles around the world each year. Often turtles are not the target species but get caught in fishing nets and drown. To reduce the carnage all U.S. federally regulated nets must have a turtle excluder device (TED). Shrimp imported to the U.S. must also come from countries using TEDs.

At the NOAA turtle barn in Galveston, loggerhead turtles are raised to test TEDs. Hatched from eggs taken from wild turtles, these turtles are carefully raised, doing a small amount of research before being released back to the wild. I was in turtle heaven as we entered the barn and saw hundreds of turtles doing laps in their individual enclosures, my camera battery fading as I attempted to get the perfect turtle photograph. The youngest turtles would have fit in the palm of my hands if we were allowed to tough (we weren’t), those born in 2014 were dinner-plate sized and swam circles in large barrels. The turtles would stay at the barn for only two years before travelling to Florida to participate in the testing.

Master Naturalists Carlos Rios and Maureen Nolan-Hilde helped our tour group discover what a turtle work day is like, a giant fishing net spread across the lawn next to the turtle barn. “Crawl into the net, then hold your breath and pretend you are swimming all the way to the end. As you climb out of the TED tell us what kind of turtle you are,” Rio instructed. I stumbled through the net as my arms flapped in a feeble imitation of a green sea turtle; my lungs burned as I thought of the thousands of turtles that used to drown in fishing nets.

“Each turtle will only test three nets,” explained Nolan-Hilde and have a team of divers accompanying it to ensure its safety. The turtle is released into the net and timed as it finds escape through the TED. The divers recapture it and return it to the boat. “Now it only takes a few seconds for the turtles to escape. It used to take four or five minutes,” explained Rios on how excluder devices have improved as a result of NOAA’s research.

Although these remnants of the Jurassic age can live several decades, these turtles retire from their work after only three tests and are released back to the wild. My mind reeled when Rio said these turtles would return to lay eggs on the beach where they were born even though they have never seen it! “Keeping only a few grains of sand with the eggs when they are removed provides enough information that the turtles can find their way back where they came from,” he explained. It appears sea turtles have greater powers than even ninja mutant turtles. My love affair continues.

If you decide to go:

Public viewing at NOAA Fisheries Service Galveston Laboratory is limited. Weekly tours should be booked well in advance by calling 403-766-3500. No reservations are needed for Ocean Discovery Day on March 12, 2016.

Sea Turtle Inc. on Texas’s South Padre Island offers visitors a chance to see rescued turtles. http://www.seaturtleinc.org.

TWEETABLES

Turtles with jobs? It’s true! Find out more from my friend @Reinventure – Click to Tweet.

Discover why sea turtles have greater powers than even ninja mutant turtles: Click to Tweet.

Discover how these turtles in Texas got themselves jobs via @Reinventure. Click to Tweet.

Filed Under: Texas Tagged With: adventure travel, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, rescued turtles, sea turtle, sea turtles, texas, travel, turtles

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