Author: Eric

Because of circumstances beyond my control I had to sit out on today’s count, but like all good leaders l made sure that the sun shone down on the troops today. I guessed today’s count was going to be a long one as sun and photographers go hand in hand. Time doesn’t matter to them one bit. I knew that Eric and Dorothy would have to be a tough leaders and make sure things run smoothly.
I did sit in my window this morning as the sun came up I watched as two flocks of Trumpeter’s headed south, could this be the day when those hefty numbers from years gone by returned?

Here is Kurlene’s report, thanks K.

It was a chilly day for both swans and counters on Wednesday and 8 hardy souls showed up for the count dressed for survival. I was a bit late after being frozen out of my car but after much banging , yanking, and finally crawling over seats I made it just in the nick of time. Alas we were without our intrepid leader, the master counter of all things feathered, so it was all on our shoulders to carry the load. Dorothy had things organized in no time and we were off with instructions, tally sheets and pencils. The swan car was in the lead with the raptor car and Malcolm (who is a very precise counter, he would make a great understudy, Derrick) and Karen close behind. We had a good number of geese in the field around the school and golf range. Just as we were pulling away from checking the fields at the marsh a Northern Shrike flew up onto a tree beside the road, the swan car missed it unfortunately. Somenos Lake had 6 Trumpeters and Quists had Canada geese and two Snow geese . On Westholme we hit a good number of Swans tucked away in the marsh, 66 adults and 16 immatures.

Richard’s Trail held a few more swans and a Peregrin Falcon being mobbed by Ravens. They made his perch on the top of a tree a misery until he finally sped off towards the marsh and spread the misery by scaring up the ducks………..the old “kick the cat” syndrome I figured! Now this is when the raptor car started to fall behind again. Deb spotted something fly up to a tree beside the road so we had to stop and investigate. After some discussion we decided it was a Merlin, took photo id’s, did our entry and low and behold the swan car is out of sight. We tried to catch up but our job is raptors and unlike swans and geese, large white or brown birds together in a field, raptors hide in branches, have many different plumages and generally try to disguise themselves. Much more time consuming job………….well that’s our excuse and we’re sticking to it. Anyway with no swan car in sight we continued on and Zan spotted a herd of elk in a field, photos had to be taken and more hawks had to be identified. So now we’re really behind and didn’t catch up until A&W.

After our break we were off to Boys Rd /Sahilton area and at this point we briefly and unintentionally switched targets with the Swan car spotting the hawks and eagles and we spotted the Swans. Now I supposed I shouldn’t mention the swan car had driven right by this group of 7 adult and 5 immature swans without noticing them hidden in the field, but who can resist! We found a nice group of swans and geese on Bench Road and Eric did a great job of counting 122 adult swans and 30 immatures mixed in with 450 geese. At this point I”m not sure what happened but we somehow managed to lose the swan car for the rest of the trip. We didn’t see hide nor hair of them until the last stop on Dock Road. So hopefully our leader will be back next week to take over the counting, we can barely keep up when we’re not counting and it’s apparently hopeless when we are!! Kurlene

Now back to me.
As I stood in front of the judge I just knew I was in big trouble, I am sure if any of you have been in this position you know how it feels. The judge asked what do you have to say for yourself, I replied I am very sorry yer honor I in no way wanted to be here in front of you, I would much rather be out with my buddies counting swans. Counting swans she said, surely your not that guy that writes those reports about counting, I lowered my head and confessed, with that she said case dismissed.
When I returned home I was relieved that I had got off so lucky and vowed never to let it happen again. You don’t know how bad it feels to miss a day out with my friends counting birds.
The group must have got the hang of it this week as they doubled the previous swan count for the season. Well done.

Photo Credits
Snowman by Barry Hetschko
Wood Duck by Barry Hetschko
Red-tailed Hawk by Kurlene Wenberg
Elk flock by Zan Stenhouse

Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.
Derrick

I have to admit that I am becoming a little concerned about the lack of Trumpeter Swans in the valley at this late time, we are well below our norm. Having seen data from other areas we are the only ones that appear to be missing large numbers. We will just have to see what unfolds over the next few weeks as the cold and nasties are coming.
We did manage to raise our previous weeks number with a total of 135 of which 109 were adults so our immature to adult ratio is good at 25%. Geese numbers went up which is normal as we enter December.
Eagle numbers dropped a bit this week although many were up the Cowichan as the raging river pushes all the scraps back down.
8 birders set out in two vehicles this week and we hadn’t gone far when a nice surprise awaited us at the golf driving range a pair of Greater White-fronted Geese right up by the club house, what a start for us on this mild last day of November. Yes I did it again, lovely day with some very nice temperatures, although you could tell at times that the wind had that cold nip about it.
A very patient Great Blue Heron sat on the dock at Somenos Lake, because of it’s seating arrangements I have called it Otis, I am sure some of you remember the song.
As you know I have tried to educate our team on bird identification but I fear that sometimes some of the group just don’t get it. The big white ones are Swans and the smaller brown ones are Geese, you can’t get much clearer than that, or can you? Even when in flight this color difference stands out like a sore thumb, oh! well it is still early days and I’m sure they’ll get it sooner or later.
We went and had a peek for an Elk that I had spotted the day before but alas just two of it’s smaller cousins were visible.
Three Snow Geese were on Lakes Road and they stayed all day until our return.
We managed two Merlins again this week with one zooming across Tom Windsor and the other perched on top of a tree on Sherman Road. We were lacking a few Red-tailed Hawks but a nice dark western type was perched on Hillbank Road, he soon flew off when he saw the camera. A lovely male Northern Harrier was also on Tom Windsor Drive.
A nice pair of Herring Gulls were on the Dock Road and there were hundreds of other species out on the bay.

Sorry but that’s all I can do for this week as my brain is sending the wrong directions to my fingers;spell check can’t keep pace.

Photo credits
Greater White-fronted Geese by Zan Stenhouse
Otis Redding by Zan Stenhouse
Battle for the perch by Barry Hetshco
Herring Gull by Barry Hetshco

Until next time
Derrick

PS: This weeks Trumpeter tally from Comox Valley was 565 adults and 161 juveniles for a total of 726. In comparison, the total tally for the same period in 2015 was 1454 swans and in 2014 the total was 864 swans.

Some say I have a gift for this and others just think I’m lucky, but the way I slipped that wonderful count day in among two stinkers, well you be the judge. This week saw a bumper crop of counters with three vehicles heading off with 10 counters and picking up Carol who had decided to get a head start on things at Somenos. At the golf driving range we got a nice group of Canada Geese three of which had neck collars, it is wonderful that the owners allow the geese to cut the grass for them, saves them a lot of time and energy, plus their mowers would get bogged down in the mud. The goose collars were 008F, 050F and 071F all of these are from the mid island program who get sent down to eat our grass instead of theirs. Our next stop got our first Trumpeters beside the creek at Somenos 16 adults were feeding in among the Canary grass. Then it was off to Somenos Lake where we got a couple of Eagles and a Milo sp. There were just a few Geese on the far side so we were off again Hwy bound and a Red-tailed Hawk was sitting on a dead snag waiting to be counted, it was hard going with Quist’s Farm devoid of count birds, but all was not lost as 4 Trumpeter’s flew over heading south. Westholme Road produced a couple of Ring-billed Gulls mixed in with about 100 Mews. We once again stopped at a new spot at this nice ladies house and was greeted by a big shaggy woofter carrying a football, so we gave him a few dribbles with the ball and he was one happy dog. We managed another 16 Trumpeters before we moved on to Richards Trail here we got 12 adults and 1 immature, but the highlight was very acrobatic American Kestrel that put on a great show for the counters. As most of you know by now the sight of a nice bird brings everyone to a stop and the shutterbugs are out and clicking, we are grateful for their wonderful images that adorn my report. Off we went again and along Herd Road was a major flock of Geese with two Snow Geese in attendance. We were now well behind on time and so Barry gave it some welly and we went down Hwy18 getting a couple of Red-tailed Hawks as we went. We arrived at A&W with the sad news that they will be stopping selling chickens drumsticks as of next week, not sure what a couple of the counters will do as they appear to live on these things. Because we were late arriving all the rugrats from the school were there and so it was an extended break which turned out very good as I counted a Red-tail Hawk a Northern Harrier and several Bald Eagles going up on the thermals.
Off we set for Boy’s Road and the trees were adorned with many Bald Eagles, last season at the same time we had about three times as many eagles, so it’s not just the Trumpeters that are missing. We always miss many Bald Eagles that are out of sight along the rivers. Are these two species working together to frustrate the counters? A local Barred Owl was seen before we headed off. Sahilton Road added a few more Eagles and that was it. It was here that we started to loose those ladies who like to straggle behind and add all sorts of rare species for the list, this week they tried to hoodwink me with some far off owl, but I’m afraid that fuzzy picture did not fool me, you see I’m a wise old owl. All of the west side was a bust with just two Trumpeters up on Bench Road, our first of the year for this location. At this point others tried to take over the lead position, this is not allowed and i see we will have to put our foot down and put a stop to this.
St.Catherine’s Road was next with a large flock of geese being in attendance, many trying to hide behind the far off trees so a little leader guess counting was done, but still there were at least 250 out there. Koksilah Road east gave us our first geese of the season at this location with 20 birds added.
As we came down through the back of Cowichan Bay Dorothy who had been doing a wonderful job with the tally sheet left it in the hands of Eric and she headed off looking for a little puddle, which she had found last week. Those Bay people do the funniest things.
Dinsdale’s Farm and a wonderful sight of 7 incoming Swans was captured by the camera folks and a small group of geese huddled in the far off field. There was this strange guy out in the field who I thought was one of those fungi people looking for some rare and hallucinating species, but it appears he was a bird watcher and he had found the first record of a Red-tailed Kite for Canada, Barry managed to get wonderful shot of this incredible find.
Down the Dock Road we headed and 2 Eurasian Wigeon were mixed in with their American cousins. Our first Mute Swans were added and a few more Trumpeters were far off over the other side of the mill.
Our day was done and we had 75 Trumpeter Swans for our hard work, way down from previous years at this time, but still nearly 3 times more than last week. The same went for the Bald Eagles, so things are looking up.

