Hi
It finally caught up with us, no not the holiday blues, but the weather, the rain that was forecast got us good, but in good counting style it did not sway us from the job at hand. Would you believe it, on our worst weather day of the season we had near record numbers, go figure.
Eagle numbers were down from the dizzy heights of two weeks ago, but we did manage 8 Red-tailed Hawks and a nice Peregrine Falcon sitting up on a dead snag on Koksilah Road east. No accipters this week, guess they, like us only like the good weather days.
Somenos Lake was very light on big waterfowl but little ones were good with 4 Ruddy Ducks and a single Canvasback swimming together and of course Hooded and Common Mergansers. 2 Pied-billed Grebes showed well.
Swans and geese were spread out this week and we did manage some big white birdies in the north end of our count with Quist Farm and Westholme Road adding a few.
Goose numbers have started to climb as birds from up island start to come for the good feeding in the valley and it was nice to spot two white neck banded birds on Herd Road which originated from Craig Bay up in the Parksville area, both were banded in 2012 and had not been seen since that summer. This is the second time I have had some of these birds in our area and I’m sure it won’t be the last. I contacted the banders and they were just happy to let us have some of their birds.
The mother load of geese, one of our biggest ever recorded flocks for our count were on Hwy 18 with 1100 Canada’s, 5 Cacklers and 8 Greater White-fronted Geese. Good job someone can count without fingers.
This week there were only 4 counters and I was entertained by 3 young at heart ladies who tried to sway my judgment with nuts and chockies, Christina took on the driving duties even though she had a bad foot, this bad foot came into play as we entered A&W where two amighty bumps had us bouncing around in the van, I’m sure if she had seen him earlier that poor fellow would not be laying prone on the ground, he was okay though as Isaw him with a coffee and a burger walking across the car park as we left, thank god for security cameras as it showed that he had thrown himself under the van to try and stop us form using the loo’s.
We headed off to Sahilton Road where we found over 200 Trumpeter’s in several different fields, once again there was a lack of immature birds, so i think we can safely say this was not a good breeding season for the swans.
We checked the fields on Koksilah Road west for any pheasants but all we found was a large flock of Robins. Bench Road was next and we added another 90+ swans. As we hit Dougans flats birds were flying about and it was hard to judge just how many were coming or going or how many we had counted already but when the feathers settled we had added another 70 birds to our ever growing total.
Surprise, surprise as we got to St.Catherines Road where 50 more swans were spread out down the fields.
From here on in it was getting wetter and the birds had gone and by the time we hit the Dock Road the fog and wet made it almost impossible to identify which species of swans we were looking at so I put them down as species.
Thanks to my three lovely ladies, Christina, Kurlene and Deb for their company and their friendly banter which makes these counts so entertaining to do.
You will notice in the files that i have added in the Duncan Christmas Count numbers for January 1st and although a little higher are not that far off from what we encountered.
Until next week, finish up those leftovers.
Derrick