Birding Vancouver Island: A Brit birder in BC, Victoria & Nanaimo

Scarce Sparrow Provides a Rare Tree-t

2012-01-28T15:39:00.000-08:00

Aahhh, the weekend rolls around once more. I had entertained thoughts of heading up island today, partly to spend a bit of time birding the Nanaimo River estuary and partly to have a go at trying to relocate the slaty-backed gull that was reported to be in the Mill Bay area.

A wet Panama Flats

In the end I did neither, opting for a bit of a lie-in and a few hours squelching around Panama Flats in my wellies.
I haven't been to the flats for ages, and there have been some good wintering passerines being seen at the site over the past couple of months. As you can see from the pic, water levels are pretty high and as a result there are tons of ducks dabbling around.
Good numbers of pintail, northern shoveler, mallard, green-winged teal and American wigeon were very much present. I had a good scan through the teal but couldn't find any 'commons' in among them. I picked up a drake Eurasian wigeon at either end of the flats - was it the same mobile bird or were there 2 present?

Canvasback

A couple of bufflehead, and 2 pairs of gadwall were also seen and then I noticed an aythya emerging from a pack of shoveler on the southern pool - it was a female canvasback. Not a bird I expected to see at Panama Flats! I don't think it stuck around too long, as I couldn't see it when I returned to the same area an hour or so later.

Raptors-wise, a peregrine was sat up in its usual tree overlooking the flats, and a red-tailed hawk was doing similar until it was chased off by Northwestern crows. A juv bald eagle flapped lazily overhead.

As I walked along the western path, I came across 3 western meadowlarks feeding in the boggy grass. Other than multiple song sparrows and a few golden-crowned and white-crowned sparrows, I didn't see many other songbirds as I trudged around the flats in the cool drizzle. As I neared the grey building things changed somewhat; several Lincoln's sparrows showed, mixed in with yet more song sparrows.

American tree sparrow

Then the American tree sparrow popped up. By all accounts, this bird has been pretty reliable since its arrival earlier in the winter, often showing in the same general area. After a while, I managed to get a crummy shot of it as it fed briefly on the path. American tree sparrows are pretty scarce on Vancouver Island, and my only previous experience of this charming species involves the ones that I found at the Nanaimo estuary back in December 2009.

Another other 'good' bird regularly being spotted here recently is a skylark. Now, as one of my least-wanted birds that appears on the North American list, I was rather hoping to bump into it today just to get it out of the way. I rue the day when I have to go actually looking for one... Unlike numerous other European 'imports' (starling and house sparrow among them) skylarks aren't despised by local birders, and following a serious reduction in numbers, somewhat mirroring the population crash in their native lands, they have become highly sought after by North America's birding elite. Vancouver Island is the only place on the continent where they can be found, and they're in rapid decline. Anyway, I was spared an encounter with this most familiar of birds - perhaps I will have to wait until I jam into one whilst out looking for something more interesting!
I searched through the numerous, very mobile savannah sparrows as best I could, but couldn't pull anything different out from among them.
I had a good three hours covering the area, and left soggy but very happy!

Varied and Sundry

2012-01-19T19:30:00.000-08:00

The snow continues... forecasts imply a hideous day of 'freezing rain' tomorrow, whatever that may be. Water halfway between liquid and ice? Oh, so a sort of snow then.
I don't believe that's one of Kate Bush's 50 Words For Snow...
Anyhoo, I was working from home again yesterday and once again the apple tree was notably attracting many of the neighbourhood birds.
A couple of varied thrushes have pretty much taken to residing in it, pecking at the remaining fruit for hours on end.

I absolutely love these delicately patterned thrushes, easily one of my favourite North American birds. As you can see I snapped a couple of shots.

British birders of a certain vintage will doubtless recall the first, and still only, UK record of this species back in November 1982 when a 1st year bird in aberrant plumage was found in the rarity hotspot of Nanquidno, Cornwall. At the time it was also the first record for the Western Palearctic, only surpassed by a spring 2004 record from eastern Iceland.

There has been no sign of the western tanager for a couple of days, perhaps it has succumbed to the freezing overnight temperatures and perished.
Or maybe it just realised that it's a relatively short flight down to California from here.
Anna's hummingbirds, dark-eyed juncos, golden-crowned kinglet and Bewick's wren have all been seen visiting the apple tree, while house finch and American robin have joined the queue to get a bit of their five a day.
Having taken the hummingbird feeder in overnight, I was greeted at first light by the distinctive, and rather impatient 'tick-ticking' of the resident male Anna's, eager for his first energy boost of the morning.

All White On The Night

2012-01-17T16:28:00.000-08:00

Western tanager tries to blend in with the apples...

It threw a fair bit of snow down last night, so rather than risk sharing the road with the bewildered drivers of Victoria I worked from home today. And I'm rather glad I did, as the snow just kept coming throughout much of the day and I wouldn't have much enjoyed the homeward-bound bumper-car session on the highway. In the dark.
So, being confined to barracks I was pleased to note that the western tanager visited the apple tree outside the house several times during the course of the day. I managed to get a shot of it as it fed intently on an apple. I don't suppose there are too many pics of western tanagers in snow!

Anas Penelope Pitstop

2012-01-15T16:52:00.000-08:00

It's been a pretty quiet week on the bird front, for me at least.
My regular lunchtime sorties around the southwestern edge of Langford Lake have been reasonably interesting, if hardly spectacular. The highlight this week was the appearance, on two days, of a smart Townsend's warbler in the small park (it's called Kitty La Quesne Family Park, or something along those lines). Small groups of red crossbill pass over the area frequently, but the large pine siskin flock seems to have moved on - pity, as I was hoping they might attract a passing redpoll.

The Tanager Tree with Sunday morning snow.

The western tanager keeps appearing in the apple tree outside the kitchen window, though its movements are unpredictable to say the least. Some days it arrives with foraging bushtits and chestnut-backed chickadees, other days it's just there on its own. Mostly however, it's nowhere to be seen. This popular tree also hosted its first varied thrush midweek and the resident Anna's hummingbird, now resplendent in full breeding garb appears to have lured a potential mate... watch this space!

A rare thing happened this weekend. Jenny had both days off, so while it was great to be able to spend the time together, it rather curtailed my birding.

Me, battling the elements.

That said, we took a stroll out on Saturday and headed down to Clover Point, battling the stiff onshore breeze and very wintry temperatures.
It was fairly unremarkable bird-wise, though we did see 5 sanderling, along with the usual dunlins, black turnstones and what have you. It was business as usual offshore, with the expected seaducks, grebes, loons and gulls all present and correct.
We then walked on to Beacon Hill Park. We passed the ponds and made a quick pitstop to check through the American wigeon in search of scarcer interlopers. We found just 5 males and 1 female Eurasian wigeon. Other quackers included small numbers of ring-necked duck and lesser scaup plus 15 northern shoveler.
We then headed into downtown, where the ornithological highlight was a yellow-rumped warbler feeding on a store awning along Douglas Street! An excellent lunch at Pagliacci's was another considerable highlight.

Adult cedar waxwing

Today's (Sunday) trundle took us along Oak Bay Avenue and down to the waterfront near the Marina. Shorebirds seen included the usual turnstone, dunlin, black-bellied plover and killdeer plus a lone greater yellowlegs. A trio of river otters entertained us as they fished off the end of Turkey Head (they were in the water, not stood around with rods. Obviously). A red-tailed hawk sailed over, keenly pursued by a pair of garrulous ravens.
We walked back along the coast via the golf course and Chinese Cemetery, seeing little of note along the way. Heading back up into Rockland along St Charles Street we spotted a hermit thrush feeding on some ornamental berry tree in the company of several American robins.

Cedar waxwings

After a well-earned mug of tea and a few biccies at Chez Carter, I went to see if anything interesting was lurking in the Government House grounds. It was pretty quiet, with the exception of a flock of 56 cedar waxwings, some of which are pictured here. It was interesting to note that the majority of the waxwings were 1st year birds.

Rusty Blackbird Makes The List

2012-01-07T18:24:00.000-08:00

Today, I decided to go and look for a specific bird.
No, not the BC mega - a brambling that local birders have been getting all excited about, but a rusty blackbird that has been seen on and off in the Martindale Road area in Saanich.
I did try and see one of these a couple of years ago when one was in the Victoria area but I dipped, and have since been rather keen to catch up with one.
According to the limited info available, the rusty blackbird has been seen hanging out with a flock of Brewer's blackbirds and European starlings in the agricultural area to the southwest of Island View Beach.
Jenny had a desire to visit nearby Michell's Farms Market, rather conveniently, so it provided an ideal opportunity to do some birding in this large open area.
The wet fields had attracted lots of Canada geese and a small number of cackling geese. Two Canadas were sporting red collars, but they were too far away for me to read the numbers. A pair of adult trumpeter swans were by one flooded field while a lone juvenile was close by.
A sizable flock of American wigeon contained no Eurasians, though 4 gadwall were a pleasant sight in among the many mallards.

Ring-billed gull

Scanning through the mew and glaucous-winged gulls I came across a smart ring-billed gull (pictured), always a treat to see on the island.
After checking a few stubble fields and likely looking roosting trees we eventually came across a flock of mixed starlings and blackbirds along Welch Road. The birds were sat up in roadside trees and after quite some time I located the rusty among the squawking throng. It wasn't exactly giving itself up easily, keeping its back to me and remaining in the centre of the tree. I managed a few crappy shots (one of the better ones seen here) before the birds flew down to feed in the roadside field.

Rusty blackbird

Here the rusty blackbird really came into its own and looked spectacular, even if the flock was constantly moving at a rapid pace. Another icterid in the bag!
Pleased with our fine find, Jenny and I headed over to the Indian Food Store on Cook St, procured some pakoras and samosas and went to Swan Lake for an impromptu picnic and a walk around the nature reserve.
We didn't see much, but the stroll was a pleasant enough way to spend the early afternoon.

Despite the obvious attraction of the brambling (UK readers may find this amusing, but consider the excitement that any Yank passerine causes in Blighty - after all aren't twitchers back home chasing a dark-eyed junco around Hampshire at the moment?), I've been more interested in a visitor in my own back yard this week.

Every morning there has been a western tanager in the apple tree outside our kitchen window (pictured). Now the reason that this bird hasn't attracted much attention from the locals, despite its incredibly rare status as a wintering bird in this part of the world, is that western tanagers are pretty easy to find in spring and summer. So, I suppose it's a bit like finding a wintering sedge warbler at Leighton Moss - certainly noteworthy but not exactly front-page news!

A Good Walk Out Workout

2012-01-03T21:20:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, having spent the morning with Jenny and walking her to work downtown for midday, I took off for a stroll along the waterfront. I headed along to Ogden Point and made my way from there to Beacon Hill Park. I didn't see too much en route, just the usual bits and pieces. Buffleheads, harlequin ducks, red-breasted mergansers, surf scoters and the like were reasonably plentiful offshore, while the occasional black turnstones and surfbirds were spotted on the exposed rocks.
Anna's hummingbirds seemed to be absolutely everywhere, and singing birds were heard all over the place. In fact I had even heard one right in the heart of Chinatown on Fisgard Street.

As I made my way into the park from Dallas Road, I thought I'd go and see if I could locate any Eurasian wigeon on the park ponds. It didn't take long. I came across 3 males and a female among the first group of grazing American wigeon on the lawns, and soon spotted another couple nearby.

On the pond there were yet more and I counted a minimum of 9 drakes and 2 ducks. It's quite likely that there were more females present, given the variability of duck wigeons. 11 Eurasian wigeon certainly seems a disproportionate amount given the relatively small numbers of American wigeon in the park.
A single Thayer's gull was in among the throng of glaucous-winged gulls hoping for a handout from the families gleefully feeding the duckies.
The other reason for my visit to the park was to see, once again, if I could relocate the blue-gray gnatcatcher seen there recently. Even when it was being pursued by the island's listers it did a very good job of being extremely elusive, but ever the optimist I thought I'd give it a shot anyway. Needless to say, I didn't find it.