Photo credits
American Kestrel, Christina Cutbill
Barred Owl, Kurlene Wenberg
7 Swans a Flying, Zan Stenhouse
Purple Finch, Barry Hetschko
Red-tailed Kite, Barry Hetschko

Take Care
Derrick

It was a nice start to our count with sunny skies but a little nippy for some. A Merlin entertained us as we stood gossiping in the car park. Seven birders set out in two cars and it only took a few minutes before we were counting some Geese, the golf driving range had a nice flock with at least two having bands on, these looked familiar to those banded up island. 071F & 008F. We continued on along the marsh to Drinkwater Road and out on the breezy boardwalk, there really weren’t much out on the water but a Coopers Hawk put on a wondrous display for us and screamed at the photographers. Our master shutterbug was not in attendance this week so it was left up to the girls and Eric to get the goodies, Oh Barry you should have been there. After all this excitement we poodled along the Hwy adding some Hawks to the list until we reached the Crofton turnoff, but once again it was devoid of birds. Malcolm had contacted a friend who lives on Westholme Road and from their yard we picked up our first of very few Trumpeter Swans. This our third count of the season will go down as the worst count for Trumpeters since we started, never before have we had so few swans on our third count of the season. I wonder if the Wildwings crew had forgotten to invite the swans to the valley meeting of the North American Swan Society or either the swans did not want to meet all those admirers.
Richards Trail was our next stop and 13 swans were down in the fields, so we thought this is it and we were going to find more; little did we know that only 9 more Trumpeters were going to be added to the days total of 27, mind you we did have 10 Mute Swans and 6 Swan species.
Our concentration fell to the Hawks and Eagles and the numbers went up this week with the arrival of more Bald Eagles which have spent the early part of the season fishing up island. Immature were very visible which have been absent for weeks now. The west side of town was a bust until we hit Dougan’s Flats and a bumper crop of Canada Geese spread out over the fields, after a near perfect count done in 10s I came up with a total of 450 Canada’s which turned out was nearly half of our Geese total for the day. We had two Peregrine Falcons this week and one gave us great looks along Cowichan Bay Road next door to old Derricks place, let’s hope this dead snag survives for a long time as we have had some good looks at birds up there. We reached Dinsdale’s Farm and it did not take long to spot the last remaining Snow Goose of that major flock from the previous weeks, an immature, who worked it’s way across the field with about 150 Canada’s.
Down the Dock Road we went and added more Bald Eagles and a few Mute Swans. A strange sighting in the blazing sun was a Raccoon who sat up in a tree way out on the island beside us, photos were attempted but the sun put payed to that.
Our day was done as the cold wind cut across the bay. A large dark cloud storm was coming in from the west and so we headed for home, as it turns out we were lucky as the hail storm that followed to the north of of us was horrendous, covering the roads in inches of that strange white stuff. Just maybe those Swans had got the weather report and stayed away from the hail, wouldn’t do much for your plumage getting stuck up in the sky when that lot came down.
Major apologies to the Swan Society for not supplying the goods, but as I am sure they’re

aware birds can be little unpredictable just like the counters.

