Hi Birders:
Another incredible day both for birds and weather was had by the counters this week. Our day started with 7 of us leaving the dog park in two cars and it was not long before we found another stray standing on the side of the road, Bob, so we took him along as we didn’t want him loose on the hwy.
For the most part Somenos was all about Canada Geese and we soon had about 80 on our list. Tree Swallows were flying over the willows at the lake trying their hardest to catch a few bugs.
We then headed up the highway to Quist’s Farm where we picked up just over 60 Trumpeters and just under 100 Canada Geese. I single Killdeer was down in the field and was well spotted by the girls. Westholme Road had about 20 swans, but I could not get a good enough look at them to tell how old they were so they went down as adults. Richards Trail had a few Geese, the fields were now very dry and lacked habitat for waterfowl. A single Anna’s Hummingbird was seen on Tom Windsor Drive and I think this is possibly the first Anna’s we have ever had while doing the count, Barry has allowed a wonderful picture of one from his garden, see attachment. Herd Road was a bust except for a Red-tailed Hawk which was one of our record high count for this season #10, Barry took a wonderful picture of one of the hawks and it is attached. We then went along to Hwy 18 where a nice group of Trumpeters were in the fields, just under 70 were counted and in amongst them was a pure flock of 29 Cackling Geese, now where did they came from, who knows, migrants already?
We stopped for lunch and yes you guessed it chicken legs was on the menu. From here we hit Boy’s, Sahilton and Corfield Roads where over 100 Trumpeter Swans and just 40 Canada Geese were noted. A few Bald Eagles were added on these three roads although overall adult eagles were way down while immatures were right on average.
We know headed over to the west side of town and although we looked very carefully we could only come up with just over 70 Trumpeters all the way through Bench Road , Dougan’s Flats had none, but did hold 350 Canada Geese.
St.
Wandering Goose
St. Catherine’s Road had a nice flock of 86 Trumpeters and while we watched a big female Coopers Hawk flapped across the fields, this in turn had us spot our first of the season Turkey Vulture off in the distance. We now descended on Koksilah Road east where just as we got there the farmer was out on his four track scaring all the birds away with Trumpeters and geese going in all directions, this would really mess up our numbers as I’m sure there were big numbers to be had, but hold on, a lot of the birds were heading towards Cowichan Bay and as luck would have it they were waiting for us to count them, both in the east side of the bay and along the Dock Road. We will never know how many we missed, but we did have our highest count of the season with over 720 Trumpeters counted.
One of the swans in the bay was a near adult Tundra Swan which had moulted into it’s nice white plumage but it’s bill was still in the immature stage and very bright at that, a distant photo is attached, you very rarely see a bird like this in our area.
Our good friend Peggy Smith sent me some interesting details that I think you’ll enjoy.
I checked with BBL on Tundra Swan
P927 we saw Jan/Feb 2013. He has since been seen :
01/21/2014 4.9 mi. SW from Burlington, Skagit County, WA
02/20/2014 10.8 mi. W from Tulelake, Siskiyou County, CA – Lower
Klamath NWR
It’s always fun to follow a collared swan we’ve seen.
The nice fellow at BBL also sent a map showing the reported movements
of P927.
Peggy
Map attached (Picture1.png).
It always amazes me how far these birds travel for breeding and lunch, we in turn only move a a couple of rooms for our delights.
That’s it we only have 3 more counts before we chase butterflies, so enjoy the winter and keep looking.
Derrick