Parksville/Qualicum Beach Tuesday bird walk, February 25, 2014

The Tuesday bird walk went to Rathtrevor Provincial Park in Parksville. The morning was sunny with cloudy periods and the Strait of Georgia like a glass mirror.  Heavy snow covered the trails but the morning made for a pleasant walk. There were hundreds of Dunlin, a large number of Black-bellied Plovers and fifty Brant near the low tide line. We spotted four Red Crossbills singing from top a conifer tree. Long-tailed Ducks, Pacific Loons and five Common Murre were spotted further offshore.

 

                                                                 Red Crossbill: Ralph Hocken Photo.

Two birders saw and heard the following thirty-two species:

Brant

Mallard

Northern Pintail

Surf Scoter

Long-tailed Duck

Bufflehead

Barrow’s Goldeneye

Common Goldeneye

Red-breasted Merganser

Pacific Loon

Common Loon

Horned Grebe

Red-necked Grebe

Common Murre

Double-crested Cormorant

Pelagic Cormorant

Bald Eagle

Black-bellied Plover

Black Turnstone

Dunlin

Mew Gull

Thayer's Gull

Glaucous-winged Gull

Northwestern Crow

Common Raven

Bewick’s Wren

American Robin

Eurasian Starling

Spotted Towhee

Song Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

Red Crossbill 

The Tuesday bird walk on March 04, 2014 will be going to the Shelly Road side of the Englishman River Estuary in Parksville. 

The Sunday bird walk on March 02, 2014 will be going to Bowen Park in Nanaimo. 

 

                                                      Dunlin and Black-bellied Plovers: Ralph Hocken Photo.

Good birding

Neil Robins

Parksville