May 28, 2007
Reifel Bird Sanctuary
I finally got a rough draft of my master's project in yesterday, so Yumi and I celebrated by taking a break this sunny afternoon and headed down to the Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary. While we're not "birders," we do enjoy walking around and trying to spot various species. The highlight today was a pair of turkey vultures soaring over the marshes.
As we were walking the trails, we spotted several plants that looked suspiciously like something akin to the poisonous giant hogweed that can cause serious burns to the skin. We've been warned to report this huge, dangerous, invasive plant to municipal authorities. The ones we saw were not huge, but could they have been baby hogweed? We mentioned them to staff, and they said they'd check them out.
When we got home and poked through Plants of Coastal British Columbia, we suspected that the smaller ones were cow-parsnip; however, we did see a stand of what was likely giant hogweed as well.
This is the stuff that may be cow-parsnip.
This looks very much like a stand of giant hogweed.
The observation tower.
Swallow building a nest on the warming hut.