Hi Tweeters, The following is a report of the area seven, bird count on
January 2nd,2000. Good Birding... Neil


Christmas Bird count January 2nd, 2000, Nanaimo, B.C. Area Seven,
Central Nanaimo. Counters- Neil & Marilynne Robins, John & Lynda
Butterworth, Arline Haddaway.
We started the count at 8am and finished at 4pm, we traveled 55km by
car and 2km by foot. We spent 7 hours counting by foot and one hour by
foot. We saw 52 species and a total of 1380 birds.
Here is the list of birds we sighted:

Common Loon...1
Pied-billed Grebe...1
Horned Grebe...3
Double Crested Coromant...10
Pelagic Cormorant...1
Great Blue Heron...2
Canada Geese...30
SNOW GEESE...6 (Four Adult, 2 Immature)
Trumpeter Swans...18
Am. wigeon...13
Mallards...183
Ring-necked Duck...2
Bufflehead...32
Common Goldeneye...35
Barrow's Goldeneye...2
Hooded Merganser...5
Common Merganser...9
Red-Breasted Merganser...32
Bald Eagles...5
Coopers Hawk...1
Red-tailed Hawk...1
Merlin...2
Mew Gull...3
California Gull...1
Herring Gull...3
Western Gull...2
Glaucous-winged Gull...402
Rock Dove...117
Belted Kingfisher..3
Red-breasted Sapsucker...1
Downy Woodpecker...1
Northern Flicker...3
Steller's Jay...2
Northwestern Crow...89
Common Raven...20
Chestnut-backed Chickadee...8
Bushtit...25
Red-breasted Nuthatch...1
Brown Creeper...2
Golden-crowned Kinglet...20
Ruby-crowned Kinglet...2
Am. Robin...106
Varied Thrush...15
European Starling...71
Dark-eyed Junco...105
House Finch...8
Pine Siskin...40
House Sparrow...11
Spotted Towhee...7
Song Sparrow...8
Golden crowned Sparrow...9
AMERICAN TREE SPARROW...1

The Tree Sparrow was spotted just east of Timberwood Drive in the
Blackberry Bushes. Timberwood Drive is located off Park Ave and Ninth
St. in south Nanaimo. The tree sparrow was sitting on a alder tree all
puffed up and looking over it's domain, the sun was at it's back so we
didn' get a good look at it, as I got closer it moved down to some
blackberry bushes and I saw it very clearly, it was in winter plumage,
with a dark spot in the middle of it's clear buffy breast. It's crown
was rufus coloured with a center streak. It stayed a little while and
dropped down into the blackberry bushes out of sight, so we carried on
with the count.
At Pine St.& Third St. we had a good look at a Merlin on the top of a
tall Fir tree through the scope it was a female. A little later we we
found another Merlin near Bowen Park.
At the waterfront it was very windy and cold we saw Mergangers,
Goldeneyes, Buffleheads, Cormorants, the Mew, California, Herring,
Western, and lots of Glaucous-winged Gulls, along with the Swans.
At fifth St. and Howard St. in a school yard, we saw the six Snow
Geese, we watched them for ten minutes. It was a fit ending to a good
day of birding.
All the best in 2000. Neil and Marilynne ( nmrobins at telus.net)
Nanaimo B.C. Canada