Exploring Bird Life at Lazo Marsh , Comox , BC

 by Keith and Heather Nicol

One of favorite places to go bird watching just about any time of year is Lazo Marsh. We like to take visitors there since you area almost always a good showing of birds from ducks to song birds. We recently took some visitors from out of town there and we weren’t disappointed.  Lazo March is easily accessed on Lazo Road in Comox. The parking lot is at coordinates 10 U0363587E and 55052298N and there is a large trail head sign titled Northeast Woods-Lazo Marsh Conservation Area which shows a map with numerous trails in the area. We opted for a 1 km loop that traversed through large second growth forest and led to a boardwalked lookout over the marsh.

 We also wanted to test out a bird song app that we had just downloaded since often when we are on this trail we hear way more birds that we actually see. For those who are not familiar with this app it is free and is called the Merlin Bird ID app. For more information see: https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/. It turned out that this song ID feature is great for picking up bird songs and telling you which bird is calling.  It also has a photo ID feature which works well but with the poor telephoto camera options on the typical phone you need to get very close to birds to actually get this work.Pictured below is a Fox Sparrow.

 

This trail is suited to a wide range of walkers and we saw many people on this trail enjoying the  abundant bird life. For more information on this site see: https://www.comoxvalleyrd.ca/sites/default/files/docs/Parks-Recreation/4lazomarsh_brochure_201703.pdf     Be sure to bring your cell phone for the Merlin app, binoculars and camera.