Friday 23 April 2010

Nanaimo Delta blues

Had a wander around the estuary before heading into work this morning.
First bird of note was a Lincoln's sparrow near the big oak, but little else implied much in the way of fresh migrants until I found a female mountain bluebird in the fields.
A few yellow-rumped and orange-crowned warblers were working the hedge but it's hard to know whether they were new in - they weren't acting like newly arrived migrants.
An osprey passed over and did a bit of hovering out over the water and a peregrine zipped through.

Post-work, I returned to find even less. In fact, the only birds of note were a couple more Lincoln's sparrow, a merlin and an impressive flock of 136 common merganser on the river. 2 northern harrier were doing the rounds. Oh, and a MEGA on my way out - a collared dove was on the wires along Raines Road... yippee-doo. That's almost as good as pheasant.

Went to Holden Creek, just in case... The 12 white-fronted geese had multiplied and become 14. A single greater yellowlegs was feeding on the flashes and 4 least sandpiper were on the creek. One of the harriers came over, but it was pretty quiet otherwise.

Yesterday evening, I'd popped over to Quennell Lake, but it was fairly birdless: 1 pair shoveler, pair of wood duck, pair pied-billed grebe, ring-necked ducks, pintails, all the common swallows etc.
Holden Creek was quietish - a 'new' spotted sandpiper was present, as were Rich Mooney and Mike Ashbee. First time I've seen any other birders at Holden Creek!

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