Frosty morning larks

Managed to drag myself out bed this morning and got a good hour of birding in before heading into Nanaimo for work.
It was sub zero and once I'd de-iced the car, I headed down to the Nanaimo River estuary for a scout around.
Practically the first bird I saw was a rather miserable looking female northern harrier, complete with a veneer of ice on her mantle. From the viewing platform, I could see the male harrier too - equally hunched and thawing out. As usual, a few eagles were cruising around, or sat loafing on tideline logs or in the riverside trees.
There were reasonable numbers of pintail and American wigeon around, plus smaller numbers of other common species of duck.

Walking along the long hedge, I was struck by the apparent lack of passerines. Eventually, I came across a small flock of 10 western meadowlark. A couple sat up in the hawthorns, and I managed the fairly poor shot shown here.
Heading back toward the big oak, I finally found some sparrows. A flock of around 30 golden-crowned sparrows and approximately 15 dark-eyed juncos were feeding together. In among them were a couple of song sparrows and a very neat little Lincoln's sparrow - the first I've seen here for quite some time.
As I was leaving, the intentions of the owner of the truck that was in the car park when I arrived was made clear, as I heard shots out toward Holden Creek. The wildfowl season may technically be over, but for some it just never ends...

Buttertubs at Dusk

I fancied a break from tradition this evening, and decided to enjoy the last hour of daylight down at Buttertubs Marsh.
I wasn't expecting too much, but was optimistic that I might catch a glimpse of something crepuscular and interesting.
I arrived to see the usual cyclists and dog walkers bumbling around the place. It's hardly surprising that since the large and obvious signs clearly telling folk that dogs and cyclists are not allowed in the reserve were removed, and they erected the swanky new signage (where such directives are almost invisible) the increase in both pooches and push-irons has gone through the roof. Or at least, that's how it appears every time I go there. Grumble over.
Anyhoo - there wasn't much going on birds-wise. Red-winged and Brewer's blackbirds were gathering in noisy pre-roost flocks around the lake edges and a couple of great-blue herons chased each other over the reed tops. A couple of marsh wrens were sub-singing from the rank vegetation and a solitary Virginia rail squealed from the depths of the marsh.
The light was lovely, and a few hooded mergansers and bufflehead reflected beautifully on the calm water surface.
If it's fine tomorrow morning, I might try and get out early for a spot of pre-work birding, and try to convince myself that it's nearly spring...

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.

Post-work birding

Managed a quick sprint down to the Nanaimo River estuary after work tonight.
The tide was a million miles out, so waterbirds were either absent or simply too distant to bother trying to discern with any degree of accuracy.
A couple with 3 very lively and noisy dogs were out on the river mouth, adding further to the dearth of birds.
The only aves of note came in the form of a couple of northern harriers that flew in, in tandem, from the south-east. They were both juv-types, and given their size and structure one each male and female.

Who Wants To Be On A Record Committee?

Click on the image above to hear an all too familiar story... (for some reason only half the image appears on the screen above on some computers, but if you click the small icon top centre it should send you to the original site).

Nanaimo Mockingbird Still Present

A slew of urgent chores and such ate into any potential birding time today, I'm sorry to say.
However, as a large chunk of the necessary things needing my undivided attention were in the Parksville area I was able, at least,  to casually spot a couple of American kestrels as I went about my business.
One was on wires by the highway near the Ugly Dwarf Meadows and another was seen on the Errington road near the Cozy Stove restaurant, or whatever it's called.
On my way back, late afternoon I managed to squeeze in a quick stop by Brannen Lake, Nanaimo where the northern mockingbird soon showed. It was doing the rounds of its usual haunts. The picture here was taken a few weeks ago, when I first saw the bird.
A cursory scan over the lake failed to reveal any loons, or indeed many waterbirds at all.

Some Photographers Don't Give A Hoot

With a modicum of daylight to tease me, I headed to the Nanaimo River estuary this evening on my way home from work. And with that simple, single event, spring seemed to be temptingly close.
I had a good 20 minutes of reasonable light before dusk descended and I managed to see a female northern harrier and a short-eared owl. Both were on the undisturbed, northern side of the river.

Talking of owls and disturbance - I recently had a conversation with a local photographer who described some of the scenes he witnessed down at the estuary earlier in the winter as nothing short of a 'gong show'.
Now, I know some people think that my concerns over disturbance from photographers is somewhat unwarranted, but this fellow described seeing some excessive behaviour by those in pursuit of the 'perfect' owl shot.
Of course there were gangs of tripod wielding paparazzi chasing owls from one side of the estuary to the other, but apparently some photographers were observed using lures on fishing rods to bring the birds closer.
Frankly, that is appalling and pretty inexcusable.
Hardly surprising that these birds became increasingly harder to observe as winter went on. The combination of shooters, dog-walkers, severe weather and over-enthusiastic fieldcraft-free photographers was surely enough to cause unrest among even the most hardy of birds. Some conservation area the Nanaimo River estuary turned out to be...

