“Counters worst nightmare”
This week saw 8 counters head out in two vehicles expertly driven by Christina and Barry, the worst of the rain held off until the last 15 minutes so we kept ourselves dry.
Adult swan numbers dropped a bit this week but the immatures were spot on with the past few weeks numbers. Bald Eagle numbers went up a bit from last weeks drop with many adult pairs sitting together at nesting sites, it is always great to see these pairs bonding together for the breeding season.
Canada Goose numbers dropped considerable this week with just 432, not sure where they all went, but they weren’t in our count area.
Red-tailed Hawks seem to have retreated back in the woods, but one lovely individual put on a nice show for the shutterbugs.
A 3 Merlin day was nice and a couple of accipiter species, the last one giving us much trouble even with a picture or two, my personal feeling was that it was an adult Sharp-shinned Hawk, but the pictures really didn’t confirm that.
One of the best sightings of the day was seen by me, as I always stop along Lakes Road to count the Geese as I head to the dog park, i climbed up on the dike behind the gas station and down below me were several Green-winged Teal and with them was a nice Eurasian version, known as the Common Teal, each year we seem to get one somewhere around the valley.
A strange sighting was up on Tom Windsor Drive where a bird sitting on a hydro pole gave us much trouble while looking through our bins, Barry suggested a Great Gray Owl but I thought more like Great Blue Heron, Barry said he could see the bill, while I thought it had it’s wings hanging down, well after much deliberation I got the scope out and put it on full power only to discover that it was some contraption on top of the pole with straps coming down onto the wires, it just goes to show, you must always check properly these strange looking birds.
Killdeer were heard calling at Quist’s farm and 2 others were seen on Richards Trail.
As we left Richards trail like we do each week we look for a black and white moggie, that sits in a field looking for anything that moves, this feline has been at this location for several years, but for the last few weeks had been absent, so it was with great pleasure we saw it this week and it posed nicely to have it’s picture taken.
Many nights after the day’s counting my head starts to create dreams of all sorts of strange happenings and last night was no exception, somehow or another I had a nightmare that we missed a whole bunch of swans when we failed to visit one of our better spots, I can remember screaming that we had to turn around and go back, but each time we ended up back at the same spot and why was Paul Fletcher driving? Those raptor girls kept laughing at me. It didn’t matter what I said we failed to count the birds, sadly I had to report that we only got a few Trumpeter Swans and there was outrage that we had failed to do our count properly, we even got a visit from the Trumpeter Swan Society to investigate if we were capable of carrying on. Not sure what happened after that as Ias i woke up rolled over and cuddled the wife. These counts must really get to me at times and all this talk about the upcoming visit from the swan society must have been playing on my mind.
A Pileated Woodpecker was working a dead snag at Duncan Meadows golf club as many Common Ravens frolicked in the sky having left the dump for some R&R.
Bench Road held the mother load of Trumpeter Swans with 332 adults and 80 immature, a wonderful sight indeed.
One very interesting sighting this week was on Wilson Road where a large pen had three big porkers, one brown, one black and one white, this reminded me of the British flag of red, white and blue. Not sure why they should have one of each color, but if they breed they might make an interesting striped pig.
We managed to get 3 Tundra Swans this week, one adult at Bench with an immature and another adult at Koksilah Road east which looked rather large and gave suggestion of maybe a hybrid, the bill suggests Tundra, but the size, who knows? but our photographers got a good picture so have look and see what you think.
While checking the swans out on the bay from the Dock Road the rain started in earnest and so we called it a day and headed back to the dog park.
This week it was our elder counter Eric’s time to get his picture taken along with swans in the background. I am amazed that our friend packs so much volunteering in to one week along with his wife Dorothy, who we have yet to get a snap.
Photo credits:
Eric by Barry Hetschko
Swans by Christina Cutbill
Red-tailed Hawk by Zan Stenhouse
Moggie by Kurlene Wenberg
Until we count again
Derrick
