Alert Bay's wildlife is fairly limited to its happy population of dogs, and amazingly diverse range of winged creatures, enough to impress the most diligent birders.
Otters have been spotted on the front lawn of the U'mista Cultural Centre and in-season, the waters are rush-hour busy with Orcas, humpback whales, and salmon. However, bears and cougars do not swim across the Broughton Strait from their favored terrain on Vancouver Island.
The island's best birding spot is the Alert Bay Ecological Park, located above town off Alder Road, adjacent to the municipal campground. This fascinating piece of terrain borders a dense, sun-dappled forest with an open marsh area. A combination of marked hiking trails and a boardwalk make both areas easy to explore. A variety of brochures about the ecological park are available at the Visitor Centre.
The Ecological Park's "Gator Gardens"
The marsh within the Park is locally referred to as "gator gardens" because the dead trees and swampy bottomland remind some of the Florida Everglades. This magical and eerie landscape was created in the 1870s when a dam was built in the area to supply water to the island's fish cannery, flooding a section of the Western Hemlock forest.
Bald eagles enjoy perching atop the stumps, and in the spring they are known to gather here en masse, offering flying lessons to new offspring. Look skyward anywhere on the island, and see groups of these raptors riding the wind currents.
Big Tree Interpretive Trail
The forested section of Alert Bay Ecological Park features three woodland trails, one of them a marked and signed route known as the Big Tree Interpretive Trail. The route travels through a second-growth forest of hemlock and Sitka spruce. The massive stumps of old-growth trees remain as evidence of the riches that drew loggers to the island in the 19th century.
Ravens and northwestern crows are likely to keep pace with visitors and call loudly from the treetops. Woodpeckers, flickers, brown creepers, and chestnut-backed chickadees also make this forest home. Elusive barred owls as well nest here and are best heard (if rarely seen) at dawn and dusk.
Seabirds & Shorebirds
Head out on a whale-watching tour or simply hang out on the beach: birds are plentiful. The day's sightings might include great blue herons, belted kingfishers, Canada geese, sandpipers, red-necked phalaropes, black turnstones, long-billed dowitchers, sooty shearwaters, rhinoceros auklets, pigeon guillemots, white-winged and surf scoters, oyster catchers, mergansers, common murres and all kinds of gulls – California, glaucous-winged and Bonaparte's gulls included.
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