Slow Spring Starts to Warm Up

My weekday lunchtime meanderings have been fairly uneventful these past few days, with little evidence of spring migrants moving through.
A trio of turkey vultures were cruising around on thermals beyond Langford Lake on Thursday, but otherwise it's been slow. Local breeders have been letting their presence be known with purple finches and red-winged blackbirds being especially vocal. A few pine siskins have been equally melodious, twittering away all over the place.
Wildfowl numbers are starting to drop, with just a few ring-necked ducks, lesser scaup, bufflehead and common mergansers keeping the omnipresent mallards company. A pair of northern shoveler dropped by on Friday, as did a single American coot. 
The majority of the pied-billed grebes are now sporting their breeding finery, subtle though it may be. The grebes are at least down by one bird which I saw being dragged off by a mink midweek. I missed the kill, and can only assume that the mink did indeed dispatch the grebe, rather than find it already dead.
The local covey of California quails have been very active in the past few days with the males singing from the blackberry patch near my office.  

I made a brief post-work visit to Clover Point on Friday but it was pretty quiet. The usual harlequins and surf scoters etc were on the water, while a small gang of busy black turnstones worked the tideline. Gulls were few in number, and all glaucous-winged or variants thereof. A California sealion came by close offshore, giving great views as it checked me out.

Things continue to get lively in the Government House grounds. Pine siskins, house finches, ruby-crowned kinglets, Bewick's wrens, chestnut-backed chickadees, red-breasted nuthatches (pictured), northern flickers and other common species have responded well to the improvement in the weather with many well in the throes of claiming territories, singing, nest building and generally showing off.
A yellow-shafted type flicker was showing well today (Sunday) and an acccipiter shot through briefly - probably a male Cooper's given the size and structure, but I couldn't rule out a large sharpie on the views I got.
The great-horned owl seems to have vacated. The same number of pellets remain below the tree as were present during its visit last weekend, and there are no signs of it having taken up a new roost anywhere else, though it's quite possible that it's somewhere I just can't get to.
My only 'proper' migrant was a tree swallow (my first of the year) which flew around the bluffs constantly twittering away.      

Snakes in the grass

Jenny and I took a leisurely walk to Hemer Park this afternoon, enjoying the sunshine.

There wasn't too much going on bird-wise, though I did come across my first orange-crowned warblers of the year (at last...).
Along the way we saw pileated woodpecker, rufous hummingbird, varied thrush, hooded merganser, ring-necked duck, lesser scaup, turkey vulture, red-tailed hawk, bald eagle, plus the usual other bits and bobs.
We got ace views of red-breasted nuthatch, which I never seem to tire of. Mind you, given that I spent several very, very cold hours trampling around Holkham, Norfolk, on New Years' Day 1990 for what turned out to be a 3 second look at one (still the only UK record), a good look at one is always most welcome. I was with my brother Dave (who also saw it, and my mate Adrian 'Ziggy' Dawson (who didn't - I suspect he will quietly rejoice when he finally adds this species to his life list on a forthcoming visit to Canada! 20 years is a long time...) Ziggy also has a blog, which sometimes includes birds (!) - exbirderincornwall.blogspot.com

One of the best things today was the number of garter snakes we encountered. I've never seen as many snakes, and the variety in colours was astonishing.
The attached pic shows, what I assume is a male (the smaller one) mating with a female - at least 3 other males of various sizes and colour were involved in this serpentine orgy.
The pair in flagrante seemed unconcerned by our attentions, while the 'onlookers' were somewhat cautious.
Fascinating stuff.

Later, I popped down to the estuary, which was very quiet.
The highlight was, at least 15 greater yellowlegs on the river. At one point they all took noisily to the air - quite impressive for a Brit Birder in BC!