Photo Credits

Peregrine Falcon both Zan Stenhouse and Kurlene Wenberg
Coopers Hawk both Zan Stenhouse and Kurlene Wenberg

Now that was easy, until next time keep on watching.
Derrick

On October 9^th Carol Milo, Wilma Harvey, John Wheatley, Dorothy & Eric Marshall and Todd Carnahan covered the south side of Cowichan Bay.

A toral of 141 birds were observed.

2 Unident. grebe

3 Double crested cormorant

56 Canada goose

11 American wigeon

45 Unident. Duck

21 Glaucous winged gull

3 Belted kingfisher

Carol Milo

On October 9, 2016, Kurlene Wenberg and Carol Hartwig spotted 13 species of waterbirds on Khenipsen Road, Cowichan Bay North for the BC Coastal Bird Survey.

A total of 427 birds were observed on a sunny party-cloudy day with calm bay state at high tide.

1 Double-crested Cormorant

3 Pelagic Cormorant

1 Great Blue Heron

1 Canada Goose

5 Mute Swan

35 American WIgeon

9 Mallard

1 White-winged Scoter (immature)

21 Surf Scoter

50 Unidentified duck sp

42 Mew Gull

257 Unidentified gull sp

1 Belted Kingfisher

Carol Hartwig

This week 7 birders headed out on the incredibly warm day, word had got around that it was going to be warm and there were no signs of brollies and wellies seen the previous week. We got many Canada Geese on the school fields before arriving at Somenos Lake, here the lake looked bare but tucked over in the corner were 6 Ruddy Ducks and 3 Horned Grebes, one solitary Canada Goose sat out in the middle of the lake. One bright spot was a flyover immature Northern Harrier who flew right over us. At the Exhibition Grounds a far off American Kestrel was seen hawking over the fields. Off up the highway to Quist’s Farm, but the fields were very bare of birds, 2 Bald Eagles sat up in the trees and that was it. 5 unidentified swans flew by far off up in the sky. Along Westholme Road we had many Common Ravens sitting and flying. A pair of Great Horned Owls could not stand the sight of each other and turned their backs. The hoards of gulls seen last week were gone so we moved straight on to Richards Trail where many ducks were seen including American Wigeon, Northern Pintail and Green-winged Teal. A Red-tailed Hawk showed well and was last seen heading west to get into a battle with a Bald Eagle. We then headed to Tom Windsor Drive and our best sighting of the day a pair of Western Bluebirds were sitting on the hydro wires, we radioed to the other vehicle which is always lagging behind but by the time they turned up the birds had flown into some fir trees, after turning around at the top of the road we came back down parked and got out, the birds were still around and young birds could clearly be seen with fluttering begging type flight, after a while the birds took flight and headed west down across the meadow, but there were not just two or three but 9 or10 Western Bluebirds. It is strange that we are out looking for a species that were in dire trouble just 50 years ago with the Trumpeters and we go find a species that is just now recovering from a massive decline. I don’t think we will ever go out again and find more Western Bluebirds than we did Trumpeter Swans in November as we did this week. We had spent a long time admiring these birds and were way behind and so we booted along adding a few Red-tailed Hawks on our way to the rest stop at A&W. Somewhere along the way, I can’t remember where, I spotted some California Quail beside the road, then someone said look there’s a male on top of the brambles keeping lookout, Barry inched the vehicle forward and I gave my impression of a chipping young bird, while Barry leaned forward and got a nice picture of the said male.

After our break we went down Boys Road and it was here that we found our only Trumpeter Swans for the day, 6 adults way out loafing in the field. Several Bald Eagles were added to our list as we moved over to Sahilton Road, but the fields were void of any birds no ducks, geese no nothing. Halfway down the road I called Barry to a halt as I spotted some sparrows dancing in the trees, with a little pishing a little Ruby-crowned Kinglet came out, if you have ever tried to get a picture of these active little mites I think you will appreciate the great capture Barry got, minus my big head in the way. I have become a little worried the way Barry gets close to me just to get a picture and wish he would get some birds on his side of the car instead of leaning on me. There is nothing worse than having a 400mm lens banging away at the side of your head as it inches its way towards the open window.

Many different mushroom species were seen on our trip this week and many pictures were taken, not sure if any were edible but I never saw Kurlene leap out of the vehicle with her basket, so I guess not.

