A thirsty rufous hummer (Selasphorus rufus) returns from her long-distance journey.
20 rufous + Annas swarm at dusk
🌿 Ecological Signs 🐛
Hello friends! 🌱
I hope you've been enjoying whatever seasonal changes are happening in your neighbourhood. Over here, the bumblebees are out enjoying early spring blooms, violet-green swallows are swooping above catching insects, and the feisty, tiny orange rufous hummingbirds have arrived to refuel after their long migration. 🌸 – – – 🐝 I've been busy with more sign-making! Here are three that I made for Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary; friendly reminders to keep to the trail and to not pluck plants:
Nodding onion and fawn lily bowing to each other. Spot the bee on the onion!
Pysanky a Plenty
Colourful eggs among the spring gold
Back when I lived in Halifax, my neighbours had a tradition of inviting friends over every Easter to eat snacks and make pysanky, or Ukrainian Easter-eggs. It was always such a lovely time, creating designs by candlelight with friends.
After moving to BC, I missed it so much that I bought myself a kit at the cute Ukrainian Canadian Cultural Centre gift shop and taught Seán & his mom how to make them, to try to recreate those warm feelings and have fun playing with dyes and wax.
Spring gold (Lomatium utriculatum)
Today was likely the last sunny day we'll have here over the next week, so Kate and I spent some time out removing invasive daphne and scotch broom, both of which spread easily, crowding out the native ecosystem. After a fair deal of grunting and sweating, we made a very satisfying amount of headway.
#Meanwhile, I encountered a few more of our non-human neighbors...
See more photos in the Scuttleverse: 
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🌱 Sounds of the first spring morning 🎶
Birds in this recording, as identified by Kate:
American Robins, Common Ravens, Pacific Wren, Rooster, California Quail, Dark-eyed Juncos, Gulls (Glaucous-winged?), Anna’s Hummingbirds, Northwestern Crows, Pine Siskin, Downy Woodpecker? (drum), Spotted Towhee, Northern Flicker
~13 Species in 14 minutes
A fuzzy hoverfly (Criorhina nigripes) prepares for a busy day of pollinating.
A slopeside satin flower (Olsynium douglasii) heralds the return of spring.
Grease Pencil Doodles
It's time to March our way towards spring! Hope you're enjoying the various sproutlings that are poking up 🌱 , or if you're still covered in snow, keeping an ear tuned to any birdsong that tells of warmer days to come 🎶 🌤.
I have an ever-accumulating pile of sketches. Most of them are made at the dining table while having planning meetings, listening to webinars/podcasts, or while having lengthy conversations with Seán about life, death, dreams, art, plants, birds, animism, the multiverse, magic, or any other things that happen to be of interest in the moment.
Sidney Spit Restoration Adventure
Yesterday, Kate & I had an opportunity to do some restoration #volunteering with the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve on a beautiful tear-drop-shaped spit jutting out from Sidney Island which is home to a coastal sand ecosystem (rare in this region) which hosts several at-risk species such as the contorted-pod evening-primrose, Edwards' beach moth, & the ground-nesting (deceptively-named) common nighthawk.