Lantzille January 27th 2008

Hi all
Dad and i decided to take a little birding trip on a beautiful sunday morning. (before the snow and hail)

Firts stop was Nanoose Edibles for the bluebirds. I am sorry to say that we didnt find them. Unfortunately there was a man and his dog working in the blueberry patch wich was what probably kept them away. We did find some robins, juncos and ravens though.

Next stop was Sebastion Rd. in Lantzville. There definately wasnt a "huge raft of birds" more like 30 white winged scoter and a few other birds mixed in. We also managed to get a LIFER!! Spotted Sandpiper was a new bird for both of us and we were lucky to get a good long look at this funny teetering bird. Dad spotted it jumping behin a rock and within two minutes it was out where we could see it hoping around a small pool in the rocks.

From those rocks we were able to see another small raft of birds further down but to far off to ID. So we took a little drive down to Benwaldun Rd. Here we were able to find another raft of scoters, this time they were surf. Also here were some gulls and mergansers.

The list for our hour and a half of beach birding is as follows. GREATER SCAUP, SURF SCOTER, WHITE-WINGED SCOTER, LONG-TAILED DUCK (off Sebastion Rd.) BUFFLEHEAD, BARROW'S GOLDENEYE, RED-BREASTED MERGANSER, COMMON LOON, PACIFIC LOON, SPOTTED SANDPIPER, MEW GULL, GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL, ROCK PIGEON, NORTHERN FLICKER, NORTHWESTERN CROW, COMMON RAVEN, AMERICAN ROBIN, EUROPEAN STARLING, SPOTTED TOWHEE, DARK-EYED JUNCO, AND PURPLE FINCH (Sebastion Rd.)

Backyard December 29th/07

Hi all
Today at around noon we had a large number of unusual birds visit the feeders.

Canada Goose
Gulls
Mallrds
Pigeons
Anna's Hummingbird
Flicker
Crow
Raven
Chickadee
Golden Crowned Kinglet
Bushtit
Robin
Varied Thrush
Starling
Towhee
Song Sparrow
Junco
House Finch
Pine Siskin
House Sparrow

Good luck to everyone tomorrow at the Nanaimo CBC.

Cheers,

Nanaimo River Estuary: Chum Fishing

This morning Dad and I went down to the Nanaimo River to do some salmon fishing. We fished for about an hour and didnt get anything. The few salmon still alive were pretty dark. So we hit the Estaury for some quick birding.

The highlight was the sighting of 2 adult Trumpeter Swans and one immature flying up river from the estuary. We also saw this same flock coming back down the river just as we were leaving.

We saw the following over about an hour on a beatufil Nanaimo day.

Double-Crested Cormorant-3
Great-Blue Heron- 2
Trumpeter Swan-7
Mallard-7
Barrows and Common Goldeneye-50+
Common Merganser-9
Sharp-Shinned Hawk-1
California Gull-5
Glaucous Winged Gull-20
Unidentified Gulls-100s
Belted Kingfisher-1
Northern Flicker-1
Crow-20
Raven-1
Bushtit-20
Golden-Crowned Sparrow-2 imm.

All in all a good "fishing" day.

Cheers