The first Tuesday bird walk for the fall went to the
Shelly Road side of the Englishman River in Parksville. The morning started out
cloudy but soon turned sunny with a light breeze. The highlights included
seeing a Parasitic Jaeger flying low over the water heading down the Strait of
Georgia. Not far from shore, a mixed flock
of Common Terns and
Arctic Terns were circling and playing in the
wind as they flew down the Strait. We saw a hawk lift numerous gulls from a
gravel bar near the ocean. The Hawk landed near the gulls and we had a chance to
study it with our scopes. We concluded that the Hawk, with the long
tail of an accipiter, broad head and bulky body and a white “eyebrow” above the
eye was a Northern
Goshawk. A pair of American Kestrels put on a
show for us as they chased each other over the
meadow.
Parasitic Jaeger: Ralph Hocken
Photo.
Twenty-three
birders including visiting birders from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario, along
with two birders from the United Kingdom and Ontario who have just moved to this
area, saw and heard the following forty species.
Common Loon
Canada Goose
Mallard
American
Wigeon
Common Merganser
Northern Pintail
Turkey
Vulture
Bald
Eagle
Northern
Goshawk
American
Kestrel
Killdeer
Greater Yellowlegs
Black-bellied Plover
Parasitic Jaeger
California Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Mew Gull
Common
Terns
Artic
Terns
Black Swift
Anna’s Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Northern Flicker
Pacific-slope Flycatcher
Yellow Warbler
Steller’s Jay
Common Raven
Northwestern Crow
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
American Robin
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
White-crowned Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Savannah’s Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Spotted Towhee
House Finch
American Goldfinch:
Common Terns:
Ralph Hocken Photo
The
Tuesday bird walk on September 15 will be going to the Little Qualicum River
Estuary in Qualicum Beach.
Meet
at the Parksville Bay Community Park at the Lions Club Playground parking lot at
9:00 am. Or at the Brant Viewing Platform in north Qualicum Beach at about 9:20
am
Good
birding
Neil
Robins
Parksville
No comments:
Post a Comment