Not having been birding much of late I ventured down to the Dock Road in hopes that this lovely weather had brought down some shorebirds. Not many were seen but a few Least and a couple of Westerns and three Semi Plovers. There were some stars to be had though and topping the bill so to speak was a male Lesser Scuap possibly the first ever summer record for the bay, it was swimming with a scarce for the time of year female Common Goldeneye, these two were also accompanied by a female Hooded Merganser and a breeding plumage Horned Grebe, what a quartet they made as they swam across right in front of me.
I then got the old heart racing when through the bins I saw a very dark medium sized gull, I thought this was the year that I would get my first ever Heermanns Gull for the bay, sadly when the scope was raised it was a very dark 1st year California Gull, this is not the first time one of these blighters has conned me from a long distance. 1 Mew Gull looked out of place with nearly 50 Ring-billed Gulls and some nice adult California’s fresh in from afar.
Barn Swallows were in good attendance, but sadly most were adults and a single adult Cliff Swallow was amongst them.
Osprey are doing well with three visible nests with young, the adults fly over the house most days with trout from Quamichan Lake, so the young are eating well. 4 adult Bald Eagles kept watch while one was down chewing on a waterfowl species in the grass.
Dickie birds were almost non existent.
Another very rare sight this morning were Greater and Lesser Puddles, it has been many months since i have seen so many and a very welcome relieve it is to, things were getting scary here.
Derrick