Tag Archives: Urban wildlife

Eagle Dining Out on the Boulevard

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“Tranquillity base here. The Eagle has landed.”

-Neil Armstrong

We normally watch the eagles enviously from our lowly positions admiring their beauty and strength as they soar so far above us, symbolically as well as physically. Despite how we objectify them, Eagles are creatures like all others and are not above scavenging a free meal from the side of the road. This beauty seems to have found the remnants of someone’s chicken dinner and is happily polishing it off despite the protests of the neighbourhood crows. Urban wildlife, despite not fitting into our stereotype of nature is as natural and capable as their country cousins. My apologies for the quality of the images but I didn’t creep to close so he wouldn’t lose out on his meal but as you can see he is not proud or foolish. He, like all eagles and humans, is a lowly scavenger as well as a magnificent hunter and there is nothing wrong with that because both result in survival.

© TS Ni hUiginn

Ground Feeding Songbirds in the Snow

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"Resourceful, powerful and tougher than me, 
 Tiny birds foraging is an incredible sight to see."

It was the dishevelled state of the ground and needles on the walkway during a recent snowfall alerted me to this being an excellent area to monitor for ground feeding birds.

  • Two Varied Trush Birds perched in alder trees taken by TS Ni hUiginn
  • Black eyed junco foraging taken by Coastal Salish Artist TS Ni hUiginn
  • A varied trush taken by coastal salish photographer TS Ni hUiggin
  • Spotted Towhee on fence taken by Salish photographer TS Ni hUiginn
  • Black eyed junco perched on a branch taken by Coastal Salish Artist TS Ni hUiginn
  • Song sparrow on snowy branch taken by Coastal Salish Artist TS Ni hUiginn
  • Black eyed junco perched on a branch taken by Coastal Salish Artist TS Ni hUiginn
  • A Varied Trush perched in alder tree taken by TS Ni hUiginn

The birds who visited this site to forage were the varied thrush, black eyed juncos, sparrows and spotted towhees. You will see that these ground foragers are very aggressive with each other, preferring not to share even with their own kind. We are pretty pleased to be able to share this for those who love birds and nature to be able to enjoy. Moments like this are medicine, they help strengthen our spirits and our souls which we all need a steady supply of.

Be good to each other!