Parksville/Qualicum beach Tuesday bird walk, May 10, 2016

 

 

 

The Tuesday bird walk went to the Plummer Road side of the Englishman River Estuary in Parksville. The morning was sunny and warm with calm winds. A Common Yellowthroat was singing from the top of a bush just across the river. A mixed flock of a Semipalmated Plover, a Pectoral Sandpiper,a Black-bellied Plover, a Dunlin and two Killdeer, several Western Sandpipers and a few Least Sandpipers greeted us along the mudflats and kept us entertained for a good part of the morning.  We heard a Pacific-slope Flycatcher,  Orange-crowned Warblers, a Yellow Warbler and a Wilson's Warbler singing during the walk. Two immature Bald Eagles were seen chasing a Glaucous-winged Gull  overhead before giving up the chase and flying away.

 

 

 

 

Semipalmated Plover: Ralph Hocken Photo.

 

Twenty-one birders including visiting birders from England, Edmonton, Port Hardy and Gabriola Island saw and and heard the following forty-fourspecies:

Canada Goose

Mallard

Harlequin Duck

Double-crested Cormorant

Bald Eagle

Merlin

Turkey Vulture

Great Blue Heron

Semipalmated Plover

Killdeer
 Pectoral Sandpiper

Western Sandpiper

Least Sandpiper

Black Oystercatcher

Black-bellied Plover

Dunlin

Mew Gull

California Gull

Glaucous-winged Gull

Band-tailed Pigeon

Eurasian-collared Dove

Rufous Hummingbird

Belted Kingfisher

Northern Flicker

Northwestern Crow

Common Raven

Violet-green Swallow

Tree Swallow

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

American Robin

European Starling

Pacific-slope Flycatcher

Orange-crowned Warbler

Yellow Warbler

Wilson's Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Spotted Towhee

Chipping Sparrow

Song Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow

Red-wing Blackbird

Brown-headed Cowbird

Purple Finch

American Goldfinch

 

Common Yellowthroat: Ralph Hocken Photo.

 

The  Tuesday bird walk on May 17, 2016 will be going to Lot Ten in north Qualicum Beach. Meet at the Parksville Community Park at the parking lot near the Lions Club Kids Playground at 9:00 a.m. or on the forest side of highway 19a on Kinkade Road in north Qualicum Beach at about 9:20 a.m.

 

Good birding

Neil Robins

Parksville

 

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