The
March 7,
2009 outing started early at 8.00am to allow us to get
to more northerly locations than we usually visit. A
keen group of about 10 Nanoose Naturalists chased the
herring spawn and the fishing fleet to Qualicum Bay,
Nile Creek, Deep Bay and Rosewall Creek.
Unfortunately the herring had other ideas and, despite
being in the above locations only the day before, had
moved south to French Creek. This is quite a long
distance to travel in one day and rather surprised us.
Nevertheless, our main mission was to find birds and we
did see 59 species including good looks at an early
Bonaparte's Gull, a Glaucous Gull and a Western Gull.
There were gulls everywhere and quite a large raft of
Scoters, Long-tailed Ducks and Greater Scaups in one
location. This being the first full day of the Brant
Festival, we were also pleased to see a couple of small
flocks of Brant feeding on the eel grass. At our last
stop, a Eurasian Widgeon was a nice end to a morning of
thankfully calm, sunny weather.