Birding Back Up North

Arrived back up north from the sub-tropics in the early hours, and boy did it feel cool and damp.
After a good lie-in and some essential chores, I headed out to reacquaint myself with the Nanaimo River estuary.
Now that the wildfowl hunting season has finished, I had the place to myself for a couple of hours. And what a treat it was, to do some birding without feeling as if one was in the middle of a re-enactment of the Battle of the Somme. I'm sure that the birds, were they capable of conscious thought, would agree.
Among the usual commoner stuff, I clocked a short-eared owl, a juvenile female northern harrier and 5 western meadowlarks. There were good numbers of pintail and American wigeon plus smaller numbers of green-winged teal, gadwall and bufflehead. A couple of dozen trumpeter swans were out on the estuary mouth.
The only thing of note that I could find in among the reduced numbers of golden-crowned sparrow and dark-eyed juncos was a lone fox sparrow. A Cooper's hawk buzzed through causing considerable panic.
There were plenty of bald eagles, mainly juvs and sub-adults sat around the area today. Hence the pic of a grumpy looking individual here.

Mystery revealed!

OK - there seems to be little point in going through the identification process with this. 86% of participants plumped for green heron.
Which of course, it is.
Thanks to Steve Large for the shot of this 1st year bird, taken in late summer 2010 at Buttertubs Marsh, Nanaimo. Check out Steve's amazing bird photography here.

To the right, you will see a new mystery bird - enjoy!

Last Full Day in Florida...

Sadly, it was our final day today and we decided to return to Fort DeSoto Park. Paul once again indulged his love of fishing, Jenny and Satty took off on bikes, and I spent a few hours trying to find some birds to look at.
En route, we stopped briefly at a roadside pool that was positively covered with ducks. The majority were redheads, with around 300 present. Good numbers of lesser scaup, and smaller numbers of northern shoveler and ring-necked duck were also on the water. A few moorhen were around the edges.

In the park proper, I took the delightfully named Soldier's Hole trail. It was pretty quiet, and I spent a long time creeping around in search of nothing much. I came across a few cardinals, loads of yellow-rumped warblers and a couple of blue-grey gnatcatchers and common ground-doves but not much else. When I got a glimpses of the mangrove edges, there was little to be seen, but I did spy an anhinga, black-crowned night heron and a few egrets of various species. 
Walking back through the scrubby areas near the beach, I came across an eastern phoebe, several palm warblers and more cardinals. Several tree swallows buzzed over.
Offshore and around the beach there were the usual Forster's and royal terns (pictured), plus lots of laughing gulls and a few ring-billed gulls. Common loon, double-crested cormorant, red-breasted merganser, brown pelicans and such were all kicking around. Once again, many kestrels, loggerhead shrikes and mourning doves were utilizing the overhead wires and ospreys were all over the place.
After feeling somewhat deflated by the lack of exciting birds to be found in the bush, I decided to head back to the pools to go through the ducks more carefully, just in case a canvasback was lurking undetected.

I didn't locate any canvasbacks, but it was a treat to enjoy such large numbers of redhead. In a nearby tree, a red-bellied woodpecker showed well, hence the photo.
On another pool, there were good numbers of American coot and yet more moorhen. I scanned the edges for sora or other lurkers but couldn't find anything.
Well, I haven't exactly 'worked it', but my few days of leisurely Floridian birding have been great, and the opportunity for Jenny and I to hang out with Paul and Satty greater still. Who knows when that chance will repeat itself?
 

   

Never Mind The Monarchs - or leisurely Florida birding day 4

Wednesday morning, Paul and I went down to the beach to see if last night's storm had made much of a mess - or more importantly, dumped a booby or bridled tern down o the sands or offshore. Well, one must be optimistic!
Of course, our cursory check revealed no such excitement and the only interesting thing brought ashore was a dead barracuda, which the gulls and a turkey vulture were taking something of an interest in.
I took this pic of a Forster's tern, seeing as I had my 'scope to hand.

Later, we decided to go to the Big Bend Power Station - famed for its manatees. During the winter months, many of these engaging sea mammals congregate in a shallow lagoon alongside the power station.

The warmer waters in the area of the station's outfalls provide a comfortable alternative to the cooler gulf temperatures and for some 25 years the station has monopolised on this annual migration as a PR coup, and have built an excellent manatee viewing facility, with educational facilities etc.
We were hoping that some manatees would be visible, but weren't quite expecting the 250 or so that were basking in this welcome environment.
From the viewing platforms we could look down and observe the manatees as they went about their business below. Very nice indeed. 

While there we also saw cownose rays and bonnethead sharks, but few birds.  The usual opsreys, vultures, brown pelicans, egrets and such. The only 'new' bird was a peregrine flying around the power station.
A few monarch butterflies were flitting around, hence the pic (and poor punny blog title).