Cedar Big Day

Although admittedly not the best time of the day for birding, I managed to spend most of the afternoon out at various local spots. It was a little breezy and cool, but gloriously bright and clear. 
I started out by trying to relocate the large swan flock that was by Adshead Road, Cedar last week but after driving around for a while it seemed apparent that they'd either moved on or were somewhere out of site.
I then made my way to Quennel Lake. A male American kestrel was hunting by the roadside (pictured) and before long an adult female northern harrier came by. The drake common teal was still present, as were the 2 intergrades, in among a few green-winged teal and pintail (the latter pictured below).
A flock of 96 lesser scaup were on the water, occasionally spooked by 2 gun-toting chaps in a boat who were patrolling the lake - I didn't see them actually shooting at anything, so heaven knows what their intended quarry was. Other wildfowl included common mergansers, bufflehead, hooded mergansers, ring-necked ducks and a couple of common goldeneye.

I then made a quick visit to Blue Heron Park at Yellowpoint. Remembering the reasonable seawatching that could be had from when I lived out there, I thought I'd see what was bobbing around on the sea.
As it happened, not much. A single common loon, and a handful of American wigeon were pretty much it. A pair of black oystercatcher were noisily interacting with one another on the rocks. The rather poor pic here shows the male.

My next port of call was Holden Creek. The highlights here were two northern shrikes, one hunting around the fields, the other along the hawthorns to the rear of the marsh. There were few ducks to see; the presence of 3 hunters at the back of the marsh soon explained that!
The Nanaimo River estuary beckoned and I headed to Raines Road. I was quietly pleased to see just one car parked up when I got there.
I first headed along the long hedge, scanning over the marsh as I went. Songbirds were notable only by their absence. A party of distant ravens, obviously mobbing something, drew my attention to a passing turkey vulture - my first of the spring!
I then noticed a short-eared owl hunting in the fields between the houses and the hedge. It gave brilliant views, and in fact showed frequently over the next couple of hours. A pair of northern harrier also showed well. At one point the pair were interacting, the male even attempting a food pass, but an irritated red-tailed hawk took exception and harassed them until they went their separate ways. I wonder if some harriers pair up on the wintering grounds before heading off to breeding sites?
A group of 8 western meadowlark added a welcome splash of colour to proceedings, unquestionably taking the award for best passerine of the day.
Two belted kingfisher, one each male and female, were hunting around the area. 
I walked out to the marsh edge and scanned through the wildfowl. Although greatly reduced in number, there were still plenty of American wigeon and green-winged teal, plus smaller numbers of mallard, gadwall, pintail, bufflehead and common goldeneye.
A very convincing western gull flew by and a party of 8 trumpeter swans were snoozing on the marsh. As always, several bald eagles were kicking around.
All in all, a pretty rewarding afternoon's birding.

Sunday service

Jenny joined me for my Coastal Bird Survey jaunt down to Jack Point, on the eastern edge of the Nanaimo River estuary this morning.
The weather was kind, bright and just a little cool. There weren't too many birds to count, unfortunately. Perhaps the usual rafts of dabbling ducks that I've seen off here were safely feeding around the estuary edges and in the creeks now that the shooting is over. As a result, the count was restricted to a few greater scaup, red-breasted mergansers, common goldeneye, buffleheads, loons, horned grebes and the like.

Later, I took a stroll down to Hemer Park. On my way along Hemer Road a dazzling male evening grosbeak flew across the road in front of me, only to disappear into so trees. I heard it, or another grosbeak, call a couple of times but I was unable to relocate it. There were good numbers of juncos also flitting backward and forwards, so presumably it was visiting neighbourhood feeders with other common garden birds. Having had a couple of grosbeaks fly over my yard about 3 weeks ago, and noticing that there was mention of a local sighting on the Nanaimo bird forum recently, it was good to know that there are some hanging around the Cedar area. Thus far, they've stubbornly refused to visit my feeders...
There wasn't much going on in Hemer itself. On the pool, there were 26 trumpeter swans, plus several ring-necked ducks, and hooded and common mergansers.
While there, I had a chat with a couple who mentioned a large number of swans in nearby fields. Cue, a leisurely walk home followed by a dash to Adshead Road is search of said Cygnus.

I soon found the swans in question, not too tricky given that there were approximately 300 of them in a roadside field. I pulled into the farm driveway and positioned myself so that I could comfortably check through them all (tundra swans and ringed/collared trumpeters on my mind...).
Unfortunately, within a few seconds a pair of boisterous hounds appeared, either by unfortunate coincidence or mean-spirited design. Anyhoo, the result was the same; a swan exodus ensued. And, while the sight of multiple airborne birds can be thrilling, it was bloody irritating in this particular instance. Among the large white throng, was a flock of 26 greater white-fronted geese. Oh, and a cock pheasant did its customary panicky dance running for cover to a nearby hedgerow. 

I returned home via Quennel Lake. Not too much out on the main body of water - the usual common mergansers, buffleheads, common goldneye and lesser scaup were all present and correct.

Scanning through the dabbling duckies, of which the majority were pintail, I noticed my old friend the intergrade drake green-winged/Eurasian teal. Then I noticed another, curious teal with no white vertical stripe and only the faintest hint of a horizontal stripe (both birds together, right, in the pic). And then I saw a pure, classic drake common (Eurasian) teal, complete with striking face pattern (also pictured).
Nice!
The ABA doesn't recognize this form as a 'species', but the BOU does. And I know which one I side with...!
With that I headed off home, reasonably pleased with the day's events.
Birding; it's not always exactly amazing, but it's always rewarding and a couple of surprises are often waiting to be discovered.

A Tale of Two Teal

Jenny joined me for my Coastal Bird Survey on Sunday (a week after it should have been, but better later than never, eh?) and we enjoyed the unforecasted sunshine as we trundled to Jack Point, counting as we went.
Bird-wise, it was bit on the quiet side and highlights were few. Just 3 greater scaup, 1 common loon, 3 horned grebe, 6 red-breasted merganser and 8 surf scoter were seen among the much more numerous common goldeneye and bufflehead.
Passerines were thin on the ground too, with just a few kinglets, chickadees and such to divert us from our oceanic gaze.

Later, I headed out to see what, if anything, was kicking around Quennell Lake. It wasn't much birdier there than offshore at Jack Point. A single American coot, a few shoveler, ring-necked duck, lesser scaup, mallard, American wigeon, common merganser and pintail were all seen, as were a few green-winged teal, along with the bird pictured here. It appears to be something on an intermediate between common teal and green-winged. Or is that vertical white stripe within the variable characteristics of green-winged?
Please offer any opinion, I'd love to know what others think.
A lone cackling goose was with the mass of usual Canadas and there 28 trumpeter swans present.

I headed off to the Nanaimo River estuary for the last hour and a half of daylight. A couple of hunters were returning empty-handed, and I was soon alone with what few birds were still around.
The male (pictured) and a juv female northern harrier were hunting over the marsh, but no short-eared owls emerged. 40+ trumpeter swan were out on the water's edge.