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.      

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...

Them Crooked Vultures

Turkey vultures

After celebrating yesterday's news that I had secured very welcome full-time employment, I decided to shake off the remnants of my hangover with a stroll around the Government House grounds late morning.
There was plenty going on, and among the first bushtit flock I located 2 orange-crowned warblers and a yellow warbler. Down near the woodland trail entrance there were several yellow-rumped warbler feeding in the garry oaks. Sifting through them, I came across a single black-throated gray warbler.
Along the trails, I encountered yet more YR warblers, plus a hermit thrush and my first ruby-crowned kinglet of the autumn.

From the more elevated areas of the grounds I could see kettles of turkey vultures thermaling over the straits. As I scanned the skies along the coast, it was apparent that there was a major movement of vultures taking place.
It reminded me of being in Gibraltar during honey buzzard migration!   
I counted at least 280 turkey vultures visible at one time, but I cannot even begin to guess at the true number of birds involved.
Amazingly, not a single raptor species was spotted among these spiralling flocks.

Quite a few vultures...

The pics here do no justice to the actual spectacle itself, of course, but may at least give an idea of the scale of movement involved.
I continued to check the oaks and found another cluster of YR warblers, where among them I found a dazzling Townsend's warbler - the first I have seen in the grounds.

No rain, no gain.

I put rather too much trust in the weather forecast - gentle southerlies with rain overnight and early morning. Sounded perfect for dropping a few good birds. Anyway, got up at 6.30am and it was bone dry. Oh well, you never know...
Got down to the Nanaimo River estuary, and it was very pleasant with singing savannah sparrows, robins, white-crowned sparrows and the like filling the air.
The group of golden-crowned sparrows was feeding on the path and there with them, was the white-throated sparrow.
Still a dozen or so greater yellowlegs were on the river, as was an otter.
There was no evidence whatsoever, of newly arrived anythings! Next time, maybe...

After work, I headed to Holden Creek to check the wet fields - if there were any waders on the move, hopefully they'd be here, as it was high tide. Guess what? Nowt. Well, apart from a single greater yellowlegs and 2 killdeer. Approximately 80 green-winged teal were feeding in the creeks, as was a pair of hooded merganser.
A pair of white-fronted geese were with the Canadas in the farm fields.
I decided to have a peek at the estuary, flushing a turkey vulture (pic) on the way - it was chowing down on a hapless racoon corpse on the roadside.
The yellowlegs on the Nanaimo River had gained some new recruits, and now numbered 24.

 

Hard work, but worth it.

Blimey, it was hard work down the Nanaimo River estuary this morning. Quiet? Not half!
There was a very low tide, and as such all the wildfowl and gulls were miles out. The hedgerows were uncannily bereft of birds, no finch/sparrow flocks, at all... just the odd house finch, towhee and song sparrow.
I could hear a western meadowlark singing in the fields somewhere, but couldn't locate it.
There was a bit of activity overhead, with numerous bald eagles kicking around. Up to 5 were soaring together at one point, plus a couple of red-tailed hawks were busy hunting around the area - much to the chagrin of the local ravens.
A northern shrike showed up, and posed beautifully while I rattled off a couple of crap shots. See attached.
Only 2 trumpeter swans were out on the marsh, and a further 4 were on the river.

Deciding that I wasn't likely to stumble across much more, I headed to Holden Creek to see what was there.
Just a few dabbling green-winged teal were on the wet marsh. A couple of bufflehead were in the creek. 10 trumpeter swans were in the fields, along with the regular Canada geese and mallards. A pair of killdeer were back in the field, the first time I've seen them here for a while.
Another northern shrike was hunting along the hedgerow at the back of the marsh.

Checking my watch, I noticed that I could just about squeeze in a quick check at Quennell Lake before going and collecting Jenny from work...
There was no sign of the juv snow goose amongst the depleted number of Canadas, though at least 1 cackling goose was still present. A rather impressive 62 northern shoveler were counted. A few pintail, GW teal, and mallard were around as was a pair of lesser scaup and 3 American coot.
Best of all though, were the 40ish hirundines that were feeding high over the lake. The ones that I was able to positively identify, were all tree swallows. Spring! Whoo-hoo!  

Adding to the feeling that things were definitely on the move, we had a turkey vulture over the highway near Jinglepot.