The Backyard Wildbird and Nature Store

The Tuesday bird walk went to the Brant Viewing Platform and the Little Qualicum River Estuary in north Qualicum Beach. The morning started out cloudy with light rain, but the sun came out, making for one of the first sunny walks in a long while!  Thousands of Surf Scoters, twenty Long-tail Ducks, several Lesser Scaup and hundreds of Greater Scaup were seen from the viewing platform.  Several Bald Eagles were seen resting on a log along the shore.  A Western Gull and thousand's of Mew Gulls, California Gulls, Thayer’s Gulls and Glaucous-winged Gulls were flying and resting on the shoreline and gravel bars all morning.  Hundreds of Common Goldeneye and Barrows Goldeneye were seen on the Strait just beyond the gravel bar at the estuary.  A large number of Common Merganser were roosting on the River.  We spotted a Cooper’s Hawk perched on a tall Conifer Tree on the estuary giving us great views. There were an estimated three thousand singing Brant Geese not fifty feet from the shore----a great sight!

 

 

 

Brant Geese: Ralph Hocken Photo.

 
 
 Fourteen birders including two visiting birders from Ottawa saw and heard the following forty-three species;

Brant

Canada Geese

Mallard

Green-winged Teal

American Widgeon

Surf Scoter

White-winged Scoter

Long-tail Duck

Lesser Scaup

Greater Scaup

Bufflehead

Northern Pintail

Barrows Goldeneye

Common Goldeneye

Horned Grebe

Common Merganser

Common Loon

Pacific loon

Double-crested Cormorant

Great Blue Heron

Bald Eagle

Red-tailed Hawk

Cooper’s Hawk

Sanderling

                                                          Killdeer

Black Oystercatcher

Western Gull

Mew Gull

California Gull

Thayer’s Gull

Glaucous-winged Gull

Belted Kingfisher

Northern Flicker

Northwestern Crow

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

American Robin

European Starling

Spotted Towhee

Song Sparrow

Golden-crowned Sparrow

Red-winged Blackbird

Purple Finch

 House Sparrow

                                                           California Gull: Ralph Hocken Photo

The Tuesday bird walk on March 21, 2015 will be going to Columbia Beach.  Meet at the Parksville Community Park at the parking lot near the Lions Club Kids Playground at 9:00 a.m. or at the parking area off Admiral Tryon Blvd. (Turn off highway 19a at Columbia Drive, turn right at Admiral Tryon Blvd. go about one hundred yards to the parking area)

Good birding

Neil Robins 

THE BACKYARD WILDBIRD & NATURE STORE

314 Metral Drive

 Nanaimo B.C.
V9T-2L8

Phone: 250-390-3669

Fax: 250-390-1633

Email: thebackyard@shaw.ca

Blog: www.thebirdstore.blogspot.com