Beautiful Day for A Bird Count

A warm (actually, hot) sunny day up at Paradise Meadows, for the annual Strathcona Bird Search! Several members of the Comox Valley Naturalists Society participated, and found the following 18 species around the meadows:

Turkey Vulture 2
Band-tailed Pigeon 1
Rufous Hummingbird 1
Olive-sided Flycatcher 1
Gray Jay 8
Steller's Jay 2
Northwestern Crow 1
Common Raven 1
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 3
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 2
Hermit Thrush 1
American Robin 2
Varied Thrush 2
Orange-crowned Warbler 1
White-crowned Sparrow 3
Dark-eyed Junco 14
Pine Siskin 6

The easiest bird to spot today was the Dark-eyed Junco.

An owl? no, a tree-lichen bird....

No woodpeckers were seen or heard, which was rather unusual!

Lots of people were out enjoying the trails, including visitors from far & wide. There is still quite a bit of snow beyond the meadows - if you are not familiar with the area, the Battleship Lake & Helen Mackenzie trails could be tricky to find.

Flowers blooming include:
marsh marigold (abundant)
skunk cabbage
yellow violet
Jeffrey's shootingstar
fern-leaved goldthread

And, new within the last few days:
western bog-laurel
pink mountain-heather

Shootingstar & marsh marigold