Hi Birders
It had to happen sooner or later, no silly not the big one, but the rain what finally hit us on Wednesday, not much but enough to keep some of the counters packing a brolly, one of which was open, it is this brolly that I blame for the rain.
Well 5 of us got off to a good start with many geese in the school fields. A few Trumpeters were seen in Somenos Marsh and the pair of Mute swans were on the DU pond.
Somenos Lake was deserted with just a single adult Trumpeter although the two Song Sparrows that were paddling in the rising lake were nice, guess even birds have to wash their feet now and again. We made our way along to Mt Sicker Road but I’m afraid the farmer has stopped the birds from feeding here and there was only a single immature swan feeding, it could be injured in someway?
Along with the lack of waterfowl was the lack of eagles at this normally good location.
We worked our way around through Richard’s Trail and once again we saw the American Kestrel sitting on the hydro wires.
Highway 18 had a nice group of swans which made for easy counting and finally Somenos/ Drinkwater had a small group also.
We stopped at A&W for our pit stop and then we were on our way to Sahilton and Courfield Roads were we hit on one of the largest groups of swans we’ve ever encountered, 400 birds were counted and two had neck collars which were easy to see, they being our old friends UK24 and UK01 who seemed to have teamed up in the same group for once.
Koksilah Road west added over 170 swans and a few geese, but Bench Road only found what appeared to be a family group of 6 swans.
Dougan’s Flats had a monster bunch of Geese and i was not about to try and count them as most were hidden from view so an estimate was made and totalled over 300. We also had just over a 100 swans in the fields.
It was on to St. Catherine’s Drive where we finally got a few swans for the winter with a bakers dozen. But where were the Quail? None were seen for the first time, but I’m sure they were there in the underbrush.
Koksilah east had just over 50 swans and then it was onto Dinsdale’s Farm where a medium size flock of Canada’s had 28 Greater White-fronted Geese in tow,
No birds at all were registered off the Dock Road so our day was done so we thought until a pair of adult swans were seen in Priest’s Pond, it must be a bit tricky for these birds to get in and out of this highly vegetated area.
Thanks to all counters and big thanks to Peggy for once again doing the driving duties, it sure makes for good looking when your up in the van.
Good Birding
Derrick