Parksville/Qualicum Beach Tuesday bird walk, February 19, 2013

                                 

Lesser Scaup: Ralph Hocken Photo.

The Tuesday bird walk went to the Victoria Quay and Somass Estuary in Port Alberni. The morning started out cloudy but soon turned sunny and warm. The highlight of the morning was great views of five Yellow-rumped Warblers flycatching along the Somass Estuary. A large flock of Lesser Scaup and Ring-necked Ducks were on the sewage ponds. We saw a Northern Shrike four different times during the morning. Two Western Grebe greeted us on the Alberni Inlet at the end of the walk.
The Tuesday morning birders would like to say a special thanks to Sandy McRuer for guiding us--it turned out to be a marvelous morning of birding!

Seventeen birders including four birders from Port Alberni saw and heard the following fifty-three Species:

Trumpeter Swan

Canada Goose
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Ring-necked Duck
Greater Scaup
Lesser Scaup
Surf Scoter
Black Scoter
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye

Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Common Loon

Pied-billed Grebe
Horned Grebe
Western Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Pelagic Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Bald Eagle

Merlin
Red-tailed Hawk

Northern Shrike
American Coot

Virginia Rail
Mew Gull
Thayer's Gull
Western Gull

Herring Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Rock Pigeon
Belted Kingfisher
Northwestern Crow
Common Raven
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Bewick's Wren
Marsh Wren

Pacific Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
American Robin
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Song Sparrow

Spotted Towhee
Red-winged Blackbird
House Finch

Red Crossbill
Pine Siskin

The Tuesday bird walk on February 26, 2013 will be going to the Shelly Road side of the Englishman River Estuary in Parksville.

Good birding

Neil Robins

Parksville