Bright and sharp at 7 AM on Sunday, May 8, Daryl Johnson, Bob Nation, Christine Gilbertson and Carol Hartwig trained their binoculars and spotting scopes on the northern portion of Cowichan Estuary for the Coastal Bird Survey. A total of 163 birds from 14 species were observed on a very calm Bay with excellent visibility…
To all our followers. This past Wednesday we managed to gather all of the regular participants who partook in the Swan count this past season and headed off up to Nanaimo for a bit of birding and lunch at the Crow and Gate. 11 of us left the dog park…
South Side of the Bay: On this beautiful, calm morning, Gail Mitchell, Barry Hetchco, John Scull, and LInda Hill walked through Hecate Park and saw these birds plus 27 Purple Martins. 1 Common Loon, 6 Surf Scoter, 3 Great Blue Heron, 13 Double-crested Cormorant, 2 Mute Swan, 1 Bald Eagle, 7 gull sp., 2 Northwestern…
We gathered at the dog park to set off on our end of the year celebration to the Nanaimo Estuary and then to the Crow and Gate for lunch when we noticed many were missing, especially our intrepid leader Derrick, and then Deb, and Bob and Helen. Derrick and Deb were ill, Bob and Helen…
“Bon Voyage” As we enter the final two weeks of our count the swans are departing and we wish them well on their arduous trip north. Our adult swan numbers dropped by half today down to just 220 and they took a few immature with them although most of the young are still here fattening…
“Our last hurrah” All good things must come to an end and so our swan and goose count played out its last week of the season. The weather was cold and damp, but we shouldn’t complain as this season has been very kind to us. Numbers were down right across the board with just 33…
It was a dark and stormy morning in Cowichan Bay. It was cold and windy with the waves breaking on the rocks and sending spray onto the path. In spite of the change to Daylight Savings Time, Gail, Christina, Linda, and John managed to get out at 8 am. In the rough seas the buffleheads…
” hybrid rain drops” When one crosses wind with rain you create a hybrid and the 7 counters today had a pair of hybrids. The weather man said expect rain about 2 to 2:30 so I ushered our driver along in the hopes that we would beat the incoming storm, but…
” Today was hard to Swallow” We dodged a real bullet today weather wise, with rain storms on both side of our first spring count, we had a dry run. 8 birders once again set out from the dog park and things were very slow for count species. Flying out over…
“lumps and bumps” On this lovely day when I went without a coat for the whole trip myself and 7 fellow counters saw and heard some wonderful sights. This week we had a new driver, with Kurlene afraid to fill her vehicle up with gas in case the price dropped down, Zan…
“Counters worst nightmare” This week saw 8 counters head out in two vehicles expertly driven by Christina and Barry, the worst of the rain held off until the last 15 minutes so we kept ourselves dry. Adult swan numbers dropped a bit this week but the immatures were spot on with the past few weeks…
On Valentine’s Day, February 14th, 2016 It was a dark and overcast morning in Cowichan Bay, but there was no rain and the mist around the mountains was beautiful. Hilary Stead (and her Belgian WWOOFer Loic Leconte), Linda Hill, Gail Mitchell, Barry Hetcho, John Scull, Kathy O’Donnell, and Jim O’Donnell counted: Canada Goose 3 Great…
The 24th Conference of The Trumpeter Swan Society (TTSS) will be held in Duncan, BC, Canada, on November 16-18, 2016. The conferences of TTSS, that were begun in 1969, provide the only public forum in North America that brings together private citizens, conservation groups, policy makers, swan managers, and researchers to examine the status and…
“Wild celebrations” Today marked a milestone on our count as we reached 125 counts, this in our seventh season. The party was wild as 5 participants piled into one car, no rain was going to dampen our day. We were joined by Eric and Dorothy later to make 7 hardy counters.. As I look back…
“The real face of swan counting” Today we lost the Midas touch with the weather, as some of us got soaked while others curled up in the vehicles, what a rotter it was, oh well we had a good run of clear count days. All was not lost as we did extremely…