I was not able to attend today’s wet and woolly count due a very poorly back, so it was left up to my good buddies to bare the brunt of today’s good weather. The results were awesome with numbers mirroring last weeks totals and all this under terrible afternoon conditions. Dorothy took the honors of writing a report, her humor not being as silly as mine. Today’s count had the highest number of Trumpeter Swans for a long long time with 695 added, they obviously like the rain.
Here is Dorothy’s report:
On a balmy morning four blythe and bonny birders embarked on the count without their stalwart leader; everyone had their assigned task – Barry opted to drive, Dorothy took the swan and goose sheet and Zan the raptor sheet and Eric was co-pilot and head counter for swans and geese.
Zan reported having seen a flock of redpolls just before she arrived at our starting point; but they did not hang around for the rest of us to see them.
There was a small flock of Canada geese on the old golf driving range and at Somenos Lake 20 on the water at the south end and 40 on the grass on the shore opposite to the dock.
Barry spotted the kestrel perched on one of the banners at the Exhibition Grounds. Quist Farm yielded a large count of trumpeter swans. On Richard’s Trail we counted 194 Canada geese.
On Herd Road east we found 26 Canada geese decoys and no live geese or swans in the area!
At our lunch break at A & W we congratulated ourselves (too soon) on the mild weather but rain arrived as soon as we restarted our drive. On the south side of Sahilton Road we found 50 adult and 23 immature trumpeters and wondered what attracted them to the rough grasses and rushes there. We drew a blank on Koksilah Road west but up Riverside Road we found many swans scattered over a large area.
No swans or geese showed up on Wilson Road where the sheep were sheltering under a tree from the pouring rain. Later on Jim’s Pond even the ducks were hiding from the downpour under the bushes around the edge of the pond.
From St. Catherine’s Road we could see many trumpeters spread out over a wide area and we had to drive down Telegraph Road to confirm a total of 312 adults and 28 immatures.
From Dock Road we could just make out seven trumpeters over against the south shore and 10 mutes close to the north side of the road.
Sorry, Derrick, no neck bands this week. We did our best but visibility was poor once the rain began. Hurry up and get that back better – we need your leadership.
I returned home to find four feisty flickers fighting over our suet feeder.
A very big thankyou to my good friends and a job well done, hopefully I will be back next week although the docs have said it could be a long recovery, let’s hope not. I hope to be back with a complete full rain dance to get us back on the straight and narrow.
Derrick
Photo Credits
Wet woolly Jumpers by Zan Stenhouse and Eric Marshall
Common Redpolls by Zan Stenhouse
Adult and Immature Trumpeters by Zan Stenhouse
Decoys by Barry Hetschko
Trumpeter Swans by Barry Hetschko