(No) Power to the people

Went for my usual stroll around the waterfront in Nanaimo at lunchtime today.
Two pigeon guillemots were fishing around the place, as were a couple of pelagic cormorants - now resplendent with their white flank-patches.
The male Anna's hummingbird was keeping watch, as usual.
The sound of a bunch of birds in an ornamental conifer caught my attention, and a mixed flock containing 2 Bewick's wren, 3 juncos, 2 siskin and a ruby-crowned kinglet were all feeding in amongst the branches. It took quite some time to even figure out those from within the dense foliage, and I suddenly realised (to my horror) that on a good day, with a decent fall of birds I could easily use up my entire lunch break seeking inconspicuous birds quietly feeding in such vegetation... looks like I'll have to start having bigger breakfasts.

A post-work visit to Quennell Lake was met with a sodden downpour. On the plus side, the juv snow goose was back, and at least 2 cackling geese were present amongst the Canadas. Only 30 or so shovelers were visible, but that lake sure has a lot of hiding places. Up to 30 hirundines were feeding over the lake, but what with the rain and poor light, I really couldn't see anything more than silhouettes.
Got home to find the place without any power. In fact the whole town was out, and by 7.30pm we were starting to feel a touch hungry. We headed out in search of food and found ourselves at the first illuminated eatery we could find, a place called Smithy's.
I doubt we'll do that again.

More of the same...

As promised, made it down to the Nanaimo River estuary for a post work visit. As seems to be the case most times I go there (since the duck killing season came to an end), I had the place to myself.
Not so much avian activity, though a singing western meadowlark in the small trees in the field was a welcome, er, welcome.
Otherwise, it was a few song sparrows and towhees and little else.
Checking from the viewing platform, there were 11 trumpeter swans on the river plus good numbers of pintail, mallard and American wigeon. A few bufflehead and common goldeneye were also present.
A northern shrike was hunting near the river's edge.
I could hear the mournful song of a varied thrush drifting across the river, and picked it up singing from the top of a conifer. Very evocative in the dusky light!
I came face to face with a fine river otter, who after having a good stare at me, legged it off into one of the pools.    
I had a quick check along the long hedgerow, but there were no migrant yellow-rumps feeding up before roosting, or indeed, readying for a spot of over night migration. With all the juncos and sparrows having seemingly departed, it's bloody quiet down there! Only a matter of days and I'll be tripping over off-passage goodies... maybe!

Don't forget to vote on the identity of the mystery duck, if you haven't already. The truth is out there.  

Good weather for ducks...

We abandoned our loosely planned trek down the coast to Maple and Genoa Bays today, and ended up just taking a walk to Hemer Park, in the drizzle.
It was pretty quiet down there, though we did spot the neighbourhood emus (I don't think they're tickable...) en route.
There was little on the pool, just a couple of ring-necked ducks and 4 hooded mergs.
The lake had good numbers of common merganser plus a few more ring-necked ducks and a pied-billed grebe, plus the regular buffleheads.
Siskins provided the soundtrack to our walk, along with the other expected common species.

Later, I felt the need to take a peek over at Quennell Lake.
The shoveler count was now at 94. A single cackling goose remained with the c250 Canadas still present.
A few American wigeon, mallard, bufflehead, pintail and green-winged teal were around, as were 5 lesser scaup and a single ring-necked duck. 4 American coot were present, and a belted kingfisher was sat, soggily, on a snag. There were no hirundines to be seen.

Oh yeah, just to confuse my readers from merry old England (and associated countries) the clocks went forward this weekend - so you're only 7 hours ahead of us for a couple of weeks... The good news is, it means I can enough light to get out for some decent birding after work!
 

Hard work, but worth it.