Over to the west side we went, but nothing was seen, not even the local deer put in an appearance. Dougan’s Flats added a few geese, but we were now suffering from a lack of birds. Back across the highway to St.Catherine’s Drive and a nice bunch of geese awaited our counting. That was it until we hit Cowichan Bay village and added 3 Mute Swans. Dinsdale Farm had  nice assortment of birds with up to 13 Killdeer and 17 Snow Geese, I managed to count just over 150 Canada Geese out in the fields, the Cacklers seen last week appeared to have moved on although some of the geese way out could have had a few mixed in. Our last stop was the Dock Road but with just a couple of Bald Eagles and the same amount of Mute Swans we were done just as the temperature started to drop.

I did hear that there were a group of swans over on Herd Road in the flooded fields with a couple of Tundra Swans there, but this is out of our route.

I am finding it hard to leave out some comments on the previous day’s antics to our birders south of the border, so I will just say it will be hard to Trump this day’s sightings.

Photo Credits

Great Horned Owls by Barry Hetschko

California Quail by Barry Hetschko

Ruby-crowned Kinglet by Barry Hetschko

Mushrooms by Zan Stenhouse

Northern Harrier by Zan Stenhouse

Until we count again

Derrick

From Comox Valley Naturalists:
Results from the Nov 1^st Trumpeter Swan Count are now in: 311 adults and 54 Juveniles for a total of 365, along with a record 770 Snow Geese.

On a very rainy overcast November 13th day at high tide, 2016, Kurlene Wenberg and Daryl Johnson spotted 17 species of waterbirds on Khenipsen Road, Cowichan Bay north side for the BC Coastal Bird Survey. A total of 1000 birds were observed.

6 Double-crested Cormorant; 7 Pelagic Cormorant; 28 Mallard; 58 White-winged Scoter; 126 Surf Scoter; 221 Bufflehead; 34 Common Goldeneye; 5 Red-breasted Merganser; 3 Horned Grebe; 10 Bald eagles; 85 Glaucous-winged Gull; 103 Bonaparte’s Gull; 50 Mew Gull; 250 Unidentified gull sp; 1 Belted Kingfisher; 9 Northwestern Crow; 4 Common Raven

Carol Hartwig

Four heavily clothed birders, Gail Mitchell, Carol Milo, Christina Cutbill, and John Scull enjoyed the wind and very light rain by the Cowichan Estuary Nature Centre in Hecate Park. In addition to a sealion and a seal, we saw and counted these birds in addition to many flying gulls on the south side of Cowichan Bay:

8 Mute Swan; 7 Greater Scaup; 2 Surf Scoter; 13 White-winged Scoter; 98 Bufflehead; 1 Common Goldeneye; 3 Hooded Merganser; 6 Horned Grebe; 19 Double-crested Cormorant; 2 Mew Gull; 1 Glaucous-winged Gull; 14 Unidentified gull sp.

John Scull

On October 9th Carol Milo, Wilma Harvey, Dorothy & Eric Marshall and Todd Carnahan covered the south die of Cowichan Bay.

A toral of 141 birds were observed.

2 Unident. grebe

3 Double crested cormorant

56 Canada goose

11 American wigeon

45 Unident. Duck

21 Glaucous winged gull

3 Belted kingfisher

Carol Milo

On October 9, 2016, Kurlene Wenberg and Carol Hartwig spotted 13 species of waterbirds on Khenipsen Road, Cowichan Bay North for the BC Coastal Bird Survey.
A total of 427 birds were observed on a sunny party-cloudy day with calm bay state at high tide.

1 Double-crested Cormorant
3 Pelagic Cormorant
1 Great Blue Heron
1 Canada Goose
5 Mute Swan
35 American WIgeon
9 Mallard
1 White-winged Scoter (immature)
21 Surf Scoter
50 Unidentified duck sp
42 Mew Gull
257 Unidentified gull sp
1 Belted Kingfisher

Carol Hartwig

There were lots of volunteers but not so many birds for the first count of the season. Laurie Vasey, Linda Hill, Kathy Coster, Gail Mitchell, and Carol Milo strolled along the shore on the south side and saw the following birds

1 Canada Goose
17 Common Merganser
2 Double-crested Cormorant
7 Glaucous-winged Gull
26 gull sp.
1 Belted Kingfisher
3 Purple Martin

At 3 PM on September 11, 2016, Kurlene Wenberg and Carol Hartwig spotted 11 species of waterbirds on Khenipsen Road, Cowichan Bay North for the BC Coastal Bird Survey.
A total of 241 birds were observed on a warm, clear day with calm bay state at high tide.

