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