The Cape Lazo RV Campground was pretty much wall-to-wall motor homes on this dark and stormy night.  After the empty campground the previous night, I was a little surprised. The park is under new  ownership who obviously take a lot of pride in the place.  My van, which seems as big as a tank to me, was dwarfed by the homes-on-wheels around me.   No matter–I tucked in and waited out the storm.

In the morning, I headed back to Kye Bay, and as hoped for, there were plenty of gulls to meditate with.  There must have been a small herring spawn somewhere nearby recently as there was fresh roe washing up onto the beach in spots.

A rarity, should it choose to appear, would be nice, but today was more about sitting among the gulls learning to appreciate the subtle and myriad variations that even the familiar species could have.  I took many photos of gulls that I found interesting, and I plan to spend some time going through them to confirm or deny that there was something special on the beach that day.  I should have the Howell and Dunn book badly dogeared by the end of this year!

Case in point is this pretty little gull. No, not a “Little Gull”, a little gull (which is why capitals are important on bird names!)

 

Okay, the field marks for this species include a medium gray mantle and wings, black wing-tips with large windows on the outer primaries, yellow legs and no marks on the bill. Do you see any of these features on this bird?  Granted, it’s an immature individual, but the only things that give this Mew Gull away are its size and shape. Gulls are hard!

Rosemary Bishop gave me the tip on where the gulls had gone, and I was pleased to meet her on the beach on Saturday.

Offshore, a decent raft of seaducks bobbed around in the waves. I looked through them several times to try to find an oddity, but they were mostly the expected Surf Scoters, Greater Scaup, Long-tailed Ducks and a few others. It took me several passes before I could even pull out a Black Scoter for the day, but eventually I found a few.

When you spend hours at the beach, occasionally you feel the need for, erm, some relief.  I have been continually amazed by the number of parks, rest stops and resorts that post signs like this:

but greet you only with locked gates and doors.  I guess people don’t need to use the washrooms in any season but the summer.  I can understand if they don’t want to do the full maintenance thing, but really, I think that public parks should at least have a porta-potty for the off season.  Score another point for the van!

Ian Cruickshank has given me another quest for the spring.  As you may know, Ian is a prolific recordist. There are some species which we only hear briefly in the spring before they head north.  Do you recognize this song?
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The advent of smartphones with voicerecorder apps has made capturing this kind of information so much easier than in the past.  I expect we’ll soon see an abundance of new files loaded onto sites like Xeno-canto.org and new identification tools developed. This is a Ruby-crowned Kinglet.  Ian is studying their song variations, and I’m sure would welcome samples from others as well.

From Kye Beach, my GPS suggested that nearby Airport Beach would be a good place to check out.  The management at CFB Comox suggested otherwise. Sunday afternoon before April 1?  I didn’t even try.  

 

In a past life, I drove an AMC Pacer.  It was such an unusual car that I had to behave myself as people could see me coming.  I feel the same way about the van–it’s hardly inconspicuous!  This sign has the phone numbers for permission, though, just in case you are planning a trip to this beach.  I opted for nearby Kin Beach instead.

At Kin Beach, there were a few people and a nice flock of shorebirds. Black-bellied Plovers were in various stages of molts, and a few Dunlin were among them to keep things interesting.

 

I tried, without success, to turn a plover or two into a Golden.

After a full day at the beach, it was time to move on.  My county list for Alberni-Clayquot was sadly missing many of the very common birds of the area, so I had decided to head west on my way home.

The Alberni Highway takes you through some incredibly scenic areas, but in my van, I have to say the road felt harrowing.  There are long stretches of winding roads and while the locals can take the curves at good speeds, I reluctantly admit I was one of those drivers you hate to get behind. Unlike the 101 in Washington, the BC highways have very few pullouts, and I am not familiar enough with the van yet to experiment with its stability.  I pulled over when I could, drove as fast as the engine would take me going uphill and eventually made it to Port Alberni for the night.  My plan had been to “camp” in the Wal-Mart parking lot, as they allow overnight parking for RVs, but I got a much better offer.  Libby and Rick Avis invited me for tea and let me camp in their driveway.

And then it rained.