There is a spectacular battle going on outside my kitchen window right now — as good as any Star Wars scene. One male Rufous Hummingbird is fearlessly defending the feeder against all the other eight hummers that are trying to get a sip. Most of the others are female Rufous, but a single male Calliope, with his resplendent majenta gorget flashing, is determined not to be put off. Normally, when the hummers first arrive they are quite dependent on the willow catkins, which contain large amounts of nectar. However, many of our willows in the valley bottom have died due to the stem borer. I would think that the lack of this food source must be having some impact on the hummingbirds.

The sudden hot weather brought a flush of White-crowned Sparrows and a lone Golden-crowned to our seed feeder. Together with about 30 Evening Grosbeaks (mostly male), 20 or so Pine Siskins, two pairs of Juncos and several Black-capped Chickadees, the feeder is very busy and the noise is almost deafening. I’ll swear the Grosbeaks sit up in the trees and `yell` as loud as they can in the hopes that I will refill the feeder (which they empty in about 10 minutes flat). With Napoleonic bravado the Ruby-crowned Kinglet males are belting their song out and, if you listen carefully, the songs of Yellow-rumped Warblers, Red-winged Blackbirds, Varied Thrushes, American Robins, Northern Flickers and Red-breasted Nuthatches are all joining the spring chorus.

This past week there have been reports of White-fronted Geese and many different duck species, including Shovellers, out at Toboggan Lake this past week. The Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese all passed through in a big hurry this year.

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The south-facing grassy slopes are covered with the lovely sagebrush buttercup at present. Soapberries and aspens are all in flower. The hazelnut bushes were in full bloom around Hazelton around mid-April with their bright pink female flowers opening up before the male catkins. They are almost finished their flowering as I write. Soon the Saskatoon and cherry flowers will be opening up.

Two weeks ago I was visiting a friend out near Toboggan Lake as a flock of Sandhill Cranes came in to land for the evening. Then I went across the road to see other friends and heard this amazing, but unfamiliar (to my ears) noise. Was it the cranes? … no, was it geese? … no, was it ducks?…. no. It sounded like a combination of all three. “Frogs,” my friend said in response to my puzzled look. Sure enough there are a bunch of Wood Frogs that breed in the pond every spring just as the pond is thawing and freezing again at night. The call, described aptly as sounding like “gabbling geese”, has thrown many a visitor who set off in pursuit of the strange sounding geese, … or ducks,… or cranes! I have been watching for Wood Frogs for years, but this is the first time I have actually heard them. If anyone knows of more locations here in the Bulkley Valley, do let us know.

Jasmin Rode (10 years old) writes:

Hi my name is Jasmin, I’m 10 years old, and I have story about a salamander.  One  ay I was out biking around my neighbourhood and my neighbour said, “Come look at this!”  So I biked over and he said he found a salamander under the power box by his house.  He had a salamander in his hand.  It was kind of black with a green stripe on its back, and it was very squirmy.  It was probably a Long-toed Salamander, which is a type of salamanderKnown to treat anxiety and stress related ailments, and restores low price cialis a healthy balance between your body and mind. The cause of the acid indigestion is dysfunction of a particular valve that keeps viagra sildenafil 100mg stomach contents in it. These medications help dilate blood vessels and increase blood flow in the particular areas of the body. cheapest cialis Paralysis is a medical condition that results in the free sample viagra end. that lives in this area. It was probably an adult, because it was about 7 cm long, and this type of salamander grows up to about 9 cm long.  So I put the salamander into a container and I found a good place for him/her to stay.  I read once that salamanders like to live near slow moving water, ponds, or lakes.  Nearby my house there’s a creek where I saw a salamander once, so I put it there — maybe they will become friends. Hope you liked my story.

April 11, 2013, Eric Smith reports:

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Spring is here in the Bulkley Valley. The first Mountain Bluebirds arrived two weeks ago. The brilliant blue males arrive first and search out the available nest sites. When their female partner gets here, he shows her the choices and she selects the one she prefers. If you are trying to attract bluebirds to a nest box, don’t forget to put up two boxes. Place them as far apart as adjacent fence posts would be. Tree and violet-green swallows will remove bluebirds from a nest box. However, if there are two boxes, the swallows will not tolerate another swallow nesting that close, so they will allow the bluebird to have the other one.

Geese are already feeding in the wet fields and swans and Sandhill Cranes are close behind (if not already here). The Sandhill Cranes that come through the valley are part of a population of approximately 10-12 thousand birds, most of which heading for the shores of the Bering Sea in Alaska, where they will have their chicks. On their way north, they will often stage in local wet fields and shallow ponds where they will feed to build strength for the next leg of their flight. Somewhere between here and the Stikine River estuary they cross the Coast Mountains and then fly up the coast to Alaska. A few pairs are known to stay and breed in places in north-central BC. In the fall the cranes will fly back down to northern California where they spend the winter.

Long-toed Salamander, Smithers, April 2013

Long-toed Salamanders are on the move looking for a mate. They breed just as the ice is melting on shallow ponds and puddles. All winter (and most of the previous year) they have been hiding underneath logs, rocks, abandoned burrows, rock piles and even in our crawl space – anywhere that is moist and cool.  When a male encounters a female, he will grasp her and rub his chin on her nose so that she will detect hormones in the secretions from his chin glands. After a while he will swim away about one body length and deposit his spermatophore (a sac containing his sperm). The female will follow him and he guides her to pick up the sperm sac. She will then lay her eggs and the sperm will release and fertilise the egg. Eggs are laid singly, or in small groups, on pieces of vegetation. Eggs hatch in two to three weeks. Larvae may take two years to mature in the north. Somehow salamanders find their way up into our house where they get tangled in dust and cat hair. If we do not rescue them they will gradually become dehydrated and die. If you find one still alive, place it in a bit of water to moisten the skin and then carefully peel off the hair and dust and release the animal outside.

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Wood Ducks have arrived at Todd Stockner’s place in the Kispiox Valley where they will breed in boxes that he has placed close to a pond. This is the northern most record of breeding of this species in BC.

Varied Thrushes, Golden-crowned Kinglets, American Robins, and Dark-eyed Juncos are all singing and soon Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Yellow-rumped Warblers will be joining them.

We invite you to submit your nature observations and stories for inclusion in this nature blog.