Field Notes – Camosun Bog, April 13, 2013

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You may have noticed the lack of telephoto shots in my recent photos. For the last month the focus on my Nikon AF-S 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 VR has been sticking, preventing quick (or even slow) switching between near and far subjects. My lens has been out for repair at at vancam for the last two weeks but finally returned today just in time for the rain. Two weeks ago Saturday after I had dropped off my lens I found myself with my car deep in Vancouver. Unwilling to spend a hour driving into Vancouver just to turn around and drive back I decided to head further west and check out some of the interesting sightings that had been reported from Camosun Bog. Camosun Bog is a wet area located the easternmost part of Pacific Spirit Regional Park.

Camosun is an example of a raised bog in which a lake is slowly filled in by vegetation blocking the flow of surface water to the center. This area becomes completely rain-fed causing an acidic nutrient poor environment which favours the establishment of Sphagnum mosses and Ericaceous shrubs like Labrador Tea. Since I was without my telephoto I decided to focus my photography on the plants of the bog and surrounding forest during this particular outing. As you can see above I found a number of new flowering (and spore-ing) plants.

I was likewise not disappointed by the birds that had originally drawn me to the bog. I was able to add a number of birds to both my BC and year lists including Lincoln’s Sparrow and Orange-crowned Warbler. In my 3 hours of birding I covered 3.5 km and tallied 18 species. For a full listing see the KMZ file below.


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