16 November 2020

 eBird data:  https://ebird.org/checklist/S76339579

Weather:  10 am 7C wind ESE 9kph,  12m  7C wind ESE  (Wind warning for Parksville on the Canada Weather website, yet to materialise)

Tide:  10 am 3.7 m, 12 m 3.1m

Forecast of wet snow at sea level (i.e., here) this evening.  It's currently raining heavily and very dark.

I didn't get away to the Estuary at my usual time this morning.  I was expecting a delivery on an online order, which still hasn't materialised.  Having collected my gumboots, which had been on the Prevost farm, I realised that they are REALLY hard to get out of.  So I ordered a boot jack from Amazon.  There is one on Prevost, which I've always used.   I hope it shows up.  

Anyhow, by the time I realised I wasn't going to get a boot jack, the weather had begun to look very ominous and the wind warning made me uneasy about wandering in the woods.  I've had one near miss from a falling maple recently and am not keen on pushing my luck.

So I left my camera home (looking at the rain forecast) and made my way down to the beach.  I don't go there very often but now I realise I should do these days.  There's more happening out there now that the season has advanced.  

Anyhow, sorry, reader, no photos, this blog.  

There were brant geese along the shore--I'd thought that their autumn migration didn't pass through here, but there they were.  And an assortment of shorebirds.  Certainly worth a look.  It's an easier walk than the estuary.  I should bring my bigger camera lens and have a good look at what's out there.  At this rate, I'm likely to end up doing two birding trips daily.  I can limit my beach walk to match with the tide--low tide is waaaay out, almost a kilometer from the walkway, and makes birding pretty tricky.  

I did my usual mind stunt and identified the two nice folks I've chatted with on the estuary path as "That nice old couple..."  Then I have to laugh because my guess is, looking at them,  they're actually likely in their 60s!  I guess people probably think of me as "that strange old woman with the binocs and camera."  Ok.  Whatever.  Anyhow, they're pleasant folks only they ask the usual, "Did you see anything interesting?"  To which I can only reply, "I have a really low interesting threshold.  So yes." Actually the brant arrival is kind of interesting.

There were three people along the beach with spotting scopes of such opulence that I'd bet they cost nearly as much as I've ever earned in a month.  But, just as owning a Stradivarius never meant you're an accomplished violinist, sometimes the fancy schmancy optics don't really do much.  They were insisting that the bird on the log was a mountain bluebird.  Unlikely for these parts, and colour was wrong and it had a really pronounced eye ring, which I don't think is a bluebird thing.  On reflection (dang!  I wish I'd had my camera) I think it was a Townsend's solitaire.   Apparently they do come through here in the autumn, and the size and shape is not unlike the bluebird.   Maybe I'll see it again at some point.   I didn't bother arguing, but made my way along the shore.

There are "Dogs MUST be on leash" signs all along the beach, but dog owners ignore this happily.  Apparently during the spring migration they actually impose hefty fines, but right now not so much.

...I just stepped outside for a minute to check the weather.  Oh my goodness!  It's cold.  Still just raining, but a cold rain.  Definitely November.  

I'll try for illustrations again next post.

 

 

 

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