Seven eager counters turned up on this the first day of winter, did I say winter, so what was that we had last week? It was a lovely day with no wind and a nice bit of sunshine and for sure the swans knew it was winter as they turned up in good numbers. It is funny that we all were a little worried about the lack of swans and here we are this week with big numbers, so the birds know when it is time to come to the Cowichan Valley. With just over 550 Swans counted today.
We headed off and straight away we started counting Geese on the school fields and the golf driving range, two neck banded geese were seen 031P and 050P. Goose numbers were down a couple of hundred this week, but on Sunday good numbers were seen around the Manley Park area to the south of our count, guess they didn’t want to be added to our sheets.
A lovely adult Northern Shrike was seen in Somenos as we passed by and our first Red-tailed Hawk of the day sat proud in the Cottonwoods at the Open Air Classroom. The Somenos Lake was still half frozen and the geese had found a piece hard enough to hold a gathering and standing in the middle with it’s reddish pink legs and no head was a Greater White-fronted Goose who obviously had been out all night partying with the Canada’s and was sleeping it off. As we headed back up Drinkwater Road the first photo op of the day was had when a Red-breasted Sapsucker was getting drunk on a Maple tree, this bird has been seen at this location on numerous occasions and has several good wells going. After posing nicely for us we were gone up the highway adding more birds to our list, Bald Eagle numbers started to grow on the list and several sat up in the trees at Quists’s farm. Just a handful of Trumpeter’s were found along Westholme Road and Richard Trail had a few more. As we entered Tom Windsor Drive a female deer and her fawn crossed the road and Barry saw his second photo opportunity, sadly the female deer didn’t see it that way and disappeared into the woods, the fawn thought otherwise and glanced back and gave Barry the old come on. As we headed along Herd Road an immature Coopers Hawk caught our eye and with an about turn in the middle of the road its picture was had for the record. It was slim pickings from here on in to our rest at A&W, but refreshed with cookies and apple turnovers and some lovely choccies, thanks Zan, we were off to Boy’s Road and the main thrux of our numbers for the day, eagles and swans were all over the place and for the first time this season we were in the blue so to speak. We left this area with over 300 swans and almost 150 eagles, we were happy campers now. Over on the west side of town we started slowly with just a few more eagles to tally until we hit Bench Road and way down in the fields more swans were seen funny though for some reason these did not make it onto the tally sheet, but I am sure this will be remedied before I finish this report or heads will roll. Dougan’s Flats had Geese and just a handful of Swans, St.Cattherine’s only had sparrows to look at. Koksilah Road east had it’s first swans of the year and most were counted from Willmot Road. Down through Cowichan Bay we went and our first Mute Swans were encountered. More Eagles sat at Dinsdale’s Farm and some of these have had more pictures taken than some celebrities.
The Dock Road came next and our next big photo op as a Short-eared Owl cruised across the field and landed on a post in front of us, what struck me was how several walkers walked past this bird and never noticed it, oh well we can’t all be fanatics were Owls are concerned. Two Northern Harriers were seen in the bay to round off our raptor count.
You know how it is this time of year you hear
all sorts of joyous songs, well I’m sure somewhere along the way I heard carol singers, something about a partridge in a pear tree.
That was it our day was done and we were as happy as a pigs in clover.
Photo credits
Red-breasted Sapsucker by Kurlene Wenberg
Coopers Hawk by Barry Hetscho
Fawn by Barry Hetscho
Carol singers by Zan Stenhouse
Short-eared Owl by Kurlene Wenberg
A wonderful Christmas to you all and special thanks to my good counting buddies who without them this count would not be possible.
Derrick
PS – our next regular Wednesday count will be Jan. 11th, 2017.
Don’t forget the Christmas Bird Count – Jan. 1st – contact Derrick if you want to join in.
From Comox Valley: Swan Count tallies for December 20th . This weeks Trumpeter tally was 732 adults and 183 juveniles for a total of 915. In comparison, the total tally for the same period in 2015 was 1556 swans.