Hi Birders
Once again we had a tremendous day with one after another great birds, they just kept coming much to the enjoyment of the 7.5 birders present this week, I say .5 because Bob once again slept in and was picked up at A&W. He must have known that it was going to be a long day and needed all the rest he could get. One of our participants mentioned that she had been away to a retreat, well at the end of the day I was ready to take in one of these restful places. Another one of our ladies had a list a mile long of what she wanted to see, didn’t she know this was a bird count not a big day, anyways at the end I think we managed to find most of what she wanted, let’s hope next week she doesn’t come with a whole new list of species.
Hawk numbers were really good with 2 Northern Harriers, 2 Cooper’s Hawk, 1 Sharp-shinned , 1 American Kestrel and an amazing 3 Peregrine Falcons, now that don’t happen very often in the valley. Eagle numbers dropped a bit but we did see a mated pair sitting by a nest which was nice.
Trumpeter Swans # 591 dropped a bit but were still in good numbers and we got some nice close up looks this week.
This week we finally caught up with the neck collared Trumpeter that had been seen for several weeks and it was nice and close and was confirmed as we thought as 01UK which has been around now for several years.
A single adult Tundra Swan (photo attached) was up on Riverside Road much to the delight of the lady with the big list although it took the photographer a while to home in on the bird.
Canada Geese went up and we were lucky to spot a single Cackling Goose flying over Sahilton Road with a small group of Canada’s. A single Snow Goose had now moved back to the south and was seen loafing in a field off St. Catherine’s Road, this guy sure moves around.
You should be aware that most of the Geese roost in the Somenos area overnight, so it must be a toss up about who decides which way to go in the early morning.
The Sandhill Crane was once again off Koksilah and Bench. This got me to wondering, what will happen in the spring, will the crane take off with the Trumpeter’s or will it hear some of it’s own kind fly over heading north and head up to join them? If we could only know.
This week saw the return of a group of Mute Swans to the north side of Cowichan Bay and I counted 16 adults and 4 immature.
There was a lot of bleating on our route today (photo attached) so it has to be spring. Altogether Aah.
As our day came to a close down on the Dock Road we were hoping for another look at the Short-eared Owl, but sadly it did not put in an appearance this week, but the big consolation prize was a Northern Shrike that hunted right out in front of us until a Northern Harrier came cruising over and disturbed it.
That was it our day was done and so was I, the pressure of finding birds and keeping the troops in order at least for the first 5 minutes of count had taken it’s toll on my body, it was 4:00pm and I
still had to face you know who back home.
Once again a big thank you to Barry for his excellent photo’s
Take care and keep looking.
Derrick