We met up and drove off to join our Vancouver guide John, as planned, who was scanning the trees in his neighbourhood as we arrived. We grabbed our binoculars excitedly, trusting he had found something wonderful, but he told us that it was only an early Orange-crowned Warbler. It meant, however, that other species were starting to show up. He hopped into the car and suggested we go to Queen Elizabeth Park, explaining on the way that the Park is the highest point in Vancouver and migrant songbirds often make a landfall there after crossing the Juan de Fuca Strait, and before heading north to the nesting grounds. We drove off with keen anticipation.
Solitaires are always a rare and lovely find.
It was time for a celebratory coffee on the hill, where we drank in the beauty of the Park's dappled greenery, freshly minted after a long, wet winter. We headed down 12th Avenue, parked near the Museum of Anthropology and strolled towards the totem poles. With a yell, it darted up towards us, then veered off and landed on one of the totem poles. It began to scatter pieces of priceless work hither and yon, seeking living bugs under the spreading moss on the old carved poles, then with another yell and a flash of white it disappeared into the trees. Perky little Townsends and Yellow-rumped Warblers, who were quietly flitting through the adjacent trees, seemed oblivious to the woodpeckers dramatic ways as they calmly fed on tasty tiny things.