On Wednesday, Finn and I went out bird watching. Here's what we saw:

• 60 Common Goldeneyes rafting at Hood Point
• 4 Pigeon Guillemots at the same location
• Song Sparrows, robins, Towhees, Stellar Jays, Ravens, Crows, a wren I can't place and White-crowned Sparrows making merry with mating calls and nest materials.
• Red-shafted Flickers and Hairy Woodpeckers calling and wood pecking.
• Mallards, Common Mergansers, Buffleheads, Harlequins and Least Scaups being ducks
• Canada Geese and the resident Mute Swan in Mannion Bay.
• Gulls, both Mew and Glaucous-winged.
• Redwinged Blackbirds Brewer's Blackbirds and Starlings being dark.
• An immature Bald Eagle soaring above the Channel.
• Chestnut-backed Chickadees, Redbreasted Nuthatches and Pine Siskins feeding at the feeder.
• Rufous Hummingbirds looking BEAUTIFUL and danincing their elegant loops in the air, between sips at salmonberry blossoms.
• Warblers...darting and being elusive and being highly unidentifiable in the alders by the ball field in the Cove.

That's a good day of wandering. It gets more interesting when you actually start looking for these birds!

We have a choice to make on April 30. The residents of Bowen will be voting in a referendum to purchase the GVRD surplus lands around Snug Cove. This is an important vote, because owning those lands will mean that the community will control their development. That might include preserving some of them as parkland, constructing a community centre for performing arts and building our own municipal hall. If we don't buy these lands, it's likely that private developers will buy them, subdivide them and sell them and Bowen will have lost a chance to develop civic amenities in a prime location in the Cove.

There is a good set of reasons for voting YES at Bowen Online.

Now I don't generally publish rumours here, but this time I will, only to tease out some more information. A Bluewater resident today tells me that an off-island developer is building 37 new houses in Bluewater using off-island labour and generally being quiet about it. This is the area of the island that has the least water, and faces extremely severe shortages every summer. Thirty seven single dwellings is a huge increase to that neighbourhood. Unless the houses have their own water collection systems and very large cisterns, they are going to have a major negative effect on the surrounding water sources.

I have a lot of questions about this development, not the least of which is the sustainability of this new construction and whether or not prospective homebuyers know that they are buying into a virtually guaranteed suspension of water service in the summer. If you have info, or can clarify these speculations, leave a comment below.

Home late last night coming of the 12:30 water taxi, the wind was howling. It was choppy in the Channel, but we were in the big boat - the Apodaca - skimming the wave tops so it seemed. I dozed off to the rhythm of the boat and the white noise of the engine so that when we arrive in Snug Cove it was like still being in a dream. There was a high high tide, and the gangplank off the government dock was nearly horizontal. Walking over the weir which separates the Lagoon from Mannion Bay waves were breaking over the top which is very rare and salt water was flooding up into the fresh water lagoon. Once I had walked through Deep Bay and was heading along Miller Road, the trees were shedding boughs and branches and at one point, inside the Park a little a whole alder cam crashing down.

It was surreal, beautiful and awesome to be confronted with the raw and wild power of this early spring storm.

Great April Fool's article in the Undercurrent today...read it here.

In like a lamb and out like a lion:

Heavy rainfall warning for Howe Sound issued

Heavy rain is occurring over west Vancouver Island - coastal sections
and north Vancouver Island. Up to 80 mm has fallen so far over parts
of these regions and additional amounts of 30 to 70 mm are expected
before the rain eases tonight.

15 to 20 mm has also fallen over Howe Sound and northwestern sections
of greater Vancouver. Total rainfall amounts of 40 to 60 mm are
expected before easing early Friday morning.

This is a warning that heavy rain is imminent or occurring in these
Regions. Monitor weather conditions..Listen for updated statements.


An intense pacific frontal system is moving southward along the British Columbia coast. In advance of the front southeast winds of 50 to 70 km/h will continue over the Sunshine Coast east Vancouver Island and west Vancouver Island - coastal sections. The strong winds will ease after midnight as the front moves inland.

In addition the frontal system continues to give heavy amounts of rain to west Vancouver Island - coastal sections and north Vancouver Island. Total amounts of up to 150 mm are expected in these two regions by Friday morning. Howe Sound and greater Vancouver will also receive heavy rain with total amounts of up to 60 mm falling by Friday morning.

As I write the wind is clearly gusting in the 60-70km/h range. That's the speed at which you can actually feel the air move through the house. Not so much rain is falling, but the wind is something fierce. I'll have to get out the battery powered alarm clock to rouse myself in the morning. Got a ferry to catch to Vancouver Island if they aren't cancelled. I'll take some shots of Bowen from the Strait and post them here for your enjoyment.

We went down to Pebbly Beach today, which is just below our house on the north side of Mannion Bay (the beach on the other side is called Sandy Beach). We went down because this morning after Finn and I did the recycling, we were sitting in The Snug having an espresso and some sandwiches when Ken told us about a barge that had washed up on the beach. Said we should go have a look at it, maybe salvage some wood off it.

So we headed down around 2:00 and sure enough there was an enormous mussel encrusted barge pitched up sideways on the beach at the mouth of Rosebank Creek. It was about 25 meters long and stood probably 2.5 meters high, probably 10 meters wide. All wood, mostly rotten and built from huge beams bolted together with long bolts of iron. It looks for all intents and purposes like a beached whale, and it had that same air of forlornness about it, discarded, dead, smelling a little ripe, at the end of its days.

After exploring the barge we hung around the beach and timed the Barrow's Goldeneyes who seem to stay under water for between 25 and 30 seconds per dive. We also saw three Pelagic Cormorants flying north out in the channel, a small plane registered C-GNZI (here's a picture of it - it flies out of Pitt Meadows airport) and a Kingston class naval patrol boat (number 702 "Nanaimo" I think out of HMCS Esquimalt) heading out of the Sound. Towards the end of the afternoon, a Washington Marine Group tug hove into view towing chip barges (numbers 469 and 473 in the fleet).

It was a day of observing and noticing things.

I've installed new comments...post away!

Yes it's true...Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart have become the newest residents of Bowen Island. We welcome them heartily as we all shuffle around to make room. Like all newcomers to the island they are warmly invited to pick something to become involved in. The recycling centre is always in need of help, the community choir is a great place to meet folks and hang out and of course our Sunday evensong (2nd and fourth Sundays of every month at the United Church) is open to all for a half hour of reflection and silent meditation wrapped in Gregorian chant and classical liturgical music. Perhaps the fledgling Bowen Island Film Society would be to their liking as well.



Spring is the time of year that many people do buy houses and move here, and all are welcomed. It's important on this island that we all find ways to become involved in the life of this place. There are a million ways to do that and if there is nothing currently offered that strikes your fancy, it's easier than you think to start something here.



And to all newcomers and established residents alike, make sure you vote "YES" in the referendum on April 30.