An excerpt from Birds Of The Raincoast a book co-written by Harvey Thommasen, Kevin Hutchings and R. Wayne Campbell.
High waterfalls, steep granitic slopes and rugged snow-capped mountains dominate the landscape of British Columbia's mainland coast, which lies along the Pacific Ocean between the States of Alaska and Washington. In each coastal valley an intricate network of streams, ponds, lakes, and rivers connects the highest alpine meadows to deep fjords that lead to the open ocean.
A temperate rainforest cloaks the coastal valleys of this region because of the mild climate, long growing season and generous rainfall. These valleys teem with plant and animal life that is woven together in a complex web of natural associations and interdependencies.
Plants with similar growing needs cohabit, functioning as integral parts of the region’s larger dynamic system. Though people commonly refer to the "West Coast" in the singular, this region is comprised of a multitude of botanical ecosystems, including grasslands, rivers, estuarine meadows, bogs, forests, subalpine meadows, and alpine tundra. Birds have been living and coevolving within these coastal plant associations for more than a hundred million years, each one having become a highly skilled specialist in feeding, resting, and breeding in the context of its preferred habitat.
Running through this fantastical array of ecosystems are the salmon streams of the Pacific Northwest. These rich, diverse corridors of life - special because of the way sunlight reflects from the moving surface of the river and the air is filled with the mesmerizing sound of water on stone - seem to us to be the focal point, the apogee of nature in this region. Nowhere else does so much seem to happen, or does such beauty exist.
This book has been written to help birdwatchers and naturalists understand the relationship between coastal bird species and the specialized habitats that have helped to shape their existence. In particular, it will help readers identify which birds are to be found in our coastal valleys, when and where to look for them, and what activities each species will be engaged in during the course of the year.
It will teach you that when wild gooseberry blossoms appear in April the whirrrr of the Rufous Hummingbird will soon follow. You will learn that when the tiny yellow-green leaves of the black cottonwood erupt in early spring, an array of similarly coloured wood-warblers will appear in the forest, like some kind of wild avian blossoms. While hiking a game trail through an old-growth forest in the springtime, you will learn to listen for the haunting song of the Varied Thrush, the long trill of the Winter Wren, and the wheezy call of the Townsend's Warbler. At the same time in the pristine spaces of a coastal estuary, where the air is charged with salt mist and the senses can be overwhelemd with the cacaphony of feeding gulls, you will learn to listen for the sweet, distinctive notes of the Song Sparrow and Common Yellowthroat. High above, where the stream is born in the alpine meadows, of late summer you can listen for the electric thrum of ptarmigans taking flight and to the clear lilt of Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches.
Birdwatching is one of the Western world’s fastest growing outdoor activities. Indeed, across North America it has already become a favourite pastime enjoyed by nearly 60 million people. Many people flock, like the birds, to key migration points. But few realize that when you follow a salmon stream, from its estuary to its headwaters, you travel along nature's most beautiful pathways, passing through an array of spectacular, bird-haunted spaces. This is a route that will take you through constantly changing landscapes, where you can see the most incredible sites - a flight of white swans against a black forest, a submerged water ouzel wearing a cape of silver bubbles, an eagle beating its wings on the water as it fights to lift a salmon. And surrounding you, always, the sound of birds, from the spirit-like call of the raven that echoes over the forest , to the sweet chirp of a winter wren, calling from within its nest of moss.
We believe the streams of the Pacific Northwest, and the birds that live there, can take you on an incredible journey.
(Editor’s Note: Birds Of The Raincoast, written by Harvey Thommasen, Kevin Hutchings, R. Wayne Campbell and Mark Hume, is published by Harbour Publishing. More information can be found at: http://www.harbourpublishing.com)
