Chris,
Thank you for this poignant insight into what it must be like up there, for both the animals and the people who love them. -Rolan

Chris Charlesworth <c_charlesworth23 at hotmail.com> wrote:
As I sat on the deck this evening good numbers of COMMON NIGHTHAWKS (80+),
a few BLACK SWIFTS (10) and TREE SWALLOWS (30) were barely visible as they
sliced through the heavy blanket of smoke that covers the city. I am curious
how the birds could discern between bugs and steady fall of ashes and pine
needles that continuously rains down. In the yard, birds were extremely
active and one has to wonder if some of these birds are being forced out of
the mountains, down into the city to survive the flames. I had Black-capped
Chickadees and Mourning Doves, American Goldfinches and Cedar Waxwings, all
fairly unusual in my urban yard, that usually houses nothing more than
Starlings and House Sparrows. Overhead flew flocks of Brewer's Blackbirds,
American Robins, a few hundred American Crows and a Killdeer.

It will be interesting to see what happens to birds within the city of
Kelowna due to this fire burning rampantly in the hills to the S. There must
be thousands of misplaced Pygmy, Red-breasted and White-breasted nuthatches,
chickadees, woodpeckers, nutcrackers, grouse, owls, and other birds
searching for a place to call home. I've already began to notice Calliope
Hummingbirds showing up where they have never appeared before...the
Chichester Bird Sanctuary. Incidentally, Okanagan Mountain Park housed on of
the largest populations of this species I've ever heard of, with nearly a
hundred just along the main road through the park at the Kelowna end
throughout the early summer. What will come of the Canyon Wrens that lived
in Wildhorse Canyon? Luckily, most birds have wings and they can fly,
unfortunately the huge array of smaller animals that filled the park won't
have been so lucky. Over the years I've seen countless numbers of Alligator
Lizards, Western Skinks, Rattlesnakes, Racers, Golden-mantled
Ground-Squirrels and other species in the park.

>From the lake the fire is highly visible, illuminating the sky over
down-town Kelowna, and even from my backyard in Rutland, through a scope, I
could see individual trees light up..the flames shoot what must be 200 ft.
into the air, then glow...and fall over, all the while as Swainson's
Thrushes piped overhead at midnight last night.

Bye for now,

Chris Charlesworth
Kelowna, BC

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Rolan Nelson
Burley, WA
rnbuffle at yahoo.com

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