Hi
There are days when you just know that it is going to be an exceptional day.
My day started on a bit of waste land along Cowichan Bay Road where I found a pair of discarded kitchen catchers loaded with empty beer cans, over forty in total, what a start to the day. Then a walk through Hecate Park like I do most days I found a poor Loon laying in the car park, this was no Common Loon but one of those brass ones, I was rich. I was on a roll and there would be no stopping me for the rest of the day.
My next stop was the Cowichan Bay Dock Road where I found a young lady who was eager to accompany me on my morning walk, it was not long before we spotted one of the resident Ospreys who was doing a bit of fishing and soon flew across the bay to join its partner at last year’s nest site.
Barn Swallows had been seen before we met and a single Savannah Sparrow flew down and settled on a partially sunken boat, this was a new bird for my year’s list and you know the old saying that once you’ve seen one then the floodgates open, well two flocks of Savannah’s appeared and flew along in front of us.
Our attention was then drawn to a dark thin cloud that approached from the south-east, this cloud was calling loudly and it was a large skein of migrating geese this was soon followed by many others and this annual occurrence of Greater White-fronted and Lesser Canada Geese continued on right through the day.
A River Otter dove for it’s breakfast and only had time to give us a passing glance.
After saying our goodbyes I headed home for my brekky. It was not long before I got the itch and with the sun coming out Winston and I headed back out to see what we could find. Corfield Road was my next stop and it was here that I found my first Damselfly of the year, a Pacific Forktail freshly emerged to bask on some damp dirt right in front of me.
Later while conducting my daily bird observations in the garden my attention was drawn to a wonderful male American Goldfinch that came into the sunflower seed feeder, it sat on one side while a lovely male House Finch sat the other, what a picture.
Alas it appears that the Crossbills found the lovely weather too irresistible and were not observed, what a treat they had put on for me for a couple of days.
5 species of butterfly passed through the garden today and one fresh Spring Azure sat still long enough for me to get a nice closeup look at it’s under-wing.
The day was not finished yet as nature had another few surprises for me, a flock of 7 Red-winged Blackbirds came flying in and brought with them a female Brown-headed Cowbird, another new year bird for me.
One of the bay’s Ospreys passed over with a nice trout, caught from Quamichan Lake, this was sure to impress his lady friend who was more than likely waiting in anticipation for his return.
Next came a phone call from my good mate Dave who said that a large flock of Greater White-fronted Geese were passing over Mill Bay and that I should look out for them, well it took exactly 8 minutes before I saw them coming over the house. This posed a question if it took 8 minutes from Mill Bay to Duncan how long would it take a flock to fly from it’s California wintering ground until they reached the breeding grounds so many miles north?
As the young lady birder had spoken this morning this is my favorite time of year, one never knows what will turn up next.
We are blessed here on the west coast with a wide variety of nature to watch, so get out and enjoy.
Derrick