Post by Gord on Oct 15, 2006 14:24:44 GMT -8
In the mid afternoon on Friday, I went for a quick walk out to Spoon Valley at Cheam Mountain. About half way there, I surprised a bear at a very uncomfortable distance. I guess my loud humming of songs from Rod Stewart's Greatest Hits isnt scary enough...might consider an upgrade to the Bee Gees or ABBA. I think the real reason I got close was because the bear was at one of the little waterfalls which would have drowned out my noise. A confident stance, colourful language and impressively quick draw of bear deterrents encouraged it to amble away. Whew. Because of it's lackluster performace of being scared of me and the fact it moved in the direction of the parking lot caused me to sit at the landing above Spoon Valley to watch for it to see where it planned to go when I appeared from the small patch of trees it went into (to have a nice nap until dark no doubt 
)
While there, I (of course) kept an eye for birdlife. A small kettle of 4 hawks were circling between Lady and Cheam Peak. This consisted of 2 northern harriers, 1 red-tailed hawk and a Cooper's hawk. A lonely pine grosbeak flew over soon after which was cool. Then, a flock of about 30 bohemian waxwings flew in and landed in the top of a snag not too far away!! This flock then flew and landed with even more waxwings in another snag. Back towards the parking lot and the safety of my truck a huge flock of over 50 birds was flying around working towards my location. They turned out to be bohemian waxwings as well!!!
If someone were to ask what the common waxwing species is in the area right now Id have to answer with a straight face that bohemian waxwings are the most common. I havnt seen a cedar waxwing for over a month.
After about a half hour, the bear appeared up the gully where I half expected/hoped to see him so I took my leave.
Other birds I saw on the rather quiet little hike were:
3 Steller's Jay
8 Common Ravens
4 Chestnut-backed Chickadee
1 Winter Wren
10+ Varied Thrush
8 American Robin
1 Lincoln's sparrow
9 Dark-eyed Junco
)While there, I (of course) kept an eye for birdlife. A small kettle of 4 hawks were circling between Lady and Cheam Peak. This consisted of 2 northern harriers, 1 red-tailed hawk and a Cooper's hawk. A lonely pine grosbeak flew over soon after which was cool. Then, a flock of about 30 bohemian waxwings flew in and landed in the top of a snag not too far away!! This flock then flew and landed with even more waxwings in another snag. Back towards the parking lot and the safety of my truck a huge flock of over 50 birds was flying around working towards my location. They turned out to be bohemian waxwings as well!!!
If someone were to ask what the common waxwing species is in the area right now Id have to answer with a straight face that bohemian waxwings are the most common. I havnt seen a cedar waxwing for over a month. After about a half hour, the bear appeared up the gully where I half expected/hoped to see him so I took my leave.
Other birds I saw on the rather quiet little hike were:
3 Steller's Jay
8 Common Ravens
4 Chestnut-backed Chickadee
1 Winter Wren
10+ Varied Thrush
8 American Robin
1 Lincoln's sparrow
9 Dark-eyed Junco
