30 December
30 December
eBird data: https://ebird.org/checklist/S157551712
weather: 3 pm 12C, wind NNW 3, 4 pm 11C wind WNW 5
tide: 3:30 pm 3.6m, rising
1 January
eBird data: https://ebird.org/checklist/S157773417
weather: 10 am 2C wind calm, 1:30 pm 7C wind ESE 11
tide: 11:30 4.4 m, falling
3 January
data unavailable
4 January
eBird data:
Weather: 10:00 am 8C wind E6, 1:30pm wind NNE6
Tide: 12:00 4.4m falling
Back in Parksville after spending Christmas with friends on their farm in the Gulf Islands. I spent most of Friday settling back in, sorting, laundering, and arranging, and then made a rather late visit to the Estuary.
The very mild weather has started early growth on trees and shrubs--odd, and possibly worrying, but beautiful.
The hazelnut by the parking area is already filled with catkins.
Along the river, the cottonwoods are showing golden shoots.
They look almost autumnal, particularly in the golden light of late afternoon.
The river is high with run-off from snowmelt and recent rainfall.
Christmas day was wildly rainy and windy all along the coast. Several trees have come down in the Estuary forest.
The path's turn from the river to follow a side channel is now blocked by several downed trees.
It looks as if an old, long-dead alder came down and took a number of smaller trees with it.
I haven't visited the Estuary often towards the close of day, but this view persuades me that I should do so more often.
1 January
How better to see in the New Year than to visit the Estuary? Joined by a friend who shares my enthusiasm for this area, we greeted the year.
It was a mild morning, with patchy cloud.
The river remains high, although not particularly swift--I'm surmising that the high tide backs it up a bit.
Due to the late hour of my visit on the 30th I hadn't taken the detour to check on Grandma Maple, but we were reassured to see that she had withstood the wild weather that had taken trees down.
She still stands in all her splendour.
The tide was very high--the forecast level didn't look as though it should be, but if I understand correctly, a strong wind can bring the water level up additionally.
A common merganser looked to be snoozing on a log, but kept an eye open.
I'm hoping that the spectacular solar halo was a favourable omen for the coming year.
Over on the merganser pond, there were no mergansers, but a solitary female bufflehead paddled about contentedly.
3 January
A fine beginning to the year. I decided it was time I headed up to Deep Bay with my camera instead of my spotting scope, and tried for some photos. Enroute, it was apparent that it was a very high tide, so I dawdled and turned into Kincade Road, where there's a good view of the Straits. For the first time I've been there, the tide was so high that the fields in the Little Qualicum Estuary were flooded, and thronged with waterfowl.
Although most of the birds present were Canada geese and mallards, there were also snow geese, including this blue phase goose.
There were also wigeons and northern pintails.
I continued to the parking area which has a good view of the Straits, where I noticed a crowd of people on a nearby point, with spotting scopes and binoculars, looking out to sea. One of my friends had mentioned she had seen about twenty humpbacked whales feeding offshore a couple of days previously. I concluded that these folks were indeed whale-watchers, so I scoped the water and sure enough, saw about six humpbacks and what I'm pretty sure were a couple of dolphins bouncing about. (Sorry--waay too far out for photos. Still, it's always a treat to see whales, and humpbacks were a diminishing population who are making a comeback.)
I continued along the Island Highway after watching for some time, and came to Qualicum Bay. There's a shack of sorts along the shore which folks had told me sold excellent fish tacos and burritos. Normally I just do my sandwich and thermos routine, but I decided I'd try a burrito. It was excellent, very fresh fish, minimal batter, great sauce.
As it was prepared I watched a small flock of harlequin ducks diving.
Handsome ducks. And there was a nice female bufflehead hanging out with them. Buffleheads seem to be very sociable, and mix with a variety of other duck species.
Lunch finished, I headed to Deep Bay, where the tide had subsided a bit, providing space for shorebirds. There was a mixed raft of surf and white-winged scoters offshore, typical for the winter season. The tide was still high enough to provide coverage vegetation for flocks of black-bellied plovers, western sandpipers, dunlin, and black turnstones.
There is often a flock of oystercatchers along the shore, but on this day there was only one, visited by a black turnstone.
The black-bellied plovers were among dried grasses, usually above the tideline.
They were accompanied by western sandpipers.
A short visit to Mapleguard Point didn't provide any views of waterfowl. An icy wind was rising, and I called it a fine day and made my way home.
4 January
Heavy rain was forecast for the day, but the forecast was completely wrong. I wandered the Estuary, enjoying the brilliant sunshine.
I was happy to discover that the path between Nerbus Lane and Mills Street, which had been closed off by the Nature Trust and heavily overgrown with Himalayan blackberries, has re-opened and been at least in part cleared of vines.
A golden-crowned sparrow welcomed me back.
He seemed very brightly coloured for the non-breeding season, but in fact the season seems filled with atypical things.
Catkins have emerged very early, no doubt misled (?) by the warm temperatures.
On approaching the Mills Street trailhead, I saw a strange and somewhat disquieting sight. A female hooded merganser landed in the channel that runs along the Merganser pond, and swam very rapidly to the west. Meanwhile, on the pond, the male merganser was swimming with a female bufflehead--possibly the one I saw there a couple of days back?
I know that ducks interbreed, but this seems odd. Hoodies always seem to appear in matched and congenial pairs. I watched for some time, and the two of them left the pond together. I still have to wonder if the female that I saw fly away was somehow distressed at her mate's infidelity.
There was a very high tide.
Four goldeneyes were fishing near the shore. One looked as though he was studying me.
I paused by the river to watch a dipper--really too distant for a photo, but I always enjoy dippers.
The river is high, partly an effect of the high tide, and unfortunately also an effect of run-off from the mountains.
As a rule, it seems that they prefer to drill their rows of holes in deciduous trees, but I'd noticed before that they'd been at work on this particular cedar. Sure enough, here he was.
...And that was the news from my visit to the Estuary on January 4th. I made my way home happily along the newly re-accessible path, and note that my bird count is up from what it was without that path.
I'm writing this on the 5th. It has rained steadily most of the day and is seriously pitching it down at this time. The Norwegian weather service says that the air temperature is now 6 Celsius, but that with wind chill it feels like 1 Celsius. I'm sure this is right--I just stepped out on my deck, briefly--brrr! --but I remain puzzled at why the Norwegian weather service is the one that locals (including me) find the most reliable. Oh well.
So far, the year looks most auspicious.
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