Saturday, May 16th. (Public walk).
Helen McKenzie Lake (Mount Washington).
This is a longer walk – approx. 9 km. Meet at parking lot on Strathcona Parkway (just off the Inland highway) at 9:30am.
Note 13.May 2015: due to a lack of an available leader this Saturday’s walk to Lake Helen Mackenzie has been CANCELLED
Saturday May 9th. (Club walk).
Field Trip to Cowichan Garry Oaks Reserve (Nature Conservancy of Canada). Bloom Festival.
Leave Harmston at 8:00 am. (Car pooling will be organized in advance).
Saturday May 2nd. (Public walk). 9:30-12:00
Stotan Falls. With well-known naturalist, professional biologist, riparian and wetland ecology specialist.
Meet at Harmston at 9:00 am or 9:30 at Stotan Falls.
Leader: Loys Maingon
Sunday May 3rd. (Club event).
Spring Bird Count
Saturday, April 27th. (Earth Day April 22th). (Club walk).
Puntledge River from Comox Lake.
Meet at Harmston at 9:30 am or at the Upper Dam at 10:00am (Follow Comox Lake Road and turn right at the Rod and Gun Club). Leader: Loys Maingon
Saturday, April 18th (CLUB WALK ).
Bear Creek Park.
Meet at Country Market just north of Courtenay at 9:30 or 10am at park entrance. – 19A north, left onto Hamm Road, immediate right onto McCaulay Road, about 2kms on right.
(I checked Paradise Meadows this morning, too much ice.)
Saturday, April 18th. (Public walk).
Paradise Meadows Loop Walk.
Meet at the parking lot at 9:30am at the bottom of Strathcona Parkway, just off the Inland Highway. (In case of bad weather, Bear Creek Park. Meet at 10:00am at park entrance – 19A north, left onto Hamm Road, immediate right onto Macauley Road, about 2 km to park on right).
Sunday, April 12th. (Club walk).
Cumberland Forest Trails hike.
Meet at Harmston at 9:30am or at Jumbo’s Cabin on the Comox Lake Road beyond Cumberland at 10:00am. A 2-hour hike, some steep-ish slopes. Leader: Andrew Nicoll.
Saturday, April 4th. (Club walk).
Fawn Lily Walk – Exhibition Grounds, Courtenay.
Meet at 10:00am at the Exhibition Grounds parking lot beside the Comox Valley Curling Club on Headquarters Road across from Vanier High School.
Once again, 11 birders went to look for concentrations of waterbirds feeding on herring spawn – and we were successful! We went south to Qualicum Bay, Little Qualicum estuary, and Columbia Beach and had thousands of gulls and seaducks at all of the locations. We spent a few enjoyable hours scoping the huge flocks on the water and the weather held off fairly well all morning. After lunch at French Creek, we birded at Qualicum Beach and Qualicum Bay on the way home, this time in light showers. Overall, we had 46 species. Some highlights were early Tree Swallows, Violet-green Swallows and Bonaparte’s Gulls; and many flocks of Brant.
Brant
Canada Goose
Trumpeter Swan
Eurasian Wigeon
American Wigeon
Mallard
Northern Pintail
Greater Scaup
Harlequin Duck
Surf Scoter
White-winged Scoter
Black Scoter
Long-tailed Duck
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Common Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Common Loon
Horned Grebe
Red-necked Grebe
Brant’s Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
Pelagic Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Bald Eagle
Killdeer
Black Oystercatcher
Black Turnstone
Bonaparte’s Gull
Mew Gull
California Gull
Herring Gull
Thayer’s Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Anna’s Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Northern Flicker
Pileated Woodpecker
Northwestern Crow
Tree Swallow
Violet-green Swallow
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
American Robin
Song Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Botanists met at the Maingon house on the Tsolum River. The sun came out and we had a nice walk along the river to see the coltsfoot in bloom and lots of leaves of various plants, but no fawn lilies yet in bloom.
