NANAIMO BIRD ALERT, MARCH 02, 2008

Brant at Parksville: Ralph Hocken Photo.

To report your sightings
please phone the Store at 390-3669
or e-mail us at thebackyard@shaw.ca
or call the Bird Alert at 390-3029

Check out the birdstore blog.
www.thebirdstore.blogspot.com

Post your sightings on these site:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bcbirdingvanisland/messages

Birds of British Columbia:
http://www.geog.ubc.ca/biodiversity/efauna/SpeciesChecklists.html

Please remember, when reporting a sighting, to leave your name and phone
number, along with the date and location of your sighting.

Sunday March 02:
The Sunday Bird Walk went to Nanoose Bay Estuary. Among the highlights were the sighting of three Red-tailed Hawks soaring in the sky. We had the unusual sightings of a Ring-billed Gull, California Gull and an Eurasian Wigeon on the estuary.

Twelve birders braved the cool spring winds off the bay and found the following forty-four species:

Common Loon, Pacific Loon, Canada Goose, Great Blue Heron, Mallard, Northern Pintail, Green-winged Teal, Surf, Black and White-winged Scoters, Buffhead, Common Goldeneye, Horned Grebe, Red-necked Grebe,

American Wigeon, Eurasian Wigeon, Red-breasted Merganser, Common Merganser, Bald Eagle, Red-tailed Hawk, Northern Harrier, Peregrine Falcon, Killdeer, Mew Gull, California Gull, Thayer's Gull, Ring-billed Gull, Glaucous-winged Gull, Belted Kingfisher, Pileated Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Common Raven, Northwestern Crow, Bewick's Wren, Winter Wren, American Robin, European Starling, Red-winged Blackbird, Spotted Towhee, Song Sparrow, House Finch, Purple Finch, Red Crossbill and Pine Siskin.

Fourteen Trumpeter Swans were seen in the far fields at the Ugly Dwarf Meadows at Nanoose Bay.

Saturday March 01:

Large rafts of seabirds, including Black, Surf and White-winged Scoter, Common and Red-breasted Merganser, Greater Scaup, Pelagic Cormorant and Common and Barrow's Golden-eye, were seen looking over Parksville Bay from Doehle Avenue in Parksville.

A White-throated Sparrow is visiting a yard along Green Lake Crescent in north Nanaimo.

Friday February 29:
About 300 Brant were seen along the beach at Rathtrevor Provincial Park in Parksville.

Wednesday February 27:
The Wednesday Bird Walk went to Rathtrevor Provincial Park in Parksville. Seven birders found forty-two species of birds. Among the highlights were the sightings of fifteen different flocks of Common Murres, with fifty to sixty Murres in each flock, heading down the Strait of Georgia. A flock of about one thousand Dunlin made a brief appearance for us all to have a look at them and two Black Oystercatchers stopped on the tide line about twenty feet from us.

The Brant Geese are beginning to arrive. We saw about two hundred of them during the morning walk.
Seven birders found the following forty-two species:
Brant, American Wigeon, Mallard, Northern Pintail, Surf Scoter, White-winged Scoter, Black Scoter, Common Goldeneye, Common Merganser, Pacific Loon, Common Loon, Horned Grebe, Double-crested Cormorant, Pelagic Cormorant, Bald Eagle, Black-bellied Plover, Black Oystercatcher, Dunlin, Mew Gull, California Gull, Thayer's Gull, Glaucous-winged Gull, Common Murre, Northern Flicker, Northwestern Crow, Common Raven, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Bewick's Wren, Winter Wren, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, American Robin, Varied Thrush, European Starling, Spotted Towhee, Song Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Red Crossbill, Pine Siskin and American Goldfinch.

Tuesday February 26:
In Parksville, from Soriel Road overlooking Parksville Bay, thousands upon thousands of Gulls, Black, White-winged and Surf Scoters, Common and Barrow's Goldeneye, Greater Scaup, Long-tailed Ducks can be seen. The water near the shore has turned aqua-blue and the Herring Spawn is on.
The sight is awesome--the yearly natural phenomenon has begun again!!!!

Sunday February 24:
Two Barred Owls were heard talking and calling in the 800 block of Harewood Mines Road at Colliery Dam Park in Nanaimo.

For further information on these sightings or for help in identifying a
bird please call The Backyard Wildbird and Nature Store
@ (250) 390-3669
Toll Free @ 1-888-249-4145
e-mail: thebackyard@shaw.ca
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The Nanoose Naturalists
Monthly Meeting
Thursday March 13, 2008 @ 7:00 pm
Nanoose Library,
Nanoose Bay
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Arrowsmith Naturalists
Monthly Meeting,
Monday March 24, 2008@ 7:30 pm.
Springwood School
Parksville
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Everyone is welcome to join us for a 2-3 hour bird walk on the Sunday and Wednesday mornings. We leave from the Store at 9 A.M. Sunday Mornings and go to a different location in and around Nanaimo and from the Parksville Visitor Centre in Parksville at 9 A.M. Wednesdays and go to different areas in and around the Oceanside area.
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The Wednesday Bird Walk on March 05, 2008 will be going to the Englishman River Estuary, Shelly Road side in Parksville. We will meet at the Parksville Visitor Centre at Highway 19A and Northwest Bay Road, near Craig Bay in Parksville, at 9:00 A.M. or at the end of Shelly Road at about 9:10 A.M.
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The Sunday Bird Walk on March 09, 2008 will be going to Little Qualicum River Estuary. We will meet at the Bird Store at 9:00 a.m. or at the Viewing Tower near Garrett Road and Highway 19A at about 9:30 a.m.
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Good Birding!
Neil Robins
Nanaimo