The Magnificent Drake

Herring Roe Clings to Seaweed

Harlequin Romance on Hornby

I went to Hornby Island to see and photograph Harlequin ducks, and stayed with friends and researchers working for the Canadian Wildlife Service.  Other than admiring them from a distance, I had not had any direct experience with ‘Harlies’, as they are affectionately called by the people that study them.  They and many other shore birds congregate to feed on the herring spawn in late March.  So plentiful is the spawn that days following a walk along shore showed rows and rows and roes of wave washed seaweed with million of eggs stuck among it.

Days started at 5 am, a hearty breakfast had to fuel a morning of standing still in cloudy, rainy, damp to the bone weather.  The sun made only one guest appearance for the entire five days, but where the sun lacked the birds made a grand show.  There were so many birds!  Harlequins in the hundreds, mew gulls, that filled the sky, dunlin, magic birds that fly collectively and show there wings to the light all at the same time, mergansers, surf scoters, goldeneyes, and eagles.  I was lulled and entranced.  I recognized the early morning fanaticism shown by birders in myself – observing birds was a complete act.

The first two days were spent getting to know the birds, their habits, and where they liked to ‘haul out’, a term that simply means pulling their bodies onto the rocks at the shoreline.  I followed researchers toting powerful scopes that were reading and recording band numbers.  Harlequins fly in from a few miles off shore where they ‘sleep’, haul out on the rocks, peep, preen, chase, feed, and fly in a mad rush to the water when an eagle or other bird of prey soars above.  The birds are sensitive to humans also; great care and stealth must be engaged to get close enough for a photo.

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