Saturday 14th September 2013

Glaucous-winged Gull

   The ferry to Vancouver Island this morning. At the ferry terminal, we had Glaucous-winged and Ring-billed Gull, both close to the car. The ferry crossing was rather dull to be honest. Not what we had expected. The best of the birds were some Savannah Sparrows, which followed and landed on the ferry. Then the only bit of excitement, over the loudspeaker, came the shout "Orca", we luckily enough got to see the fins of these Whales before they disappeared into the mist, and dull grey sea. They were lifers for both of us, so made up for the lack of birds.

Savannah Sparrow

Turkey Vulture

   We started our drive to the other side of Vancouver Island. We noticed a few birds flying around, near the river, so we stopped for a look. There were Ravens, Turkey Vultures, Glaucous-winged and American Herring Gulls, a Belted Kingfisher and Song Sparrow (the red NW variant). Most were there because there were some dead Salmon floating in the river.

Song Sparrow

American Herring Gull

 












   We continued on our journey. We didn't see much at all during the drive. We stopped at a pull in, to look for American Dipper, no sign, but a Bald Eagle flew past, lifer! We walked in the direction the bird had flown, and flushed it from a tree, we didn't even see it until it flew! In the river we saw some more Salmon, this time they were alive, bright red, Sockeye Salmon, i think? We got to the end of our journey a place called Ucuelet, this was where we were to meet our boatman, for our 2 day Pelagic trip. We found a couple of places to view the river, where all the fishing boats unload. We had Gulls galore. American Herring Gull mainly, but also California, Western, Ring-billed, Glaucous-winged and my first Mew Gull. North-west Crows were about too, then 2 Bald Eagles.

American Herring Gull

American Herring Gull

California Gull

Glaucous-winged Gull

Glaucous-winged Gull

Mew Gull

Western Gull

Western Gull