Twas a Count Before Christmas

 I usually only participate in one Christmas Bird Count before Christmas. The others are after. The one before is the Blenheim CBC, but with Rondeau Prov Park and Rondeau Bay being the main natural feature, it often just is referred to as the Rondeau CBC. Anyway, it was last weekend, and there was a good number of excellent birders joining in, keeping socially distant for the most part, as far as I know. There was no gathering at the end of the day.

I've been doing this count since about 1968 or 1969, so for more than 50 years. On some counts, it feels like it! Since about the mid 1970s, my territory has been mostly the south end of the park and sometimes includes the marsh trail, but in the last several decades, it has been exclusively the south beach, and if time permits and there is the need for coverage elsewhere in the park, I may get to other areas.

I start off by driving to the south end of the west side of the South Point Trail and then walk out towards Erieau from there. Being a former long-term staff member, park volunteer and being on good terms with the current staff, having a key to the gate for events like this is definitely an advantage. Of course I check with the park staff to make sure the South Point Trail is clear to drive.  Upon their check on the Friday before the count, this is one of the photos of the south beach I received.

Clearly the walk west did not look to be enjoyable or even doable, and this was on a day with little or no wave action. 

  It didn't look a whole lot better on the day of the count with the added aspect of a fair bit of wave action from the brisk southwest winds, although at least the snow was gone.

 

 But birders do not like to be held back.....what would we miss if we didn't do our territory? This part of the count circle has had some very exciting birds on counts of past years. Think of Harlequin Duck, Purple Sandpiper, Red Phalarope, Red-throated Loon, King Eider, Snowy Owl and others including virtually all of the expected waterfowl species. Therefore we decided on a bit of an alternate plan. We went back up the trail about 300 metres where we could access another ridge, then followed it down to the lake to where it was a little less tangled. Not much less, but enough to be able to get to the more open stretch of the south beach that led to Erieau. Once we made it past the last ridge of trees, this is more or less what awaited us. We even had a hint of blue sky for a few minutes. 

 That is Erieau in the distance to the left of the beach, only about 4 kilometres away in a straight line distance, but what birder ever walks a straight line even when sober?

This next photo was taken when we were well out towards Erieau, probably still a kilometer away, and looking back towards the Rondeau forest.

Another photo looking towards Erieau.

One of the species we were really looking hard for was Purple Sandpiper. There had been one along this stretch of beach only a couple of weeks or so ago. It isn't a species we get very often, but when there is so much beach habitat available and the weather has not been enough to drive them farther south, it is always a possibility. We didn't get one last year, although one had been in the area in the late fall, and one showed up here in early March before normal spring migration, so it likely overwintered in the area, but unfortunately went undetected on that count. This next photo shows the one which was present along here on March 9, 2020.

 If it was there this year, we wanted to do everything we could to find it. But as hard as we looked, we could not find any sign of it.

We did see a few things, and since I didn't have my 'good' camera with the long telephoto lens with me on this trek, the following bird photos are from my files. We saw lots of American Black Ducks....

....and some Mallards.

There was the occasional Common Goldeneye...

....and a couple of Ruddy Ducks.

An immature Bald Eagle flew by.

...and we got the only Double-crested Cormorant for the count, which was a bit of a surprise since there had been others in the area recently.

Altogether Kevin and I got about 30 species, but since the woodlands throughout the count circle were very quiet, and the wind and wave action didn't make hearing things any easier, it was still worth it. It was the lowest count for me in terms of species diversity for many years. 

The overall count total for the day stands at 111 species, which is really quite good. It is only the eighth time since the count started in 1939 that we have had that many species. The only new species on this count was Trumpeter Swan. A bit overdue, I think, so it is nice to be able to add that to the overall list. The count since 1939 now stands at 193 species!

Trumpeter Swan

 

 

Merry Christmas everyone!

And for some added thoughts, I invite you to listen to one of the best Christmas songs ever, sung by the one who wrote it. Check it out here.