Title photo - (Mar. 31/10) Longtailed Ducks swirling back and forth at the Englisman River estuary joining the huge flocks of diving and dabbling ducks feasting on herring fry.
After-spawn Report
May 31, 2010 - After the caviar comes the main course. I'm not sure if that's what's happening, but the timing is right and that's my interpretation for the huge congregations of ducks in various locations from Nanaimo to Deep Bay. The main spawning activity for the herring was in early March. It seems reasonable to assume that many of the eggs have now matured and baby herring now have to face the gauntlet of ducks and fish to survive. It's generally believed that only 1 out of 20,000 eggs becomes a mature herring.
However, before we get to the after-spawn activity, I had a chance last week to check out a few non-spawn locations like Campbell River and Sooke. Gulls were relatively scarce in both locations, but there were a few. I often wonder if these gulls knew about the herring spawn, would they take advantage, or are they has happy with their local scavenging?
Brandt's Not Brant
Mar. 21 - I'd love to have a dollar for every time I've seen someone confuse Brandt's with Brant. Brant is the little sea goose that is currently in migration from Baja to the Arctic. Brandt's is the delighful large, blue-chinned black bird you see sitting around the rocks on the waterfront in places like just south of Campbell River.
Brandt's are very sociable birds. They are usually seen in flocks whether it is relaxing or foraging. They are deep divers and forage much of their food near the sea bottom.
Watch Out Below! - There was another cormorant in the line of fire, and it had to go for a quick bath.
The blue gular patch and white "whiskers" are typical of the breeding plumage of the Brandt's. The gular patch is similar to the pouch of the pelican but much less developed.
Kings of the Castle - With the Brandt's dominating the big rock, the Double-crested were relegated to a smaller rocks.
Spring Migrant
Mar. 24 - As I arrived home today I was greeted by the cheerful songs of several Audubon Yellow-rumped Warblers. They were hawking insects from a tall, old willow tree in my yard.
The Yellow-rumped is one of my favorite warblers and several seem to hang around for most of the early spring. Occasionally they will use the suet feeder, but for the most part they just forage for insects by hawking or gleaning from the trees.
My first Savannah of the spring was at the Courtenay Airpark yesterday. It look pretty tired and worn out.
A few Pine Siskins have been hanging out around my yard. I saw one gathering nest material yesterday.
Mar. 26 - I had to make another book run to Victoria and decided to check out a couple of stores in Sooke. As usual the persons I had to see were not available so I had time to walk Whiffin Spit. It was very quiet as far as birds were concerned. I was hoping for a Meadowlark, but I didn't see a single song bird. Fortunately there were a few ducks around. A trio of immature Common Goldeneyes caught my attention. The first one looked like an immature female.
I waited until they dove before I scrambled to the beach. When they dove again I raced to the water's edge and waited for them to come up. This one is an immature male.
This one also looks like it's going to be a male.
Bottoms up! Time to look for some food. It was interesting that on my way out the spit I first tried to go to the beach, but the goldeneyes saw me and headed out immediately. On my return I snuck onto the beach when they were submerged. Using this plan I was able to get within 10 meters of where they dove. When they emerged and saw me, they didn't swim away. They probably wondered where I came from but didn't take any evasive action.
Besides a few American Wigeons, the only other ducks were a few Red-breasted Mergansers. They always remind me of those long gas-guzzling cars of the fifties. This one is an immature male.
I usually like to get an angled shot to decrease the length but all I was offered was the profile of the adult male.
Here's the adult female of the group.
Glaucous Report
As usual there are a number of Glaucous Gulls taking advantage of the herring roe. If you are a gull-watcher, you wouldn't have any trouble finding one or two every day. I've seen about four in the past two weeks and they've all been first winter birds. Mike Tabak posted photos of a mature Glaucous at French creek on March 19. He also posted an adult Slaty-backed. Great finds, Mike.
Finding a Glaucous is often as easy as a walk in the park - Parksville Park to be exact. The annual gull convention there always features a few Glaucous among the thousands of visitors.
I found this first winter bird at the park on March 12. It was showing off its white wing-tips.
There were hardly any gulls on the grass on March 29, but one of them was a first winter Glaucous.
Despite the rain, I took a few shots. You can see a few raindrops in the photo. They are little streaks of white. The Glaucous was very obliging for the photo shoot.
I saw another first winter bird on March 30 at French Creek.
Not every duck around Oceanside is taking part in the herring activity. This male Common Merganser was helping itself to chum fry at the Little Qualicum Hatchery.
After-Spawn Spectacular
Mar. 31 - Thanks to a tip from Guy Monty and confirmation by Ralph Hocken, I decided to check out the Englishman River estuary today. Guy mentioned there were thousands of ducks feasting close to shore and Ralph said the Greater Scaup ventured within a few feet of him when he was taking pictures. A frost-delay at the golf course allowed me to make a morning visit, and I wasn't disappointed.
Thousands of ducks were massed together. As they neared the shore they would dive for what I assume were herring fry. They was no sign of any herring roe anwhere.
Ducks of all flavors - divers and dabblers alike were on hand to share in the feast. Common Mergansers and others were constantly flying in to join the free-for-all.
The largest group of ducks were the Greater Scaup, but scoters weren't far behind.
Like I said, Greater Scaup and all other varieties kept flying in.
Here come a pair of Common Goldeneyes.
There weren't very many Common Goldeneyes around. In past years there have been large flocks. They could have been somewhere else.
Surf Scoters were very prominent. They were the second most abundant species.
The ducks were coming and going. This Surf Scoter is taking off.
In the hour I was there I only saw about six Barrow's Goldeneyes.
Meanwhile, back at the yard at the Art gallery, a Northern Shrike was indifferent about the waterfront activity.
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Bird Poster
My poster is on display at: Victoria - Swan Lake Nature House
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PUBLICATIONS
VOLUME I & II BOOKS AVAILABLE AT
PARKSVILLE & QUALICUM - MULBERRYBUSH BOOKSTORES
NANAIMO - SAVE-ON FOODS (WOODGROVE),
SAVE-ON FOODS (COUNTRY CLUB), CHAPTERS, FALCONER BOOKS
PORT ALBERNI - CLOCKTOWER GALLERY
COURTENAY - GRAHAM'S JEWELLERS
SIDNEY - VICTORIAN BIRD HOUSE, TANNER'S BOOKSTORE
COMOX - BLUE HERON BOOKS
BOWSER - LIGHTHOUSE GIFTS
DEEP BAY - SHIP & SHORE
SAANICH - WILD BIRDS UNLIMITED
VICTORIA - BOLEN BOOKS, MUNRO'S, CROWN PUBLICATIONS, IVY'S
CAMPBELL RIVER - SAVE-ON FOODS, COHO BOOKS, CAMPBELL RIVER MUSEUM
DUNCAN - VOLUME 1 BOOKSTORE
CHEMAINUS - WILLOW"S WILD BIRD STORE
LADYSMITH - SALAMANDER BOOKS
NANOOSE - SCHOONER COVE MARINA
LAKE COWICHAN - GALLOPING MOON GALLERY
TOFINO - BOTANICAL GARDENS
QUADRA ISLAND - EXPLORE & BOOK BONANZA
LANGFORD - WILD BIRD CENTER
SOOKE - READING ROOM BOOKSTORE
SOOKE - MUSEUM
Port Hardy - MUSEUM
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