All At Sea

Pigeon guillemot

Once again, I felt the need to get out of the house early evening and headed down to Victoria's Clover Point.
And, once again, it was fairly quiet on the bird front. The wind seemed to have switched more to the south west, and while it seemed pretty choppy out there it wasn't really so lively as to force anything in. In fact, there were fewer birds out there than on any recent visits. A few rhino auklets were seen but that was about it, other than a few glaucous-winged and California gulls.
After about 45 minutes of staring at waves I decided to move along the coast a bit and see if anything was seeking shelter off Oak Bay.

Rhinoceros auklet

Scanning from Turkey Head, just by the marina, there were good numbers of pigeon guillemot actively fishing.
The considerably calmer waters allowed for a few pics to taken, even though the birds were some way out.
Good luck to any Brit birders who fancy claiming one of these in UK waters... how you'd separate one from black guillemot at sea I really don't know. While long-billed and ancient murrelets, Pacific loons, tufted puffin and glaucous-winged gull (plus a first-summer drake white-winged scoter is also currently entertaining twitchers in Scotland) have all been recorded around the British coast in recent years, I don't see this one making it onto the list anytime soon!

A handful of rhinoceros auklet were also present and, again, the flat sea meant that I was able to get some slightly better shots (pair pictured). A flotilla of harlequin ducks too, were seen.
Clamorous black oystercatchers made their presence felt, as they careened about the place in noisy packs.
Lounging around on exposed rocky islets offshore, were several blubbery seals.

Eight-legged Groove Machine

Pieces of Eight...

After yesterday's chat casing fun in the sun, I opted to stay local this evening at went for a spot of post-work seawatching.
The wind had picked up a fair bit today, but by the time I arrived at Clover Point it was blowing in what seemed to be a pretty unproductive direction.
I stuck it out for an hour but it didn't seem very promising. Even rhinoceros auklets were thin on the ground and I only picked up a single pigeon guilllemot.
The glaucous-winged and California gulls were being bounced around from one roost to the other by boisterous people, and numbers were fairly low even off shore.

A young bald eagle (pictured) was dining on the washed up carcass of an octopus, before being discovered by gawping hordes who soon flushed it.
As you can see from the photo, it was a formidable beast (I'm talking about the octopus) and must have been an impressive sight when intact! For scale, I've placed my cell phone alongside the stinky mollusc remains...

Incidentally, Bernard got back to me, and reckons that the 'winter plumage' marbled murrelet that I saw a few days ago is actually likely to one of this year's juveniles. I'd assumed it was too early for one to be offshore here so soon, but he assures me that it's about the right time for the first young to be showing up. Cheers Bernard!    

Clover and Out

I put in another hour, or so, seawatching early evening today down at Clover Point, Victoria.
The number of rhinoceros auklets seemed considerably diminished compared to yesterday, although they were still relatively plentiful. Again, there were a few pigeon guillemots further out and a lone common murre, moulting into winter plumage was just off the point.
A pair of Caspian terns came through, and the number of California gulls was seemingly greater than yesterday, and even an adult bird was present.
A couple of bald eagles kept the roosting gulls and foraging crows active, as did numerous rock-hopping humans. 

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...
       

Early Trundle Around The Parish

Started off the morning with a maiden visit to the Chinese Cemetery, just to check it out, following Ian Cruikshank's recent advice on the BCVIBirds forum.
It certainly has all the appeal of good vagrant passerine habitat! Unfortunately no on told the birds, and the place was conspicuously quiet. At least there was quite a bit of stuff off-shore to divert me.

