All this Christmas stuff has really impacted on my birding... in fact I can't remember ever having so much time off work and yet finding so little time to get out in search of ornithological diversions. Oh well, the excessive gluttony just about compensated.
It wasn't all gout-inducing revelry though, I did manage to squeeze a few local walks in; binoculars at the ready.
I checked out life in the
Government House grounds a couple of times. There wasn't too much going on. The regular common birds were much in evidence, both
ruby-crowned and
golden-crowned kinglets,
brown creepers,
downy woodpeckers,
chestnut-backed chickadees,
northern flickers,
dark-eyed juncos,
Pacific wrens, etc, etc.
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| Ross Bay |
I managed to fit in quick visits to
Ross Bay and
Clover Point too. Offshore the usual species were seen in varying numbers including
red-necked and
horned grebes,
common goldeneye,
surf scoters, a single
greater scaup, all three
mergansers,
pigeon guillemot,
common loon,
harlequins and
buffleheads,
pelagic and
double-crested cormorants. Shorebirds were thin on the ground, thanks to the very high tides. I only noted a couple of
dunlin along with a handful each of
black turnstone and
surfbird.
On Saturday morning I had a good stroll around
Beacon Hill Park, primarily looking for bushtit/chickadee flocks. Maybe I would find a wintering warbler of some kind - or even the elusive blue-gray gnatcatcher seen there a few weeks ago? No reason why it shouldn't still be around. As it happens, I struggled to locate any decent sized flocks and those few birds I did encounter weren't harbouring any exciting waifs or strays.
Nice to see
varied thrushes (always a favourite) mingled in with the many
American robins and a few small sparrow flocks gave me something to scrutinize, albeit briefly.
I spotted at least 4
Eurasian wigeon (3 drakes, 1 duck) among the many
American wigeon present on the park pools. A couple of
northern shoveler and a small number of
ring-necked duck were also on the ponds, along with a billion mallard.
A short and soggy trundle to
Harling Point today (Tuesday) revealed a pair of smart
long-tailed duck close offshore and a gang of some 15
black-bellied plover but little else of note.
So, it's back to work tomorrow and my near-daily lunchtime dashes to
Langford Lake will resume in earnest. I haven't yet seen anything too thrilling there, but it seems to attract a reasonably diverse range of birds from time to time. There have been good numbers of
pine siskins there in recent weeks and
red crossbills are tolerably frequent. On the water there are usually a few species of wildfowl to be seen and both
mew and
glaucous-winged gulls come in regularly to bathe. And I have never seen quite as many
pied-billed grebes in any one location.
I hope everyone reading this had a jolly old Christmas, and here's to a bird-filled New Year ahead!
