Twitching with anticipation

Well, today I witnessed my first Canadian twitch.
When I arrived at the estuary around 11.00 or so (late I know, but it is Sunday after all) there were at least 6 cars in the parking area! And about 8 people all in search of the palm warbler. That's by the far the highest number of birders I've seen in one location (excepting the organised birdwalks of course) since I moved here. Mind you, it seems that photographers outnumber birders per se out here as there were just as many cameras as there were binoculars...

I met and had a chat with Mike Ashbee who, along with another birder Rich Mooney, had seen the warbler earlier but it had since disappeared and had not been relocated for quite some time.
As the crowd thinned out I continued to check the hedgerows and likely vegetated areas but to no avail.
I took a bit of time to scan through the wildfowl out on the marsh and found 2 drake Eurasian wigeon amongst the Americans plus 3 gadwall in with the pintail.
Up to 3 short-eared owls were on the hunt, and attracting plenty of unwanted attention from the large number of northwestern crows here today. Over 70 of these raucous corvids were in the area - my only conclusion being that maybe the nearby rubbish dump is closed on Sundays and they're seeking foraging opportunities elsewhere?
A northern harrier made frequent appearances as did 2 northern shrikes.
5 western meadowlark were present, again including a singing bird.

It was great seeing a few people out there today and a real pleasure meeting some of the dedicated local birders whose names I have seen on the forums but had yet to bump into.

Palm d'or

An update following yesterday's warbler conundrum.

I had very brief views of a couple of warblers moving along the hedgerow at the Nanaimo estuary, the first one I thought at the time 'might' be a palm warbler but I didn't get all that much on it and when I checked Sibley I noticed that it was well out of its range. I was utterly baffled.
The second bird seemed equally confusing, resembling a yellow-rumped warbler in many ways but with a bright yellow throat. I also thought it had yellow undertail coverts?

Anyway, I contacted Guy Monty (a very knowledgeable local birder) who thought I could be right about the palm warbler and came down this morning with his wife Donna, where we relocated the bird and indeed it was a palm warbler.
Those in the UK reading this, check out your American field guide distribution maps and you'll see why I was initially cautious... I suppose it's a bit like finding a yellow-browed warbler back home. Rare but not mega.

Today it was with a yellow-rumped warbler, which was probably the same bird it was with yesterday but God knows why I didn't ID it at the time as I've seen lots of them, and indeed one about half an hour earlier! Could have sworn it had a bright yellow throat yesterday (as opposed to the slightly buffy throat this bird has)... was it a different bird or was I hallucinating? I think I'll go for the latter...

Thanks to Guy for the pic of the palm warbler.

Other birds seen while warbler hunting included a northern harrier, northern shrike and later, 1 short-eared owl. There were quite a few trumpeter swans passing over during the morning including a flock of 13.

Back at the condo, a Cooper's hawk was upsetting the robins in the parking area.

Cut across shortie

Wow - a pretty dry day with just a few light showers! Can't remember the last time we had one of those...

Taking full advantage of this climatic rarity, I headed off to the Nanaimo estuary this morning.
The river was running high and the tide was up so once again the marshes were mostly underwater. Scanning through the assembled pintail, mallard and American wigeon I soon came across a drake Eurasian wigeon and a pair of gadwall.
A female northern harrier was hunting over the reduced saltmarsh while bald eagles and great blue herons were scattered around the area.
The flock of mostly female/juv type red-winged blackbirds numbered 73 birds.
Once again a Lincoln's sparrow was amongst a group of house finches, song sparrows and juncos near the viewing platform. A 1stw yellow-rumped warbler appeared in the riverside vegetation.
The usual number of trumpeter swans were feeding out on the marsh - later a pair flew over heading south east.
The first short-eared owl of the day appeared, soon attracting the attention of the local corvids. By the time I left I'd seen a minimum of 3 owls, though I suspect there may have been 4, and they put on quite a show. I was able to get these, not quite in Mike Yip's league, shots by holding my digi snapper up to my scope eyepiece.


The juv harrier made an appearance too as did, eventually, the male.
Only 1 northern shrike showed.
All-too-brief views of a couple of unidentified warblers in the hawthorn hedgerow left me frustrated and confused - a concerted effort to relocate them was unsuccesful. The options in late November must be surely limited? Perhaps I was hallucinating...
Having done little to satisfy my curiosity by consulting Sibley I decided I'd go and see if anything was happening over at Holden Creek.

The 2 cackling geese were still in the wet fields alongside a group of their commoner cousins.
The male northern harrier was now hunting over here and was busy upsetting the green-winged teal in the creek. The 1stw northern shrike flew by but other than a red-tailed hawk and a belted kingfisher it was pretty quiet.

Ten feet high and rising...

