Parksville/Qualicum Beach Tuesday bird walk, January 22, 2013

Ruby-crowned Kinglet: Ralph Hocken Photo.

The Tuesday bird walk went to the Plummer Road side of the Englishman River Estuary in Parksville. The morning was cloudy and cool with sight breeze off the Strait of Georgia. The highlights included seeing a mixed flock of Golden-crowned and Ruby-crowned Kinglets feeding low in bushes next to the trail. We saw large numbers of Common Murre and one Rhinoceros Auklet on the Strait. The species of the morning was the sighting of three Pine Grosbeaks ( russet variant) feeding on Hawthorn berries in the bushes not far from the viewing platform along the trail.

Fifteen birders saw and heard the following fifty-four species:

Trumpeter Swan

Canada Goose Brant American Wigeon Mallard Northern Pintail Green-winged Teal Harlequin Duck Gadwall Surf Scoter White-winged Scoter Bufflehead Common Goldeneye Hooded Merganser Common Merganser Pacific Loon Common Loon Horned Grebe Double-crested Cormorant Pelagic Cormorant Belted Kingfisher Great Blue Heron Bald Eagle Mew Gull Thayer's Gull Glaucous-winged Gull Common Murre Rhinoceros Auklet Black-bellied Plover Dunlin Black Turnstone Northern Flicker Steller’s Jay Northwestern Crow Common Raven Eurasian Collared Dove Anna’s Hummingbird Chestnut-backed Chickadee Golden-crowned Kinglet Ruby-crowned Kinglet American Robin Varied Thrush European Starling Pine Grosbeak Spotted Towhee Fox Sparrow Song Sparrow Golden-crowned Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Red-winged Blackbird Brewer's Blackbird Red Crossbill Purple Finch Pine Siskin thebirdstore.blogspot.com thebackyard@shaw.ca  Neil Robins Parksville British Columbia