Blimey, it was hard work down the Nanaimo River estuary this morning. Quiet? Not half!
There was a very low tide, and as such all the wildfowl and gulls were miles out. The hedgerows were uncannily bereft of birds, no finch/sparrow flocks, at all... just the odd house finch, towhee and song sparrow.
I could hear a western meadowlark singing in the fields somewhere, but couldn't locate it.
There was a bit of activity overhead, with numerous bald eagles kicking around. Up to 5 were soaring together at one point, plus a couple of red-tailed hawks were busy hunting around the area - much to the chagrin of the local ravens.
A northern shrike showed up, and posed beautifully while I rattled off a couple of crap shots. See attached.
Only 2 trumpeter swans were out on the marsh, and a further 4 were on the river.

Deciding that I wasn't likely to stumble across much more, I headed to Holden Creek to see what was there.
Just a few dabbling green-winged teal were on the wet marsh. A couple of bufflehead were in the creek. 10 trumpeter swans were in the fields, along with the regular Canada geese and mallards. A pair of killdeer were back in the field, the first time I've seen them here for a while.
Another northern shrike was hunting along the hedgerow at the back of the marsh.

Checking my watch, I noticed that I could just about squeeze in a quick check at Quennell Lake before going and collecting Jenny from work...
There was no sign of the juv snow goose amongst the depleted number of Canadas, though at least 1 cackling goose was still present. A rather impressive 62 northern shoveler were counted. A few pintail, GW teal, and mallard were around as was a pair of lesser scaup and 3 American coot.
Best of all though, were the 40ish hirundines that were feeding high over the lake. The ones that I was able to positively identify, were all tree swallows. Spring! Whoo-hoo!  

Adding to the feeling that things were definitely on the move, we had a turkey vulture over the highway near Jinglepot.

Going for Gold

Not much to report today, but I thought I might as well post that there was a cracking male American goldfinch singing his heart out in the the Mafeo-Sutton Park in Nanaimo - once the blizzard stopped and the sun came out...

Withdrawal pays out

With the exception of my old chum, the male Anna's hummer in Nanaimo's Mafeo-Sutton Park, I've not really seen much this week...
I was having some serious withdrawal symptoms, and so I dashed off down to Quennell Lake after work this evening, for a quick scout around.
There were still in the region of 750 Canada geese grazing around the lake edges and amongst them was a juv snow goose and at least 2 cackling geese.
Please observe the magnificent photo of said snow goose on the left... or is it a white plastic bag blowing past?
A family party of 5 trumpeter swans were on the water, as were up to 50 common merganser. Several American wigeon were present, as were bufflehead, mallard, green-winged teal, pintail and a minimum of 18 shoveler.

Of note: I suspect that there may be a heronry in the woodland by Cedar/Quennell Road, as at least 30 birds were 'flushed' out of it. They flew low around the tree tops in circles, before dropping back down out of sight.

Late lake look lacks life

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.
 

Seeing red

Arrived at the end of Raines Road, at the Nanaimo River estuary, this morning to the delightful sound of singing western meadowlarks. At least 3 birds were visible in the scattered hawthorns in the fields immediately west of the parking area.
As I came up alongside the large oak there was a flurry of activity on my right, the golden-crowned sparrow flock was feeding in the low brambles and there amongst them, was the white-throated sparrow, plus 2 white-crowned, and a song sparrow.
Once again, there seemed to have been a mini-influx of American robins with small groups here and there.
I walked the entire length of the long hedge but it was rather dead, with the exception of the occasional towhee, song sparrow, flicker and a single fox sparrow.
A red-tailed hawk was keeping sentinel from a small tree out in the fields. I came across a small flock of c20 juncos, but they hadn't enticed anything interesting to join  them.
Out on the marsh just 12 trumpeter swans and 2 Canada geese were present, plus the usual 20-odd great blue herons. A couple of bald eagles were sitting around on old logs. A belted kingfisher was hunting along the creeks.

Checking the estuary mouth, there were around 500 gulls roosting there, but the heat haze made the option of going through them pretty pointless. Similarly, the wildfowl - but I could at least make out gadwall, American wigeon, hooded & common mergansers, common goldeneye, bufflehead, mallard, pintail & green-winged teal.

As I stood on the platform, a pair of red crossbill flew in and gave me some great views as they fed & drank by the pool edges, and perched up at eye level. Naturally, I couldn't resist getting a snap.

