Unfortunately, I was on the hunt for a much-needed tin-opener during my lunch break today, so the birding was somewhat limited... I made up for this atrocious state of affairs, with a dusky, post-work, visit to Quennell Lake.
The light, although fading, wasn't too bad and I managed a fairly convincing sweep through the 1000 or so Canada geese present - there appeared to be nothing of note amongst them.
On the water, there were about a dozen trumpeter swans plus small numbers of pintail, A. wigeon, GW teal, mallard, bufflehead & hooded mergs. A notable 'influx' of northern shoveler had taken place since my last visit, with 11 birds seen.
I hung around as the light vanished, but my only reward was the sight of a bunny.
Incidentally, I didn't find a suitable tin-opener.
I always reckoned that Sooty's friend was a pretty convincing Sweep too. What a strange household that was... almost on a par with Hector etc and those strange Rainbow creatures.
ReplyDeleteYou can open a tin quite easily by heating it up with a blowlamp or similar heat source.
Not only will this open the tin, it will spread the contents out neatly for you.
Is there such a thing as a Southern Shoveler?
Best wishes from Ray waiting to instruct some plumbers in the mysteries of mathematics using only a crossbow and a jar of marmalade.
Hey Jon.. I've just noticed that any day now your blog will overtake mine in the top 30000000 blog ranky thing. I feel ill already.
ReplyDeleteI know, I generally steer clear of those silly 'northern' bits when there's no confusable other. But there IS a southern shoveler, though it's better known as Australian shoveler - hardly likely to turn up on Vancouver Island, admittedly. Technically, the South African Cape shoveler and Argentinian red shoveler, also qualify as southern shovelers too...
ReplyDeleteAs for the 'let's see how unpopular your blog really is' counter, you have no worries - when I first installed it, it shot down to 426 at one point, then people realised my blog was crap and it crept back up the mid-500s, where it doubtless languish till the next millennium.
mostlybirdingwithray did just the same! It's probably a pre-fixed routine in the build-em-up-knock-em-down tradition. What surprises me, though, is that when you look at the blogs surrounding you in the ranking they are generally dead boring... just photos and banal comments.
ReplyDeleteI suppose people like that kind of thing.
On blogs like yours and mine they get to read about proper stuff like the recently discovered Blue tit molecule and the Retrospectroscope.
I can hardly wait to read about them myself.... when I get round to actually writing them.