Birds Gullore

It was reasonably choppy offshore, when I paid a visit to Clover Point this evening, but despite the blustery south westerly wind there was little to get excited about.
Few alcids were seen, just a handful of rhino auklets.
Only the gulls proved interesting, with a total of 11 Heermann's gulls among the more numerous glaucous-winged and Californias.
As gulls numbers continue to build, it will be interesting to see if anything out of the ordinary drops by in the coming weeks...

I Wish They All Could Be California Gulls

Following a thoroughly dull trundle around the Government House woodland trail this morning, I headed down to Clover Point for a spot of afternoon seawatching. The idea had been place in my mind by Ian Cruikshank who had called to say he was going to do that very thing; I didn't get out until later, and obviously missed him.

So, while he may well come back with reports of tufted puffins, terns  and shearwaters, my hour and a half of scanning the ocean waves revealed little to cause excitement.
As usual, there were good numbers of rhinoceros auklet around (pictured), mainly in pairs or small feeding groups. Further out, pigeon guillemots were seen in small numbers and I was delighted to pick up a pair of marbled murrelet fairly close in. A third murrelet was also noted, but surprisingly was in non-breeding plumage. I'll have to ask my pal, and marbled murrelet aficionado, Bernard Schroeder if this is typical for some non-breeders at this time of year...

Other than a few pelagic cormorants, I failed to turn up anything else of note offshore.
The noisy alarm calls of black oystercatchers drew my attention to a passing flock of 11 birds and I noticed that gull numbers were starting to build up quite a bit. Among the numbers of glaucous-winged gulls, of all ages, there appears to have been something of an influx of California gulls (pictured), mainly 2 & 3CY birds from what I could figure out.  

* Apologies to Brian Wilson (I'm sure he reads this blog, avidly) for the terrible title pun...
       

Round-up...

Well, it's Friday already and I haven't posted anything for a few days. Naughty me. To be honest, I've not seen a great deal so a quick summary:

Wednesday - The usual birds were in the Mafeo Sutton Park area on my lunchtime stroll, plus a black oystercatcher and 2 California gulls were with the glaucous-wingeds. Oh, and a pair of otters were engaged in some intense coital action on the beach by the Lighthouse Pub.
Jenny and I walked around Hemer Park in the evening. Not much doing, highlights included varied thrush and hairy woodpecker.

Thursday - my birthday! No birding as such today, but a mega highlight was a great-horned owl sat on wires by the road (near the dump) when we were coming home from Nanaimo, at approximately 11.45pm.

OK - today, and this evening. Went to Holden Creek first. It was fairly quiet with just 3 greater yellowlegs there plus red-tailed hawk, turkey vulture, GW teal, American wigeon etc.
Headed round to the Nanaimo River Estuary. Here, to things were quietish until a cracking male northern harrier appeared, soon joined by a female. The male, in particular, gave excellent views. I noticed a northern shrike - a bird passing through? I'd assumed the wintering birds had moved on... A lone adult white-fronted goose was flying around a bit, seemingly unsure as to what to do with itself.
At least 42 greater yellowlegs (pictured) were on the river.

I'll do a summary, and what-not, regarding the mystery bird over the weekend... looks like quiet a contentious one!