Having year-ticked a few common species, I left the park and walked along toward Clover Point. There was nothing much going on on the water, though I did add a lone common murre to the day's birds. 12 dunlin were feeding with black turnstones and a couple of surfbirds off the point and 6 black oystercatchers were hugging the nearby rocks (pictured).
Yet more common seaducks were seen around the point and into Ross Bay. A common loon and small numbers of horned grebes and red-necked grebes were diving offshore.

I made my way up through the cemetery but couldn't locate any bushtit / chickadee flocks. On my trundle back home I stopped for an hour in the Government House grounds. There wasn't much to see, but there were golden-crowned and ruby-crowned kinglets all over the place. Downy woodpecker, northern flicker, good numbers of American robins, fox sparrows and all the other usual suspects kept me entertained on my rounds, but I wasn't able to find anything too diverting. A smart Cooper's hawk kept an eye on me (pictured) as I scrambled around the understory is search of interesting sparrows.
By late afternoon I felt that I'd had enough of walking and staggered back to the house for a well-deserved cup of tea.

This morning (Tuesday), I looked out of the kitchen window and saw that the apple tree was festooned with bushtits. I quickly scanned the branches in search of anything else and was amazed to see a female/first year type western tanager! I grabbed ny bins (they're never far from reach) and double-checked its identity (well, you never know with winter tanagers, could potentially be anything!). It seemed quite happy chowing down on one of the few remaining apples before taking off and disappearing from sight. It's a real pity my landlords won't allow me to put out anything other than hummingbird feeders - fear of attracting vermin apparently. It'll be interesting to see whether it makes a reappearance.

New Year, New Yearlist...

2012-01-01T20:07:00.000-08:00

First of all, a very happy New Year to you all.
2011 has been a memorable year for a number of reasons. Jenny and I relocated from Nanaimo to Victoria early in the spring, and in the past few months I found loads of great new places to go birding! Thanks to Ian Cruikshank and Chris Saunders, among others, for making me feel so welcome.
I also found myself in Hawaii for a few days late in the year, thanks to my new job with FTS, and added a small but quality selection of lifers to my very slowly growing world list. An unscheduled trip to the UK in early December for the funeral of my good friend and brother-in-law Mark was less enjoyable - the pre-Christmas week in sunny Florida was something of a more pleasant experience... and again, some new birds were seen.
I actually counted up my life list the other day and it's somewhere in the region of 1,640 species. Some recent splits and lumps need to be looked into before I can be sure of a definitive figure but that's roughly where I'm at.

The loneliness of the long-distance birder...

On New Year's Eve Jenny was offered the chance of a day off work so she said she'd like to head out to Island View Beach and take a walk up Saanichton Spit. Well, I wasn't going to complain. Especially as a snowy owl had been seen in that area recently, and you never know, I might just get lucky.
Going through some old notes recently, I was gobsmacked to read that I last saw a snowy owl in Lincolnshire on January 5th 1991. Almost exactly 21 years ago! Well, that made me feel ancient. Happy New Year indeed...
Anyhoo, we arrived at the parking area to find a plague of dogs and their owners had taken over the place. I suppose that's what you get for arriving in the afternoon.
Despite the mounds of hounds we soon spied a 1st year northern shrike in a field adjacent to the rough road by the parking area. As we headed out along the beach away from the parked cars the canine crowds thinned out considerably, and we soon had the place pretty much to ourselves.
A quick scan offshore revealed a pair of black scoter among the commoner seaduck species.

I kept checking the best-looking areas above the strand line for anything big and white but other than a couple of plastic bags and a bucket, I failed to locate anything of note.
Around the spit it was pretty quiet, and other than a flock of 7 western meadowlarks there were no interesting passerines to be found.
Although I didn't break my 21 year snowy owl absence, we had a lovely time at this wonderful spot as we always do.
Of note: earlier in the day, we had come across a frenzied flock of cedar waxwings feeding on an ornamental berry bush in our neighbourhood. There were around 40 birds, but none had those chestnut undertail coverts we're all looking for. With snowy owls, white-winged crossbills and redpolls being seen in southern BC and on the island right now, it's surely worth keeping an eye out for any other northern nomads...

While ambling around the Government House grounds today with our friends Dave and Susan I noticed a Townsend's warbler in with a bushtit flock in the gardens. My 'diligent' checks in recent weeks haven't turned up anything half as interesting, so it just goes to show that anything can turn up anywhere, at any time.

Christmas Gives Birding The Bird

2011-12-27T20:40:00.000-08:00

All this Christmas stuff has really impacted on my birding... in fact I can't remember ever having so much time off work and yet finding so little time to get out in search of ornithological diversions. Oh well, the excessive gluttony just about compensated.
It wasn't all gout-inducing revelry though, I did manage to squeeze a few local walks in; binoculars at the ready.
I checked out life in the Government House grounds a couple of times. There wasn't too much going on. The regular common birds were much in evidence, both ruby-crowned and golden-crowned kinglets, brown creepers, downy woodpeckers, chestnut-backed chickadees, northern flickers, dark-eyed juncos, Pacific wrens, etc, etc.

Ross Bay

I managed to fit in quick visits to Ross Bay and Clover Point too. Offshore the usual species were seen in varying numbers including red-necked and horned grebes, common goldeneye, surf scoters, a single greater scaup, all three mergansers, pigeon guillemot, common loon, harlequins and buffleheads, pelagic and double-crested cormorants. Shorebirds were thin on the ground, thanks to the very high tides. I only noted a couple of dunlin along with a handful each of black turnstone and surfbird.

On Saturday morning I had a good stroll around Beacon Hill Park, primarily looking for bushtit/chickadee flocks. Maybe I would find a wintering warbler of some kind - or even the elusive blue-gray gnatcatcher seen there a few weeks ago? No reason why it shouldn't still be around. As it happens, I struggled to locate any decent sized flocks and those few birds I did encounter weren't harbouring any exciting waifs or strays.
Nice to see varied thrushes (always a favourite) mingled in with the many American robins and a few small sparrow flocks gave me something to scrutinize, albeit briefly.
I spotted at least 4 Eurasian wigeon (3 drakes, 1 duck) among the many American wigeon present on the park pools. A couple of northern shoveler and a small number of ring-necked duck were also on the ponds, along with a billion mallard.

A short and soggy trundle to Harling Point today (Tuesday) revealed a pair of smart long-tailed duck close offshore and a gang of some 15 black-bellied plover but little else of note.

So, it's back to work tomorrow and my near-daily lunchtime dashes to Langford Lake will resume in earnest. I haven't yet seen anything too thrilling there, but it seems to attract a reasonably diverse range of birds from time to time. There have been good numbers of pine siskins there in recent weeks and red crossbills are tolerably frequent. On the water there are usually a few species of wildfowl to be seen and both mew and glaucous-winged gulls come in regularly to bathe. And I have never seen quite as many pied-billed grebes in any one location.

I hope everyone reading this had a jolly old Christmas, and here's to a bird-filled New Year ahead!

Last Gasp on Gasparilla

2011-12-18T17:16:00.000-08:00

Our back yard in Boca Grande, Florida

Friday was our last full day on Planet Florida. The weather continued to be superb, and we opted to stay on Gasparilla and take it easy - especially as it was Satty's birthday. Of course my mind was, as always, slightly on the matter of birds and I was only too aware that despite this being my third visit to the Sunshine State I had still failed to add Carolina wren to my world list. Now, as anyone who knows about birding in Florida this species is, by all accounts, common as the proverbial muck itself. How was I missing them so spectacularly? Today, I was going to try and redeem myself. I listened to various recordings of their calls and songs, and read up once more on the habits of these skulking birds.

After breakfast we decided to explore a region of the Gasparilla Island State Park we'd noticed a few days ago; an area a little off the beaten track where invasive vegetation was being managed. This could just possibly provide the perfect habitat for my quarry... and I hadn't even manipulated the plan for my own benefit!

White ibis

We set off along a barely obvious trail, scattering multiple lizards as we went. An American kestrel was hunting the area and we flushed a red-shouldered hawk. The usual vultures and ospreys drifted overhead, but as for other birds it seemed depserately quiet. Until I heard a curious rasping call, not unlike that of a Bewick's wren. Surely this was my bird? I pished. It rasped. I pished again. It rasped again. I caught a glimpse of a bird moving in the dense tangled vegetation, then it was gone. Drat.
A few metres on, that call again. Once again I began to pish quietly. This time it really did the trick and two birds started calling excitedly back in response. And these were unquestionably Carolina wrens. It took a good few, frustrating seconds but eventually one, then two birds showed well. And what smart looking wrens! Big, bright chunky birds, with wacking great supercilliums, even my non-birder companions were reasonably impressed. They became known immediately, and appropriately, as Satty's birthday wrens.

Florida box turtle

We moved on, and we soon came across a Florida box turtle (actually a non-aquatic terrestrial reptile, and more like a tortoise - pictured). The track shortly petered out and we headed back out of the bush and toward the beach, spotting an ovenbird and common yellowthroat on the way.
On the beach it was the same stuff, white ibis (pictured), willet, ruddy turnstone, Forster's, Royal and Sandwich terns (pictured), etc, and we meandered along enjoying the delightful subtropical climate.

Sandwich tern

After lunch (we sat on a table next to a bunch of identically dressed gun-sporting secret service guys, newly arrived in town as part of the Bush family's detail - Gasparilla is the traditional Christmas destination and both ex-Presidents and their entourages were due any day) the ladies went exploring while I joined Paul on the beach and tried a spot of sea fishing. I was, as I expected, hopeless and I lost more bait and tangled more line than I care to admit...

Later that evening as we headed out to a local restaurant to celebrate Satty's significant birthday we heard an Eastern screech owl, very close but in some pretty dense vegetation. I tried to locate the singing bird with my head lamp but unsurprisingly it eluded my beam. Had we not had a table booked, I may have been tempted to dash back to the house and return with my recorder but I had to leave this particular potential lifer for another time. I know that many North American birders will happily tick a bird on call or song alone, but I'm not in that camp. If I don't see it, I don't count it.
The owl was still calling when we returned a couple of hours later and we could even hear it from the back of the house. Oh well, it's always good to have something to look for should I find myself in Eastern screech owl range again.

Magnificent frigatebird

Jenny and I flew back to Victoria on Saturday afternoon. We spent the morning lazing around the house in Boca Grande. A flock of warblers made up of around 40 yellow-rumped and 20 palm warblers came through, with a single pine warbler and a pair of northern cardinals among them. A fine yellow-bellied sapsucker put in an unexpected appearance in a palm in the back yard and 6 magnificent frigatebirds (male pictured) came over to wave us off.
And the highlight of our journey home was adding great-tailed grackle to the trip list at Houston Airport!
Now, back to reality and the onslaught of the festive period...

Babcock / Webb Birding Tick-Fest...

2011-12-17T06:27:00.000-08:00

We got up nice and early on Wednesday morning; destination Babcock / Webb Wildlife Management Area. This huge chunk of land just northwest of Fort Myers, is primarily managed for hunting, but is famous in birding circles as one of Florida's best locations for finding the critically endangered red-cockaded woodpecker.
We arrived on site, paid the paltry $3 per person and picked up a map from the reception office, and glanced at the tally of critters so far killed this season. This list included coyotes, racoons, doves and of course, 836 northern bobwhite. As one of the species I'd hoped to see, bobwhites are either so extremely common here that I'll have no trouble locating one, or there are now none left whatsoever...

Here be Red-Cockaded Woodpeckers

We headed to the first red-cockaded woodpecker cluster area - these woodpeckers are sociable birds and nest in close proximity to one another. The clusters are clearly marked by white stripes painted on the trees where the birds' nestholes can be found. Naturally, it's far out of breeding season and odds were somewhat stacked against our chances of finding any 'peckers at this time of year.
Nonetheless. we optimists pulled off the track and had a listen. A northern flicker came through. Then a red-bellied woodpecker stopped by. Then we heard the very un-woodpeckery sound of a red-cockaded as it flew across the track and through the trees. It was followed immediately by a second bird which kindly alighted on a tree right in front of us and showed brilliantly for a couple of minutes before it too vanished off in the distance. Result!
I couldn't believe my luck, barely out of the car for 5 minutes and my target bird was in the bag!
We then spent the next few hours stopping off at likely looking spots and seeing what we could find.

