Parksville/Qualicum Beach Tuesday bird walk, November 27, 2012

 

                   Common Goldeneye: Ralph Hocken Photo.

 

The Tuesday bird walk went to the Little Qualicum River Estuary in Qualicum Beach. The morning was mostly clear and the sea was calm. We spotted a small flock of Red Crossbills land on top of a conifer at the Parksville Community Park parking lot to start the morning off on a good note. The Salmon spawn has begun and there were several salmon carcasses along the beach. We could see the fins of a large number of Sea Lions above the water on the Strait. There were thousands upon thousands of birds on the water, including hundreds of Common Goldeneyes, Black Scoters, Long-tailed Ducks, Common Mergansers, Red-breasted Mergansers, Pacific Loons and Common Loons. We counted eighty-six Bald Eagles perched on trees and on the gravel bars. There were a large number of Trumpeter Swans at the mouth of the Little Qualicum River. We saw three Bonaparte's Gulls throughout the morning.

Eleven birders saw and heard the following thirty-seven species:

Canada Goose
Trumpeter Swan
American Wigeon
Mallard
Greater Scaup
Harlequin Duck
Surf Scoter
White-winged Scoter
Black Scoter
Long-tailed Duck
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Common Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Pacific Loon
Common Loon
Horned Grebe
Red-necked Grebe

Brandt’s Cormorant

Pelagic Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Bald Eagle
Black-bellied Plover
Dunlin
Black Oystercatcher
Black Turnstone
Bonaparte's Gull
Mew Gull
California Gull
Herring Gull
Thayer's Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Belted Kingfisher

Rock Pigeon
Northwestern Crow
Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Dark-eyed Junco
Red-winged Blackbird

Brewer’s Blackbird

The Tuesday bird walk on December 04 will be going to the Shelly Road side of the Englishman River Estuary in Parksville.

Good birding

Neil Robins

Parksville

British Columbia