Belted Kingfisher - Ceryle alcyon
I am back in Vancouver City itself after a week of paradise at Tofino on Vancouver Island. I am not sure I really pounded the birds - e.g. I dipped out on hiring a guide who might have wracked me up 40 or 50 species in an afternoon. I was content to just fit the birds around the family holiday. It's not as if they didn't make an appearance and its not as if I won't go back at some point in my life. Thats mentally booked in for a passage season when the huge flocks of wildfowl and waders are pulsing through from the Arctic.
We went on a bear watching boat trip one afternoon on a smaller less commercial boat skippered by a nice guy called Mike. The bears around the islands and coast near to Vancouver island are mostly the younger bears who will have been separated from their mothers after about 18 months. The larger adult bears tend to trek up into the mountains. On the shorelines the black bears (not a threat to people really - just a nuisance at times) feed on barnacles, small crabs (that they uncover by rolling over large stones with their paws), berries and even grass. They are truly omnivorous.
They were great fun to watch - not as big as I thought but clearly powerful animals.
This was a mother bear - much bulkier and filling out its fur if that makes sense.
A smaller cub just separated from its Mum that season. The Mum turned up and chased him or her off a couple of times - no longer wanted as the cub was cramping Mum's style and a risk if a big male bear turned up.
Belted kingfishers seems to be a relatively common and widespread. I got a few half decent shots but its hard on a moving boat as ever !
Belted Kingfisher, Ceryle alcyon
Tofino, Bear Watch Cruise, British Columbia
6 August 2014
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