Celebrating a 5th anniversary by winter birding on the BC Bird Trail
Mullin said that though in the winter it tends to be the usual birds to watch, she still goes out whenever she can because every new day could be a new bird to be seen. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm
While the temperature drops and the sun sets earlier in the day, no matter the weather, Oceanside birder Bonnie Mullin is encouraging people to keep an eye out for wintering birds as the BC Bird Trail celebrates its 5th anniversary.
The BC Bird Trail offers via website and phone app, first-time and seasoned birders—that is people who enjoy observing birds—the resources to find new and popular locations to find birds native to the region.
For the central Vancouver Island area, the BC Bird Trail said that in the winter months, seabirds are plentiful.
Popular birds around the area during the colder months include loons, scoters, and auks.
Mullin said while many birds migrate to warmer locations during the winter, there are still many interesting birds to look out for in the Oceanside area.
“There aren't really migrating birds just yet, it's too early yet,” Mullin said. “But there but lots of gulls and different kinds of ducks like golden iron and mallards and the eagles and the great blue herons around all the time.”
For the BC Bird Trail Anniversary, CHLY met with Mullin at her favourite birding spot at French Creek Marina where French Creek meets the ocean.
Mullin spoke to CHLY inside her car where ducks, seagulls, eagles, geese, and a barking sea lion filled the water and sky outside.
She said that though in the winter it tends to be the usual birds to watch, she still goes out whenever she can because every new day could be a new bird to be seen.
“Because it's a wonder. You never know one day you might see some kingfishers which are really neat to see,” Mullin said. “So you just never know when a great blue heron is going to come and sit on the pole right beside you. So it's always it's always fun.”
Mullin said the French Creek Marina is her favourite spot to birdwatch as there are always many birds to see.
“This is just a place where there's stuff, there's action kind of all the time because there's flowing water, that's fresh water coming out, the river's coming out here to the ocean,” she said. “So you get some birds that like fresh water, and some like seawater. So here they get the mixture depending if the tide's coming in or going out right here in the bay.”
While the biggest groups of birds locally can be found in the French Creek area, other spots Mullin recommends for birdwatching are along the Englishman River and at Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park.
She said many of these locations are accessible and allow interested birders to not always need binoculars to get a good look at the birds.
At 78 years old, Mullin is also a member of the Arrowsmith Naturalists who monitor and work to protect and preserve the natural habitats of the region.
Mullin takes part in their “Brant Count” where from the end of February to April, the group count the number of brant geese at different monitored locations.
“Then we start about end of late February, and it goes into April, until we don't see them anymore, because they winter down in the [Baja California peninsula]. Then they come north, and they stop here to eat, and they wait for the herring run,” she said. “On the herring run, that's when they really like to eat, because they can really stock up on on lots of food because they go to Alaska to for their nesting and breeding and nesting for the summer.”
Brant geese are small and short-legged known for their distinctive black head and neck with a small white line that circles the neck.
The count results are then given to BC Nature and Nature Canada for their research.
Mullin said she has seen as many as 1,500 brants in one day in one monitored area.
Each spring, Parkville hosts the annual Brant Wildlife Festival connecting people to the biodiversity of the central Vancouver Island region.
While the 2024 numbers for the brant count are not done yet, Mullin said there has been a decrease in the number of geese counted.
“We're always fighting against people that want to pave everything,” she said. “There's more to this world than pavement, but some people don't seem to understand that.”
Mullin said the decrease in numbers for the brants can be attributed to the loss of habit while developments grow in the area.
“There’s other groups around, like, there's several naturalist groups on the island. We have different groups in town that are fighting to save waterways, or stream keepers that are trying to save the rivers and stuff like that,” she said. “You have to have the rivers for the birds and for everything– for the fish, the birds need the fish. Everything's interlinked, it all worked perfectly until man came along. Man always comes along and screws up everything you know”
While they are advocating for the brants, Mullin said there is a big community of birders in the Oceanside and Nanaimo area that meet up regularly to look for birds.
“You'd be surprised what you see and what they do. Every time you can learn something new about something in nature, you never know,” she said. “It may lead you down a path, you could think, ‘oh, I want to know more about that,’ because it's very interesting.”
Mullin said no matter the season for people new or returning to the world of birding there will always be something interesting to see when taking a chance to get out in nature and taking the time to stop and watch the birds.
For more information on the BC Bird Trail, and lists of popular birds for each region in the province check out their website.
Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.