++++IMG_6215.jpg)
Citrine Wagtail: Ralph Hocken Photo.
I had the good fortune to go up to Courtenay this
morning with Colin in search of the Citrine Wagtail. We arrived at the site at
about 10:15 A.M. The birders there had seen the Wagtail at about 9:30 A.M. We
spent the next two and a half hours scanning the edge of the field and looking
for the bird with out any luck. Two Peregrine Falcons flew over, raising the
Gulls and landed in the trees near the entrance to the field, and after a bit
the Falcons left the area. Large numbers of Trumpeter Swans flew low over us
for most of the morning. A flock of sixty Greater
White-fronted Geese circled low over us and went to the field with the Swans
near Comox Road.
Mike Yip and three birders from the Sunshine Coast
and a birder from Comox also searched for the Wagtail, at about one o’clock
Mike waved to us to come and we headed towards the brush piles and turned right
onto a pair of planks to the right side of the field and there was the Citrine
Wagtail.
We spent the next hour following the bird as it fed
along the tall grass and out in the muddy field moving all the time. It flew up
onto a brush just off the edge of the field and started to preen if self and a
Dark-eyed Junco was preening itself just below the Wagtail. As I looked through
the scope at fifty power I watched the Wagtail preen and finally got back to the
field and feed. The sighting was just spectacular through the scope, up close
and personal.
We saw the following twenty-five
species:
Citrine Wagtail
Spotted Towhee
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Fox Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Northwestern Crow
Common Raven
Mew Gull
Northern Flicker
Belted Kingfisher
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Glaucous-winged Gull
Bald Eagle
Greater White-fronted Goose
Trumpeter Swan
Lincoln's Sparrow
Pine Siskin
House Finch
Peregrine Falcon
Northern Shrike
Killdeer
Northern Harrier
Purple Finch
Red-tailed Hawk
Good birding
Neil Robins
Parksville
British Columbia
No comments:
Post a Comment