More Scotering

I was back Scotering again for three days over this last week during which we caught 257 birds. The highlights for me included banding my first Red-necked Grebe and seeing Grey Whales up close as they fed in the shallow waters of the bay.

A radio tagged White-winged Scoter swims away after being released

White-winged Scoter waiting to be released

Breaching Grey Whale

With my first Red-necked Grebe

Scotering

The last two days I've been volunteering with the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife and Simon Fraser University catching moulting White-winged and Surf Scoters in the Fraser River Estuary and on Boundary Bay.

In the later summer after breeding, Scoters (a type of sea duck) come to shallow coastal waters to feed and moult their feathers. Durign this period they lose the ability to fly and form large flocks. This nakes them considerably easier to catch. Even so, the level of resource required is impressive (2 boats and 2 zodiacs).

The two days were great fun, although long days on the ocean are pretty tiring and going about one's business in rather trickier than on land.

We caught a total of 120 birds and I my forearms got nicely scratched (yes duck do actually have claws!). Also I saw Killer Whales for the first time and there were also some Grey Whales around. Can't wait until next time.

The gil net with caught scoters floating on the ocean surface

Two male Surf Scoters await processing in 5 star accomodation

A male Surf Scoter gets measured.

Vancouver Island road trip

After one final trip to the mudflat catching sandpipers on Thursday we headed to the ferry terminal and Vancouver Island. After staying the night with friends in hot and dry Saanich at the south end of Vancouver Island we set off for our destination, Port Hardy at the other end of the Island and a mere 500km away. After 7 hours on the road interspersed by a few stops to go swimming (the weather in vancouver has been very hot and humid this last week) we eventually arrived in a mild foggy and very green Port Hardy. Since this was a work trip we didn't have a lot of time to explore the north of the Island, but it was enough to get a flavour and a desire to come back.

Sam alert at the wheel

A confiding grouse at one of the swimming spots

Lake swimming

The estuary at Port Hardy where we couldn't help but notice some feeding Western Sandpipers

American Dipper at Marble River Provincial Park

Beautiful Port Alice

R

This last week I taught my first introductory workshops in using R for statistical analysis. I've never aspired to be a teacher, but it was certainly enjoyable sharing my far from impressive knowledge of R with a group of R beginners. To be fair, it was a mutual learning experience. I certainly benefited from preparing the material for the class and the questions which arose from our discussions. It seems that there is interest for more on R, so hopefully over the next few months I can put together a more comprehensive introduction to R.

Glacier National Park, BC

Just back from an awesome trip to Glacier national park in the Rocky Mountains of BC. The hiking was steep with lots of views and the alpine flowers were just starting to flower at the higher elevations. The birding was also pretty successful and included a few new species for my life list:

American Redstart

Least Flycatcher

Red-eyed Vireo

Clay-coloured Sparrow

Amusingly, Sam got a even more lifers than me!