Bird enthusiasts are a plucky sort and will do almost anything to ensure their winged visitors get a good meal and a bath.
Randy Solomon, owner of the Backyard Bird Centre in Port Moody, is one such enthusiast, hanging hummingbird feeders outside his condo and traveling to all corners of the world to hear exotic bird song and glimpse colourful plumage.
Now, after 20 years in the business, he has become the Tri-Cities' official bird man.
"I was always engaged in nature as a kid and I was looking for something that would marry a business and a hobby," says Solomon as he muses about the decision he made so many years to give up his desk job as an accountant to become something, more, well eccentric.
Today, his shop at Newport Village is a jungle of bird feeders of all shapes and sizes, and birdwatching paraphernalia and gifts. He's become the expert, dispensing birdwatching tips to anyone who walks in the door, and with a bird identification chart pinned to the counter, will even help you identify the birds that frequent your yard.
"It's definitely something more people are getting into," says Solomon, who first became interested in nature while camping on Vancouver Island when he was a child. With life so fast-paced and people so often stuck to computers, working to deadline or caught in traffic, birdwatching can be a peaceful antidote to all that stress.
"I call it 'natural grounding,'" says Solomon, who lives within in walking distance of his shop.
When he vacations, he often takes birdwatching holidays to places such as Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru, hiring guides to help him find the most exotic feathered creatures. One such trip was like a Monty Python skit: The guide was also his hotelier, chef and cook, and changed uniforms with every task — and for a few days, Solomon was his only guest.
"Their food was amazing. You sit in a restaurant where there are hummingbird feeders and you see dozens and dozens of hummingbirds."
Over the last 20 years, Solomon has seen a lot of changes in the birdwatching community; for example, climate change has resulted in some birds, such as Anna's hummingbirds, expanding their range into British Columbia, resulting in a brisk market for humming bird feeders, even in winter.
But don't use the red-dye mix, he warns, because of the chemical mixture; he advises people to make their own sugar water with four parts water to one part sugar — a little richer in the fall and winter — and cleaning the nectar solution once or twice a week.
Bears are more of a problem now than they used to be, Solomon says, and the only way to keep them away is to string the bird feeder from thin metal wire, like downrigger fishing line, high and away from trees. "If you are not able to set up a bird feeder using those options, you shouldn't feed birds during those times."
This weekend, Solomon and the Backyard Bird Centre (backyardbird.ca) are celebrating the store's 20th anniversary with a visit Saturday from the Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Society, which will be bringing a live eagle for show. The visit will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the public is welcome.
BIRD TRIVIA
Top three popular winter birds in the Tri-Cities
• Steller's jay
• varied thrush
• spotted tohee
BIRD TIPS
• Continue to keep your bird bath clean and the water fresh. Use a mister or a drip until the water gets close to freezing, then install a bath heater to prevent freezing
• A ground or platform feeder tray with millet or good quality mix will attract ground-feeding juncos, sparrows and towhees that will soon show up
• Clean out nesting boxes with a 10% bleach solution or vinegar and water. Birds will continue to use these for roosting during cold, wet nights
• Use good quality sheet cakes to attract a wide variety of insect-eating birds like chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers and bushtits. The fat from suet nourishes the birds for the coming winter months.
