Time  11:15

Tide at the beginning of count:  5.7 feet

Tide at the close of count:  5.8 feet

Turning tide

Weather:  clear, light breeze, calm sea, then rippled

Participants:  Sandra Gray, Dan Gray, Claire Summers,  Bonnie Mullins, Dave Erickson, Tom Whitfield, Liz Thorne, Jim Thorne, Dennis Horwood,  Jane Osborne, Gene Gapsis, Meghan MacIsaac, Liz Bredberg

Total brant counted: 23 

 

Zone 1:  North area:  from Qualicum Beach Viewing Stand north to the mouth of the Little Qualicum River.

Total brant counted in area:  3 flying near Surfside Dr. #

  • Seaside Nature Park: bufflehead, horned grebes in breeding plumage, red-breasted mergansers hunting, common loons, few gulls
  • Surfside Dr. E. 3 brant flying, 25+ bufflehead, 18 red-breasted mergansers, 19 horned grebes, 23+ pacific loons, 6 common loons, gonaparte’s gulls, scattered gulls—gull numbers down considerably

 

Zone 2:  Central area:  from French Creek Marina to south end of Seacrest

Total brant counted in area:  0

  • French Creek Marina, west side: Bonaparte’s gulls, loons, 5 murrelets,  horned grebes, red necked mergansers, common mergansers
  • French Creek Marina, east side: common mergansers, mallards, 2 killdeer
  • Columbia Beach: Great Blue Heron, 4 murrelets, gulls, loons, mallards, Bonaparte’s gulls
  • Admiral Tryon West: bald eagle, crows, yellowlegs.  1 pedestrian
  • Johnstone St.: cormorant sp., loon, mallard, greater yellowlegs
  • Butterball: 2 Bald eagles, crows, loons, c. mergansers
  • Seacrest: 1 bald eagle

 

Zone 3:  South area:  Madrona Point, Rathtrevor Beach, Brant point, West end of Mariner Way, Parksville Bay 

Total brant counted in area:  20

  • Rathtrevor: 20 brant, common mergansers, 1 loon sp
  • Mariner Way: 0 brant
  • City Park: 0 brant, loons, 1 lesser yellowlegs.