Bird Identification Guide. Excellent guide from Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Osprey. The Nature Centre telescope is usually aimed at an Osprey nest. This video shows the Osprey’s amazing fishing skills.
Great Blue Herons. Time-lapse movie about a year in a heron’s nest.
Coastal Waterbird Survey. A table showing the number of birds of each species identified at the monthly bird counts.
Opening Day Birds. A list of the birds seen from the Viewing Tower on April 22, 2012.
Osprey
Great Blue Herons
The iconic bird of the Cowichan Estuary is the Great Blue Heron. They can be seen feeding throughout the estuary and many herons nest in the trees near the top of Wessex Road behind the Nature Centre. Here’s a film about a season in the nest of a Great Blue Heron.
Coastal Waterbird Survey
The Cowichan Estuary Nature Centre participates in the Coastal Waterbird Survey sponsored by Bird Studies Canada. Once each month teams of naturalists count the birds in our part of the estuary. If you would like to participate, contact birds@cowichanestuary.ca. These are the results so far. You can view the complete reports at http://alturl.com/zypq5.
| Dec 2012 | Jan 2013 | Feb 2013 | Mar 2013 | Apr 2013 | May 2013 | |
| Horned Grebe | 15 | 2 | ||||
| Red-necked Grebe | 3 | 1 | ||||
| Brandt’s Cormorant | 1 | |||||
| Double-crested Cormorant | 17 | 1 | 14 | 22 | 16 | |
| Great Blue Heron | 1 | 1 | 10 | |||
| Canada Goose | 9 | 3 | 4 | |||
| Mute Swan | 4 | 2 | 2 | |||
| Trumpeter Swan | 7 | 64 | ||||
| American Wigeon | 4 | 120 | 55 | 21 | ||
| Mallard | 24 | 109 | 24 | 1 | ||
| Northern Pintail | 2 | 12 | 31 | 9 | ||
| Green-winged Teal | 125 | |||||
| Greater Scaup | 29 | 22 | 4 | 9 | ||
| Surf Scoter | 1 | 5 | ||||
| Bufflehead | 59 | 65 | 45 | 66 | 90 | |
| Common Goldeneye | 26 | 14 | 14 | 49 | 2 | |
| Barrow’s Goldeneye | 2 | |||||
| Hooded Merganser | 15 | 11 | 2 | 10 | ||
| Common Merganser | 8 | 2 | 8 | 13 | 22 | |
| Unidentified Duck Sp. | 3 | |||||
| Bald Eagle | 2 | 1 | ||||
| Osprey | 2 | |||||
| Mew Gull | 1 | |||||
| Glaucous-wing Gull | 5 | 50 | 12 | 11 | 15 | |
| Unidentified Gull sp. | 206 | 63 | 30 | 34 | 9 | 8 |
| Belted Kingfisher | 2 | 2 | 2 | |||
| Rock Dove | 6 | |||||
| Purple Martin | 5 | |||||
| Piliated Woodpecker | 1 | |||||
| Northwestern Crow | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | ||
| RIVER OTTERS | 6 |
Opening Day Birds
orange crowned warble
233 species of birds have been reported in or near the Cowichan Estuary. How many have been seen from the Cowichan Estuary Nature Centre?
On our opening day on April 21, 2012, between 1 and 3 pm, naturalists Genevieve Singleton and Bryan Thompson and their many visitors to the viewing tower identified 16 species. Only 217 to go!
Here they are:
| Mute Swan Cygnus olor |
| American Widgeon Anas americana |
| Common Goldeneye Bucephala clangula |
| Common Merganser Mergus merganser |
| Bufflehead Bucephala albeola |
| Double-crested Cormorant Phalacrocorax auritus |
| Osprey Pandion haliaetus |
| Bald Eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus |
| Mew Gull Larus canus |
| Glaucous-winged Gull Larus glaucescens |
| Belted Kingfisher Megaceryle alcyon |
| Northwestern Crow Corvus caurinus |
| Purple Martin Progne subis |
| Violet-green Swallow Tachycineta thalassina |
| Orange-crowned WarblerOreothlypis celata |
| Pine Siskin Spinus pinus |
The Latin names are handy for looking up the birds on the Internet.
