Birding takes off in Valemount

Ever wondered what a canvasback, bufflehead, pectoral, shoveler or killdeer looks like? These are birds and they could have been spotted this past weekend during the Valemount Adventures in Birding, a festival  full of fowl events.

There was a great variety of events for all people of different ages, desires and birding abilities. There were trips down the Fraser River, horseback riding, stakeouts in the Cranberry Marsh and many others. 

The Fitzhugh headed out on Saturday for the float trip down the Fraser River with Mount Robson Whitewater Rafting Company. Ready for wet weather, the morning was spent cruising down the river searching out and photographing wildlife, especially birds. Although a bald eagle was spotted - as was a bear cub tucked away on the river bank - much of the wildlife was not visible from the river.

River guide Shawn Burleigh guided the raft down the river, spinning around, so that all the passengers got good photographing angles of Mount Robson and passing river banks. Burleigh told the passengers, who mainly hailed from Prince George, about the salmon spawning and wildlife found in and around the Fraser River. Even though the rafting was far from adrenaline-activating, a great few hours was had by all cruising the river on a cloudless day - even the summit of Mount Robson was cloud-free.

Sunday was more relaxing, but the weather was similarly spectacular; out to Valemount’s Cranberry Marsh - although no cranberries were spotted - for a couple hours scoping out some of the birds found in the Robson Valley. As birds were singing away, volunteer Wayne Van Velzen, who was leading the bird watching at the marsh, explained what a unique asset the habitat is for Valemount.

Bird-watching is a growing activity, exclaimed Van Velzen, and “there’s probably no more stunning setting in the Canadian Rockies to come birding,” he added. “There’s probably very few places to be that are as relaxing as being in a marsh when you’ve got a bunch of different species of birds [and] they’re all trying to communicate with one another. It’s just an amazing amazing thing to listen to,” he said.

Van Velzen, who also works for the ministry of the environment, has lived in Valemount for the past 18 years said that there’s “easily a couple dozen species [of birds in the marsh] if you know what you’re looking for.” 

Yellow-headed blackbirds are Ven Velzen’s favourite. “They’re really fun to watch. They’re really pretty and the way they fly around, they’re very territorial, they’ll attack crows when they go by... they’re pretty neat,” he explained. Even though much of his time spent in the Cranberry Marsh is work-related, “this place is a real passion,” he said.