FRIDAY DEC. 27 2013 VOL. 40, NO. 30
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Knit one, purl a friend
Christmas at the Ranch
Resolve to be healthy
The comraderie is palpable at weekly knitting group gatherings
Santa Claus remembers to treat all the nice dogs enjoying a Bowen holiday
Christmas is a time to indulge; the New Year is a time to make amends
“Lo, your King comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on an ass....” The Little Red Church held its annual Christmas pageant on Sunday, complete with two of the rescued donkeys at Endswell Farm. See more photos on
Are you for the birds? Then join the Christmas Bird Count PAM DICER SPECIAL TO UNDERCURRENT
O
n January 5, Bowen Island volunteers will be taking part in the annual nation-wide Christmas Bird Count. Most of the birds are resident throughout the year, i.e. they do not migrate with the seasons, although there are a few exceptions. So what can we expect to see on Bowen and has anything changed? A stunning little jewel called Anna’s Hummingbird now chooses to live at our latitude during the winter. Thirteen were recorded last year. Since the 1930s, this bird’s range has been gradually expanding northwards from California and Baja reaching Vancouver about 12 years ago. Until now, I have only seen them near the coast but this winter I
have two in my own garden at 800’. During the recent freeze-up, it took only an hour-and-a-half for the sugar water to freeze, necessitating the rotation of three feeders. Sugar water is their flying fuel but hummingbirds are carnivorous and feed on insects many of which I’ve found swimming in the feeders. Their choice of wintering ground has nothing to do with people forgetting to remove feeders after the Rufous Hummingbirds have left to migrate south. Many birds form large flocks in winter but their numbers can change hugely from year to year. For the past two years Pine Siskins numbered 1,225 and 1,036 respectively but there were only 36 in 2010. Siskins are an irruptive species. This means a dramatic, irregular migration of large continued, PAGE 11
page 6; read Susanna Braund’s story on the important role donkeys play in history, and the modern world economy, on page 8. Debra Stringfellow photo
‘Styro-spill’ exposes gaps in environmental enforcement MERIBETH DEEN EDITOR
W
hen Brian Hodgins found a large piece of styrofoam washed up on the beach near his house, gradually shredding into pieces with the tide, he dealt with it himself. “I took a saw to free it from the concrete that’s holding it together and hauled it up to my property,” says Hodgins. “It scared me how much was there. And I want to go down and get more but I am 72 years old so it may not be such a good idea for me to be going down there. Fortunately my son in-law, when he comes here, he’s going to help me haul more up and take it to the transfer station.” Hodgins says creosote logs wash up near his property all the time, but he just pushes them back out into the ocean. A weak solution, he says. “There’s no agency to deal with these things,” he says. “Like for this styrofoam — I’m not going to call DFO because they’re never going to come.”
When asked whether he thought about calling the municipality, he said he drafted an email, but doesn’t think it’s their responsibility. “Why overload them?” said Hodgins. “They have enough to do.” The municipality has stepped in to help concerned citizens clean up the styrofoam mess. When Brenda McLuhan organized the first clean-up at Cape Roger Curtis, the municipality spoke to the property owners of the lot near the affected shoreline to ensure that volunteers could get to the mess without trespassing, and offered up a giant trash bin where they could put the mess. In order to deal with the styrofoam and wrecked dock that was too large and in too precarious a position to move by hand, the Municipality hired Cormorant Marine to haul it away at a reduced rate. Squamish resident John Buchanan got assistance from the district of Squamish, as he was allowed to dump three loads of both his pick-up truck and his continued, PAGE 2
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