Yesterday I headed down to Nanaimo to pick up my brother-in-law at the ferry and planned the day to include a little morning birding at Buttertubs Marsh. Buttertubs is accessible in a couple of places but I find that the easiest access point is just off the Nanaimo bypass at Jinglepot Road. You don’t have to weave your way through a maze of side streets to get to this entrance and there’s lots of parking.
Buttertubs has changed quite a bit since the days back in the 1990s when I was a Vancouver Island University (then Malaspina University-College). There’s still plenty of excellent bird habitat in the form of open water, cattail marshes, hawthorn thickets and dead elms(?) oaks for perching raptors. However, signs of “progress” abound and a large new development called Hawthorne Corner now butts up against one side of the marsh. Vally Oak Estates, an older trailer park runs along one corner, and an older seniors complex against another side.
Birding Around the Marsh
I spent a good hour and a half walking around the marsh, did some birdwatching and recorded an upcoming podcast of Discovering Nature (this episode will be available on Sunday, December 27). I was surprised at the low number of ducks on the water – given that this is a large body of fresh water in the middle of Nanaimo there should have been more than a half-dozen Hooded Merganser, one Common Merganser, a couple of Bufflehead and a dozen Mallard. The dearth of ducks was made up by plenty of sparrows feeding at stations along the trail that loops around the marsh. The highlight birds of the day were a number of Marsh Wrens in the cattails and a good view of an over wintering Anna’s Hummingbird.
Here’s the complete list of the 25 birds that I saw on December 23rd at Buttertubs Marsh:
- Canada Goose (22 – fly over)
- Mallard (11)
- Bufflehead (2)
- Hooded Merganser (8)
- Common Merganser (1)
- Merlin (1)
- Glaucous-winged Gull (2)
- Rock Pigeon (30)
- Anna’s Hummingbird (1)
- Downy Woodpecker (2)
- Northwestern Crow (6)
- Chestnut-backed Chickadee (8)
- Brown Creeper (1)
- Bewick’s Wren (4)
- Marsh Wren (3)
- American Robin (2)
- Varied Thrush (2)
- European Starling (15)
- Spotted Towhee (12)
- Fox Sparrow (7)
- Song Sparrow (8)
- Golden-crowned Sparrow (6)
- Dark-eyed Junco (6)
- Red-winged Blackbird (5)
- House Sparrow (14)
Hi Dave,
I hadn’t seen your blog before. It’s excellent.
Just to provide a bit of insight on Buttertubs;
The dead trees around the marsh are red oaks, which were planted by the original operators of the farm. Many of them have died as a result of the decision to raise the water levels in the marsh. Others have succumbed to diease etc.
Anna’s Hummingbirds have been a feature of the marsh since about 2001.
In general, duck numbers are low in Buttertubs at this time of year, particularly since the marsh was frozen over for over two weeks this month.
I agree that much has changed, and little for the better. In the late 90’s, we fought tooth and nail to stop further development around the marsh, and we lost.
Hi Guy,
Thanks for the comments and the extra information about the red oaks – I didn’t think that they were elms but I knew they weren’t cottonwoods either. I’m tossing around the idea of doing the Nanaimo CBC on the 27th but have to convince my wife first (I’ve already committed to 4 CBCs this year so it might be a bit of a long shot) – I’m definitely keen to do the Little River Ferry CBC so will probably see you there!