Avid birders are on the hunt for winter plumage, particularly in Uplands Park this weekend.
Well-known local bird-watchers Geoffrey Newell and David Newell lead the first Friends of Uplands Park bird walk of the year Saturday (Jan. 25).
With its mild climate, Greater Victoria is known as a great place for birding year-round – particularly the park along Oak Bay’s shore.
Harlequin ducks, hooded mergansers, long-tailed ducks, red-necked grebes, pigeon guillemots, marbled murrelets, pelagic cormorants and other seabirds spend the winter on the ocean off Cattle Point.
Black oystercatchers, black turnstones, glaucous-winged gulls, American crows, and song sparrows roost and forage on the rocky shoreline. In Uplands Park, large flocks of dark-eyed juncos, golden-crowned sparrows, chestnut-backed chickadees, American robins and purple finches can be found. The downy woodpecker, Anna's hummingbird, Bewick's wren, ruby-crowned kinglet, pine siskin, and Cooper's hawk will be some target species on the bird walk that starts at 9 a.m. in the main parking lot at Cattle Point.
