Wednesday 20 July 2011

...and in more breaking tattler news...

The urge to do some birding was too strong to ignore this afternoon, and by 4.30pm I'd downed figurative tools, grabbed my bins and 'scope and was heading toward Clover Point, Victoria.
It was pretty much business as usual offshore with lots of rhinoceros auklets all over the place. A few pigeon guillemots were present, as was a single common murre.
4 Heermann's gulls were once again among the large numbers of the commoner species. The only shorebirds in evidence were 3 black oystercatcher.
A pair of harlequin ducks and the 7 surf scoter in-residence were bobbing about.

After desperately trying to find something more unusual, and failing, I decided to go and see if the wandering tattler was still to be seen around Ogden Point.
I checked the small harbour first, and soon came across the bird roosting on the rocks by the pilot boats dock. The light wasn't great, but it was certainly an improvement on the other day and I managed a couple of reasonable shots.

A brief post-work visit to Turkey Head, by Oak Bay Marina, yesterday evening proved quite interesting. Offshore, among a throng of feeding birds, including California & glaucous-winged gulls, pigeon guillemots, rhinoceros auklets and cormorants, were 29 Heermann's gulls.

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