Bird Alert
Today we went birding, and were hopeful considering we drove the 40km on the off chance we would see something in the bay of the Power Plant. There were:
Buffleheads (male and female) many,
Mallards (male and female) several,
Various Gulls, including Greater Black Backed
Mute Swan, one
Canada Geese, many
Common Goldeneyes (male and female) at least 10 pairs
But I was hoping for something new and all of these are nice but regular winter fare. We walked along the beach in the opposite direction, towards the waterway entrance to the marina, and were lucky to see, in addition to some of the above:
Greater Scaup (male and female), at least 10 pairs
Long Tailed Ducks (a.k.a. Oldsquaws) (male and female), at least 5 pairs
Tumpeter Swans, two tagged (#819 and ??) one juvenile
I was pretty happy about the Long Tailed Ducks, because they are sea ducks and I'd only ever seen them at a real distance before, through a scope. We saw them nice and close, binoculars only. It was great. Walking back towards the car we went across to the other (marina) side of the spit, and looked in the calm water that was still open near the boats. There was:
Long Tailed Duck (male),
Red Necked Grebe in winter plumage (this isn't a life bird for me, but call it a life morph of this bird... I'd only seen one in summer plumage).
We watched from a distance as the Long Tailed Duck was diving for food, and after a while we were able to walk across the docks and get so close to him that I could see the colour of its eyes without using my binoculars. We could see all kinds of detail on him. We were about 15 feet away at our closest, he watched us but wasn't concerned by us at all.
It was amazing. I love birds.
Buffleheads (male and female) many,
Mallards (male and female) several,
Various Gulls, including Greater Black Backed
Mute Swan, one
Canada Geese, many
Common Goldeneyes (male and female) at least 10 pairs
But I was hoping for something new and all of these are nice but regular winter fare. We walked along the beach in the opposite direction, towards the waterway entrance to the marina, and were lucky to see, in addition to some of the above:
Greater Scaup (male and female), at least 10 pairs
Long Tailed Ducks (a.k.a. Oldsquaws) (male and female), at least 5 pairs
Tumpeter Swans, two tagged (#819 and ??) one juvenile
I was pretty happy about the Long Tailed Ducks, because they are sea ducks and I'd only ever seen them at a real distance before, through a scope. We saw them nice and close, binoculars only. It was great. Walking back towards the car we went across to the other (marina) side of the spit, and looked in the calm water that was still open near the boats. There was:
Long Tailed Duck (male),
Red Necked Grebe in winter plumage (this isn't a life bird for me, but call it a life morph of this bird... I'd only seen one in summer plumage).
We watched from a distance as the Long Tailed Duck was diving for food, and after a while we were able to walk across the docks and get so close to him that I could see the colour of its eyes without using my binoculars. We could see all kinds of detail on him. We were about 15 feet away at our closest, he watched us but wasn't concerned by us at all.
It was amazing. I love birds.