This gallery contains 2 photos.
In most years since 1997 we have been able to contribute to the Christmas Bird Count for the Sooke/Victoria area. This website contains all the past records: This year, Garry Fletcher was picked up with the station boat by the … Continue reading
On December 29, 2012 I was looking at the winter erosion effect on the First Nations Burial Cairns. On the largest Cairn, three concrete rings appeared which have never shown up before, since they have been covered with vegetation.
Here is the 2011 version of the mound:
Burial Cairn in 2011
And below are the concrete rings after heavy geese grazing and erosion has bared the top of the mound: Currently we can only guess that they were added since construction of the lighthouse and were perhaps used as a marker or base for an antenna.
| Greater White-fronted Goose | American Kestrel | |||||||||||
| Snow Goose | Merlin | |||||||||||
| Cackling Goose | Gyrfalcon | |||||||||||
| Canada Goose | Peregrine Falcon | |||||||||||
| Mute Swan | Ring-necked Pheasant | |||||||||||
| Trumpeter Swan | Virginia Rail | |||||||||||
| Tundra Swan | American Coot | |||||||||||
| Wood Duck | Sandhill Crane | |||||||||||
| Gadwall | Black-bellied Plover | |||||||||||
| Eurasian Wigeon | Killdeer | |||||||||||
| American Wigeon | Black Oystercatcher | GRR | 36 | |||||||||
| Mallard | G RR | 1 | Greater Yellowlegs | |||||||||
| Northern Shoveler | Spotted Sandpiper | |||||||||||
| Northern Pintail | Whimbrel | |||||||||||
| Green-winged Teal | Black Turnstone | GRR | 10 | |||||||||
| Canvasback | Surfbird | GRR | 2 | |||||||||
| Redhead | Sanderling | 2 | ||||||||||
| Ring-necked Duck | Rock Sandpiper | GRR | 1 | |||||||||
| Greater Scaup | Dunlin | |||||||||||
| Lesser Scaup | Wilson’s Snipe | |||||||||||
| Harlequin Duck | 3 | Bonaparte’s Gull | ||||||||||
| Surf Scoter | *****PedderBay | 60 | Heermann’s Gull ( * ) | |||||||||
| White-winged Scoter | Mew Gull | |||||||||||
| Black Scoter | Ring-billed Gull ( * ) | |||||||||||
| Long-tailed Duck (Oldsquaw) | California Gull | |||||||||||
| Bufflehead | *****PedderBay | 95 | Herring Gull | |||||||||
| Common Goldeneye | Thayer’s Gull | GRR | 250 | |||||||||
| Barrow’s Goldeneye | Western Gull | GRR1 | ||||||||||
| Hooded Merganser | *****PedBay | 2 | Glaucous-winged Gull | GRR | 10 | |||||||
| Common Merganser | Glaucous Gull | |||||||||||
| Red-breasted Merganser | Common Murre | Race Pas | 50 | |||||||||
| Ruddy Duck | Pigeon Guillemot. | |||||||||||
| Ruffed Grouse | Marbled Murrelet | |||||||||||
| Blue Grouse | Ancient Murrelet | |||||||||||
| California Quail | Cassin’s Auklet (*) | |||||||||||
| Red-throated Loon | ******PedBay | 1 | Rhinoceros Auklet | |||||||||
| Pacific Loon | *****Pedder Bay | 3 | Rock Pigeon | |||||||||
| Common Loon | Band-tailed Pigeon | |||||||||||
| Pied-billed Grebe | Mourning Dove | |||||||||||
| Horned Grebe | Barn Owl | |||||||||||
| Red-necked Grebe | Western Screech-Owl | |||||||||||
| Eared Grebe | Great Horned Owl | |||||||||||
| Western Grebe | Ped Bay | 2 | Northern Pygmy Owl | |||||||||
| Brandt’s Cormorant | *****Race Passage | 10 | Barred Owl | |||||||||
| Double-crested Cormoran | 240 | Short-eared Owl | ||||||||||
| Pelagic Cormorant | Northern Saw-whet Owl | |||||||||||
| Great blue Heron | Anna’s Hummingbird | |||||||||||
| Turkey Vulture | Belted Kingfisher | PedBay | 1 | |||||||||
| Bald Eagle (adult) | RR | 2 | Red-breasted Sapsucker | |||||||||
| (immature) | Downy Woodpecker | |||||||||||
| Northern Harrier | Hairy Woodpecker | |||||||||||
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | Northern Flicker | |||||||||||
| Cooper’s Hawk | Pileated Woodpecker | |||||||||||
| Red-tailed Hawk | Northern Shrike | |||||||||||
| Golden Eagle ( * ) | Hutton’s Vireo | |||||||||||
| Brown Pelican | GRR2 | |||||||||||
| Total Number of Birds | 784 | |||||||||||
| Total Species | 22 | |||||||||||
| Observer/Phone/Email: Garry Fletcher | Location | Species | Date | |||||||||
| Race Rocks | 21 | December 29, 2012 | ||||||||||