Little Blue Heron

There were plenty of waterbirds around including little blue herons (pictured), sandhill cranes, wood storks, pied-billed grebes and green herons, great and snowy egrets etc. Glossy ibis made it on to the trip list courtesy of a small group of birds.
There were lots of northern mockingbirds around, as well as many flocks of feeding palm, yellow-rumped and pine warblers all over the place. A bit of pishing brought out some interesting birds including a showy and vocal gray catbird. Blue jays put in appearances, as did eastern phoebes, loggerhead shrikes and smart eastern bluebirds. Hundreds of tree swallows were hawking over the large grassy areas and small lakes.

Brit Birder in FL

Red-shouldered hawks were the commonest raptor seen, plus we spotted occasional Cooper's hawks and northern harriers, as well as the ubiquitous black and turkey vultures.
A few shorebirds were seen in one particularly large wetland area. These included killdeer, and around 70 greater yellowlegs and a single lesser yellowlegs.
Stopping briefly to check out a warbler flock we heard the distinctive 'rubber-duck' calls of another key bird - brown-headed nuthatch. Some careful, if panicked scrutiny of the feeding flock soon revealed one of these diminutive arboreal acrobats, which was soon joined by a second. They gave great views - always a bonus when seeing a lifer!

Alligator

Alongside the birds, the park was also teeming with butterflies and dragonflies, plus we came across several alligators (pictured). Paul, as driver, noted racoon and deer crossing the road in front of him, en route.
In several hours we only covered a fraction of the 65,758 acre area, but had seen a huge variety of habitat (and only one vehicle of gun-toting good ol' boys).
I didn't get to see any bobwhites, but hey-ho, they're widespread enough and I like to think that I may well see one somewhere else someday.

We arrived back on Gasparilla mid afternoon and Paul set off to the beach to do some fishing. We all joined him, and as we neared the beach the distinctive hoot of a great horned owl was heard. Jenny, Satty and Paul carried on toward the water, while I dashed off in search of the vocal owl. It didn't take long, and I was soon looking up at a pair of great horned owls sat high in Banyan tree, one calling frequently. Very nice!
Once I joined the others on the beach, I scanned up and down taking in the numerous shorebirds present. Among the familiar willets, sanderlings and black-bellied plovers there were also white ibis, great-blue heron and the usual ring-billed and laughing gulls. As I looked offshore, 3 juvenile northern gannets were making a splash as they repeatedly dived into the water in their unmistakable manner.

Thursday

This morning Jenny and I spent the morning cycling around the north island. I had wanted to get a good look at the birds on the sand bars near the bridge, so I took my 'scope along with me.
Along the route we encountered the usual palm warblers, mourning doves, Eurasian collared-doves, ospreys, American kestrels and the expected herons, egrets and wood storks. An odd looking dove caught my eye sat on an overhead wire, and stopping to check it out I realised that it was a white-winged dove.
Once we reached the bridge, we were relieved to see that the tide was low enough to expose a few small sandbars and thankfully there were birds feeding on them... scanning through I was pleased to see a good mix of waders; willet, red knot, dunlin, black-bellied plover and semi-palmated plovers. However, the bird I really wanted to find (ever the optimist...) couldn't be seen.

Pelican, skimmers, terns...

We crossed the road and checked out another sandbar on the other side. Brown pelicans, Sandwich terns, Forster's terns, royal terns and black skimmers were all present in good numbers (pictured).
Then I noticed right at the far end of the spit, some smaller birds. One dunlin, 4 semi-palmated plovers, a Wilson's plover and, hello... a pale plover, short bill, orange legs - Bingo! Another world first for me, piping plover. I thought that this might be a long-shot, but it was the very species I was hoping for. Wonderful!
American white pelicans were gliding overhead, while the ever-present ospreys kept us entertained with their nest building and highly successful fishing forays. My first reddish egret of the trip was fishing the shallows, flanked by a little blue heron. A juv bald eagle was sat up in a dead tree.
A sizeable flock of palm warbler were feeding in the same roadside trees as they were a couple of days ago, and once again a single pine warbler and a black-and-white warbler were among them.
We headed back to 'town' and after a cuppa we headed to the beach to catch up with Paul and Satty.

Great horned owl

On the way, we stopped off to see if the great horned owls were still in the big banyan. They were, and we got a few shots of one of the birds as it sat high in the canopy.
On the beach, it was mainly business as usual.
As Jen and I walked along the length of the beach, we encountered more birds as we got further from the developed areas and here we found good numbers of dunlin, western sandpiper and red knot (pictured) as well as the familiar ruddy turnstone and other common tideline dwellers.

Red Knot

Paul's highlight of the day was catching a clear nosed skate, a rather charming fish which, when released, partially buried itself in the sand within inches of the water line. Eventually it realised that this wasn't the best place to be and swam off unharmed, if a little traumatised!

More Florida Birding Highlights...

2011-12-14T18:34:00.000-08:00

Hello readers. Well, it's been a touch hectic here in sunny Florida, what with all the relaxing, leisurely birding and my ongoing investigation into the state's microbreweries...

Monday was a bit of a write-off bird-wise as we all headed out to some monster outlet mall to indulge in a spot of rampant pre-Christmas consumerism. As it happens, I did add a few birds to the trip list. Floridian favourites such as loggerhead shrike, red-shouldered hawk, wood stork (pictured) and magnificent frigatebird were all seen en route, but eclipsing these fine aves was a rather fine crested caracara perched up in a roadside tree. Off the top of my head, I think this is the first one I've seen north of Mexico, so it was a pleasant surprise to see it sat there.
Once we got 'home', Jenny, Satty and I headed out to the beach to catch the sunset. Of course, there were willets, ruddy turnstones and sanderling on the beach with ring-billed gulls, laughing gulls and passing royal terns. On our way back in the dusky darkness we heard a great horned owl hooting from the confines of a huge banyan tree.

Tuesday was somewhat more productive on the birding front as me and Jenny, along with Paul and Satty, hired bikes and explored the length of Gasparilla Island, and beyond. As we headed out north along the island on the excellent cyclepath, we frequently stopped to check out the mangroves, bays and assorted interesting looking spots. There were loads of yellow-rumped and palm warblers all along the route, plus we got views of a single common yellowthroat and a dazzling northern cardinal. Both turkey and black vultures, American kestrels, Cooper's and sharp-shinned hawks and scores of ospreys competed with the white and brown pelicans, various egrets and anhingas for our attention.
From a small bridge overlooking a shallow bay with exposed sandbars, I could see good numbers of willet, sanderling, black-bellied plover, killdeer and a couple of Wilson's plovers.
On the other side of the bridge, another sandbar hosted around 400 black skimmers, plus hundreds of Sandwich and Forster's terns and brown pelicans.
A sizeable flock of feeding warblers were working their way through some roadside trees and, after a little pishing, I was soon surrounded by a horde of palm warblers, and in among them a single pine warbler and smart black-and-white warbler.

On our way, we also saw the lizard pictured here, either consuming a large spider or still sporting its Movember 'tache... (maybe one of my herpetologist pals can identify the reptile?)
After a return to the house for a much deserved cup of tea we cycled down to the south of the island, to the old lighthouse. Brown pelicans and double-crested cormorants were in good supply and a single horned grebe was fishing close to the shore.

On the beach there were good numbers of Sandwich and Forster's terns mixed in with the many laughing gulls (pictured). A bottle-nosed dolphin showed well, passing by just offshore.
The usual shorebirds were present.
We returned the bikes and headed to a bar to sample some local brews and review our plans for the following day... (going in search of a lifer or two - details to follow!)

Brit Birder Returns To Florida

2011-12-11T15:30:00.000-08:00

Spent most of Saturday in transit between Victoria and Fort Myers, Florida. We arrived in darkness and were met by my brother Paul and his wife Satty, who had flown in from the UK the day before.
We headed out to Boca Grande, just to the north of Sanibel Island, where we would be staying for the week. After a few well-earned ales we hit the hay in the early hours.
This morning, I awoke and took in my immediate surroundings. The house backs onto a canal, and is flanked by mangroves. Reasonably interesting! The first bird I heard was a palm warbler, which eventually showed as it made its way through the waterside vegetation.
Within seconds an Eastern phoebe flew in and showed brilliantly, flycatching from the top of a nearby mangrove. Turkey vultures soon appeared overhead and several brown pelicans and double-crested cormorants were seen in the distance. A couple more palm warblers came by, as did a yellow-rumped warbler.

After a leisurely breakfast we strolled into 'town' - a small collection of stores and restaurants - and then on to the beach and back. Birds encountered along the way included American kestrel, Cooper's hawk, mourning dove, common ground dove, red-bellied woodpecker, common loon, willet (pictured), Forster's tern, laughing gull and ringed-billed gull.
Later we took a drive out to the nearest supermarket, passing through some great habitat en route. We saw more pelicans, cormorants, gulls and terns and such, plus added black vulture, white ibis, great-blue heron, great egret, snowy egret, tri-coloured heron, black-crowned night-heron, wood stork, osprey, common grackle and boat-tailed grackle to the trip list.
Maybe I'll get chance to get out into some really good areas for some 'real' birding in the next few days, but given that that's not the sole purpose of this pre-Christmas getaway, I may just have to take what I can get!
I do have plans to get in the Babcock/Webb Wildlife Management Area where there is a relatively healthy population of red-cockaded woodpecker, but whether I'll be able to locate any at this time of year is up for debate. Oh well, I can only give it a go, and hope that I bump into any of the 4 potential ticks that occur in the large preserve...!

Green Gifts from the Nature Conservancy.

2011-12-08T10:47:00.000-08:00

There are strings of lights all over downtown, scores of trees have been decked out in decorations aplenty, and we've even posted our Christmas cards before the Canada Post deadline ('tis a season of miracles, after all...).
But let's not forget that it is also the season for giving. And for those who wish to brush aside rampant consumerism there are ethical and actually useful gifts available for you to send to your loved ones.
The Nature Conservancy, along with many other charitable organizations, are offering an array of great gifts that won't cost the earth.
Whether you wish to 'Adopt an Acre' in Costa Rica or Zambia, plant trees in Brazil, contribute to the conservation of vital habitat for the protection of Kirtland's warbler or whooping crane, or wish to give the gift of wild animal adoption, the range of 'green' gifts available on the Nature Conservancy's website is sure to please.
After all, what's better - the knowledge that you're helping protect sea turtles, coral reefs, rhinoceros's and critically endangered habitat or yet another piece of mass-produced crap that will end up in the back of garage or the dump in a couple of years?
See the amazing range of alternative presents at the Nature Conservancy's donations page and sign the pledge at Green Gift Monday.

Sanderling Sunday

2011-12-04T20:43:00.000-08:00

This morning I spent about 2.5 hours around the Clover Point and Ross Bay area. For much of the visit I was joined by Lynette Brown, a keen birder who recently moved to Victoria, who I had arranged to meet for a spot of coastal birding.

Around the point there were the usual 20 or so black turnstone, a couple of surfbirds, 20ish dunlin (including several feeding on the floating kelp just offshore) and a single sanderling (pictured here with dunlin). There were plenty of ducks present, including good numbers of bufflehead and harlequin. A pair of stunning common merganser, (the male was immaculate, infused with that gorgeous salmon pink as shown by some drakes), were fishing close to the shore while a party of comparatively scruffy red-breasted mergansers foraged close by.
Further out, several surf scoters were seen and a pair of striking long-tailed duck were keeping their distance.
A flotilla of 30 horned grebe made for a spectacular sight, and smaller numbers of red-necked grebes were scattered around along with a few common loons and pigeon guillemots.
The gulls at Clover Point were largely comprised of the expected raggle-taggle not-quite glaucous-winged/western variety, although one adult and a third winter showed signs of being dangerously close to pure western gull. A few mew gulls were kicking around close offhsore with many more larids way out, once again silhouetted in the low morning light.
Double-crested and pelagic cormorants were variously sat around on floating logs or fishing here and there.
Despite recent reports, I maintained my inability to locate any rock sandpipers. One of these days...

