Best Places to Bird in British Columbia. Richard Cannings
people, has an experienced skipper, and costs about $6,000 (at time of writing) for a return trip from Port McNeill to Triangle. Split thirty ways that’s fairly reasonable, and you can expect to see a number of other birds and marine wildlife along the trip. For more info, visit: whaletime.com.
If only those early residents had been birders! Triangle Island is now most famous for its avian residents, being home to 80,000 Rhinoceros Auklets, 60,000 Tufted Puffins, 8,000 Common Murres, and most impressive of all—1 million Cassin’s Auklets! That’s roughly half the world’s population of Cassin’s Auklet, and the species’ largest single breeding colony. Other common nesting seabirds include Fork-tailed and Leach’s Storm Petrels, Pelagic Cormorants, Pigeon Guillemot, and Glaucous-winged Gulls. A few pairs of Horned Puffin are thought to breed among the Tufted each year, and a few Thick-billed Murres also appear, mixed in with the throngs of Common Murre.
At first glance, Triangle Island doesn’t look like the archetypal seabird colony. To be sure, there are murres clinging to the rock cliffs on the southwestern point, and scattered gulls and puffins can be seen amid the tufted hairgrass above the cliffs. The others are underground, hidden in myriad burrows dug into the soil under the salal and salmonberry.
Triangle Island is surrounded by an important marine reserve, and the Anne Vallée Ecological Reserve (named for a seabird biologist who tragically fell to her death while working on the island) covers the land. Human visitors are strictly limited and must have permission from the provincial ministry of the Environment before setting foot on the island. Crews from the Centre for Wildlife Ecology visit the island most summers to study the seabird colonies, but for the majority of the year there are no people around.
The remoteness of Triangle Island has been a huge advantage to the birds, which can largely raise their chicks away from human disturbance, but there are other dangers. Seven pairs of Peregrine Falcons regularly patrol the area, taking young birds and adults alike, and there are a growing number of Bald Eagles in the area.
The sun rises above Triangle Island on a calm summer morning. RUSSELL CANNINGS
BIRDING GUIDE
In addition to the access restrictions, the remoteness of Triangle Island is an obvious challenge. If you are considering a boat journey, be aware that it’s around 250 km (155 mi.) for a round-trip if travelling from Port Hardy—longer from Port McNeill—and the seas can change swiftly around this part of the coast. Still, this trip is doable and I know of several birding groups that have done it.
Luckily, most of the nesting birds can be easily seen just offshore from Triangle, and there should be a good number of other species around. The weather is most stable in July–September—which is also when seabird diversity is at its height. Southern tubenose migrants like Sooty, Buller’s, and Flesh-footed Shearwater will be around, along with Long-tailed, Parasitic, and Pomarine Jaegers, as well as the odd South Polar Skua. In late summer these pirates can often be seen chasing Common and Arctic Terns, as well as Sabine’s Gulls and Bonaparte’s Gulls.
Given the lack of birding coverage around the island for most of the year, it’s remarkable how many vagrant passerines have turned up. Among the most notable are the Great Crested Flycatcher, Ash-throated Flycatcher, Northern Mockingbird, Prairie Warbler, and Chestnut-sided Warbler. If you haven’t been permitted to land, don’t despair. Many tired, lost birds will also land on boats, so if a small warbler or sparrow starts circling your vessel, pay attention!
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PORT MCNEILL
A DICK AND A HOOR first brought me to Port McNeill. That’s a Dickcissel and a Hooded Oriole (four-letter codes, a birder’s shorthand, can be a little eye-catching sometimes!). In one of the more remarkable examples of the Patagonia Picnic Table Effect (when birders are drawn to a location to see a particular rare bird, only to find another one or more thanks to increased scrutiny of avian life in that location), these two southern species had chosen to overwinter in someone’s backyard in Port McNeill.
After my first brief encounter with the area I knew I had to return. In the late summer of that same year, I spent several days camping and exploring the estuaries, beaches, and forest from the Nimpkish River to the Cluxewe, and across the strait to Malcolm Island. Everywhere I went I was struck by the friendliness of the people, the beauty of the landscape, and how I so often had the beaches and trails to myself.
The Barred Owl has been a British Columbian resident for less than seventy years (spreading from the east), but it has found the Pacific west coast very much to its liking. They are now common throughout most forest habitats on Vancouver Island, particularly where old cedar and hemlock snags provide nesting opportunities. ILYA POVALYAEV
This northern part of Vancouver Island offers pristine coastal estuaries and mudflats, cloaked by ethereal coastal rainforest, and myriad productive marine habitats. It’s hard to find an area more “British Columbian” in terms of scenery, culture, economy, and spirit than Port McNeill and its surrounding environs on Broughton Strait.
Some local birders and naturalists know this area well, but few outsiders (even birders from elsewhere on Vancouver Island such as Nanaimo and Victoria) know much about it. It’s a little bit out of the way (but less so than Triangle) but it deserves a “must visit” reputation among birders. I hope this book will inspire a few adventurous souls to come up and explore this corner of coastal wonder.
Sointula, the lone community on Malcolm Island, was founded in 1901 by a group of Finnish settlers who rowed north from Nanaimo, seeking better living standards than the harsh conditions they’d experienced while coal mining. Sointula is Finnish for “place of harmony,” and this name still rings true today, whether you’re exchanging idle chat with the locals in BC’s oldest co-op store or watching a pod of orcas pass close to the beach as eagles and gulls circle high overhead. This is also one of the better places in BC to scope Fork-tailed Storm Petrels from land. Leach’s Storm Petrels are scarcer but still possible to spot. Look for them during the ferry crossing or on any of the prominent headlands on the island (e.g., Bere Point).
GETTING THERE
Port McNeill town centre and ferry terminal are well signed off Hwy. 19. It takes 2.5 hours to drive here from Campbell River, and just over 30 minutes from Port Hardy. Port Hardy is the closest commercial airport with flights from Vancouver, Victoria, and Nanaimo.
As with any area, the birding will vary depending on the time of year. August–October is probably the best time to visit the Port McNeill area as the weather is most settled then and it’s the peak of shorebird and passerine migration, so diversity is relatively high. Winters up here are wet and chilly, but west coast residents like Anna’s Hummingbird (near town only), Steller’s Jay, Pacific Wren, and Spotted Towhee will still be present, as will wintering Golden-crowned and “Sooty” Fox Sparrows. Water bird diversity is also high in Broughton Strait in winter, with good numbers of sea-ducks, loons, grebes, cormorants, and alcids (mainly Common Murre, Pigeon Guillemot, Rhinoceros Auklet, and Marbled Murrelet). Spring is, of course, a very exciting time for birding anywhere. It is usually wetter than fall, but the return of southern migrants, as well as the passing exodus of seabirds and the enticing chance of vagrants, make for very enjoyable birding. Although water bird numbers are lowest during the summer nesting season, it’s a great time to explore the back country for displaying Sooty and Ruffed Grouse, as well as territorial songsters like Pacific-slope Flycatcher, Hammond’s Flycatcher, Hermit Thrush, Swainson’s Thrush, Black-throated Gray Warbler, Townsend’s Warbler, and Western Tanager.
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If you’re intending to scope