The snow falling on the south side of Cowichan Bay was heavy enough to be very beautiful but not heavy enough to obscure our view of the birds except for some distant cormorants. We had lots of birders enjoying the weather: Adam, Jackie, Malcolm, and Fiona Taylor; Jane Bailey, Linda Hill, Carol Milo, John Scull, and a visitor from the Netherlands, Paul Reijnen.
We could hear shotgun blasts which sounded to be coming from Blackley Farm. This seemed to have the effect of relocating lots of birds to our survey area and we counted 514 birds of 12 species:
Mute Swan, 7; Trumpeter Swan, 1; Greater Scaup, 16; Surf Scoter, 69; Bufflehead, 321; Common Goldeneye, 54; Common Merganser,1 ; Double-crested Cormorant,1; Bald Eagle,1; Thayer’s Gull, 13; Gull spp. 25; Cormorant sp. 6.
John Scull
It was a miserable snowy day at 12:00 noon at high tide on Khenipsen Road, Cowichan Bay North. Daryl Johnson, Kathy Coster, Richard Campbell and Carol Hartwig observed 10 species of seabirds for a total of 50 birds for the BC Coastal Bird Survey. The numbers observed were as follows:
Surf Scoter, 6; Bufflehead, 16; Common Goldeneye, 7; Common Loon, 1; Pied-billed Grebe, 1; Horned Grebe, 1; Brandt’s Cormorant, 8; Bald Eagle, 2; Glaucous-winged Gull, 7; Belted Kingfisher, 1.
Carol Hartwig