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Focus_2016-02_February
Focus_2016-02_February
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NIGHTINGALE, who ignores the occasional insinuation that as a women<br />
she is unfit for the stresses of a “Big Year,” wants to be a role model for<br />
other women who have an interest in the natural world.<br />
A long-eared owl, the 266th species<br />
Nightingale sighted on her year-long quest<br />
find enough funding for their research. “We<br />
have some amazing resources, and [the public]<br />
can visit Pedder Bay, Swan Lake and Goldstream<br />
with us. But I would like to see some professional<br />
fundraisers donate their skills to help<br />
RPBO achieve its goals.” Though Nightingale<br />
isn’t a formal fundraiser for RPBO or VNHS,<br />
she donates all speaking fees she receives.<br />
Nightingale is happy to have support from<br />
a female donor’s legacy; her interactions with<br />
the male world of birding haven’t always<br />
been as positive. “I’m trying to make this<br />
normal for a woman to do,” she says.<br />
Birding has a history entwined with more<br />
than a passion for simple perception. James<br />
Audubon shot and killed every bird he painted,<br />
and bird-watching’s roots in hunting, of<br />
which the modern variation would be “listing,”<br />
has lured mostly men. Nightingale, who<br />
ignores the occasional insinuation that as a<br />
women she is unfit for the stresses of a “Big<br />
Year,” wants to be a role model for other<br />
women who have an interest in the natural<br />
world. “It’s like going into a hunting community,”<br />
she tells me, “but I go out to enjoy the<br />
day. I haven’t been driven by the numbers<br />
as much.”<br />
PHOTO COURTESY OF ALAN AND ELAINE WILSON<br />
Still, the lure of a long-eared owl or a whitewinged<br />
crossbill can take her far out of many<br />
people’s comfort zones. Returning from Winter<br />
Harbour, her van struck a rough patch in the<br />
logging road and tore the underbody. She<br />
jacked the vehicle up, alone, and cut off the<br />
hanging pipes before continuing home.<br />
By December 31, after a month of rain and<br />
terrific wind storms, Nightingale had seen<br />
268 species of songbirds, waterfowl and<br />
raptors, including more than a few rarities.<br />
This number sets a new record for Vancouver<br />
Island, and she recognizes that she’s become<br />
one of the top birders on the island.<br />
So do her cohorts. This spring, nominated<br />
by the RPBO board, she will receive a Governor<br />
General’s Caring Canadian Award for her<br />
volunteer work.<br />
“One of my life regrets as an adult was that<br />
I had never learned the names of the birds<br />
and the constellations,” Nightingale tells me<br />
during our meeting in a crowded Tim Horton’s,<br />
where she meets with birders or waits for<br />
calls of sightings.<br />
Her words make me remember an old<br />
Madeleine L’Engle children’s book I loved,<br />
in which a wise creature says to the protagonist:<br />
You don’t have to know how many<br />
stars there are; you just have to know them<br />
by name. Nightingale’s quest, though its roots<br />
may lie in the colonial past, echoes this sentiment.<br />
Out in the weather of Balaclava Island,<br />
near Port Hardy, amidst the frosts of Sooke,<br />
or telling me about a Black-throated sparrow<br />
sighting while we sip coffee, her passion<br />
centres around the journey and the names<br />
more than the final numbers.<br />
Ann Nightingale often leads the Rocky<br />
Point Observatory Bird Tours on the second<br />
Sunday of each month, 9 am, at Outerbridge<br />
Park in Saanich. Everyone is welcome. See<br />
www.rpbo.org<br />
Maleea Acker is the author<br />
of Gardens Aflame: Garry Oak<br />
Meadows of BC’s South Coast<br />
(New Star, 2012). She is<br />
currently completing a PhD<br />
in Human Geography, focusing<br />
on the intersections between<br />
the social sciences and poetry.<br />
Outerbridge Park<br />
Monthly Bird Walks<br />
House finches<br />
Female (l) and male<br />
Rocky Point Bird Observatory hosts monthly<br />
bird walks at Saanich’s Outerbridge Park<br />
on the 2nd Sunday of each month at 9 am.<br />
Novice and experienced birders are all<br />
welcome. Meet at the parking lot off Royal<br />
Oak Drive (near Blenkinsop Rd).<br />
You can find more<br />
information at:<br />
www.rpbo.org<br />
This notice made possible by Marlene Russo, lawyer and mediator<br />
Gail K. Perkins Inc.<br />
Ruby Gail Alicia<br />
“When personal service and affordable value<br />
are your expectations”<br />
Please visit our website at<br />
www.gkperkins.ca<br />
for more information about our services:<br />
• Bookkeeping<br />
• Payroll, WCB<br />
• PST, GST<br />
• Personal tax returns (T1)<br />
• Corporate tax returns (T2)<br />
• Trust returns (T3)<br />
Suite 204 – 3550 Saanich Rd (Munro Centre)<br />
Victoria, BC, V8X 1X2<br />
250-590-3991 • gail@gkperkins.ca<br />
Image courtesy of Alan and Elaine Wilson<br />
Photo by Gary Utley<br />
www.focusonline.ca • February 2016<br />
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