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.)