Parksville/Qualicum Beach Tuesday bird walk, May 01, 2012

Warbling Vireo: Ralph Hocken Photo. The Tuesday bird walk went to Moorcroft Regional Park in Nanoose Bay. The morning was filled with a mix of clouds, sunshine, wind and rain--a typical spring morning! We were fascinated as we watched a female Downy Woodpecker excavating a nest hole in a snag and a little later as the male Downy took over the task while the female hunted for insects. We saw a Hutton's Vireo and a Hammond's Flycatcher and heard a Pacific-slope Flycatcher, a Warbling Vireo and a Cassin's Vireo singing as we walked the trails. We searched the big leaf Maple Trees and found Orange-crowned Warblers, Black-throated Gray Warblers and Townsend's Warblers feeding on insects high up the trees. Twenty-six birders saw and heard the following forty-eight species of birds: Wood Duck Harlequin Duck Bufflehead Hooded Merganser Common Merganser Common Loon Pelagic Cormorant Turkey Vulture Bald Eagle Black Oystercatcher Mew Gull Glaucous-winged Gull Common Murre Anna's Hummingbird Rufous Hummingbird Red-breasted Sapsucker Downy Woodpecker Northern Flicker Pileated Woodpecker Pacific-slope Flycatcher Hammond's Flycatcher Cassin's Vireo Hutton's Vireo Warbling Vireo Northwestern Crow Common Raven Violet-green Swallow Chestnut-backed Chickadee Red-breasted Nuthatch Pacific Wren Golden-crowned Kinglet Ruby-crowned Kinglet Hermit Thrush American Robin European Starling Orange-crowned Warbler Yellow-rumped Warbler Black-throated Gray Warbler Townsend's Warbler Spotted Towhee Chipping Sparrow Song Sparrow White-crowned Sparrow Golden-crowned Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Purple Finch Pine Siskin American Goldfinch Good birding Neil Robins Parksville British Columbia