Festival of owls

Added brant to my 'seen-from-the-house' list this morning as 4 headed south offshore.
Also managed to snap a typically poor shot of a superb varied thrush from the living room window. Definitely still my favourite Canadian bird.

An afternoon visit to the Nanaimo River estuary was quite rewarding with 2 short-eared owls showing well in the fields just by the parking area at the end of Raines Road. Later another turned up and all 3 were seen hunting over the marsh - very nice. The pair (male & female) seemed very much a pair, often hunting close together, while the other (female) only showed relatively briefly and kept her distance.
2 northern harriers were also doing the rounds, one a juvenile the other (pictured) appeared to be a sub-adult female but I'm happy to be corrected!
An adult northern shrike was doing its usual thing.
A couple of Eurasian wigeon were amongst the many American wigeon out on the sea, where the ever increasing bufflehead raft also contained a pair of common goldeneye. The large flock of Barrow's goldenenye were, incidentally, still on the river.
7 trumpeter swans were on the water and a group of 11 flew over heading south-east.