Our favourites are as always no matter where we are....the gulls. "Our friends, the gulls" we often comment when we hear them in the morning while lying in bed. We love the sound of their "cries" and they seem to be the only bird that will soar and fly for absolute pleasure. Most birds seem to be on a constant mission to find food. Perhaps it's the association with the ocean and home that makes us feel so positive to these birds. Of course, they are also very badly behaved at Granville Island and other places where they swoop down and snatch food from unwary diners...
And then there are the Canada Geese who look quite foolish waddling around and while they look quite beautiful in flight they sound completely dopey!
The crows...our nemesis. Does anyone in the world like their raucaus caw? But they are beautiful and I admire their intelligence. They also seem to nest deep in Stanley Park where we don't walk so we don't get dive bombed like we do in Victoria walking down to Willows Beach. They seem to mainly hang out at Second Beach so we don't hear them that much either.
There are many lovely little sparrows and other songbirds that delight us with their singing morning, noon, and night. We hear very few songbirds these days in Victoria. Too many cats in the neighbourhood I guess. I rather miss seeing cats wandering about but cats around here are indoor cats it would seem. However, I am compensated by seeing a skunk from time to time...they are so beautiful and don't exist at all on Vancouver Island.
And then we have the world famous great blue herons. Stanley Park is home to one of the largest urban great blue heron colonies in North America. They are basically just behind us and we see them fishing and flying home with food for the chicks. Other than hearing the chicks when you're right underneath the nests, these large birds seem to make no noise whatsoever.
