Did I miss an all-West-End pillow fight yesterday, or what is the story with all these feathers along English Bay? They stretch for maybe 200 meters, then stop for a bit, then start again for about the same distance, then stop abruptly. We had a lot of baby geese, but not THAT many, and same for herons. The closest heronry is about a kilometer and a bit away. One year I saw one eagle in trees near here, but that's a lot of damage for one or two eagles to do. The area is not strewn with carcasses, though I did find one up at the street, not all that close, and I can't tell what it is. Crow? heron? So I'm looking for the story. Pillow fight? Leftovers from a craft project? Or what birds? And why so many feathers all in one place? Gosling preening school?
It was a fairly breezy day so I'm guessing the feathers got blown up and they just happened to collect in those areas. Much of it probably came up from the beach.
A mix of duck and gull feathers, perhaps also goose feathers; from adult birds, not the goslings. It is the time of year when they are moulting last year's old feathers and replacing them with new ones. Caught in the grass after blowing up from the water's edge where they likely gather to drop the old feathers. The dead bird is a Rock Dove (a.k.a. feral pigeon / street pigeon) - nothing very exciting! Looks like it was killed and eaten by a predator, as there's only the wings left. Peregrine Falcon is a good possibility for the diner.
Thank you, Michael. It's nice to have the mystery explained. I would be very excited to see a Peregrine Falcon around here, at a beach next to one of North American's most highly populated square miles (or that's what was claimed 45 years ago - now it's just just one of the most expensive areas, though not particularly this square mile). Does anyone know - would there really be such a bird around here? I haven't seen an eagle in trees here at the beach in a long time, but they used to be around. Maybe that's the more likely culprit.
Peregrine Falcons often nest on tall buildings (church spires, skyscrapers, etc.), they mimic cliffs well, and there's a plentiful supply of street pigeons for food. In Britain, urban Peregrines are doing well (they're safe), while in the countryside, they're doing very badly, due to illegal killing by game shooting interests - take a look through here :-((
Peregrine Falcons have been sighted all around the Vancouver area. The most recent nearby sighting that I found on eBird was at Jericho park on June 22.
