Saturday 1 January 2011

New Year, new year list.

My first bird of 2011 was dark-eyed junco. Not too surprising, given their continual attendance at my feeders...
Jenny and I took off to Biggs Park for a walk to Jack Point. The sun was bright, there was no wind and visibility was excellent.
Offshore there were large rafts of mallard, plus scattered bufflehead, horned grebe, common loon, both goldeneye species and a few greater scaup.
There weren't too many passerines seen or heard along the way but a hermit thrush was a nice, unexpected find. Occasional chickadee flocks were encountered, often with accompanying Bewick's wren, red-breasted nuthatch or golden-crowned kinglet.
Off the point, there were several surf scoter, plus a river otter, numerous harbor seals and a sealion. 
After stopping off at home for a very welcome mug of hot-chocolate, we went for a walk to Hemer Park. 
It was fairly quiet here too. A group of hooded merganser were on the main lake while a number of American wigeon, 2 ring-necked duck and yet more mallard were on the mostly frozen pool. There were 22 trumpeter swan and a belted kingfisher here also. A pileated woodpecker called from within the forest. Pacific wrens seemed to be all over the place!
On our way out, we were somewhat surprised to see what was, presumably, the same white robin we came across in the same spot earlier in the year.

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