Hi This week we once again had good weather to start and rain to finish. I sat patiently waiting for the participants to arrive and as 10.00:am drew near there was know one to be seen, then finally they started to arrive and when we were ready to leave we had six participants in two cars. I jumped in with Eric and Dorothy while Bob handled the other ladies not literally of course. This week saw a new enthusiastic rooky arrive with a vehicle with a large metal platform attached to the back of her car, for just a minute I thought this was for me to travel on the back and shout out the species as we sped along the highway. Anyways off we went and we only went 400 yards before we lost Bob as we skipped around school district 79’s yard so that we got a good look at the golf driving range, here we counted a small group of geese. On to Somenos Marsh where we recorded our first adult Trumpeter Swan, this bird has been in the same spot for a few days, so I hope it’s not injured. As we approached the DU pond, low and behold there was Bob parked up with his two ladies, he quickly followed on behind as we headed down to Somenos Lake. The birding was slow on the water with just Doubl Crested Cormorants and a single Common Loon. We then headed down the highway to the Quist farm where a nice assortment of ducks and geese were present, but no swans. Then it was on to Westholme Road where 10 adult swans were seen, only two participants found me in amongst the tall broom, but others could hear me calling out the numbers. Don’t forget the pruners next week. Richard’s Trail came through with good numbers of all waterfowl species and just over 160 swans and about the same amount of geese were counted. We were very lucky when I spotted an adult Tundra Swan motionless between two clumps of grass and it gave the group lovely looks for all to enjoy. After this it was all geese as we headed to our rest break at A&W. One high lite was at the top of Auchanchie Road where a large group of Pine Siskins where feeding on seed heads down in a field and kept flying up and sitting on the fence, I of course scrutinized these in the hope of finding a Common Redpoll, but it was not to be. Corfield and Sahilton Roads were next, but we bombed out and all we had for our troubles was 4 Trumpeters and a large female juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk and our one and only Northern Shrike which sat up on the hydro lines looking for it’s afternoon snack. The Sharpy was a first since I started counting raptors last year. Off to the west we went and we only found 3 swans on Koksilah west. Nothing at Bench and so we were on our way to Dougan’s Flats where the motherload of Canada Geese were stationed. Almost 800 were dutifully counted in the rain with not a swan to be seen. Nothing was seen all the way through to Dinsdales Farm where two trumpeters had the vast area to themselves. Cowichan Bay has had a nice bunch of swans for the past couple of weeks and we manged to find 10 Trumpeters and 8 Mute Swans over towards Khenipson Road. Lot’s of ducks and gulls were out on the water which is good for the soon to begin waterbird survey. Our numbers have increased a little from last week and we hope that the big numbers will start to move down the island as the weather gets colder. The eagles in Cowichan Bay are showing well on the low tides, but seem to disappear as the water rises, these past two early mornings have seen over 50 in the bay towards the mill from the Dock Road.
On a side note this Friday morning a adult Peregrine Falcon was chasing American Robins along the Dock Road. Another rare sight was a Short-eared Owl that was being harassed by Common Ravens, this bird kept circling up and up trying to get away from this pests and in the end it glided out over Dinsdales Farm. It was strange to see this species so high in the sky as they are usually seen coarsing the fields or sitting on the fence posts. The Ravens soon turned their attention to a juvenile Northern Harrier that came gliding down beside the river and the marauding bunch chased it across the bay. The Ravens soon returned to feast on the dead Salmon that have really started to wash down river into the estuary. That’s it until next week. Happy Birding Derrick