I couldn’t let the time in Vancouver come to an end without seeing what Veronica had been up to while I was working. She’s come home every day from the Orphaned Wildlife sanctuary (OWL) with stories of the long trek to OWL, the lonely bustops in the middle of nowhere, seeing raptors on the walk, and of course – amazing experiences working with the birds. OWL is open to the public, but you only get to see a small education area, with a few permanent residents – the vast majority of it is work behind the scenes, caring for sick and injured birds. So, the chance to go there at the weekend with Veronica and possibly get the backstage tour was too much to miss.
We ride the same route to work, for the first half, then she jumps on a bus to Ladner while I grab a shuttle to the office. The Ladner bus takes here here, to a busstop near.. nothing. Its in the middle of a long stretch of empty road, there’s not even a house within sight of the bus stop. From there, its 15 minutes brisk walk to OWL.
As we got off the bus, there were huge flocks of starlings all over the fields. They scattered as we stepped down from the bus, but had dispersed over the fields again before I could unpack the camera and get a shot of them in the air. I’ve wanted a decent shot of starlings flocking for ages, but never seem to capture the image at all. Then, a hundred yards further on, Veronica pointed out a speck in the sky.. a bald eagle! I snapped a couple of shots of the eagle as it flew past. didn’t really have a long enough lens with me for far-off raptor shots, so I was only really looking for the shot to confirm the bird’s identity later. Wasn’t till I got home and looked at the shots that I found this one – the eagle had scared the starlings into a flock in the sky for me. Not a great shot, but it captures the mood of the moment so well.
Walking to OWL was amazing. The road runs alongside several wildlife preserves, fields, hedges, ditches – I saw so many birds on the way. At least one more bald eagle in flight, chasing off crows – and this fellow, a red-tailed hawk in flight, and many more small birds that are common here, but we never see at home. There were apples in the hedge, and several birds eating them, including (if my identification is correct), a northern flicker, which is a kind of woodpecker.
I loved the walk, but it was easy to imagine how horrible it would be on a wet windy day – there’s no shelter at all, and it really does know how to rain in Vancouver – even with an umbrella you can get soaked with the water bouncing off the road, it comes down so hard sometimes.
I only took one picture at OWL itself, I wanted to capture where Veronica had been working, and she’s been in the enclosure with these very eagles, feeding them. This is on the public education part of OWL – enclosures with birds you can look at, it’s very zoo-like, and really doesnt give much of an impression of what they do. But the birds here are healthy – and don’t mind being photographed – most of the birds at OWL aren’t visible to the public, and don’t much like being photographed – especially with SLR cameras that look like a big eye, and make clicking noises like an angry predator. So, you’re going to have to live with words for my experiences here, and any pictures Veronica shares from her work (taken with a small, silent camera that the birds dont seem to mind).
OWL is separated into several areas. There’s the public education section, a gift shop (which isnt open in winter), and then, the areas where the real work gets done. I was so privileged to be allowed to see those, with my own personal tour guide. There are different areas for birds in different states of health and recovery, ranging from intensive care areas where we could only peek through a corner of a curtain, to enclosures for birds who are long-term residents, to flight spaces where birds can be rehabilitated. I saw bald eagles, golden eagles, red-tails, peregrines, a saker falcon, and all sorts of owls – snowy owls, great horned owls, great grey owls, saw-whet owls, barred owls, and more.. I saw the great horned owl that attacked Veronica , the great horned owl that stepped on her finger, the barred owl that she looked after during surgery, the one-eyed red-tail, the merlin with only half a wing – all part of the stories she’s told. I hung out in the office while they fed birds, while Sarah the office pet flew around.. got to meet some of the people she works with. And they are so knowledgable about birds, it’s amazing. They have so many birds coming through, they’d have to!
The walk home was even more amazing than the walk there. Having seen the birds at OWL, suddenly, we were seeing them in the wild. We hadn’t even reached the main road before seeing a peregine falcon in a tree. On the walk back, there was a red-tail flying circuits around us. There were blue heron in the fields, and even as the light was starting to fade, there was a lot to see. Seeing the birds at OWL was amazing, seeing them flying wild nearby even better. It’s such an amazing place.
I’d put the camera away as we got to the bust stop, but as we walked up, there was a blue heron perched on a lamppost, and that’s not something you see every day, so I had to take a shot of it. In the distance, we could see what we thought were another five herons perched in a tree, so I took a shot of that too. When I got home, the photo showed something different – those five herons.. were bald eagles.
It was an incredible day, and i’m just so glad Veronica is getting to work with these birds, and get a taste of what a career change into working with wildlife would be like. It’s worth every early morning to just see the tired smiles at the end of the day.