This morning we were at the Little Qualicum Estuary looking for the Northern Mockingbird. We found the mockingbird fairly easily, but while we were looking at it, a surprisingly aggressive Ring-necked Pheasant started following us around. It called, displayed, and would make short runs at us, approaching to about 2 meters away. A stunning bird, although I'm not sure how long it will last charging at humans!
This afternoon Donna and I were driving out to the Little Qualicum estuary to do some gull watching. While stopped at the intersection of Surfside Dr. and McFeeley Dr. a medium sized grey passerine with a long tail and white wing patches shot across the road in front of us and landed in a small holly shrub. Wow. Northern Mockingbird. The bird then flew over to 965 Surfside Dr. where it began feeding in a shrub loaded with red berries. The bird fed for about three minutes, before flying down the road and out of sight. It took about 10 minutes for us to relocate it in the yard of 1004 Surfside Dr. It was squabbling with American Robins in that yard. It eventually flew to the top of a fir tree at 998 Surfside Dr. where it sat for about 20 minutes. When we left the estuary about an hour later, it was back at the corner where we had originally spotted the bird.
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