A few days ago, on my other blog (http://ibabc033chehalisestuary.blogspot.com) I said that I would post some pictures from our Backyard Bird Counting on Nicomen Island….so figured I had better do it before i forget completely!
The date was the 19th of February and the weather was beautiful and sunny but with a strong cold wind. Anyone who drives across Nicomen Island regularly gets used to seeing views such as this…
as Nicomen is a favorite wintering spot for Trumpeter Swans….we counted close to 300 that day…
I scanned the flock carefully with binoculars to see if I could spot any Tundra’s mixed in, but didn’t see any.
Next it was a drive out along the edge of the slough….there were some Canada Geese here…
and also a number of Great Blue Heron – we often find large numbers of Heron in this area, not as many today though as we’ve seen other times…
Now a drive around the trunk road…..this slough runs alongside the road and this is where we found the Herons…
perched in trees….
standing shoulder to shoulder in the grass…
or all over the place! A total of 68 were counted in all….more than twice the number we have ever seen before.
The last area we covered was the spur road that ends at the dyke on the Fraser River and borders the Deroche slough. There were lots of ducks all along the slough and these 3 Double Crested Cormorant…
Here is a closer look at the Cormorant that are regular winter visitors to this area.