Brit Birder Makes Brief Return to Blighty

2011-12-03T14:43:00.000-08:00

I've just returned from an unscheduled and brief visit back to North Lancashire. The unfortunate reason for my short journey to the UK was to attend the funeral of my great friend and brother-in-law Mark. I shan't dwell on the circumstances too much here, but I will mention that he had a wonderful woodland burial just over the border in Cumbria. Surrounded by native woodland with roe deer, great-spotted woodpeckers and all manner of wild creatures it is certainly a tranquil and beautiful spot where my sister and all other family and friends will be able to visit and enjoy their memories of one of life's true originals. So long, mate.

Of course, during my whirlwind visit I didn't do any birding but nonetheless one can't help but notice the commoner species, which now seem far less familiar to me.
Fieldfare, song thrush, dunnock, common buzzard, Eurasian kestrel, sparrowhawk, lapwing, Eurasian golden plover and curlew, red knot, great black-backed and black-headed gull, pied and grey wagtails, etc - were all seen casually in passing. It's easy to forget just how apparent and omnipresent birds are back in Britain...

Once I was back on Canadian soil, and compos mentis, I took a short stroll around the Government House grounds just to get some fresh air and refamiliarise myself with the native aves.
Anna's hummingbird, golden-crowned sparrow, northern flicker, downy woodpecker, spotted towhee and both ruby-crowned and golden crowned kinglets were much in evidence. Any birder in BC enviously reading the list of common British birds noted above, just remember that this selection of easy Vancouver Island birds has exactly the same effect on keen birdwatchers from across the pond. It's all a matter of context.
Among the large numbers of 'Oregon' dark-eyed juncos in the grounds was a single 'slate-coloured' bird, the first I've seen here for a while.

Saturday morning I headed out to check my favourite local spots along the Victoria coast. I started out at Clover Point, with optimistic thoughts of rock sandpiper in my head.
Shorebirds-wise it wasn't too exciting; 17 dunlin, 4 surfbird, 3 black-bellied plover, 13 black turnstone and 2 black oystercatcher. In the water there were lots of bufflehead, harlequin ducks and surf scoters as usual. Hooded mergansers (pictured), red-breasted mergansers, red-necked grebes, horned grebes, common goldeneye, pigeon guillemot, rhinoceros auklet, common murre and common loons were also present in varying numbers.
Offshore there were 1000s of gulls, but the low light rendered them as little more than silhouettes; clearly the majority were mew gulls.
A fairly convincing western gull (complete with yellow orbital ring) was among the many mongrel glaucous-wingeds on the point.
Next, I headed round to Harling Point and the Chinese Cemetery.
Here there were no shorebirds at all, but at least I added 7 stunning long-tailed ducks and a red-throated loon to the day list. Some murrelets were bombing around way offshore, but again they were just silhouettes making confident ID somewhat tricky.
A quick stop at Oak Bay Marina revealed a few more dunlin, black-bellied plovers, black turnstone, the usual seaducks, including 2 more long-tailed duck, and alcids plus a bald eagle and 9 killdeer.
I wound up at Cattle Point where the high tide and dog walkers had the combined effect of clearing the place out of birds. Just a few black turnstone, oystercatchers, American wigeon and what-have-you provided me with stuff to sift through.

Birding Points of Interest

2011-11-20T14:45:00.000-08:00

I actually found some time for a little local birding today. The day was calm, clear and cold and I headed out for Harling Point and the Chinese Cemetery for a scout about (or scoot aboot in Canadian).
Offshore it was business as usual, although certain species are increasing notably, such as bufflehead which are now all over the place.
Red-necked and horned grebes, common loon, surf scoter, the 3 cormorants, hooded and red-breasted mergansers, harlequin ducks and the like were all present in varying numbers. A few marbled murrelets and pigeon guillemots were seen as were a handful of rhinoceros auklets.
On the rocks there were 26 surfbirds, a couple of black turnstone and a black-bellied plover.
I couldn't find anything interesting passerine-wise scrabbling about in the tideline, just a lone 1st winter white-crowned sparrow.
Nearby Trafalgar Park was quiet, so I headed along to McMicking Point. There wasn't too much to get excited about here, just more of the same stuff really.
Next stop, Cattle Point. The high tide resulted in there being barely any exposed rocks for foraging shorebirds and as such there was little here, with the exception of single black oystercatcher and black turnstone.
The usual seaducks, alcids and gulls were present, plus a few American wigeon. I thought I'd check out the Uplands Park area on the other side of the road - it looks good for a shrike (or maybe something like a displaced tropical kingbird kicked off Cattle Point by dogwalkers?). Not today Josephine. Other than the common sparrows (golden-crowned, white-crowned, fox & song), juncos, towhees, downy woodpeckers and what-have-you it wasn't exactly jumping. I did see my second 'yellow-shafted' northern flicker of the fall though, and came face-to-face with a roosting barred owl.

I headed back toward home, making a detour to Clover Point en route. Again, the birds on the water were much the same as I'd seen at various places along the coast. Around 20 dunlin (pictured) were feeding around the area, alongside a few black-bellied plover, black turnstone, oystercatchers and surfbirds.

Birding the Nanaimo River Estuary

2011-11-13T17:46:00.000-08:00

We headed up to Nanaimo over the weekend for a spot of mid-island socialising and I managed to squeeze in stops on Saturday at Quennell Lake and the Nanaimo River estuary for a bit of birding.
The lake, and adjacent field, was absolutely alive with wildfowl.
On the water I counted over 2,000 mallard. Scattered among them were smaller numbers of other species including northern shoveler, pintail, gadwall, lesser scaup, ring-necked duck, common merganser, hooded merganser, bufflehead, wood duck, American wigeon and common goldeneye.
Around 20 American coot were also present, but strangely not a single teal.

Trumpeter swans

A large herd of swans were roosting and feeding in the, as yet unflooded, field immediately north of the lake. A small number were on the lake itself. I counted approximately 230 trumpeter swans and found a single tundra swan among them. None were ringed, or bore neck collars. There were only 12 young birds among them... sign of a poor nesting season?
Also in the area were several hundred Canada geese (no Cackling geese found with them) and 14 greater white-fronted geese. An adult northern shrike was showing well and a juvenile northern harrier was quartering the fields between the lake and the Crow & Gate (where, incidentally we enjoyed a fine roast beef and Yorkshire pudding dinner on Saturday evening...).

We then moved on to the Nanaimo River estuary. I really miss birding at this place, and I was delighted to be back on my old local patch. Better still, I had the place to myself.
There were 4 trumpeter swans on the river and a further 6 flew in. Up near the bridge the annual arrival of Barrow's goldeneye had taken place with well over 50 birds present.
Down at the estuary, I scanned from the raised platform and soon found an adult female northern harrier sat up on a post. As I checked the area for other interesting birds I noticed a very late barn swallow flying over the marsh. I watched it for some timeas it actively flew up and down the water's edge.
As seems to be the case when the salmon are running, there were scores of bald eagles sat out around the the estuary.
After a short while, I walked out onto the marsh, (optimistic as ever, I was secretly hoping to relocate the Gabriola Island snowy owl...) and soon came across a single western meadowlark.

Scanning the distant posts I spotted a short-eared owl (pictured, with customary crapness) and within a couple of minutes was watching a second one as it hunted over the saltmarsh, occasionally drawing attention from the local ravens.
I checked the hedgerows for sparrows and such, but it was relatively quiet. Among a group of dark-eyed juncos, I could only see song, golden-crowned and white-crowned sparrows.
A second adult female northern harrier appeared, and for a while both birds were hunting in the same area.
As I headed back to the car a short-eared owl sailed across in front of me - maybe it was one of the birds I'd seen earlier, but I suspect it was actually a third owl as it came in from a different direction.

Seeing as I mentioned snowy owl - are we seeing the first signs of an 'invasion' year? There have been three reports from different areas of Vancouver Island in the past week, and as with other tundra breeders, snowy owl populations are closely tied to lemming/vole cycles. Has this been a boom year for Arctic rodents? Might we see yet more snowy owls on the island in the coming months, and will other northern migrant predators be more plentiful too?

Time will tell...!

Snow Show for Owl on Trial

2011-11-11T17:54:00.000-08:00

For those reading this back in the UK, today is Remembrance Day here in Canada and a 'stat' holiday. So, with Jenny working I decided I might as well do my Coastal Waterbird Survey.
It had been pouring down all night, though by late morning it was starting to ease off considerably. To compensate, the wind was picking up and gusting like a good 'un.
As I went about counting the various waterbirds off and onshore, I kept scanning Trial Island in the hope of picking up the snowy owl that was present out there all day yesterday. To be honest, had I been a snowy owl I would have been hunkered down in the long grass, or in a sheltered crevice somewhere rather than sat out in the open in those conditions.
Other than spotting a white plastic bucket nestled among some logs, I wasn't able to see anything Hedwig-like. A bald eagle was doing its best to keep upright, facing into the wind.
The survey was unremarkable, despite the howling winds and choppy seas. Alcids were notably few, with just a handful of pigeon guillemots and rhinoceros auklets seen while seaducks were equally unimpressive in number. A feeding group of 97 American wigeon alongside a dozen buffleheads were seeking relative shelter in the bay between McMicking and Harling Points.

Later, I took a wander around the Govt House grounds where I saw and heard very little. A few juncos, golden-crowned sparrows and golden-crowned kinglets were about the only passerines encountered.
Not quite in the league as its Arctic cousin, a barred owl was seen and snapped.

Right, it's about time I gave the answer to the last Mystery Bird.

Only one vote each was cast in favour of Tennessee warbler and common yellowthroat.
3 votes went for orange-crowned warbler while a further 4 participants chose northern waterthrush.
However 65% of the votes supported palm warbler. And indeed that's what it is. The photo shows an eastern 'yellow' bird, which I thought might throw some of you... maybe it did.

I've posted a new one - enjoy!

Aloha from Hawaii - A Brit Birder Abroad

2011-11-06T16:18:00.000-08:00

The Koko Crater, Oahu

Only a month after starting my new job I found myself in the position of heading to a tradeshow, in order to gain some experience in how the company markets its key products and services. I was to be joining the Marketing Director (Eric) and one of the sales team (Jaime) to the Society of American Foresters annual conference. And where was this taking place? Oh, only Honolulu. On the island of Oahu. In Hawaii. In the middle of the bloody Pacific Ocean.

Naturally, my mind was filled with all the endemic birds that I wouldn't see, due to my being in this tropical paradise for work, rather than leisure. However, it dawned on me that despite my limited time there, I may just be able to see at least a couple of decent birds.

We flew out last Tuesday morning and arrived in Honolulu in the early afternoon. En route from the airport to the hotel in Waikiki I noticed a few birds, in particular several Pacific golden plovers which seemed to occupy any piece of grass or open ground available. Other less inspiring birds seen included several of the many exotic species which festoon the Honolulu landscape.
Having checked into the hotel and done some work related stuff such as assist with the erection of the exhibition booth at the conference centre, I managed to find a little time to explore the local area. An oceanside park was located close to the hotel and I headed there with my trusty bins and vague idea of what avian delights I might be looking for.

Various cage birds at large

I can't recall ever being in a place so littered with birds. They were absolutely everywhere. Well, everywhere that they shouldn't be, that is. There were zebra doves and Java sparrows, common waxbills, red-vented bulbuls, spotted doves and common mynhas all over the place. Spectacular red-headed cardinals and cattle egrets looked very much at home in this tropical environment but were equally untickable.

Pacific golden plover

Then it happened, an actual bonafide Hawaiian bird flew over - a gorgeous white tern. It was soon followed by another and I was able to get good looks at several birds as they came over, heading out to sea. Formerly known by the far more evocative (and personally preferable) name of fairy tern, this was a species I really hoped I'd see, and was fortunate enough to do so on a daily basis during my stay.
I got the chance to scrutinise the numerous, and highly variable, Pacific golden plovers that were feeding on the grassy areas, and managed a few snaps. A handful of ruddy turnstone were feeding along the water's edge and scanning offshore I noticed a distant brown booby (no sniggering at the back...) sat on a buoy. Not a bad start, really.

