Hi all naturalists
This weeks count was attended by 6 counters and the weather gods smiled upon us today with clear skies and moderately nice temperatures.
The count this week saw numbers similar to last weeks with a rise in Canada Geese and amazingly the same number of immature Trumpeters.
We counted the geese around Somenos Marsh and then headed towards the lake but on arrival we could only find 1 Trumpeter, was this a sign of things to come we wondered?
Out on the lake a small group of Ruddy Ducks were spotted and from what I could observe they all looked like males, but they were a long way away and some counters put them down as brown blobs.
We moved on to Quist Farms, but again no swans. Over on Westholme we were lucky to find a small group of 35 swans so all was not lost in the north end.
Richards Trail was a bust with nothing to count, but there were lots of duckies in there.
We headed on and it was with surprise that a sharp eyed counter spotted some swans in a field on Herd Road, a location that we have never had them before.
It then went cold again with no more sightings before our regular stop at A&W, here i spotted a couple of flying eagles which i added to the list of raptors which was suffering a lack in numbers at this point.
On to Sahilton Road saw the swans hiding down in this far off field for which we don’t have access too. But what was this, a gray blob sitting in a tree just above the swans, it must have been half a mile away but I was convinced it was a shrike and just as we were about to leave it flew down and was not seen again.
Koksilah Road west produced a few swans and Bench Road came through with over 90 swans in three locations; it really is a hit and miss with this location this year. Past years have been reliable for good numbers in the Bench fields.
Dougan’s Flats had a pitiful number of both swans and geese so it was on to St. Catherine’s Drive were it was nice to see a small group of swans and another Shrike. Lot’s of Sparrows at this location and a single Steller’s Jay a rare species this winter in the valley. An Anna’s Hummingbird sat up nicely in a small tree for all to view.
A new spot on Telegraph Road found 5 swans and 100 geese.
We moved slowly along to Koksilah Road east where there were just over 90 swans, this has been one of our most reliable spots this winter for swans and geese.
We worked our way down through Cowichan Bay admiring the new nature center and viewing platform as it quickly takes shape. What a great asset to Cowichan Bay this will be when it’s finished.
Dinsdale’s Farm found the mother load of Canada Geese and so I challenged the counters to each make a count and we would take the average of all numbers, well they ranged from 750-1000 so we settled for 850. These numbers will certainly drop in the coming weeks as the month long goose hunt starts soon.
The Dock Road had our usual number of Mute Swans and there were few Trumpeters out there also.
After recent comments in the newspaper I decided for the 10 minutes that we were there in the bay I would count the species out on the muddy and murky waters and in the hedgerows, I GRANT you I was worried that we wouldn’t see anything based on the news article but I came up with 26 species in and around us as we stood there and this from six senior citizens whose hearing and eyesight is not what it used to be.
Enjoy the sun
Derrick