All Work and No Birding Makes Jon A Dull(er) Boy

I haven't really had much time for dedicated birding just lately, so my sightings have been limited to the things that I've casually spotted here and there.
My daily lunchtime ramble around the southwestern shore of Langford Lake hasn't been without its highlights. The red crossbill pair have continued to show periodically, and even treated me to killer views as they came down to drink just feet away from me.
On the water it's been the usual hooded and common mergansers, ring-necked ducks, buffleheads, pied-billed grebes, and so on.
A couple of turkey vultures came through yesterday - my first of the spring - while red-tailed and Cooper's hawks, merlin and bald eagles put in appearances here and there.

Jenny and I spent the weekend in Seattle being tourists. It at least gave me chance top do a bit of turbo-seabirding from the Clipper, but I didn't see anything that I wouldn't have if I were stood on Clover Point for half an hour.
Pigeon guillemots, common murres, rhinoceros auklets and marbled murrelets were seen along with the expected loons, grebes and seaducks.

Once back on Canadian soil, I squeezed a quick visit in to Government House just to see what was happening. The place was positively jumping with American robins, many of which were fighting over the few remaining berries on a couple of cotoneasters. A single varied thrush joined in the mayhem.
Dark-eyed juncos were singing, as were house finches, golden-crowned sparrows and Anna's hummingbirds, while chestnut-backed chickadees, red-breasted nuthatches, ruby-crowned kinglets, Pacific wrens, downy woodpeckers, bushtits and brown creepers (pictured) busily foraged away.
On my way out, I came across a small flock of pine siskin feeding high up in the trees near the gate. I scanned through but alas, no redpolls were to be found among them.

It's A Mystery

As you may have noticed, I have uploaded a new Mystery Bird (top right) - I'll post the results and identity of the previous one here soon. In the meantime, this one shouldn't divide participants quite so much as the last one did...

Red crossbills and dead car bills...

Jenny and I met up with Rich Mooney and Lori today before heading up to Little Mountain, just outside Parksville. I'd promised Jen a visit ever since going there for the first time on the Parksville CBC, and the day was suitably glorious.
We tried calling for pygmy owls but had no luck. A pileated woodpecker was yaffling away and knocking ten bells out of a tree, while red-breasted nuthatches showed well in the nearby trees.
Something of a surprise came in the form of a flock of 20ish red crossbills - otherwise thin on the ground around the island so far this winter.
Sadly the most notable vent of the day involved our car dying, and us having to rent a car while we wait to have the sickness diagnosed. This isn't going to be a cheap month. Happy bloody new year...  

A mute Point

Jenny and I took a walk down to Jack Point this evening. The tide was well in, and looking over toward the Nanaimo River estuary, I could see a mute swan in among the Canada geese. Where did that come from?!
Also, cruising around the estuary mouth were a couple of Caspian terns.
Didn't see much along the walk, a few Bewick's wrens, juncos, robins, golden-crowned warblers, etc and just pelagic and double-crested cormorants offshore.
Several seals, an otter and a sealion were also spotted.

Of interest, there was something of an influx of crossbills around the yard this morning, and I even noticed a couple in Nanaimo on my lunchtime stroll. Has there been a bit of a post-breeding movement across the island or were these just very local birds on a wander?

A visit to Holden Creek yesterday evening was pretty unrewarding - for me at least, however the mosquitos had a great time and enjoyed me long after I'd gone...

Bluebird of happiness

Managed an early morning visit to the Nanaimo River estuary, before being encouraged to go for a nice day out on Saltspring Island - a place where I consistently see no birds of interest.

Anyway, upon arrival it was apparent that there were good numbers of savannah sparrow on territory, with birds singing from every available spot. I was surprised to rediscover the golden-crowned sparrow flock (14 birds) and the attendant white-throated sparrow, which I'd assumed had departed. An influx of white-crowned sparrows was also evident, again a number of birds were in song.
A group of violet-green swallow were roosting in the big oak (see pic.).
The mountain bluebird was still present out on the posts. Presumably the same bird, despite my not seeing it yesterday - it must have been keeping its head down.
A check along the hedgerow revealed just 1 female yellow-rumped warbler.

There were good numbers of red crossbill (see pic), including recently fledged young, around - plus a couple of pine siskins.
I could hear yellowlegs, frequently calling from somewhere on the river but I didn't spend any time looking for them. Noticed a handful of gadwall dabbling around the waterlogged fields.
Left the site around 8.30am and decided to check Holden Creek. No sign of yesterday's white-fronts, or even the Euro wigeon. A single northern shrike was hunting along the creek, but otherwise it was pretty quiet. As usual, there were plenty of green-winged teal present, plus 3 hooded merganser.

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.