Wednesday

Red-footed boobies

Found ourselves with some time to spare today and we were keen to explore, so Eric and I decided to hire a car and head into the hills in search of a decent hike.
After a good scout around, stopping off here and there to admire the wonderful scenery (and a stream of red-footed boobies passing close offshore - pic), we opted to check out a trail heading up into the Kuliouou Forest Reserve. We took the Kuliouou Ridge Trail, a 5-mile round trek which took us up to an elevation of around 1000ft, passing through several habitat types.

Kuliouou Forest Reserve

The place was positively jumping with birds. But once again, they were almost all exotic non-native species. At the lower levels we were seeing the now familiar spotted and zebra doves, plus house sparrows, more waxbills and red-whiskered bulbuls. As we gained height Japanese white-eyes became a common sight as they flitted phyllosc-like through the vegetation. A few beautiful white-rumped shama showed well, their plumage every bit as lovely as their song.

Me and a Banyan Tree

As we emerged from a belt of mixed pines and entered an area of true montane tropical vegetation, we hit into a very active feeding flock of birds. Again, white-eyes were prevalent, and I got dazzled by the several incredibly stunning red-billed leiothrix (also known as Pekin robin). Then a small bird really caught my eye. Sat at the top of a small snag, it appeared almost wren-like to the naked eye, but as I got my bins on it my joy was formidable. A stunning apapane - one of the few remaining native bird species to be found on this island. I let out a little profanity of delight. Eric couldn't quite share my excitement, but he was very pleased for me.
Several minutes later, as we approached the summit and the end of the trail, I saw another (or possibly the same one) and watched it at eye-level, feeding in the upper branches of a large tree.
After we'd gorged our senses on the spectacular views (and gained our breath) we headed back down. I soon came across another feeding flock of avian exotica, and was thrilled to pick out a couple of Oahu amakihi among the mix.
The remainder of our descent went without incident, and we soon found ourselves heading back along the coast to Waikiki, stopping to admire the scenery along the way.

Thursday

Black-crowned night-heron

An early stroll around the park and waterfront near the hotel revealed little more than the previously seen escapees, plus the now expected white terns overhead. I also came across a few black-crowned night-herons (pictured) stalking a fisherman in the park, and a pair of wandering tattler on the breakwater, plus more brown boobies offshore. A lone sanderling was spotted making its way along the tideline and a couple of great frigatebirds drifted over.
Much of the day was spent at the conference centre, where I was able to chat with local conservation experts and forest management professionals from around North America.

Friday

The last day. After a morning at the conference, Eric and I hired a car and headed up to the north of the island for a look around. Passing through large fruit plantations along the way, the scenery was considerably different from the south eastern region we had explored on Wednesday.
Bird life was almost restricted to yet more fence-hoppers, although things got considerably better around the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge area. Although we couldn't access the site, I was able to see Hawaiian coots plus local distinctive races of moorhen and black-necked stilt. Our brief stop didn't allow enough time to locate any Hawaiian duck or bristle-thighed curlew.
A paddle around at Shark's Cove allowed us to see some fabulous tropical fish at close quarters, and again, we stopped at various points to take in the many amazing vistas.
We flew home late on Friday night, arriving back in Victoria on Saturday. Quite possibly one of the best working weeks I've ever had...! And I added a further 4 birds to my life list. Nice.

The Calm After The Storm

2011-10-30T16:06:00.000-07:00

The rain overnight, and throughout the early part of the morning, had the desired effect and Clover Point was relatively people/dog-free when I got down there.
Even so, the birding was pretty unremarkable. There were no shorebirds bar a lone black turnstone around the rocks and gulls were thin on the ground. The water was where the action was, and scanning around I could see good numbers of common murre, pigeon guillemot, harlequin duck and surf scoter. Scattered among the more numerous species were several red-necked and horned grebes, marbled murrelets, bufflehead, rhinoceros auklet, common and Pacific loon, a pair of white-winged scoter and my first long-tailed duck of the autumn.

Moving along the coast, my next stop was at Harling Point and the Chinese Cemetery. Here things were even quiter disturbance-wise, and as a result there were good numbers of shorebirds present.
On the nearby rocks were 28 surfbirds, 22 black-bellied plover (pictured) and 11 black turnstone, plus a couple of black oystercatchers.
Offshore, it was much the same as from Clover Point. A flotilla of some 14 Pacific loons in various state of moult was a lovely sight.
I made the short stroll round to Trafalgar Park, but it was pretty quiet. The same waterbirds could be seen and a peregrine was sat out on Trial Island.
The total absence of Bonaparte's gulls was notable and I only picked up 3 or 4 Heermann's gulls along the whole stretch of shore.

McMicking Point was my next, and final, port of call. Once again, the birds offshore were much the same as seen from elsewhere. A group of cormorants roosting up on the rocks behind the golf course contained all three common species: Brandt's, pelagic and double-crested (pictured).

Early afternoon, I went to the Government House grounds in search of feeding sparrow or bushtit flocks. There were few juncos and sparrows around, but I did locate a very active group of golden-crowned and ruby-crowned kinglets. Among the throng were the expected chestnut-backed chickadees, red-breasted nuthatches, brown creepers and a downy woodpecker but nothing out of the ordinary.

'Owls of Delight...

2011-10-23T15:25:00.000-07:00

Well, this working 5 days a week is certainly having an effect on my birding life... No time to get out in the mornings and none in the evenings, makes the weekends extra special.
Though, I have been grabbing a few short lunch breaks around Langford Lake, near my workplace and I've clocked up some decentish birds in the last couple of weeks.
Highlights so far have included common loon, pied-billed grebe, lesser scaup, American coot, opsrey, merlin, bald eagle, varied thrush, hermit thrush, belted kingfisher, Townend's warbler, fox sparrow, and the like.
If I can manage a couple of visits a week it'll at least stop me from going completely mad.

Friday night, it absolutely pelted down and I woke on Saturday morning, expecting a thoroughly rainy day. As it turned out, it brightened up early on and in between occasional showers, it stayed reasonable for most of the day.

A minor herd of black-tailed deer had wandered round the back of the house and were nibbling away at some shrubbery in the grounds of Craigdarroch Castle that seemed to appeal to them. The buck was a particularly handsome beast, as you can see in the snap taken from our back door.
I dropped Jenny off at work and headed first to Clover Point. The previous night's wet weather had obviously kept many people indoors, and although it was bright and dry the Point was uncharacteristically quiet, people-wise.
Consequently, there were 14 surfbirds feeding on the rocks, along with around 10 black turnstone and a couple of black oystercatchers. A handful of Bonaparte's gulls were feeding over the water, and a couple Heermann's gulls were also present.
Offshore.all the usual suspects were seen; common loon, common murre, marbled murrelet, rhinoceros auklet, pigeon guillemot, horned grebe, harlequin duck, surf scoter, pelagic and double-crested cormorants, and good numbers of red-necked grebe. I saw my first drake buffleheads of the autumn too.
A couple of savannah sparrows were the only passerines of note.

I then headed along to the Chinese Cemetery and Harling Point. Here it was much the same, with the usual species seen offshore in varying numbers. As I was looking out to sea, I spotted the Victoria Natural History Society mini-pelagic crowd aboard the 'Fantasea' - it looked like a good turnout despite the potentially wet conditions!

White-crowned and golden-crowned sparrows were feeding on the shoreline with a few savannah and song sparrows.

A change of scenery beckoned, and I headed inland to Swan Lake. A few evenings ago, I had made a brief stop here on my way home and had seen an American bittern flying around the floating bridge.
This time, I'd take my camera and see if I could get a snap of one. Ian Cruikshank was pretty certain that there were 3 birds present recently, so you never know, I might just be lucky...

As it turned out a bittern was showing very well, right by the bridge - as the accompanying photos testify. Chris Saunders and I also saw another bird flying by, confirming the presence of at least two bitterns on the reserve.
While at Swan Lake we were treated to the sight of an adult peregrine piling in and driving a northern flicker into the water, which it casually plucked from the lake and took up into a large oak to devour. A second peregrine struck at a starling flock, but failed to emerge with lunch.
There wasn't much on the lake bar a few American coots, a couple of ring-necked duck, and some snoozing ruddy ducks.
A few yellow-rumped warblers were seen, along with common sparrows species, red-winged blackbirds, cedar waxwings, downy woodpecker, etc.

On Sunday morning, I took a stroll around the Government House grounds. It was pretty quiet overall, with fewer juncos and sparrows around than on my last visit. I didn't even see or hear any kinglets. A couple of Pacific wrens were notable, but there was little to keep me there for long.
I then headed out to Cattle Point. There were at least 30 surfbirds here, along with smaller numbers of black turnstone. Offshore it was business as usual, although the Bonaparte's gulls here numbered somewhere in the region of 70 birds, certainly the highest concentration of the species along the coast from Clover Point to here.
I stopped off at Oak Bay, where there were 3 greater yellowlegs, a couple of black-bellied plover and 3 killdeer. Just off Bowker rocks there were around 100 American wigeon, plus a few hooded mergansers.
A quick look around Harling Point concluded my day's birding (other 'important' things to do...). Again, it was pretty much as expected, with the usual stuff seen. A juvenile peregrine passed over, but that was the only thing of note.

The undoubted highlight of my weekend was finally seeing a northern saw-whet owl. This diminutive owl has been hovering in the upper reaches of my 'wants' list for years, and I was absolutely delighted to catch up with one at last.
Located in a daytime roost, the owl was being lightly mobbed by local passerines but seemed relatively unperturbed by the minor commotion.
A truly stunning creature, this gorgeous bird was my second world-lifer this month! As you can see, I even managed to get a pic of it.
What will November bring?

Seeing red

2011-10-16T20:02:00.000-07:00

Had an early bimble around the Government House grounds this morning and found the place positively jumping with dark-eyed juncos. There were literally hundreds of them around the site, though I wasn't able to relocate the 'slate-coloured' bird that was there the other day.
Another obvious feature was the large number of American robins, and a significant increase in northern flickers. There were at least 9 flickers in the area including one very interesting bird. I have seen many intergrade red-shafted/yellow-shafted flickers on the island, but this was the first one that I've come across that had totally bright yellow underwings and under tail. As far as its head pattern was concerned it was certainly more in the yellow-shaft camp too. A pretty different looking flicker indeed!
Otherwise, it was ruby-crowned and golden-crowned kinglets, fox sparrows, a Lincoln's sparrow, yellow-rumped warblers and such that kept me busy.

Later, I headed out to the Chinese Cemetery where the highlights included a moulding adult red-throated loon (actually my first in BC - ironic, as they're the commonest diver/loon back in Blighty). A couple of American pipits were feeding among the tombstones, and a few common sparrows were scrabbling around on the tideline.
Offshore good numbers of marbled murrelet, rhinoceros auklet, common murres and a few pigeon guillemot were seen along with red-necked grebe, common loon and lots of surf scoters. Bonaparte's gulls seem to be dropping off in number, though there are still lots of Heermann's gulls around.

Orcas, auklets and hawks... oh my!

2011-10-15T19:53:00.000-07:00

As is often the case, I had things to do before I was able to get out birding today and it was just past noon by the time I grabbed my bins and headed out.

I started out at Cattle Point, once again with Lapland longspurs on my mind. The day was clear and bright, but rather chilly and as a result there were fewer people trampling about the place as one would expect. I flushed a few savannah sparrows, then a western meadowlark flew across in front of me. It ditched down briefly, before being chased off by a northwestern crow.
There was nothing out of the ordinary offshore - all 3 cormorant species, rhino auklets, harlequin ducks, surf scoters, Bonaparte's and Heermann's gulls, etc.
A group of 5 black turnstone and a single surfbird flew in, alighting on the rocks by the slipway.
A couple of yellow-rumped warblers were with some chestnut-backed chickadees in the area of small oaks by the big bluff, and a single hermit thrush put in an appearance. A sharp-shinned hawk came through, causing a bit of excitement among the chickadees.