Having dropped Jenny off in central Nanaimo this morning, I decided to head north and see what Parksville could offer before the rain set in.
I tried the Plummer Road area, for the first time, but the tide was rather too high for there to be many birds of note around the Englishman River estuary. The most noteworthy birds I saw included a northern shrike, 2 red-tailed hawks and a very smart little marsh wren.
Offshore, however, there was lots going on. Pretty much the same species as seen off Yellow Point, but in differing numbers. Red-necked grebe in particular seem numerous here and a group of greater scaup were good to see plus a single long-tailed duck whizzed through. A group of 4 brant geese flew south.
A couple of black oystercatcher flew by while 4 black turnstone and a dunlin were feeding on the beach.
A single western gull was loafing around on the surf while the usual other gull species searched the water's edge for tasty scraps.

After an hour of trying to seawatch in the rain I headed back toward Nanaimo and finding myself with an hour to spare thought I'd see how water levels at Buttertubs were getting on. Well, they were doing very well indeed and access was severely limited to a stretch of path at the Buttertubs Drive end of about 10 metres in length!
Seeing absolutely zero on the water, I went round to the Jingle Pot parking area and snuck in through the taped-off entrance. There was slightly more unflooded path here but for obvious reasons the parks guys had decided to close it to the public. Despite the amazingly high water I still couldn't locate any forced out rails... just 1 hooded merg, a pied-billed grebe and a coot were on the water. At least 8 varied thrush were feeding in the leaf litter at the flood edges.

Flood on the tracks

Made a fairly pointless visit to Buttertubs Marsh today. Even though it was in advance of the major afternoon downpour, there had been so much water deposited since I was last there on Sunday that a full circular walk was rendered impossible without wellies.
And I didn't have my wellies with me. (For those Canadians who may be unfamiliar with the term 'wellies' it refers to Wellington Boots, ie rubber boots.)
Minor pathway flooding was encountered at the western and northern end but the south and east tracks were well under water and too deep for my walking boots.
Not that it probably mattered too much as the place was pretty much bereft of birdlife.
The wildfowl count for the entire area comprised 2 drake hooded mergansers and a single first winter American coot. Full stop.
What is it that ducks don't like about high water levels? Have they sought new, richer feeding grounds in flooded fields? Even the usual bread-fed mallards had gone!
The few passerines that bothered braving the weather included a small party of purple finch and good numbers of varied thrush. A couple of red-winged blackbird were in the reeds and a virginia rail squeeled from deep within the vegetation.
At least at Leighton Moss high water levels often push rails and bitterns into the open...

Larking around

After a couple of days of torrential rain and gusty winds (with several flood warnings on the island) I was hoping for a few storm-blown seabirds, but there was little new offshore from the condo... south westerlies don't seem to have much effect here. Other than causing power cuts, that is.

A single Western grebe was this morning's highlight with the appearance of a common murre a close second, meanwhile a drake common goldeneye was 'new in' and a pied-billed grebe was fishing close by.

An early visit to the estuary gave me the place to myself - partly due, one presumes, to the flooded road.
A female northern harrier was busy hunting over the waterlogged marsh and bald eagles were sat around all over the place.
Scanning the American wigeon from the viewing platform, I picked out just one Eurasian bird. Plenty of pintail were also present as was a pair of gadwall.
Trumpeter swans remain in low double figures with just 11 seen.
An adult northern shrike was in the hawthorns.
I was delighted to find a Lincoln's sparrow associating with a feeding flock of house finches, juncos and golden-crowned & song sparrows, plus a juv white-crowned sparrow close to the viewing platform.
Up to50 red-winged blackbird were feeding out on the marsh.
I inadvertently flushed a male short-eared owl as I headed toward the long hedgerow, where I noticed a flicker showing features of both yellow and red-shafted forms.
I then heard the lovely fluting song of what I assumed must be a western meadowlark and soon found the bird, one of at least 5 present. Two were in song, sat in the hawthorns while others fed in the long grass alongside a group of starling.
A first-winter yellow-rumped warbler appeared and showed well in the bare branches of a nearby small tree.

Taking advantage of the clear morning I thought I'd go round to Holden Creek to see what was going on over there.
Not much, as it turned out.
A few crossbills were zipping around overhead and the 1stw northern shrike made its customary appearance.
The 2 cackling geese were still in the field, now joined by a few common Canadas and 5 mallard.
As usual the most numerous duck here was green-winged teal but they were very distant.

Barred owl brightens grey day

Joined the Sunday Birdwalk group this morning for a wander round Buttertubs Marsh. It was pretty cool and grotty early on but at least the rain eased off a touch as the morning wore on.
The areas of open water were pretty quiet with nothing like the numbers of birds present as on my previous visits.
Mallard and wood duck were the most numerous species (c50 of the latter) while just 3 American wigeon, 2 gadwall, 4 hooded merganser, 3 pied-billed grebe, 2 American coot and 4 Canada geese were also seen.
Along the pathways, common passerines were encountered including chickadees, kinglets, towhees, juncos, song sparrows, house finches and a varied thrush.
By the path near the Jingle Pot Road parking area a splendid, if damp, barred owl was sat out in the open and gave us brilliant views. Guess who'd forgotten his camera?
A single Wilson's snipe gave us a flyover.