It was a cool morning that brought 6 eager birders out to count and it was slow going for the first couple of hours with other than Canada Geese not much was put on the list. The tally keeper had not even had to sharpen her pencil as things were so bad.
Just two Trumpeters were on Somenos Lake and were surrounded by a multitude of Common Mergansers. A few eagles materialized at Quist’s Farm and a nice Merlin flew over A&W at break time.
The Corfield, Sahilton Road area provided us with our first significant count with over 400 geese and 33 Trumpeter Swans
Koksilah Road west provided us with some swans which skulked along a hedgerow making it almost impossible to get a proper count, but 30 swans were added to our slowly growing total. Bench and Wilson’s Road were devoid of birds unlike previous years counts
Dougan’s flats were bad again and St. Catherine’s Road could only manage one adult Coopers Hawk and a smattering of Sparrows of three different species.
We headed on past Jim’s Pond and around off Telegraph Road, the three ladies were really getting too far behind us at this point and were sure to miss something good if they didn’t keep up, this is where I spotted a Snowy Owl sitting on top of a house, a quick message was sent out over the walkie-talkie and shrills were heard as the girls roared up the road to join us, they were in such a hurry that they failed to hear all the message as the Snowy Owl was a plastic one put on the roof to attract gulls, heh heh heh.
Koksilah Road east provide us with some very good numbers of waterfowl with the cornfields being filled with with nearly a 1000 birds.
Once again this week the immature swans were low, but with a better percentage overall as the adults were down a bit.
Along the Dock Road we found a good number of swans and some idiot in a motorized hang glider who was disturbing all the birds over by the mill, not wanting anybody to get hurt I would have liked to have seen this individual go head first in the estuary.
Strangely only one Mute Swan was tallied for the area, not sure where the rest were hiding.
We were also approached by an older gentleman who, to say the least smelt like the perfume counter at Eatons, and then by another two guys who appeared to have been in close proximity to the first guy. This was a first for me having not smelt the bay being so exotic ever. I do hope I never meet them in a closed environment as I am not one for the old smelly stuff.
After the numbers were crunched the swans were down as were our hawks and eagles, but sadly those pesky Canada Geese increased a bit, maybe some from further up island thought that the weather would be warmer in the south.
With our chances of getting 5 weeks with good weather looking rather bleak and with this onset of cold snowy weather that our numbers over the next two weeks will be greatly diminished. Much counting I think will be done from the vehicles.
At the start of the day I had told the group that I would be unable to join them for next weeks count having a special engagement which due to a hiccup in my memory bank was totally wrong, but the three girls in our group had already started to plan how, what and where they were going to monopolize the count, well tough luck girls as I will be there to control your takeover bid, until next week.
Stay Warm
Derrick