Birding in BC: Parksville area

Having left our house and cats in the capable hands of our son, Jeff and I are off on a week in Canada.  Just outside Parksville, BC to be exact.  This is one of our favorite spots because the condo we use is right on the water.  So I got to walk down to the water and watch lots of birds.  Unfortunately, I missed the high tide this morning so most of them were too far away for a good photo.  But not this red-breasted merganser.  I snapped several shots to help identify him and was lucky enough to catch him with a fish in his bill.

There are more pictures, lots and lots but I have gimp instead of photoshop and I'll have to figure out how to crop the pics.  Zoom in on this guy to see the fish.

The restaurant on site has changed their menu again.  We decided they must change chefs and let them redo the menu but they keep the name.  This year, the menu features tapas which seem to be entrees without the sides.  For example, 5 shrimp wrapped in bacon on a skewer with bbq sauce for $14.    We also got the seared scallops with a nice sauce and the cheese plate.  There are also full dinners on the flip side of the menu so I'll be trying one of those later this week.  

And tonight, we go out to try the steakhouse restaurant in Parksville, Kalvas the Loghouse.  The grocery store manager recommended it as having good food and a nice fireplace so we'll see how the food and ambiance are in a couple of hours.