Trumpeter Swans: Ralph Hocken Photo.
The Tuesday bird walk went the Plummer Road side of the Englishman River Estuary in Parksville. The morning was partly sunny with a strong biting wind that calmed down as the morning progressed, turning into a really great birding day to finish off 2011. The highlights included seeing a male Northern Harrier in his finest colors fly over the estuary and then circle over the forest close to us. We spotted a Downy Woodpecker perched in a tall tree not far from the trail. A pair of Trumpeter Swans flew low over the water, not far from shore, heading up the Strait of Georgia. We were treated with a spectacular sight of thousands of Common Murre and hundreds of Pacific Loons riding the waves on the Strait.
Ten birders saw and heard the following fifty-five species:
Canada Goose
Brant
Trumpeter Swan
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Harlequin Duck
Surf Scoter
White-winged Scoter
Black Scoter
Long-tailed Duck
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Common Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
California Quail
Pacific Loon
Common Loon
Horned Grebe
Red-necked Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Pelagic Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Black-bellied Plover
Black Turnstone
Mew Gull
Thayer's Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Common Murre
Marbled Murrelet
Ancient Murrelet
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Northwestern Crow
Common Raven
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Bushtit
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
American Robin
Varied Thrush
European Starling
Spotted Towhee
Fox Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Red-winged Blackbird
Brewer's Blackbird
House Finch
Good birding
Neil Robins
Parksville
British Columbia
No comments:
Post a Comment