I headed off along to Oak Bay Marina, to see if any shorebirds were around. On the yellow rocky islet offshore there were around 70 black-bellied plover and a dozen or so black turnstone. Roosting in their usual spot were 7 greater yellowlegs and 5 killdeer. A few hooded merganser and American wigeon were in the area, as were a couple of horned grebe. My first bufflehead of the autumn flew by.

Next, I stopped of at McMicking Point. Scanning the rocks, I couldn't find any waders but I did come across a wee gaggle of 4 greater whitefronted geese and 3 cackling geese in with the Canadas on the edge of the golf course.
There were loads of cormorants here, again all 3 species, plus the usual alcids, harlequins, scoters, gulls etc.
A group of 8 turkey vultures approached the coast, circled around a bit and then headed back inland.

The Chinese Cemetery beckoned, and here I found encouraging numbers of savannah sparrows, and a nice mix of other species including Lincoln's, golden-crowned and white-crowned sparrows.
Unable to find anything tasty among them, I had to make do with a pair of American pipits that were feeding on the shoreline.
I walked over to Trafalgar Point, passing the resident California quails on my way.
Suddenly the loud blow of a cetacean caught my attention and I looked down to see a pod of orcas passing by, close offshore.

The whales remained close to shore and visible for a good ten minutes, before they continued east along the coast. Unfortunately I only had my compact point and shoot with me, so the pics here are a bit naff. A wonderful thing to see, though!
Once again a group of 6 turkey vultures with a red-tailed hawk in tow, came over, thought about crossing the straits, then decided against it.

Later, I had a walk down to Clover Point. In Ross Bay, there were 7 red-necked grebe, 8 horned grebe and 7 common loon (1 pictured above), as well as the usual harlequin ducks and surf scoters.
Mew gulls have really increased lately and are now the dominant species. Many of the California gulls have moved on, but Heermann's gulls are still present in fair numbers.
5 surfbirds and 11 black turnstone were on the rocks below the point, and again a handful of savannah sparrows were kicking around.

By Georgiana! It's a swamp sparrow!

2011-10-10T21:46:00.000-07:00

Well, it's Thanksgiving Day here in Canada, which doesn't exactly mean much to a Brit Birder other than, nice one, a day off! And we all know what 'day off' means don't we? Yes, that's right, more birding!

The day started out a little bit Disney as I was confronted by the creature in the accompanying picture, scrumping apples from the tree outside the kitchen window... didn't get that too often in Lancaster, that's for sure.
With one thing and another, I didn't get out birding 'proper' till mid-afternoon, but Jenny and I did manage a mid-morning stroll around the Government House grounds in between rain showers.
A few yellow-rumped warblers were seen and heard, and ruby-crowned kinglets were still present in reasonable number. A hermit thrush showed nicely, as did a couple of Lincoln's sparrows. A pair of adult Cooper's hawks were chasing one another around the area, much to the consternation of the local golden-crowned sparrows and dark-eyed juncos. And talking of juncos, a smart 'slate-coloured' bird was seen among the 30 or so typical 'Oregon' birds.

Once I had deposited Jenny at work in the afternoon, I struck out for Clover Point. Silly, I know, to expect there to be much around on a public holiday, post-turkey dinner. The place was not as packed as it would have been had the weather been glorious (like yesterday, for example), but a few hardy souls had still managed to get out for a bit of bird bothering.
The combination of high tide and copious rock hopping humans meant that shorebirds were practically absent. Just 6 black turnstone and couple of black oystercatchers were braving the conditions.
Offshore there was quite a bit going on, with a notable increase in surf scoters. Common murre, rhinoceros auklet, pigeon guillemot and marbled murrelet were all present in varying numbers.
At least 4 common loons, 8 horned grebe, and several harlequin ducks were busily feeding in Ross Bay, while dainty Bonaparte's gulls skimmed the surface in every direction.

Misty Marbled Murrelet

The rain set in and I decided to head for the Chinese Cemetery and Harling Point to see if anything was going on there. Offshore, it was much the same stuff as at Clover Point, except that murrelets were more numerous here. One was even close enough for me to take a crappy digiscope pic. The rain didn't do much to improve my chances of getting a decent image, so I'm afraid it'll have to do.
I was rather hoping for a Lapland longspur or two, but I could only find a couple of savannah sparrows.

I walked round to Trafalgar Park, to see if anything was lurking there. I came across a covey of California quail and a couple of fox sparrows, but that was about it. Scanning the rocks below, I caught a glimpse of the back end of a departing wader, as it headed to Harling Point. Great, I'll be going back there then!

Just after I came through the perimeter fence a small sparrow popped up from some tangled weedy corner (pictured). To be honest, I didn't really know what it was right away. A very distinctive face pattern, dark forehead and streaky dark crown, with a paler median stripe, white throat, bright rufous wings and... it's gone. After a few minutes of grinding cerebral cogs, the penny dropped and I was sure it was a swamp sparrow.

Where the Wild Things Are - Sparrow Central

It's not really a species I can claim to have much experience with having only seen them once before, several years ago. I spent a good hour after the initial sighting, creeping around, pishing, and basically trying to get further views to check other salient features. Without a field guide to consult, I really needed to get good looks at the thing. It was relatively obliging, and I got three further opportunities to grill the sparrow before it, and I, gave up.

Back at the car, I consulted Sibley, and I was left with no doubt as to the bird's identity. Lovely. My BC list just went up by another 1.
Also in this weedy area, were at least 7 white-crowned, 2 Lincoln's and 3 song sparrows, plus a couple of towhees and a Bewick's wren.
Oh, and I did relocate that shorebird - it was a dunlin. In fact, there were two in winter plumage.

Larking Around

2011-10-09T16:30:00.000-07:00

It was once again time for me to conduct my Coastal Waterbird Survey and after spending the morning with Jenny I headed out for Gonzales Point. The only problem was, there was a 28km marathon on, and almost every road I needed to go down was closed off. Added this inconvenience, was the fact that each of the 3 marshalls that I spoke to had no idea how to get around the joggers and to my destination. They all confessed to not being local and had no idea of any street names. Marvelous.
My 10 minute drive took 40 minutes, but on the upside I was just about the first person through onto the route as the marathon had come to an end by the time I'd arrived at Oak Bay! Consequently, there were fewer people and dogs around the coast as would normally be the case on a warm, sunny Sunday afternoon. Result.
The survey wasn't overly exciting, but did included the following highlights:
61 Bonaparte's gulls, 116 surf scoter, 35 black oystercatcher, 25 harlequin ducks, 4 horned and 2 red-necked grebes.
Various common alcids were counted, including a lowly single marbled murrelet.
Shorebirds were extremely thin on the ground, with just the oystercatchers and handful of black turnstones seen. Trail Island was hosting good numbers of black-bellied plover, but they were all outside my count area.
I was surprised by the lack of passerine migrants, given that the trees on our street were positively dripping with yellow-rumped warblers and ruby-crowned kinglets this morning... I was rather hoping to stumble across some Lapland longspurs (buntings in English), but I was out of luck.

Post-survey, I headed on to Cattle Point to have a look there. The parking area was rammed when I arrived, and any thoughts of feeding sparrow/bunting/finches rapidly evaporated.
I did find 5 savannah sparrows, but that was it.
Looking offshore there were well into double figures of marbled murrelets, plus the commoner species. Around 20 Bonaparte's gulls were feeding noisily over the water.

I went and checked the bluff in the south-west corner and was pleased to find a group of 4 horned larks. The birds were quite wary were seemingly used to the flow of people who were spectacularly ignoring them, and would resume feeding soon after being disturbed. Here's a badly digiscoped pic of one of the larks.

Ocean Waves Pay Dividends

2011-10-08T20:53:00.000-07:00

Now that I'm thankfully back in the routine of working during the week, my birding has, unfortunately, taken something of a back seat.
On the plus side, my new employers are located in the City of Langford, and the building is right next to Langford Lake. So, I've managed a couple of exploratory lunch breaks checking out this spot. As yet, I haven't seen much to get excited about, but the habitat looks very promising. The birds that I have seen include: lesser scaup, common loon, American coot, Townsend's warbler, ruby-crowned kinglet, osprey, bald eagle and such relatively common stuff. On Friday, there was even a 30ish strong flock of pine siskin flying around the area. Be interesting to see what I can turn up in the coming weeks and months...
Having completed my first week with FTS, I got home on Friday and managed to squeeze in a swift visit to the Government House grounds.

There were reasonable numbers of birds about, the most notable being an influx of ruby-crowned kinglet. They were all over the place! Good numbers of yellow-rumped warblers were seen and heard, but I couldn't find any other warbler species. At least 5 hermit thrush were present, and fox sparrow numbers seem to have increased. A single Lincoln's sparrow was found, and an impressive flock of feeding golden-crowned sparrows and dark-eyed juncos totalled around 60 birds.I also came across the first band-tailed pigeons that I have seen in the grounds (pictured).

All At Sea

Bait-ball Action!

On Saturday I joined the VNHS (Victoria Natural History Society) pelagic out of Victoria, to Race Rocks off the coast of Sooke.
We were out for around 5 hours and we hit into some pretty good birds.
Gull species were well accounted for, mainly thanks to a couple of sizable bait-balls attracting throngs of the garrulous birds. Thayer's, glaucous-winged, mew, Heermann's, California, western and Bonaparte's were all present.

Mew Gull

Alcids too were thick on the surface with many 100s of common murres, reasonable numbers of rhinoceros auklet, a few pigeon guilemots and best of all - up 8 ancient murrelet.
Now, here was the first lifer I've had in ages. For a reason I can't even begin to remember, I didn't twitch the Lundy (Devon, UK) one back in the early 90s so this species has been very high on my 'wants' list for some time...

Ancient murrelets

The first pair were picked up very close to the boat, and allowed for great views. By the time I reached for my camera however (well, I really wanted to have a good look at the pretty little enigmas), they'd dived, and resurfaced some distance away. Hence the crappy photo here.
Red-necked phalaropes and phalarope sp. were seen frequently, as were a few Pacific loons, and Ian Cruikshank picked up a lovely fork-tailed storm petrel as it rose from the water's surface just ahead of the boat. We got excellent views, albeit rather briefly, as it took off and flew just off the bow, and headed away.
We could see large kettles of turkey vultures soaring around the Beechey Head area, and among them several red-tailed hawks, plus sharp-shined hawks, an osprey and other unidentified raptors (not easy to be thorough when you're trying to go through 100s of vultures, at distance, on a boat...!).

As we arrived back in the harbour mouth on our return we spotted a common tern sat on a piece of driftwood. Once very common passage birds in this area, today they are quite a rarity in Victoria's waters and the bird was a very fitting end to an excellent day's birding.
Well worth the trip, I may well do another soon!

Once Bittern et cetera,...

2011-10-02T22:25:00.000-07:00

We found ourselves up island in Nanaimo over the weekend, to celebrate our friend Dave's Canadian citizenship success. A boozy night of jollity and japes ensued.
While Jenny went off to sort out some business early this afternoon, I sought out some clear air and a few birds with a trundle around Buttertubs Marsh.

Wildfowl numbers were pretty unremarkable, but there was a decent showing of species: ring-necked duck, wood duck, hooded merganser, northern shoveler, mallard, gadwall, green-winged teal and American wigeon were all present. Pied-billed grebes and a few American coot were also seen around the site.
Water levels were relatively high, meaning that there was little in the way of exposed boggy areas to attract rails, waders, etc. I heard a couple of Virginia rails, but none showed themselves.
Scanning from the raised viewing platform I spotted something in the distance that looked rather interesting. Large, brown and streaky, and shaped something like a teardrop, it was an American bittern!