1 Double-crested Cormorant
3 Great Blue Heron
23 Mute Swan
30 Mallard
1 White-winged Scoter
70 Common Merganser
4 Osprey
24 Mew Gull
3 Glaucous-winged Gull
82 Unidentified gull sp
1 Belted Kingfisher

Bright and sharp at 7 AM on Sunday, May 8, Daryl Johnson, Bob Nation, Christine Gilbertson and Carol Hartwig trained their binoculars and spotting scopes on the northern portion of Cowichan Estuary for the Coastal Bird Survey. A total of 163 birds from 14 species were observed on a very calm Bay with excellent visibility on an overcast day at high tide:
10 Great Blue Heron, 13 Canada Goose,8 Mute Swan, 12 Bufflehead, 2 Common Goldeneye, 44 Common Merganser, 55 Glaucous-winged Gull, 2 Osprey, 2 Black Oystercatcher, 1 Belted Kingfisher, 9 Purple Martin, 1 Bald Eagle, 3 Northwestern Crow, 1 Common Raven

Meanwhile, on the south side of the Cowichan Estuary, Laurie Vasey, John Scull, and Barry Hetchco counted:
20 Surf Scoter, 11 Great Blue Heron, 2 Double-crested Cormorant, 1 Mute Swan, 1 Bald Eagle, 4 gull sp., 4 Northwestern Crow, 11Glaucous-winged Gull, 1 Belted Kingfisher, 6 Osprey, 30 Common Merganser, 4 duck sp.
plus many purple martin, a mink, and a river otter

To all our followers.
This past Wednesday we managed to gather all of the regular participants who partook in the Swan count this past season and headed off up to Nanaimo for a bit of birding and lunch at the Crow and Gate. 11 of us left the dog park and headed up the highway to our first stop at Cassidy Airport with high hopes of getting some scarce vagrant, but it was a bit breezy and most birds were staying low down in the vegetation all except a multitude of Tree and Violet-green Swallows who must have wondered what had happened to that nice warm weather of a few days ago.
We left and headed straight to the Nanaimo Estuary where our first bird on Raines Road was a immature Red-tailed Hawk, it is strange but not many immature birds tend to stay through the winter in our area so it was a nice surprise to see, We added a few other birds along the road before we reached the estuary, here the wind had picked up a bit and some looked a little reluctant to get out of the vehicles, but in good old swan counting form all were out and huddling together. Many dozens of swallows were back and forth along the river and it took a while before Kurlene informed us that a Rough-winged Swallow has passed us by, a few of us got to see it before it eventually headed up and down the river, 4 Greater Yellowlegs were out on the gravel bar and even they were hunkered down from the stiff breeze. Up on the viewing tower we got close together in hopes of not dispersing any heat out into the air. A flock of about 60 Cackling Geese ventured high up heading north-east. It did not take long for all to decide that enough was enough and we climbed down to get out of the wind. A lovely breeding plumage male Savannah Sparrow posed for a few snaps, one of only a handful of passerines brave enough to venture out of the undergrowth.
As we were about to leave Bald Eagles and another Red-tailed Hawk took to the skies and circled overhead while a Belted Kingfisher sat lifeless along the river hoping for some fresh fish.
We slowly headed back along Raines Road and a Red-breasted Sapsucker was pecking around a hydro pole while a hardy Rufous Hummingbird hung onto the hydro line for dear life.
At this point I had already two inquiries about when were we going to eat so we headed slowly for the Crow and Gate where we were greeted with the sound of House Sparrows. It was not long before we were all seated around one massive table and our scrumptious lunch was before us, this year for refreshment I had to settle for water as not to upset the old knogging which has not been behaving itself of late. I thought some compassion would ensue, but the young lady beside me swug down sleeve after sleeve of lovely looking British ale. We had our picture taken by a nice lady who I suspect had not seen a cell phone before, like me she was challenged with the use of modern technology. Sadly she managed to catch me saying cheese or trying to get a bit of pie out of my teeth.
There was one strange occurrence when this young chap started hitting on one of our ladies, he held her hand and said that she reminded him of his first love, this made our friend blush a little, but sadly for her it did not go any further. One other lady at our table quipped “some woman have all the luck”
At this point I thought it best if we vacated the premises, who knows what would have happened if the one swigging all the beer had been closer to the action.
We headed off back down Yellow Point Road checking a few spots as we went and then a wonderful sight caught my eye and I quickly suggested that our driver turn around so that we could view the awesome sight. Thousands of Shooting Stars were blooming on this gentle sloping lot, I have never seen so many gathered together, my biggest flock ever. As the shutterbugs blasted off the cameras I stayed beside the vehicle and it was just by chance that I looked behind me and saw some Easter Lillies blooming Erythronium to the botanists among us. What I thought were more Shooting Stars dotted among the white petals turned out to be Lady Slippers, once again the most I have ever seen in this province there must have been 50 or more, what a delight.
Anyways back to birding we headed to Doole Road in the hopes of seeing a Black Duck, but all we got got were black horses, the whisperers among us managed to get the them over, what a lovely group of horses they were. Meanwhile one avid birder had meandered down the road and was beckoning the group to join her, she had found a nice group of 7 Greater White-fronted Geese a species that we had trouble finding our our counts. A single way off bird siting high up in the fir showed all the jizz of being a Red Crossbill so I made our lister add them to our ever growing list of species.
We moved on while one of the other car loads, you know the one that was always lagging behind during our swan counts stopped to check out some duckies and they added a few more species to the list.
We had decided to give the airport one more try and waited patiently for the others to catch up, but it was all too much for Bob and Helen who had danced the away the night before and were ready for a nice comfy chair and so we said our farewells as Eric and Dorothy took them home.
It was still blowing when we reached the airport and even the swallows had given up, but all was not lost a Killdeer sat put in a trailer park surrounded by bunnies and just as we left a spring plumage Chipping Sparrow worked the fenceline picking up something to eat.
That was it, our wonderful day was over, hugs all round to our wonderful team who have been a joy to be with over the past winter months. We ended up with a little over 30 species on this breezy day.
Big thanks to all for their support.
A few pictures are included for your enjoyment.

