Pale Swallowtail
Earth Day brought glorious sunshine to Cowichan Bay and the Cowichan Bay Dock Road, 22 species of humanoids turned out for this wonderful Wednesday. When all was said and done there were 38 species of birds seen and heard by the group. A bit slower than what I was expecting, that’s nature for you.
First of the year Brown-headed Cowbird was one of the first species seen and a group of Turkey Vultures drifted by, we slowly made our way along the dirt old railway bed where male Rufous Hummingbirds watched our every move, one even did a diving dance just to let us know that this was his turf and we were intruding. Orange-crowned Warbler gave out a song and a pair of Rufous-sided Towhees tried to out sing each other. A first of the year for most was a Pale Swallowtail butterfly that drifting between the crowd.
One of our members cruised the road in her vehicle after doing her earth day duties of picking up discarded food wrappers and goodness knows what else and spotted a Great Yellowlegs and Killdeer, but a marauding Bald Eagle came flying across just before we got there and scared all and sundry off out of sight.
A brief glimpse of a female Northern Pintail and a few Green-winged Teal were all that was left for us to admire. A group of local Mute Swans did a flyby and a resident Trumpeter Swan sat out on the mud. The last of the winters Buffleheads worked the river slowly drifting out into the estuary, they will soon be gone along with the only female Common Goldeneye seen. Both Gadwall and American Wigeon dabbled out in the wet mud.
One of the local Great Blue Herons came gliding along with a big branch in it’s bill, we can only guess that some nest rebuilding was going to take place at the local rookery.
A pair of Osprey put on a nice show, one flew out across the river while one paddled out on the mud and then sat up on a dwarf fir for us to admire. While we were watching the Osprey a couple of River Otters worked one of the tidal tributaries, but they did not stay up long for all to see. A single male Purple Martin drifted over and a few others were seen at the nest boxes out in the bay. Tree Swallows, not in big numbers flew back and forth.
We worked our way out to the new bridge and photos and chatter were had during our short rest.
The group finally worked it’s way back with a single Savannah Sparrow seen down in the grasses and a Marsh Wren that dived for cover before we could get a good look. A female Red-winged Blackbird worked it’s way along the edge of the mud and disappeared into a hole in the vegetation only to come out about two feet further around the corner.
Our day was done and what a splendid one it was, we were most fortunate to be on earth this day.
A full list of birds is below.
Derrick
Canada Goose
Mute Swan
Trumpeter Swan
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Red-tailed Hawk
Killdeer
Great Yellowlegs
Mew Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Rock Pigeon
Rufous Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Northwestern Crow
Common Raven
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
Marsh Wren
American Robin
European Starling
Orange-crowned Warbler
Spotted Towhee
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird