Distant ducks dismay

Yesterday evening I made a brief stop at Quennell Lake, but my arrival coincided with a hurricane and a freezing cold downpour. Nice.
Just before I abandoned all hope, however, I did see what appeared to be a couple of potential canvasbacks diving on the main lake. Just a little too distant to confirm, especially under the shitty conditions, and so I decided to get out there this morning in the hope of relocating the birds. After all, they could quite possibly have been lesser scaup, just giving the illusion of being whiter backed and longer billed...
Well, I scanned and scanned the lake, and found no canvasbacks... it's always frustrating when that happens. The regular male American kestrel showed and a ruddy duck was present, as were 2 drake shoveler. Once again the heavens opened and I headed off to work, slightly cheesed off and slightly damper than I'd started out.

After work this evening I took advantage of the brief dry, calm-ish spell and dropped by the Nanaimo River estuary. Immediately, 9 western meadowlark jumped up from the weedy field just in front of the parking area and flew up into the big oak.
Almost as quickly, 2 northern harriers glided into view; the regular tatty adult female and a 1st year bird. Well, they may not be canvasbacks, but very nice to see nonetheless.
After that, it went a bit quiet and, other than a few common bits and bobs, it was unremarkable until a short-eared owl showed up. After a brief attempt at hunting, the owl plopped down on a log and sat there looking decidedly unimpressed by the large black cloud rolling our way.
Yep, you guessed it - the wind picked up and the rain commenced. Again.
Anyway, below you can see a terrible video of the short-eared just before the monsoon commenced.

After 40 odd years on this planet, I really should have got used to the fact that the arrival of March doesn't necessarily mean lovely, warm spring days and brightly coloured birds singing in flowering hawthorns. It's still winter for a few weeks yet... I'd better not allow myself to forget it.

Ruddy ducks head the list

Back in Cedar after the excitement of the big city, I was itching to get down to the Nanaimo River estuary. I haven't been able to get down there for a couple of weeks, at least, and I was keen to see what was about. It was a bit later in the day, than I'd have liked (just before 1pm), but I thought that the dropping tide might prove interesting. 
As I arrived at the end of Raines Road it looked like Leighton Moss car park on a Sunday afternoon. And before I even got out of the car, I could see a short-eared owl hunting in the near field. Then I realised why the parking area was so full; sunny day = nice owl pictures.
I actually thought that Prince William and Kate whatserface must have been here to see the owls too, given the barrage of lenses on the marsh and field perimeter. I had a very quick scout along the river edge but, to be honest, I prefer the place when it's quieter people-wise, and I'm sure that with all those keen eyes out there, nothing interesting was going to go unfound for long.
Returning to the car, I noticed that there were at least 3 short-eareds hunting over the fields. Presumably the marsh was a bit too busy for their liking too.

So, off to Holden Creek I went, and soon found myself alone with the birds.
A scan through the ducks on the flooded marsh revealed at least 12 gadwall among the 230 or so green-winged teal. Despite my best efforts, no common teal were seen among them. There were no wigeon or pintail present and only 20+ mallard. A couple of bufflehead, common goldeneye and hooded mergansers were on the creek.
Out on the marsh I could see some trumpeter swans, I counted 30 as they were flushed by a small group of people with an inexplicably large gang of little dogs.
A couple of northern shrike were hunting various areas (1 pictured, badly as ever) and 2 juv northern harriers were also patrolling the rear of the marsh. A couple of red-tailed hawks were kicking about, as were the customary bald eagles and a merlin.
Other than a Bewick's wren, ruby-crowned kinglet, and a flyover purple finch, passerines were represented by the usual juncos, towhees, golden-crowned and song sparrows, etc.

I decided to make a quick detour and check out Quennell Lake on my way home. Very few swans were present, as now seems to be the norm.
Good numbers of ring-necked duck, lesser scaup and common merganser were on the lake, plus a pair of ruddy duck. Even though they were quite far out, I'm pretty sure that they were a male and female.
There were also 5 American coot present.
The American kestrel was hunting from the roadside wires.

