Song title and attribution or personal comment?  Actually, both.

Monday morning was the rainiest day of my trip.  It’s one thing to listen to the pitter-patter of the drops during the night, and quite another to have to gear up for wind and rain while birding.  I was glad that Rick and Libby were able to take me out on Monday morning and we quickly picked up some common and not-so-common birds for my Alberni list.  A Band-tailed Pigeon was perched on a Douglas-fir just behind their house and we had several new county birds before we’d even left their neighbourhood.

Ring-necked Pheasant was a pleasant surprise and cleaned up one of my “dirty” birds.  Although it is clearly an introduced species, they are not currently being released in this area for hunting.

Just down the road was a particularly sad sight.

Many years ago, one of the locals was a victim of cat-dumping.  People were dropping cats off at his farm and making them his problem.  He fed and trapped them, had them neutered and released them back on his farm.  People would see that there were a number of cats there, and continued to dump their unwanted pets on his property. After huge personal expense, he could apparently no longer keep up with the spaying and neutering, and his place is now overrun with abandoned pets and their offspring.  This is not good for the landowner, and not good for the cats either.  Certainly not good for the wildlife.

Libby and Rick know all the best places to take visitors. We spent some time sifting through scaup at the sewage lagoons and  looked out over the local landfill. The rain kept coming with only a few breaks, so there aren’t any photos.  I know what water does to digital cameras!

Near McCoy Lake, I was able to get a shot of a grounded vulture.  I think it and its friends were picking up worms!

Time was ticking away, and I had a meetup planned in Duncan, so shortly before lunch, I was on my way back through the windy Alberni forests.

In Duncan, I met up with Derrick Marven and Ian Toews.  Ian is doing a documentary on Vancouver Island birders, so this meetup was essential!  While waiting, Derrick and I had great looks at a male Northern Harrier hunting in the fields.

We walked the Somenos Marsh boardwalk and got a bit of a history lesson on the area.  Every time we visit sites like these, we should remember that they exist because a few people had a vision for conservation and put their energy into turning it into a reality.  There are millions of good ideas out there, but it takes a person (or 10) to take one of those ideas and create something wonderful like the Somenos outdoor classroom!  It’s stunning how much difference one person can make!

Before we left the area, Ian and I checked out Duncan’s sewage lagoons and tried to find some bluebirds near Quamichan Lake.  No luck this time, but Mountain Bluebirds had been seen in an accessible location in Victoria.  They would have to wait (I hoped) until the morning.

Bright and early Tuesday, Ian and I met up on the Lochside Trail to try to reolcate the Mountain Bluebirds found on Monday by Mike McGrenere.  Mike has good history and good sense about a lot of birds and he had predicted he would find bluebirds after the weekend rain.  He was right AND they were still there!  Two female Mountain Bluebirds were on the “famous” fence that has hosted many rarities over the years.

 

Warren Lee came by on his way to work for a second look at these birds.

One who can prescribe online doctor viagra, UK without a problem. Nitric oxide helps in the production of cyclic guanosine monophosphate get interfered by PDE5 chemical then this leads to develop impotency as the proper shape of blood vessels could not be maintained after the restrictions imposed by http://amerikabulteni.com/2016/12/08/time-trumpa-seytan-boynuzu-mu-takti/ viagra online phosphodiesterase enzyme. This procedure allows seeing abnormalities in the upper gastrointestinal generic viagra online (GI) tract that may not be visible on X-rays. Some Facts About Chiropractic Although san francisco chiropractic treatments are common legally everywhere in the entire world, 99% involving adult men have to sildenafil without prescription have suffered with quick climaxing as well as regulate the immune system. Ian and I made a quick trip to Rithet’s Bog before I headed back up the peninsula for a non-birding (right!) walk around the Victoria Airport.

I left my camera at home and took only my emergency binoculars for a walk with Mike Nightingale around the airport footpath.  If I’d taken my camera, a two-hour walk would have easily turned into three!  I thought I might see some more bluebirds along the fences, but they didn’t appear, nor did any kestrels.  Several years ago, American Kestrels nested at the corner of the airport at Beacon Avenue,  but they’ve been less reliable lately. I heard only one Meadowlark, and after intense listening, one Sky Lark.  It was a good workout if not a good bird list!

While I was near the small cemetary (best spot for Sky Lark), Rick Schortinghuis called.  He had seen two Marbled Godwit at Esquimalt Lagoon.  That would be my afternoon destination!

By the time I got to Esquimalt Lagoon, others had seen the godwits and reported them on eBird.  Although I had this species for my year list, I did not have it for the Capital county.  The wind was howling, and it was pretty cold.  I looked on the ocean side.  I looked near the bridge.  I had just started to walk along the roadway when I saw a couple of tall waders making their way along the inside of the lagoon about 100m southwest of the bridge.  I snapped a few quick shots, then walked quite a bit ahead of them and sat down on the gravel beach as the approached.  Did I mention that it was cold?

Patience paid off, though, as the birds came fairly close before decided that a person on the beach was still a person and turned around.

Mary Robichaud was also there looking for them, and we were glad to get good looks on such a windy afternoon.  We decided to press our luck and go to Albert Head Lagoon to look for a Spotted Sandpiper.  This is a reasonably common bird, but neither of us had it for our year list.  We still don’t.

My evening plans included banding some nestling Barn Owls, but they have already flown the coop.  Instead, I spent some time along the Sidney waterfront, where a gull was having a seastar dinner.

I don’t know why they eat these things–they can’t have a lot of nutrition, and they must really hurt coming out!  This is about the fourth time I’ve seen this specific behaviour.  The gull gets two legs into its mouth, with three hanging out.  Eventually the seastar pulls those legs in and goes down the gull’s throat. If you look closely, you can see the wiggling tube feet of the seastar in this photo.  I think it’s an avian ploy.  The gull just sits there. The seastar must think it’s going into a safe dark crevice or something, when it’s actually entering the digestive system of a predator.  The calcium carbonate skeleton of the seastar must eventually break down inside the gull, but that must take a while. Hmm.. maybe seastars are the gull’s antacids!

As the sun set, I headed to an area near the abandoned Sandown Race Track, since I’d heard that there was a Barn Owl nest in the timing tower.

 

There are lots of signs about not trespassing here, but fortunately good views can still be had from public areas.

The sunset was gorgeous.

As the light just about disappeared, about 8:10, an owl flew by, not from the tower as expected, but just passing over the hedgerow.  I had a Barn Owl, and a new species as my last bird of March.

My big year is 1/4 done, and I have 162 birds on my list, including the two questionable gulls and the Beacon Hill Park Black Duck.  A good start no matter how you count!  The next few weeks should see a serious bump in the numbers.  My first pelagic trip is just over one month away!