Derrick

South Side of the Bay:
On this beautiful, calm morning, Gail Mitchell, Barry Hetchco, John Scull, and LInda Hill walked through Hecate Park and saw these birds plus 27 Purple Martins.
1 Common Loon, 6 Surf Scoter, 3 Great Blue Heron, 13 Double-crested Cormorant, 2 Mute Swan, 1 Bald Eagle, 7 gull sp., 2 Northwestern Crow, 4 Glaucous-winged Gull, 4 Belted Kingfisher, 2 Osprey, 20 Common Merganser , 46 Bufflehead, 1 Horned Grebe, 10 Common Goldeneye
John Scull

North Side of the Bay:
At 8 AM on Sunday, April 10, Daryl Johnson, Bob Nation, Christine Gilbertson and Carol Hartwig trained their binoculars and spotting scopes on the northern portion of Cowichan Estuary for the Coastal Bird Survey. A total of 300 birds from 15 species were observed on a very calm Bay with excellent visibility on an overcast day at high tide.
1 Common Loon, 6 Horned Grebe, 2 Great Blue Heron, 7 Canada Goose, 8 Mute Swan , 14 American Wigeon, 2 Mallard, 4 Surf Scoter, 145 Bufflehead, 6 Common Merganser, 7 Common Goldeneye, 88 unidentified Gull, 3 Bald Eagle, 2 Northwestern Crow, 5 Common Raven
Carol Hartwig

We gathered at the dog park to set off on our end of the year celebration to the Nanaimo Estuary and then to the Crow and Gate for lunch when we noticed many were missing, especially our intrepid leader Derrick, and then Deb, and Bob and Helen. Derrick and Deb were ill, Bob and Helen had already been booked. So we muddled about and finally Eric and Dorothy decided to attend to other duties after we decided it just wouldn’t be the same without the whole crew. We will just change the date to a time when all can attend! Problem solved! That left 4 of us and we decided to carry on and off we went. Just outside of Chemainus I remembered someone had been seeing a Northern Pygmy Owl on Little Mountain in Parksville and being that no one had to be back early, we decided to try for this bird. We pulled into the parking lot at the top of Little Mountain and rushed off to the see what we could find. It’s a beautiful view spot if anyone hasn’t been there and well worth the journey, especially in the spring when you never know what might fly by. We played the Pygmy call and low and behold, there was a reply!! At this point the sound wasn’t easy to pinpoint and we were all looking in different directions, and wondering if there wasn’t another owl hunter playing a call too. That would be somewhat embarrassing…….and then Barry spotted him, on a tree just off the cliff and the mad dash for a better viewpoint was on. A beautiful little bird, calling and giving us great views and photos. Another photographer, Steve Large from Nanaimo was there and it was his first Pygmy too. We were all thrilled and observing him when a kami kazi group of Pine Siskins came in and attacked! We were amazed at their audacity and after a few skirmishes the owl retreated to the woods below. We waited for a bit to see if he would come back and I noticed a bird sitting on a dead tree just off the cliff again and it turned out to be a Townsend’s Solitaire!!! Another flurry of photos and excitement as this isn’t a particularly common bird here on the island. We also ran into Guy Monty doing a raptor and eagle survey and he called in a Hutton’s Vireo and a Yellow Rumped Warbler. A Peregrin Falcon was screaming around the cliffs too. Beautiful place, beautiful weather and wonderful birds!! At this point we went for lunch, stopped on Plummer Rd where there were Brandt, an Eared Grebe and other waterbirds. We didn’t make it back til suppertime which shows you what happens when Derrick isn’t there to crack the whip!!!!

