\nReading today about black-capped chickadees, numerous sources suggest they don’t live on Vancouver Island. While I don’t want to be controversial, I believe that they do live here, and that I see them often.\n<\/p>\n
\nA story about one:\nEarly last February, late on a Sunday afternoon, my younger son and I went for a walk in the woods. We intended to retrace steps from when he was much younger; back then, my two sons and I walked in the woods every weekend. In recent years, we’ve all but stopped. Therefore, returning to the woods that afternoon was a welcome, yet somewhat melancholy, occasion.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe temp was around -4C, the day dry, but gray. Apart from us, the woods were well-nigh deserted. We arrived at one of the destinations the kids loved to visit when they were younger, then casually milled about, talking about life.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe woods were cold and still; the sun was trying to break though the clouds before it set. I wondered how life could return to this frozen place.\n<\/p>\n
\nSuddenly, a quiet sound reached my ears, and I turned toward a light bustle near the ground. Close by, a bird flitted in and out of view. I asked my son to describe it, but I saw it as well: it looked to me like a black-capped chickadee.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe bird often made a single-note call as it darted nearer and further away, sometimes keeping just out of sight behind a wide tree. Its call I would describe as the “tseet” that Lesley mentions in her video among the sources below.\n<\/p>\n
\nLesley describes “tseet” as a call made towards strangers. Were we, indeed, being formally contacted by the chickadee? Its presence reassured me that indeed, nature would restore life to that quiet hollow.\n<\/p>
\nI hope to return there and reconnect with that chickadee: Perhaps we’re no longer strangers:)\n<\/p>\n
\nSource:\n<\/p>
\nYouTube: LesleytheBirdNerd<\/a><\/p> \nhww.ca<\/a><\/p>\nJack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane,<\/a> Campbell River, BC.\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Self-tutoring about bird watching: the tutor observes black-capped chickadees. Reading today about black-capped chickadees, numerous sources suggest they don’t live on Vancouver Island. While I don’t want to be controversial, I believe that they do live here, and that I …<\/p>\n