I arrived at Jeremy's at about 10:30 and was greeted by Len, Dian, and Ian from the mainland and Lorna and friend from Victoria. I had missed the Bunting by an hour. But, patience was rewarded as it was sunny and the Bunting peeked out at 11:30, 11:45, and 11:50. (Thanks, Jeremy.) The Bunting's primary range is Texas and the southern states, but there was a report (with photos) of one (male) in Washington (Feb. - Mar. 2002), and that's only a few kilometers as the Bunting flies.
King's Pond, finally - I had put off visiting King's Pond for 2 years. I had time today. It was a great place to practice photographing ducks.
As usual, the Northern Shovelers had their heads underwater most of the time. I had to wait quite awhile for the female to keep her head above water.
The situation was the same with the male, but in time, it had to take a break from eating.
A lone Redhead was part of the duck chaos although it did not join the stampede onto land when someone brought food.
For the most part, the Redhead stuck to itself and was happy dredging up aquatic weeds from the bottom of the pond.
The male Lesser Scaup was looking extremely dapper in its herring bone suit.
The heavy barring on the back of the duck is generally indicative of the Lesser Scaup but not the Greater Scaup.
Exposing the ring - The ring on the Ring-necked Duck is usually hidden unless the duck has its neck stretched out.
Mirror, mirror on the wall - There is no doubt which duck is the fairest of them all. Even the female Wood Duck has subtle hints of colours that other females would kill for.
The King of Colour - The male Wood Duck is truly the peacock of native North American ducks.
Mar. 25 - Roe Playing - The aftermath of the herring spawn continues to fuel the extravaganza of ducks and gulls from Parksville to Deep Bay.
In Qualicum, the large flocks of Greater Scaup are now coming close to shore to find higher concentrations of roe. I'm not sure if larval herring is on their menu, but a lot of the herring eggs must have developed by now.
Greater Scaup seemed to be coming from everywhere.
Special treat - I'm not sure if the Black Turnstone was into the roe, but it couldn't pass up a tasty clam treat.
Mountains of roe - The shoreline on the bay south of French Creek Marina is a reservoir of herring roe. The length of the beach was covered with up to a foot of sweet-smelling roe in some places. (I'm kidding about "sweet-smelling.")
Bonie Time - Large flocks of Bonapartes have settled along the beaches and are also enjoying the roe.
Finally, a Herring Gull - I've been looking for a herring Gull all winter. It only took about a hundred thousand gulls before I found one today at French Creek.
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