When I lived in Nanaimo I spent hours at Buttertubs Marsh looking for these bloody things, and here I am casually dropping by in the middle of a Sunday afternoon and finding one sat out on the edge of the vegetation. Unfortunately I didn't have my 'scope with me, and so had to content myself with fairly distant bins-only views of the bird as it busily preened and stretched.
The customary crappy photo here (blown up quite a bit) gives you an idea of just how far away the thing was.
This was actually the first American bittern that I have seen in North America - the last one I saw was a vagrant in Blackpool, Lancashire in 1991!
Other interesting birds of note seen while at Buttertubs included a party of 6 greater white-fronted geese that dropped in, while passerine highlights included reasonable numbers of yellow-rumped warblers, and 2 orange-crowned warblers.

Them Crooked Vultures

2011-09-29T13:04:00.000-07:00

Turkey vultures

After celebrating yesterday's news that I had secured very welcome full-time employment, I decided to shake off the remnants of my hangover with a stroll around the Government House grounds late morning.
There was plenty going on, and among the first bushtit flock I located 2 orange-crowned warblers and a yellow warbler. Down near the woodland trail entrance there were several yellow-rumped warbler feeding in the garry oaks. Sifting through them, I came across a single black-throated gray warbler.
Along the trails, I encountered yet more YR warblers, plus a hermit thrush and my first ruby-crowned kinglet of the autumn.

From the more elevated areas of the grounds I could see kettles of turkey vultures thermaling over the straits. As I scanned the skies along the coast, it was apparent that there was a major movement of vultures taking place.
It reminded me of being in Gibraltar during honey buzzard migration!
I counted at least 280 turkey vultures visible at one time, but I cannot even begin to guess at the true number of birds involved.
Amazingly, not a single raptor species was spotted among these spiralling flocks.

Quite a few vultures...

The pics here do no justice to the actual spectacle itself, of course, but may at least give an idea of the scale of movement involved.
I continued to check the oaks and found another cluster of YR warblers, where among them I found a dazzling Townsend's warbler - the first I have seen in the grounds.

A Day Of Large, Easy To Identify, Migrants

2011-09-27T19:01:00.000-07:00

Following a job interview this morning, I found myself close to Panama Flats and so decided to go and check out the place, just in case any water had held after the recent rain.
Well, it hadn't and although the area that had once been pools now had something of a slimy film about them, there certainly wasn't much in the way of wader-attracting habitat. Even the now comparatively wet ditches on the eastern side were bereft of birds.

Of note, there were 3 juvenile greater white-fronted geese hanging out with some of the local Canada geese. I managed a pretty terrible pic of two of the birds, as you can see here.
There were lots of savannah sparrows around, though nowhere near the 700 or so that Ian Cruikshank had here recently. I probably kicked up around 150. And unlike Ian, I didn't see a single Lincoln's sparrow (cf. his 200). I did spot a few golden-crowned sparrow and 1 white-crowned sparrow among them.
A handful of turkey vultures drifted over, and an osprey passed through. The only other raptors included a sparrow-hunting Cooper's hawk and an overhead red-tailed hawk.
The only other interesting bird of note was a mourning dove, presumably a migrant.

Later in the day, Jenny and I took a walk down to Ross Bay. Offshore we could see several horned grebes and a single red-necked grebe as well as the expected surf scoters and harlequin ducks.
As we walked back up to Fairfield Road, 4 sandhill cranes flew over. They tentatively headed for the coast, but then turned around and headed back inland.

All Wind & No Substance

2011-09-26T21:30:00.000-07:00

I've had a very busy few days, and as a result my birding has been limited to occasional strolls down to the Government House, Ross Bay Cemetery and Clover Point.
None of which, I hasten to add, have been terribly productive.
After last night's howling gales and torrents of rain I was giddy with the prospect of finding an interesting gull, tern or similar down at Clover Point this morning. As it happens, there were lots of birds around - hundreds of gulls feeding at the turbulent water's edge, as the surf hit the Ross Bay beach. Scanning through, I was just waiting for something odd to stand out.
It didn't.
There were loads of mew gulls, many glaucous-winged gulls, good numbers of California gulls, around 30 Heermann's gulls and at least 3 Thayer's gulls.
The only shorebirds seen were 23 black turnstone, 3 black oystercatcher and a lone black-bellied plover. A small flock of savannah sparrows were digging around between the rocks; the only passerines of note.
Offshore, I couldn't see anything interesting between, or above, the heaving troughs.
Extremely soggy, and somewhat dejected I went home for a cup of tea and a change of clothes.

Norther flicker

Later, once the rain had eased up (slightly), I went for walk to the Gvt House - just in case some amazing migrant had been grounded and was busily feeding up before continuing south.
It wasn't.
I saw a total of 3 birds - all golden-crowned sparrows.

As for the past few days, my other various attempts at finding birds have been similarly unrewarding, although a flock of 20+ very active yellow-rumped warblers kept me busily searching and listening for several minutes in Ross Bay Cemetery on Saturday. The only other highlight involved 3 hermit thrushes in the Gvt House grounds on Friday.

Song sparrow

At least the sun was out on Saturday and I was able to relieve the tedium by snapping a few common birds, as you can see here.

So, now that it's rained a bit, and the wind has dropped, there might be some muddy pools worth investigating over at Panama Flats in the next few days. I've just got to try and find the time to get out there...

Loons and Tunes

2011-09-21T18:30:00.000-07:00

Only found time to stop off at Clover Point for a quick look late afternoon today. The water was pretty calm, and although the low hazy sun was making very distant birds little more than silhouettes, things were reasonably easy to see and identify.
Various auks were scattered around; pigeon guillemots, rhinoceros auklets and common murres in varying numbers.

A single marbled murrelet was seen and a common loon was fishing reasonably close inshore (pictured).
Few gulls were around, the majority now being mew gulls. A few California and glaucous-winged were loafing around, and just 3 Heermann's gulls were in the area. Following the mini-influx of Thayer's earlier in the week, there were none seen today.
Shorebirds wise, it was pretty dull - just 9 black turnstone and 2 surfbirds.
A single savannah sparrow was rummaging around, as were a couple of resident song sparrows.
5 harlequin ducks were paddling around and in Ross Bay, 8 surf scoter were present, as usual.

REMember The Good Bits

On a less avian note - news came through today that REM have split up. While many readers of this blog won't give a toss about that, I have been rather fond of the band for many years. It may be the case that their more recent work was a pale imitation of their earlier recordings, but nonetheless I shall honour them by sharing this, the most birdy of their songs (well it mentions swans and hummingbirds... what else do you want?). Incidentally, my blog title of a couple of days ago 'Fall On Me' was a timely reference to another REM song. Prescient or what?! Now, maybe I should choose a Nickelback song for my next post, and just keep my fingers crossed...

More migrants moving through...

2011-09-20T20:42:00.000-07:00

It felt like a good morning for searching for migrants this morning, so I headed off to scrutinize the Government House grounds bright and early. The great things about this location is that if the birding's total pants, I can at least be back home in about 3 minutes and guilt-free from not having used the car!
As it happens, it was pretty good; a decent selection of passerine migrants were on site.
A mini-influx of American robins was evident with several clattering around a fruit-filled rowan tree. 3 cedar waxwings were also joining in the feast.
As I walked along the path to the rear of the main building, I became aware of the sound of yellow-rumped warblers calling as they fed high up in the oaks. Scanning through I counted 6, and also discovered 2 black-throated gray warblers (my first in the grounds, as it happens), a pair of orange-crowned warblers and a yellow warbler. At least 4 brown creepers, 2 red-breasted nuthatches, a Pacific-slope flycatcher and a Bewick's wren were also in the flock.
Further down the path I came across 3 Lincoln's sparrows, and soon another 4. All around the trail I encountered yellow-rumped warblers in ones and twos and a Wilson's warbler, plus another couple of Pacific-slope flycatchers. A delightful hermit thrush came out to investigate my pishing, as did a fox sparrow and I saw the first Pacific wren that I have ever come across down there. A bit of local low-scale movement?

Seawatching From Dry Land

2011-09-18T19:04:00.000-07:00

Having decided not to join the big pelagic trip off the west coast of the island today (around 100 birders on one large vessel, bobbing up and down on the ocean waves? Not for me.), I headed out early this morning to see what comparatively few seabirds I could locate off Clover Point...
The first thing that was apparent was the huge number of gulls feeding offshore.
There were probably a couple of thousand birds, and one bait ball alone was simply teeming with several hundred birds. Rather annoyingly, the rising sun was right behind them and getting a decent look at was in the mix was a touch tricky. Needless to say, I couldn't pick out anything notably unusual among the throng.
All around the point there were larids, mostly California, glaucous-winged and mew gulls, as to be expected, but a considerable increase in the number of Thayer's gulls too.

Several Heermann's gulls were also in the area, and just lately the number of 1st winter birds (rather scruffy individual pictured) has started to really build up.
When out at sea, these very dark, slender gulls can really look like jaegers (or skuas, as we Brits birders would have it) - particularly parastic (Arctic).
When Ian Cruikshank mentioned this to me a few months ago, before I'd really had any experience of viewing distant 1stW Heermann's, I found it rather hard to swallow, but as I have discovered recently their overall jizz can really suggest those piratical seabirds.
I've followed more than a few in recent weeks only to be disappointed!
As it happens, no jaegers were attracted to the feeding mass of gulls in the two hours or so, that I was down there this morning.

Aside of the gulls, other stuff offshore included good numbers of common murre, several pigeon guillemots, a couple of marbled murrelets, and a red-necked grebe (pictured, with customary lack of skill), up to 3 horned grebe, 11 surf scoter and 3 harlequin ducks.
Shorebirds were fairly thin on the ground, with just 3 surfbirds and 10 black turnstone, 1 black oystercatcher seen, plus 4 fly-by least sandpipers.
Visible migration was pretty uneventful too, with just 3 southbound American pipit and around a dozen barn swallows heading out toward the USA.
At one point I heard a killdeer, but I have no idea whether it was flying through undetected, or was simply lurking somewhere out of sight.
The regular mink was busy weaseling around in search of grub.

So, now I'm just waiting to hear about the amazing seabirds that a percentage of those seafaring birders bagged out in the Pacific today... I feel a bout of envy and regret coming on.

Having a Lark at Island View Beach

2011-09-17T13:51:00.000-07:00

Jenny had a rare day off yesterday, so we headed to one of her favourite spots for the afternoon - Island View Beach, on the Saanich peninsula. Of course, I wasn't too unhappy about this as it would cause us to pass right through the area where sandhill cranes have been seen for the last couple of days!
As we headed alongside the farm fields in this widely agricultural area, we kept an eye out for the large birds, but failed to spot them. At McIntyre Road, we did see a northern harrier cruising the fields, flushing large numbers of savannah sparrows and American pipits as it went.

We drove down to the far car park, and headed out along the beach and on to Saanichton Spit. There wasn't too much going on offshore, although we did see a few horned grebes in various states of moult (one pictured), a pair of fly-by white-winged scoter and a handful of Heermann's gulls.
Just as we came to the outfalls area, a merlin flew in and flushed a small group of peeps from the shore. Unfortunately they all flew off across the water and away. They seemed to be mainly least sandpiper, although a couple of larger birds seemed highly suggestive of Baird's. We came across another 4 leasts later, but nothing else shorebirds-wise.

In the grassy spit area we did find a group of 6 horned lark (pictured), and an American pipit. The birds were incredibly difficult to locate when feeding on the ground, and only gave their presence away by calling in flight, and then dropping down quite close to us. These are the first horned larks that I've had the pleasure of seeing in BC (I saw lots in Alberta a few years ago) and these looked way different to the birds that I've seen in Europe.
I assume that these are arcticola birds, given their hefty build and overall paleness. Birders back home will see from this pic just how unlike 'our' shore larks these are!
We returned to the car and drove along a short way, stopping down at the parking area at the end of Island View Road to eat our egg sarnies. I went and had a route around in the fields here and came across good numbers of American goldfinches feeding in the brambles. A northern harrier came through, exciting the 100 or so swallows present, and flushing a flock of around 70 American pipit from the field. Other than a few savannah sparrows, I couldn't see or hear anything else among them.
As I stood watching the pipits flying around my eye was caught by some distant large birds over, and beyond, the trees.

