BCAA

profile: george bradd If it's beaks you seek, he's the bird guy to call '' Some birders are extremely competitive. I've had clients who wouldn't even get in the same boat with another birder — in case something rare was spotted. '' geographic importance as one of the key stopovers on the Pacific Flyway is most evident in early May, when the skies over Clayoquot Sound are darkened by the arrival of migrating shorebirds. Huge flocks of plovers, whimbrels, dowitchers, godwits and western sandpipers descend to rest and feed along the 21 square kilometres of mudflats and broad beaches of Tofino's Wildlife Management area during the long journey from South and Central America northward to their Arctic breeding grounds. The numbers are startling – as many as 50,000 sandpipers alone may invade Tofino in a single day. The sight and sound of these birds moving over the water in undulating brown and white clouds, says Bradd, "is truly aweinspiring." (See video link, page 23.) Bradd's interest in birding was sparked by a school fieldtrip at age 13. But even though he was already collecting and breeding butterflies in the basement of his parents' Toronto home, he was initially reluctant to take up birding, sensing that the pastime was considered odd, maybe even unmanly. Today, of course, that once popular G eorge Bradd has dodged lightning bolts on a high-altitude plain in Argentina, fended off a herd of wild pigs in the cloud forests of Ecuador and been kidnapped in Mexico – misadventures all suffered during the course of his global ramblings in quest of rare birds, such as the great potoo, the giant antpitta and the black-breasted puffleg. Eccentric? "Sure," admits Bradd, "but no more eccentric than being a hockey nut." Clearly, some NHL fans might dispute that, but there is no disputing Bradd's passion for our feathered friends or his expertise in the wild. When he isn't travelling, the 62-year-old outdoorsman (pictured above) makes a living hosting birdwatching tours through his Tofino-based outfit Just Birding – a company he established 10 years ago after a peripatetic career that included stints as a fisheries officer in Alberta, whitewater guide in Costa Rica and New Zealand, mill worker in Lake Cowichan and teacher of environmental science in Vancouver. Bradd purposely chose to set up shop in Tofino "because there is a conservation community here dedicated to preserving the local environment," and because he regards it as "a special place for birds." The region's NOT ONLY IS TOFINO A CRUCIAL refuelling stop for migrating birds on the north-south Pacific Flyway, its location on the rim of the West Coast also serves up such storm-blown rarities as yellow wagtails from Asia, horned puffins from Alaska, brown pelicans from California and lark buntings from the Great Plains. Just as rare: birdman George Bradd can track even the most elusive of them. (George Bradd) Mahogany Lane, (Tofino harbour) Peter Flynn/Sky High Photography, (common merganser) Kerry Banks p20-23_Profile.indd 21 WESTWORLD >> S P R I N G 2 0 1 2 21 1/26/12 2:49:53 PM

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