January 1st and 2nd - Brydon and Blackie Spit

[Randy]

I managed to get out on each of my last two days of freedom before getting back to work. Today I went to Blackie Spit in search of my first eurasian wigeon. I ended up spotting a handful of them. It's funny, I'll probably end up seeing them everywhere now that I have ID'd them.

I saw 23 species. Other notables were:
5 marbled godwits
1 long-billed curlew (Chris, these were in the same place that you and I had seen them before)
1 white-winged scoter
2 buffleheads
3 common goldeneye
3 common loon

Here's a pic of a particularly photogenic GBH:


Interestingly, yesterday I went for a walk around my place (Brydon lagoon/marsh) and ID'd 29 species in about 45 minutes. It was very productive. Here's my list from yesterday:


Canada Goose 30
Gadwall 2
Mallard 75
Northern Shoveler 7
Green-winged Teal 35
Bufflehead 5
Common Goldeneye 5
Hooded Merganser 5
Common Merganser 10
Pied-billed Grebe 1
Bald Eagle 2
Cooper's Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Long-billed Dowitcher 30
Glaucous-winged Gull 6
Northern Flicker 1
Northwestern Crow 10
Black-capped Chickadee 4
Bushtit 12
Marsh Wren 1
American Robin 1
European Starling 7
Spotted Towhee 3
Fox Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 2
Dark-eyed Junco 10
Red-winged Blackbird 4
House Finch 2
House Sparrow 5

Hope everyone had a great New Years!

Randy - Langley

[Chris]

Randy, glad to hear you saw the Eurasian Wigeons. The Godwits and Curlew must had been hiding when I was there.

Great list from your local area. Those Dowitchers are a nice find for this time of year.

[Randy]

Thanks Chris, I appreciate that you tell me what is a "nice find" given the time of year. Otherwise, since I'm new here, I don't have a great sense of seasonal frequency of various species.

Randy