Thursday, March 24, 2011

Bird Numbers In The Local Area:


The Pacific Herring Spawn appears to have fizzled out this year, but multitudes of birds continue to swarm the Parksville-Qualicum Wildlife Management Area searching for a meal of herring or herring roe. Although numbers appear to have peaked, and birds some groups, like gulls, are declining in numbers daily, there are still plenty of birds around.

The following are counts or estimates of the numbers I saw in the area today;


Brant: 2587
Gadwall: 11
Eurasian Wigeon: 6
American Wigeon: 345
Mallard: 110
Northern Pintail: 50
Green-winged Teal: 50
Greater Scaup: 8000
Lesser scaup: 4
Harlequin Duck: 150
Surf Scoter: 23,500
White-winged Scoter: 700
Black Scoter: 400
Long-tailed Duck: 3000
Bufflehead: 600
Common Goldeneye: 1300
Barrow's Goldeneye: 300
Hooded Merganser: 10
Common Merganser: 350
Red-breasted Merganser: 550
Pacific Loon: 1500
Common Loon: 400
Horned Grebe: 250
Red-necked Grebe: 80
Western Grebe: 4
Brandt's Cormorant: 200
Double-crested Cormorant: 75
Pelagic Cormorant: 100
Turkey Vulture: 26
Bald Eagle: 315
Merlin: 4
Peregrine Falcon: 1
Black-bellied Plover: 200
Killdeer: 30
Black Oystercatcher: 120
Greater Yellowlegs: 1
Black Turnstone: 600
Dunlin: 1450
Bonaparte's Gull: 50
Mew Gull: 11,000
Ring-billed Gull: 2
California Gull: 12,000
Herring Gull: 900
Thayer's Gull: 4000
Iceland Gull: 2
Western Gull: 11
Glaucous-winged Gull (including various hybrids): 30,000
Glaucous-Gull: 3


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