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BIRD FINDING - BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA |
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By Michael G. Shepard |
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Click HERE to view the birdfinding index |
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Please help improve the bird finding pages - photos and enhanced descriptions welcome! |
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| Off the beaten track birding-wise lies the Salmon River Estuary. Located less than hour's drive northwest of Campbell River, this place has great potential. It's an island of diversity in a sort-of desert of second growth coniferous forest. | ||||||||||
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Salmon River Estuary in Summer |
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If you have a few hours to spare, I suggest the following plan of
visit. Travelling from either the Campbell River or Port Hardy
directions on Highway 19, turn north at Sayward Junction and follow the
paved road approximately 10 km to the south entrance to Sayward village.
Immediately opposite the road into town is a very short (<50m) gravel
road that goes over to a paved industrial (logging) road. You can
park near here (watch for trucks) . Walk the edge of the industrial road back to a small bridge. Along the way there is a nice fringe of elderberry, alders and other shrubs that can be fantastic for migrant songbirds in season (particularly April/May & August/September). A few years ago, I did a Marbled Murrelet dawn survey here and was amazed at the numbers of birds coming and going. There is a large patch of fairly mature forest to the northwest where they may be breeding. Try looking and listening (keer calls) for the murrelets around dawn from late May through mid-July - they often travel in twos and threes, screaming by at high speed.
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Northern Shoveler |
Returning to the parking spot, you'll see a trail over an old dike/roadway. This leads toward the mudflats. More shrubby vegetation and short alders make for good songbird habitat. Where a view is possible, scan the mudflats for gulls and shorebirds. There are always gulls of several species here and during the summer, a few Caspian Terns can sometimes be found. Retrace your steps then head north on the industrial road. Shortly the sewage ponds will appear on the right. there's always something here you don't see elsewhere in the vicinity. Passing a few large buildings, head to the right (east), skirting the log sort. for the next 500m or so you'll have an unobstructed view of the estuary. A scope is useful here, as gulls, shorebirds and waterfowl can be a fair distance out on the sandbars and mudflats. I've never encountered large numbers of shorebirds, but certainly they could occur - worth checking out. |
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At the end of the gravel road here is a boat launch and a chain link fence. The harbour is protected but a barrier created by old sunken ships. The breakwater itself is considered hazardous and is posted as such. You can, however, look through the fence and scan for terns, alcids and waterfowl. Marbled Murrelets are almost always here, and in the summer quite a few Rhinoceros Auklets feed in Johnstone Strait right in front of your eyes. Make your way back to the main public road and take the north entrance to Sayward. On your left you'll see a large pond, edged on one side by alders and shrubbery, and a lawn and conifers on the road side. It's worth a stop here - quite a few duck species frequent the place. |
Greater White-fronted Geese at
Sayward |
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Oddly, Sayward hosts a fairly good-sized Brewer's Blackbird population. On southern Vancouver Island, we normally associate this species with agricultural areas or mall parking lots! A couple of hours on this loop should net about 40 species of birds. |
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