Here are a few pics I took, the Northern Pygmy Owl on his perch, then two showing the angry Pine Siskin attack, and the Townsend’s Solitaire. I’m sure others will have better shots to share but I wanted to give everyone an idea of what we were up to!!

Kurlene, Christina, Zan and Barry………..the runaways

“Our last hurrah”

All good things must come to an end and so our swan and goose count played out its last week of the season. The weather was cold and damp, but we shouldn’t complain as this season has been very kind to us. Numbers were down right across the board with just 33 Trumpeter Swans remaining with most of them being immature birds. Our Hawk numbers took a dive, but we did find 3 Turkey Vultures sitting on top of a hydro tower up on Richards Trail, our first of the year, and 2 Peregrine Falcons, one along Lakes and the other on Sahilton Road which sat nicely for his photo to be taken.
8 of the swan and goose counting fraternity left the dog park and oh was it slow going, the raptor car got even slower than normal and was missed for most of the first half and was way behind by the time we hit A&W. We could have done with some sunshine to brighten our day, but we have been hardened over the weeks so laughter came from both vehicles as our count began with a few goosies. Most of the geese appeared to have left with none of those monster flocks which were last encountered last week. Dickie birds were at a premium which did not help the photographers among us. We did have a photogenic Great Blue Heron in Somenos Marsh and a Red-breasted Sapsucker that played hide and seek around a maple on Drinkwater Road. Somenos Lake had a few Canada Geese and about the same number of Double-crested Cormorants, but all other duckies were long gone.
We pushed on and the north end did not give us much to write home about, some say they had Killdeer, but I never saw them. The Richards Valley has started to lose some of it’s water and with that went the ducks and swans, swallows have replaced waterfowl with many flying low over the remaining water trying to catch a bug or two, most of these were Tree Swallows and Violet-greens. American Robins have set up camp next to the roads as they pick up the odd worm and creepy crawlies. It was not long when we found ourselves stopping for lunch all of us praying that the second half would bring forth a few big white birds. But just like our beginning we stumbled out of the blocks and were long gone around Koksilah and Bench with still no Trumpeters. We did pick up a few eagles and a couple of Red-tailed Hawks but that was it. Dougan’s Flats was devoid of any birds except one solitary gull way down in the fields. We nipped across the highway and headed for St.Catherine’s and I urged the others to think positive and it worked, there way down in the fields were our first Trumpeters, a family group of 2 adults and 3 immature spending their last few days stocking up on food for their long journey. A male Anna’s Hummingbird sat up beside the car until he saw the cameras and made a dash for cover much to the annoyance of some. Jim’s Pond had one of the bigger flocks of Canada Geese this week and just a couple of Bufflehead males looking lost without their girlfriends to keep them company. Along to Koksilah Road east and another small group of swans this time 15 birds with 13 of them immature. Down through Cowichan Bay we picked up a Mute Swan and in Dinsdale’s Farm another 13 Trumpeter Swans again most being immature. This our last group of swans were saved in digital format. We were now well ahead on time as we hit the Dock Road and I was surprised to see everyone out of the vehicles as it was not at all pleasant, we did get 5 more Mute Swans and one far off bird, but I was not about to get the scope out and look at this single bird in this weather so it went down as swan species.
Our count was complete and after a good rest I will put together some data about how our numbers fared this season, but numbers are down a little as migrating birds search further south for that sweet sweet grass. Our last good sighting of the day was a pair of Killdeer flying out of Somenos Marsh, it won’t be long before they are nesting.
I want to give a big thanks to all those who have taken part in our count this season and a major round of thanks to Dorothy for keeping our tally up to scratch and those great photographers who have brightened my roundup report each week. To those wonderful drivers who kept us on the straight and narrow even if some times our vehicles decided to go it alone, a major thank you.

Derrick

Photo Credits
Peregrine Falcon by Barry Hetscho
Last of the swans by Zan Stenhouse
Red-winged Blackbird by Zan Stenhouse
The Cob by Christina Cutbill
Great Blue Heron by Zan Stenhouse