 Eider known you were coming, I'd have baked a cake...

...and for those of you who aren't aware of the thread on BCVI Birds forum regarding yesterday's eider sighting. It turns out that common eider, while having been recorded off Vancouver Island in the past has yet to be recorded in the Victoria area.

Naturally, this troubles me. I really cannot begin to imagine what else it could have been! It looked like a female eider. I remember saying to Jenny, "Hey, female eider - that's the first I've seen on the island".
Problem is, I didn't really pay as much attention to it as perhaps I should have done, just casually remarking to Jenny that I wasn't sure about the status of the species in this part of the world, but I presumed they were reasonably frequent. Why else would I be seeing one? Anyway, I've made some notes on what I saw, and will submit them. As I write this I'm not aware of anyone relocating it. Or even looking for it, for that matter! (Though I'm sure someone will have done).
Anyway, having set something of a cat among the pigeons, here's a pic I took moments after seeing the duck, of a black turnstone among the pigeons.

My kind of birding

Suffering from severe withdrawals, I headed down to the Nanaimo River estuary at first light this morning. And what a glorious morning it was too - below freezing and awash with crisp white frost, but bright and clear.
A few Barrow's goldeneye, bufflehead and common mergansers were on the river, adjacent to Raines Road and a gathering of glaucous-winged gulls were assembled in the usual spot where the river splits.
A couple of varied thrush were in the big oak, and there were good numbers of American robins around the place.

A male northern harrier was perched up in a shrub out on the marsh, while a northern shrike similarly was keeping watch from a small tree nearby. The usual numerous bald eagles were much in evidence, and I even bothered to take a pic of one - as seen here.
Over the course of the next couple of hours I saw another 2 northern harriers (both juvs), a couple of belted kingfisher and just 3 western meadowlarks.
A trio of trumpeter swans were honking around the place, while a drake Eurasian wigeon was picked out from among a throng of American wigeon on the marsh.
Trying desperately to dig out something out-of-the-ordinary from the large junco and golden-crowned sparrow flocks I could only find 3 fox sparrows and 1 Lincoln's sparrow.
A flock of some 40 or so mobile red-winged blackbirds were kicking around throughout the morning. 
I located 3 roosting short-eared owls, and managed to observe them well at range without disturbing them.

Having exhausted this part of the estuary, I headed round to Holden Creek to see what was occurring there. 
I immediately spotted another northern shrike sat up in the large dead trees by the farm. A couple of killdeer were in the field, as were 7 greater white-fronted geese. Reasonable numbers of green-winged teal were out on the creek along with smaller numbers of American wigeon, mallard and pintail.
I was delighted to see that the American kestrel was still in residence, hunting from the fence posts out in the fields - at one point being mobbed by 6 western meadowlarks!
Other than a couple of red-tailed hawks, it was pretty quiet.

It was now nearly 11am and I figured I could easily squeeze a quick of Quennell Lake before making myself available for husbandly duties.
There were still 88 trumpeter swans by the flooded field and lake - much of the water was frozen here. Small numbers of northern shoveler, bufflehead, ring-necked duck, and common merganser were in the area as well as many American wigeon. A group of 47 American coot were sat in one small area of open water.
As I was 'scoping a pied-billed grebe a female ruddy duck swam through my field of view - perhaps that same returning bird I saw here in spring?

Later in the afternoon, as the sun and temperature were dropping, I headed back to Quennell with a half hour to spare. I was surprised to see another American kestrel sat on a telegraph pole just before I reached the lake. And a peregrine was sat up in a nearby conifer.
Checking through the significantly increased number of American wigeon on the flooded field, I found 3 Eurasian wigeon (one of which is pictured here, upper right). A few lesser scaup had joined the throng and the ruddy duck remained on the lake.
All in all, a really good day's birding, with some satisfying finds if nothing too extravagant!