Winter Walk (for the Winter Blues)

[Donna]

The South Delta leader  BC

Published: November 19, 2009 12:00 PM

Short daylight hours, dark mornings and evenings, and persistent rainfall, can make this time of year quite depressing. Add to this the increased time indoors, and it is a recipe for a bad case of the winter blues. Fortunately, for Delta residents there is a good reason to be outside: November and December are excellent months for observing birds.

Peak numbers of ducks and geese are gathered in Boundary Bay, and many other birds have arrived for the winter, so grab a pair of binoculars and go take a closer look.

While the sight of great blue herons, bald eagles or large flocks of ducks and shorebirds can be easily enjoyed while strolling the dyke or walking the dog, it is amazing what one can discover if you go more slowly, and look through binoculars or a telescope.

That huge swirling cloud of smoke that flashes first dark, then light across the bay is really thousands of dunlin, a small shorebird that feeds on the mud flats at low tide and clusters in enormous flocks when the tide is high. Watching the flock carefully, you see how it bunches, twists, divides, elongates, then comes together again, as the birds try and evade a hunting falcon. Often the peregrine falcon, or a smaller merlin, will be above the flock, diving in with the light behind it like a fighter plane, singling out a weakened dunlin to chase down and punch out of the sky. The chase is not over then, however, as that is the moment a bald eagle will often move in to usurp the prey from the falcon, as these big predators are lazy hunters, and often prefer to scavenge another’s kill.

With binoculars, you can see the beautiful colours of the many different ducks that winter in and around the bay: the striking chocolate brown and white of the male northern pintail, the iridescence on a green-winged teal, or the warm red head of a Eurasian widgeon that distinguishes it from its commoner cousin, the American widgeon. When you look more closely at fields, trees and hedges, all sorts of small birds appear, with different plumages, habits and behaviour.

The experience of studying nature helps maintain an active mind. Recent medical studies have emphasized this link between enjoyment of nature and good mental and physical health, as well as more rapid recovery from illness, and better cognitive development in children. At the time of year when depression lurks in the shadows, children are indoors and bouncing off the walls, and exercise routines are hard to stick to, the lure of wintering birds can be just what is needed to get outside. What will you see today?