Be-Holden Creek

Spent an hour and a bit down at Holden Creek (the area of the Nanaimo River estuary shown to me by Mike Yip yesterday) early this morning. Of course, the tidal water levels were too high to be of any use for what few feeding waders might be around but it was still an excellent spot for some pre-breakfast birding.
Once again there were loads of ducks, though this time the many American wigeon were outnumbered by several hundred green-winged teal. Also present were plenty of pintail and mallard.
A single drake bufflehead came through but decided to keep going.
The sub-adult male and a juvenile northern harrier were quartering the marshes while the ubiquitous belted kingfishers were noisily rattling around the place. I managed a quick snap of one through my scope - hardly competes with Mike's superb pics but then we're using somewhat different equipment and I'm not as talented!
Small groups (or the same mobile flocks) of red crossbill were notable, while other common passerines included golden-crowned sparrow, juncos, house finch and song sparrow.
Bald eagles, ravens and great-blue herons were much in evidence.

Jen and I went for a wander round Hemer Park in the afternoon and although there were far fewer wigeon (30 or so) on the marshy pool than on previous visits, the following were noted: an impressive 27 gadwall, 3 northern shoveler, 4 ring-necked duck, 6 American coot and 8 hooded merganser plus a couple of pied-billed grebe.