With an hour to kill before collecting Jen from work, I had a wander around the southern end of Buttertubs Marsh. I was rather hoping for a tree swallow... 

Being early afternoon, and very sunny, it wasn't too productive (lots of strollers) but it was good to hear, and eventually see, good numbers of marsh wren. Red-winged blackbird were also in fine voice, and were busy flashing their scarlet epaulets all over the reed beds. 

A nice male American goldfinch was singing away from the top of an alder.

I got incredibly good views of a mink too. I initially spotted it creeping around under some roots and a boulder, but I applied the old gamekeepers' trick of squeaking away and out it came to investigate. It approached extremely close, but was quickly disturbed by a couple as they clattered noisily along the path toward me.  

Incidentally, following the delivery of our worldly possessions from the UK on Thursday (only took 5 months...) Jenny and I took a stroll to Hemer Park. The birds were as expected, but we saw our first garter snakes of the year - 3 in all, sunning themselves and trying to get revved up for the season.
 
It's great to have got our stuff, I must say. I now have my many bird books to hand and my much-missed guitars. And Jenny has her impressive shoe and boot collection.


  

Infamous grouse...

Okey dokey. Let's have a look at the 2nd mystery bird thing...

Well, it's definitely a grouse of some sort.
So, let's have a look first, at ruffed grouse. 14% of participants went for this species. There are few things that don't work for me, as far as this ruffed is concerned. No discernible crest, a lack of continuity in overall colour (ruffed are usually grey or rufous, not to my knowledge a mix of both - the pictured bird has both greys and browns in its plumage), there's no sign of a dark tail band and the bird appears to have a comb above the eye (lacking in ruffed).

How about Famous Grouse? Well, I was delighted to see that 7% voted in favour of this substandard blended Scotch whisky. Thank you for joining in with my crap gag.

Spruce grouse? Hmm, some good features in favour of this. And 21% of you agreed. That heavy pale scalloping on the flanks, the reddish(?) coloured comb, the white feathering around the eye, above the bill and sneaking onto the cheek... but what about that distinctly pale grey tail tip?

So, what about sooty grouse? A whopping great 57% went for this. The aforementioned tail tip certainly suggests this species, and the comb on this relatively newly split species does average darker than on interior dusky grouse. Also that pale feathering on the flanks does not suggest the heavy white spots, as should be seen on a spruce. Oh, and I photographed it in Tofino, which, of course, you didn't know...

In conclusion... well done, it is indeed a sooty grouse. Though, I feel that I must point out that it was still a blue grouse when I took the photo.  

Now, have a go at the latest one. Not quite so easy as the grouse, but not as tricky as the sparrow. I was tempted to put 'Duck' as one of the options...
 

A day of two halves

My lunchtime stroll around the Nanaimo waterfront today was a little more interesting than it has generally been of late (though, in fairness, yesterday a lone black oystercatcher was flying around).
A group of around 50 gulls were bathing just offshore. The majority were glaucous-winged, though several Californias were present, and a single adult herring gull (or at least, as close to a 'pure' one as any that I've seen over here). A couple of mew gulls were flying around, as usual.
Red-breasted merganser, common and Barrow's goldeneye & bufflead were busy fishing, as were pelagic and double-crested cormorants.
A 'mini-influx' of robins were feeding on the grassed areas with a pair of flickers and a pair of starling. The male Anna's hummingbird was making its funny farty noises, and posing well in the weak sunlight - gorget all aglow!

After work I made a dusk visit to the Nanaimo River estuary. Once again, I had the place to myself for the brief period of remaining daylight.
22 trumpeter swans were out on the marsh, they were joined by another 8, which came in in 3 small separate groups flying from the south-east.
A northern harrier, presumably the regular juv, was perched up in a distant hawthorn out in the fields and a short-eared owl eventually made an appearance in the fading light.

Oh, the answer to the mystery gamebird will be posted soon... (been delayed for reasons too dull to bore you with)