BC day 3 - Vancouver Island - sea and snow

Another great day on and off Vancouver Island. In the morning we headed up towards Mt. Washington Alpine Resort. Right on top there was still lots of snow and rather few birds around.

'Oregon' Dark-eyed Junco

Red-breasted Sapsucker

In lower elevations there were more birds but the forest did feel somewhat dormant. Ruby-crowned Kinglets were abundant:

We had both Steller's and Gray Jays. Steller's Jay is a very charismatic bird:

Other nice birds were the beautiful Chestnut-backed Chickadees, a Rufous Hummingbird and that's it.

In the afternoon we joined a whale and wildlife tour out of Campbell River. We first headed south and rather quickly connected with two or three superb Humpback Whales that spent some hours south of Quadra Island.They did mostly shallow dives so we had only few tail flips but they were very impressive. At first they were quite distant:

But then they came to check us out and surfaces maybe 30 m away from us. Incredible.

Too close...

There were lots of birds in that area. Many hundreds of loons, and tons of ducks and alcids. There were about 15 Rhinocerus Auklets in that area but the only alcid I managed to photograph was a Common Murre:

On Center Island both sea lion species were present, though on different parts of the small rocky island. Steller's Sea Lions are huge! Males are real Behemoth - they weigh up to 1.5 tons! This bull looked very pleased with a harem of 7 females:

California Sea Lions are much smaller and not such beasty animals. The males have this distinctive pale patch on the forehead:

I want a harem too!

Our tour continued into the beautiful Bute Inlet. We searched for bears hard, but no luck today. There were plenty of ducks, including more Harlequins and Barrow's Goldeneyes. But the avian star of the afternoon was undoubtedly Surf Scoters. We had large numbers, are the good views they offered demonstrated what spectacular birds they are. That white eye of the male is stunning: 

Check that red leg of the male:

 

Harlequin Ducks

We also had some Pacific Spotted Seals (Harbour Seals) and a few Dal's Porpoises. 

Back in the harbour this Bald Eagle greeted us:

While having dinner we saw some Marbled Murrelets swimming close in so I had to improve my photos slightly:

Just a few shots of Glaucous-winged Gulls for my Larophile friends. Adult with very worn primaries and hardly and white spots left:

Typical 1cy

 

Surfin' UK

Went birding this morning with pretty high expectations - winds swinged to easterlies yesterday and there was some rain at night. I met up with Quentin and we left Norwich early. Arrived at Warham Green right on time. Lots of thrushes just as we get out of the car - feels good! We birded there for some time but in fact apart for many thrushes and finches there was not much else. Some birds of interest included 2 shy Ring Ouzels and a Merlin. Redwing, Blackbird and Song Thrush still dominant but numbers of Fieldfare are on the rise.

We then continued to Wells Woods, expecting to find lots of thrushes there too but it was very quiet there. Another Ring Ouzel and a Woodcock at the Dell were the only birds worth noting. We encountered some nice mixed flocks but there was nothing mixed in with them apart for the usual suspects. Walking back we started seeing large flocks of thrushes coming in from sea - very impressive. This continued for a couple of hours - many hundreds of thrushes, and also hundreds of Skylarks, Meadow Pipits etc.

Long-tailed Tit

Goldcrest

Our next stop was Holkham. Lots of Pink-footed Geese in the fields:

We walked down to the beach and very quickly found the Surf Scoter - super quality bird! It was hanging around with some Velvet Scoters. Nice to see all three species together. Too far to photograph properly but very good scope views (WP tick for me!). 

Surf Scoter - male

Not too much at sea otherwise - some Red-throated Divers, Guillemots, Razorbills etc. Thrushes and other passerines continued to pour in from sea, but the weather was too good so they probably pushed on inland.

Our last stop was back at Stiffkey Campsite. I walked west to check the hedges, and Quentin walked east to check the woods. It was very quiet. But Quentin scored better than me - he found a Yellow-browed Warbler just east of the woods. Nice.

Thanks to Quentin for a nice day!