Parksville/Qualicum Beach Tuesday bird walk, June 17, 2014

The Tuesday bird walk went to the Beaver Ponds in Nanoose Bay. The morning was sunny and warm.  We were greeted with the sighting and sounds of a pair of Black-headed Grosbeaks on the trees just above us at the start of the walk.  A Hooded Merganser was resting on a log with young chicks on the Beaver Pond.  We watched as a Red-tailed Hawk, six Bald Eagles and a Turkey Vulture caught a thermo high above us. A pair of Western Tanager’s entertained us as they fed in a tall cedar tree near the trail.

                     

                              Black-headed Grosbeak: Ralph Hocken Photo.                           

 

                                     Western Tanager: Ralph Hocken Photo.

Seventeen birders including a visiting birder from Calgary saw and heard the following thirty-eight species:

Hooded Merganser

Bald Eagle

Red-tailed Hawk

Cooper’s Hawk
Rufous Hummingbird
Northern Flicker

California Quail

Band-tailed Pigeon

Eurasian-collared Dove

Willow Flycatcher
Pacific-slope Flycatcher
Northwestern Crow
Common Raven

Purple Martin

Tree Swallow
Violet-green Swallow

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Bushtit
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Brown Creeper
Pacific Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Swainson's Thrush
American Robin
European Starling
Orange-crowned Warbler
Black-throated Gray Warbler

Townsend’s Warbler

Western Tanager 
Spotted Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

Red-winged Blackbird
Black-headed Grosbeak
Purple Finch

House Finch
American Goldfinch

                                       American Kestrel chicks: John Purves Photo. 

The Tuesday bird walk on June 24, 2014 will be going to Lot Ten in Qualicum Beach. Meet at Parksville Bay Community Park at the parking lot near the Lion’s Playground or on Kinkade Road on the mountain side of highway 19a in north Qualicum Beach. 

Good birding

Neil Robins

Parksville.