Title photo - A harassed harrier at the Nanaimo Estuary (more photos later)

What's it take to do a journal?

It's been a few weeks since I've produced a journal, but it hasn't been because of a lack of effort. Since the last journal I've made 3 trips to the Parksville area, 1 to Courtenay, 3 to the Nanaimo Estuary, 1 to Duncan, and 1 to Victoria. In some cases the weather didn't cooperate, and in others the birds didn't cooperate. That is not to say each journal requires as much effort. In some cases, 1 or 2 trips will provide enough material. One other factor is that I was often preoccupied with other responsibilites when the weather was reasonable, and sunny days were rare in November. That meant I should have stayed home a few of the times I was out, but decent weather in Nanoose doesn't always translate into good weather in Courtenay.

November proved to be one of the busiest months of the year for me. Besides all my normal activities, I had presentations to the Cowichan Valley Photo Club, Denman Island Seniors, and Milner Gardens; public appearances at Graham's Jewellers and Chapters; and 4 days of Craft Fairs. I was also trying to work on my third book, but nothing much was accomplished so I hope December is more productive.

Nov. 24 - An overcast day at French Creek. Not much around except for the King who was looking forlornly into the creek for his lunch. The white spots in the background were patches of foam from the swiftly flowing creek. Besides the King there were a few Mallards sleeping on the bank and a bunch of gulls relaxing in the creek.

Nov. 26 - Barrels of Barrows - An impromptu visit to the Nanaimo Estuary rewarded me with about 200 Barrow's Goldeneyes in the river. I must have just caught the arrival of the flock from their summer breeding season.

The ducks were working my side (Raines Road) of the river. I found a small window through the willows where the ducks would drift by. It was great for close-ups, but the lighting was poor with the late afternoon sun in the wrong position.

The close-up shots were great for detail at the sacrifice of colour. It didn't matter as much for the females as it did for the males.

I started December in Victoria, but the tides were high which isn't great for shorebirds. There was nothing at Clover. Cattle Point was marginally better with a few Black Turnstones on the rocks near the parking lot.

A small flock of Hooded Mergansers caught my attention, and since there wasn't much else around, I tried for a few fun shots.

There were two problems to deal with. First, the angle of the sun wasn't great. I positioned myself on a rock slightly offshore to try to get the sun a bit to my back. Second, when the ducks are in a group it's sometimes difficult to isolate one. Group shots with a telephoto lens rarely work out.

Despite the challenge of the sun and the grouping, I enjoyed a half hour trying to get some interesting shots.

There was one lone female Harlequin grooming herself near the Hoodies.

With all the attention that male Harlequins get, this was a fine opportunity to even the score.

My final stop was Esquimalt Lagoon. A few of the usual supects were hanging around, but most of the flock was missing. I forgot to bring any duck food so I had to make do with the American Wigeons. The only other ducks were Mallards and a pair of female Northern Pintails.

Facial recognition - keep this close-up picture od the female American in mind. If I ever get a close-up of a female Eurasian, I'll post them side by side so we can study the differences.

There's no problem differentiating between the male American and Eurasian, but I'll do the comparison anyway if i get the opportunity.

Dec. 3 - Another visit to the Nanaimo Estuary. I wanted to try catching the Barrow's Goldeneyes in the morning sun, but most of them had dispersed to their various winter locations. There was very little activity except for Common Ravens that were busy chasing each other and any other bird that violated their airspace.

The one bird that seemed to tangle with the ravens regularly was the Northern Harrier.

The Harrier didn't seem to mind the extra-curricular activity with the Ravens.

After a bit of mid-air jousting the Harrier and the Ravens would go their separate ways.

The only other bird of interest was the Western Meadowlark.

A flock of about 10 fluttered by, but one landed about 20 meters away before flying off to join the rest of the flock. I've found the Meadowlarks extremely difficult to approach in this location.

On the way home I checked in to the beach at Sebastion Road in Lantzville. The wind was howling and the waves were crashing, but there were a few ducks around. The largest group included about 30 Red-breasted Mergansers.

All the birds stayed away from the beach so I had to settle for a few distant shots.

With the sun at my back the distant shots were quite reasonable.

Besides the Mergansers, there were Common Goldeneyes, Buffleheads, Surf Scoters, 1 female Black Scoter, 1 Common Loon, and 1 Horned Grebe.

Dec. 5 - Duncan Day - I checked the Trumpeter Swans on Sahilton Road hoping for a Tundra, but I didn't find one. Derrick probably thinks I'm blind because the next day he checked and reported about 8 Tundras. He's right because I have a condition called photographic myopia. It means I only see the birds that are close enough to photograph. That means I only see about 20% of the flock. The juvenile Trumpeter here was in the Cowichan River.

One of these days I'll find a Tundra close enough for some good pictures, but today it was just Trumpeters.

After the Trumpeters, I had an intuition to check Art Mann Park for the second time. I wasn't disappointed as I caught the Common Mergansers just before they dove into action.

For awhile the Mergansers were just cruising around but all of a sudden they converged right in front of me.

There was a lot of feverish diving and suddenly one of them came up with a large catfish. The other Mergansers tried to steal the catch, but Merganser with the fish managed to keep its catch and sped out to deep water where it was able to swallow its ticklish prey.

Meanwhile, a second Merganser came up with another large catfish.

The same frantic action ensued, but again the catcher kept its prey.

Those catfish looked as big as the Mergansers. It's absolutely amazing that Mergansers could swallow such a huge lunch.

After the Merganser action, a juvenile Lesser Scaup slid by. I'm not sure if it were looking for catfish, but I think they were all gone.

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Bird Poster

My posters are on display at: Victoria - Swan Lake Nature House; Nanoose Bay - Credit Union; Courtenay - Graham's Jewellers

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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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