Yesterday morning it did feel very much like spring. We took ourselves off to Castlegar to discover Waldie Island, a former heronry on the Columbia River. There's a good trail along this side of the river and our first stop was an elevated platform to observe the birds on the sewage lagoon! There were tons of them, mostly ring-necked ducks and there were also enormous turtles laying on various logs - the sun was out but it was only about 5 degrees. That did surprise me.
Other bird species we saw were: teal, common goldeneye, mallards, buffleheads, common mergansers and we think, a female wood duck. There was even a lone, red-winged blackbird sitting in the remains of bullrushes.
As we hiked along, we read well-worn signs about the area and in the early 2000s the location of Waldie Island in the Columbia River was a huge heronry. However, since 2003 there have been very few pairs found at the Island. It is a restricted area, but likely it was NOT restricted 20 plus years ago so the herons decided to leave because of all the human activity. The walk is a good discovery for us because birds do seem to come there, at least in spring! Here is the Island on a bright spring morning.