The usual pigeon guillemots, rhinoceros auklets (terrible pic attached!), harlequin ducks, surf scoters and pelagic and double-crested cormorants were all present in reasonable numbers, as were the expected gull species. The latter were augmented by 5 fly-by Bonaparte's gulls, looking smart in their summer garb.
I headed along the coast to Clover Point, ever mindful that I needed to get there in advance of the joggers and dog-walkers.
Talking of which, what is with the hound-lovers?
Do they set off from the house while it's still dark? It's almost impossible to find a bit of potentially decent birding habitat that hasn't got some old dear and her beloved yappy hooligans trampling all over it... 
Anyway, it was still early and the point car park had fewer than 6 vehicles parked up when I got there. Scanning the rocks I counted 21 black turnstone and 2 black oystercatchers.
A river otter was gamboling around and as I checked offshore I noticed a couple of porpoise and a sealion sp. breaking the surface.
Also out at sea were 19 brent, with another pair flying by. Again, the usual alcids and ducks were all visible and a further flock of 16 Bonaparte's gulls joined a throng of activity offshore, where I noticed another one of those very bleached out mew gulls.
On the beach there were 26 dunlin feeding along the tideline close to a bunch of harlequin ducks.
Just before 8am I decided it was time to go and look for some migrant songbirds, so I headed for Government House.
Highlights of a trundle around the garry oaks and woodland path included a neat hermit thrush and a couple of singing orange-crowned warblers, but no other obvious arrivals. The usual red-breasted nuthatches, towhees, Bewick's wrens, Anna's hummingbirds and such were all making themselves known.
I found a couple of active nests - as unalike as it's possible to get. One, the neat and delicate moss and web woven structure that is a bushtit's exquisite creation, the other a large bundle of precarious sticks and the handy work of a Cooper's hawk.    

Clover's Return

With yet more chores to attend to today my chances to get some birding in were looking grim. However, I did manage to grab a few moments at Clover Point - well, we were driving past; it would have been rude not to stop...

Offshore, there were plenty of pigeon guillemots kicking around, plus a few rhinoceros auklet. A lone western grebe made an appearance and there were buffleheads and harlequin ducks in good numbers.
Just one pair of black oystercatcher were seen and a group of 19 black turnstone were feeding on the windblown rocky shoreline.
Looking through the baffling mix of messy gulls, I found one interesting individual. In many ways it was good for western - jet black primary tips, yellow orbital ring, pale flecked ochre iris - but it had a mantle colour barely a shade darker than the more typical glaucous-winged gulls. What fun these mongrel larids can be!

Of note - not had any hummers visiting my newly erected feeder yet, although interestingly, a bush tit came in for a drink... Sadly my other feeders will have to remain in storage, as our landlords won't allow anything that could entice rodents. Shame, as I was really looking forward to hanging cheese from the nearby apple trees.

Great Skua

Jenny and I went over to Vancouver this weekend with our friends Dave and Susan, to see a gig by British Sea Power at the Biltmore.
The ferry journey was a bit disappointing to be honest, the only birds of note being a few rhinoceros auklets and a common murre. Otherwise, it was the expected gull, cormorant, loon and duck species.
On the plus side, the gig was fantastic and we had a great time.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with this wonderful band, I have attached a YouTube link of them performing the bird-related instrumental track Great Skua - at least it's in keeping with this blog theme... (just in case you're not aware, great skua is a bird).

Indeed, the guitarist Martin Noble (far left in the vid), is a keen birder himself and was part of a very British indie-rock trio who made a superb BBC Radio 4 programme, by the name of In Search Of The Holy Quail. The other two bird-loving musicians involved were Guy Garvey of Elbow and Marc Riley, my personal favourite BBC 6 Music presenter and former member of seminal post-punk band The Fall.



Over the next few days I shall be upping sticks and moving south to Victoria. I am hoping for one last visit to the estuary, Holden Creek and Quennell Lake, but if I don't manage it, there will be few postings until I get settled. I will miss this great area, and I admit that I am rather sad to be leaving the Nanaimo River in particular, and the birds that I may have found there this coming spring!

Weekend round-up

Managed to cover the marsh and Holden Creek pretty thoroughly on Friday after work, in advance of the incoming tide.
Around 20 least sandpiper were on and around the creek, plus a single semi-palmated sandpiper. The marsh pools were birdless - and increasingly drying out. Just the horrible bug-infested swampy corner had any waders present - again just least sands, and only 8 of them.
The Canada geese numbers are still growing daily, but no other wildfowl has shown up yet. Osprey, red-tailed hawk, bald eagle and merlin all put in appearances, and the usual passerines and hirundines were present.
Later, (approx 7.20pm) a group of 8 common nighthawk flew over the house.

Saturday was pretty much taken up travelling over to Vancouver airport to meet Jenny, who was arriving back from a week in Merry Old England. The ferry journeys were utterly crap bird-wise with very little to see both ways. A small flock of Bonaparte's gulls and a single rhinoceros auklet were the only things of note.

Sunday, Jen and I took a stroll down the Cable Bay Trail, and while we had a lovely walk, the place was pretty crumby as far as the birding was concerned.