Parksville/Qualicum Beach Tuesday bird walk, January 08, 2013

 

The Tuesday bird walk went to Columbia Beach. The morning was wet with rain all morning and the wind was picking up at the end of the walk. Great for the hardy to be outside birding along the Strait of Georgia! The highlight of the morning was the sighting of over ten flocks of Common Murre racing just above the water with Pacific Loons down the Strait . We saw an Eurasian Widgeon in with a flock of American Widgeon on the pond near the Pebble Beach Townhouses.

Nine wet birders saw and heard the following thirty-three species:

Mallard

American Widgeon

Eurasian Widgeon

Harlequin Duck
Surf Scoter
White-winged Scoter
Long-tailed Duck
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye

Common Merganser

Red-breasted Merganser

Common Murre

Pacific Loon
Common Loon
Horned Grebe
Red-necked Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Black-bellied Plover
Black Oystercatcher

Black Turnstone
Mew Gull
Thayer's Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Eurasian-collared Dove

Northern Shrike

Northern Flicker
Northwestern Crow

European Starling
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco

The Tuesday bird walk on January 15 will be going to the Englishman River Estuary Shelly Road side in Parksville.

Good birding

Neil Robins

Parksville