Lifting my bins, I could see that they were clearly 5 sandhill cranes!
They kept appearing and disappearing from view behind the trees and were seemingly flying around over the Martindale area fields in search of somewhere to pitch down.
As I was looking at these great birds, a merlin whizzed by, once again causing much panic among the hirundines and pipits.

We drove around to the fields and eventually located the cranes, some distance away. Hence the crummy pics here.
We got good 'scope views though and enjoyed seeing the birds as they restlessly moved around the area, taking off and landing frequently.
Although I've seen sandhill cranes in the US, again these were a BC first - unless you count those highly dubious ones at Reiffel... which I'm not inclined to.

Fall On Me

2011-09-15T18:58:00.000-07:00

With the blustery conditions overnight, I found myself metaphorically dreaming of windblown seabirds. With this in mind, I headed down to Clover Point early this morning.
Clearly, things are a bit different here, as the few birds that were visible were bloody miles out. I accept that we didn't exactly have gale force winds, but I rather thought that one or two interesting things might have sought shelter close to shore... you live and learn.

As it happens, I did discover a couple of gulls that caught my eye. The first, a smart adult Thayer's gull - my first of the autumn, was briefly seen on the rocks below the point, before it flew off. As you can see, I managed a snap of it.
The second larid of note was a large, dark-mantled 3rd-winter bird that clearly stood out from the adjacent glaucous-winged gulls. At first, I thought it might actually be a genuine western gull, but on closer inspection I wasn't convinced.

I took a few pics, and having read a bit more I'm inclined toward it being a glaucous-winged / western hybrid. Of which there are many in these parts. Anyway, here's the bird - feel free to weigh in with your thoughts...
Feeding around the area were around 20 or so savannah sparrows and a single American pipit kindly dropped by, but otherwise, passerine migrants were absent.

Migrants in the Mizzle

Later in the day, as I gazed out of the window watching the drizzle finally materialise, I got the feeling that I could be missing an opportunity to find some grounded migrants. So, I took an extended late lunch and headed off to the Government House grounds to see if any birds had been dropped in the light rain.
It started off fairly quiet, but then I came across a couple of yellow warblers. Within seconds a Pacific-slope flycatcher appeared, and then the gentle call of a Swainson's thrush drew me to the bird, which proceeded to show beautifully.
Encouraged by this activity, I headed on along the path, coming across more flycatchers as I went. By the time I finished I must have seen some 20 Pacific-slope flycatchers! I also added a couple more yellow warblers, 2 Wilson's warblers, a common yellowthroat and an orange-crowned warbler.
Some scratching among the leaf litter led me to the expected spotted towhees and my first fox sparrow of the fall.
A small group of 5 golden-crowned sparrow also made it onto my 'first of the season' list, and a flock of around 30 cedar waxwings flew over.
All-in-all, pretty good stuff, though it looks like I'll have to wait for another day to find my blue-winged warbler or scarlet tanager...

Migrants Brighten Up Cloudy Morning

2011-09-14T12:42:00.000-07:00

Following a reasonably productive early evening trundle around the Government House grounds yesterday (2 Hammond's flycatcher, 2 yellow warbler, 1 Wilson's warbler, 3 orange-crowned warbler) I decided to head there this morning. Following another overcast night, I was hopeful that a few grounded migrants might be discovered.

And I wasn't to be disappointed.
Within a few minutes of arriving I heard, and then saw my first varied thrush of the fall - it was loosely associating with a small group of American robins.
Common, resident birds seemed to be curiously notable by their absence, as I made my way along the paths.
The next thing that caught my eye was a Townsend's solitaire, sat on a snag.

It was a bit of a distance away, but I managed a shot before it flew up to the top of a conifer.
Once here, it seemed to irritate the local red-breasted nuthatches and Anna's hummingbirds, who all got very vocal and excited (pictured terribly below).

I couldn't find any of the roving bushtit flocks this morning, so I didn't come across any warblers. Other than a skulking Lincoln's sparrow, a Pacific-slope flycatcher and a couple of passing ravens that caused chaos among the northwestern crows, the remainder of my search was unproductive.
And it started out so well!

All Points South

2011-09-13T14:09:00.000-07:00

Delighted by the onset of some low clouds I headed down to Clover Point early this morning in the hope that a few passage migrants might be lurking in the area. I was thinking along the lines of horned lark, American pipit, etc.

Sadly, I wasn't in luck and nothing quite so interesting put in an appearance, although several off-passage savannah sparrows were kicking around (pictured).
The presence of these sparrows may well be what attracted a merlin, which made a couple of spirited attempts at catching some breakfast. Equally, the merlin's presence could well have been the reason for no pipits, larks etc...
Shortly after the merlin had moved on to pastures new, I noticed a peregrine approaching from inland. It circled a few times over Ross Bay, before flapping intently to gain height before heading off across the straits. Migration in action!
Offshore, there was a red-necked grebe, plus multiple common murres and pigeon guillemots, plus a few rhinoceros auklets. I couldn't pick out anything among the gulls other than the usual California and glaucous-winged, along with a few mew and Heermann's gulls.
13 black oystercatcher were feeding on the rocks along with just 6 black turnstone - one of which had unusually bright orange legs, ruddy turnstone seekers beware!
A group of 6 sanderling flew close by, briefly thought about landing, but then carried on.
A few harlequins were seen, as were surf scoters and a drake white-winged scoter, but otherwise it was pretty quiet.
A pair of Steller's sealions passed by, close inshore.

On Sunday I did my first Coastal Waterbird Survey of the season, from Gonzales Point to Harling Point (my new stretch). The day was hot and sunny, and with the tide being late in the afternoon the light was pretty terrible, and coupled with a heat haze, it made counting distant offshore birds pretty much impossible.
Nonetheless, I enjoyed the count even though highlights were few and far between. A couple of greater yellowlegs, a spotted sandpiper, 80 Heermann's gulls and 7 Brandt's cormorants were among the more interesting birds noted.

Birding Time is Tight

2011-09-09T17:24:00.000-07:00

Black turnstone

A quick post-earthquake / pre-hightide visit to Clover Point this afternoon was disappointing as far as seabirds were concerned.
Very few alcids were visible, and even gull numbers were very low.
Among the few gulls around the point, there were 4 Heermann's gulls.

Surfbird

Checking the weed-strewn rocks, there were 8 black turnstone (pictured) and 5 surfbirds (also pictured) feeding.

Thanks to some rather pressing diversions, I've found little time to do any birding this week.
I have, at least, squeezed in a few brief visits to the woodland trail at Victoria's Government House thanks to its proximity to home.
While it hasn't exactly been jumping down there, I have noted a few interesting migrants including Pacific-slope flycatcher, several Wilson's warblers and white-crowned sparrows and a juvenile male western tanager. A family of northern flickers seem to have taken up residence, and the number of American robins seems to have increased notably.

Hopefully, I'll find a few hours in the next few days to get out a bit more... after all it IS autumn and ANYTHING could be out there!

The Big Year movie trailer

2011-09-07T08:57:00.000-07:00

It was a long time coming... but the Big Year trailer has finally materialised. Starring Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson, this comedy is based on the great book of the same title by Mark Obmascik.

Watch it here - Big Year Trailer

Enjoy!

A Force To Be Reckoned With...

2011-09-03T19:05:00.000-07:00

After walking Jenny to work early this afternoon, I strolled around to Ogden Point, enjoing the glorious sunshine.
There were a handful of black turnstone in the harbour area, and a 2nd winter ring-billed gull was on the rusty metal float just by the pilot boat dock.
I carried on along the waterfront to Clover Point where I had the pleasure of bumping into top BC birder and all-round nice chap, Mike Force. I had met Mike at Rich and Lori Mooney's wedding and we had a good chat about various things, though frankly, it was mostly birds. He'd been lured west from his Okanagan home by the northern wheatear found near Vancouver Airport mid-week and was spending a few days in the area. Seems odd anyone would twitch a northern wheatear, but then I suppose most North American birders would be astonished by the reaction the discovery of a savannah sparrow would get in the UK... swings and roundabouts, and all that.
Anyhoo, there wasn't much going on at Clover Point, unsurprisingly. Highlights included 4 black turnstone, 8 Heermann's gulls and, as it happens, a savannah sparrow.

Late afternoon I headed out to Oak Bay Marina. The big yellow rock was, as usual, the hotspot and I spent a good hour sifting through the birds. A rather irritating heat haze didn't help too much but nonetheless, I was able to count 84 black-bellied plover, 8 black turnstone, 3 dowitchers, a surfbird and a wandering tattler. The latter had me going for ages. I just couldn't quite get enough on it for some time, and was conflicted between tattler and surfbird (bill length just wasn't clearly discernible), until it helpfully stretched and proved itself to have plain wings and rump.
Just south of the harbour, there were 5 greater yellowlegs roosting on their favoured rock, alongside 3 black oystercatchers and 7 killdeer. 3 American wigeon were my first of the autumn. A single, very confiding, least sandpiper was feeding on the beach, so I took a pic. As you can see.

Fall birding picks up a pace...

2011-09-02T13:26:00.000-07:00

Popped down to the Government House grounds this morning in search of passage migrants. Didn't discover anything too thrilling, but there were certainly numbers of birds present.
In among a couple of bushtit flocks I came across at least 8 Wilson's warblers, 1 very grey-headed orange-crowned warbler (without a tail), 2 willow flycatchers and a drab female western tanager. Of course, the regular chestnut-backed chickadees, brown creepers, red-breasted nuthatches and what-have-you were all in attendance too.

A sharp-shinned hawk came through, hotly pursued by a trio of angry Anna's hummingbirds.
Otherwise, the other highlight was a very noisy young racoon (or racoonlet, as I like to call them) that was clambering around in an oak, while its mother kept watch below. It wouldn't keep still enough for a good pic, so here's the best I could manage.

In the evening I nipped down to Clover Point to see what was going on. Gulls. That's what was going on. Thousands of gulls. The rocks below the point were covered with glaucous-winged and California gulls, with about half a dozen Heermann's gulls thrown in. Offshore, birds simply carpeted the water. Among the large rafts of gulls were good numbers of rhinoceros auklets, common murres, a few pigeon guillemots and at least 5 marbled murrelets.

Small groups of red-necked phalaropes were moving around, and a string of phalaropes were picking delicately at the surface. I counted a total of 106. Here's a fuzzy picture of just 2 of them.
As the tide continued to rise, a moulting adult black-bellied plover flew in, joining 4 black turnstone on the rocks.

Thursday Coastal Birds
In between various bits of more important stuff, I managed a couple of hours of coastal birding yesterday.
Starting off at Clover Point, I just about managed to check through the roosting gulls before the rock-jumping hordes and cavorting canines did their best to rid the area entirely of avian life.

Among the multitude of California and glaucous-winged gulls were 9 Heermann's gulls, 5 mew gulls and a single Bonaparte's gull (pictured). Yet more gulls were scattered around offshore but the lingering morning fog made seawatching a waste of time. Within range, I could just about make out good numbers of rhinoceros auklets and common murres, but little else.
Heading along the coast toward Oak Bay I made a few stops at likely looking spots, but found little more than I'd seen at Clover Point.
At Oak Bay Marina things picked up a little. The big yellow rocky island, so beloved of roosting shorebirds, was once again the focus of attention. 'Scoping from Turkey Head, I counted 83 black-bellied plover, 1 dowitcher, 14 black turnstone and a surfbird. At one point the plovers all took to the air, showing a full complement of black axillaries, ruling out the presence of any attendant golden plovers.

On the beach, a group of 7 killdeer were feeding alongside a single spotted sandpiper. Nearby several black oystercatchers were seen, with a further 3 killdeer. 4 greater yellowlegs were feeding along the shore.
Although I take killdeer totally for granted these days, it's not all that long ago that had I received a call telling me that one was running around on Heysham Golf Course, I'd have been off like a shot to see it. With that in mind, here's a nice pic of one of the Oak Bay birds, just to remind myself of just how smart they really are (and to rub my Brit birder buddies' noses in it a bit...).

Coastal Birding

2011-08-29T13:55:00.000-07:00

Black turnstone

Given the overnight winds and rather breezy conditions this morning, I headed off for an early start at Clover Point.
The place was almost deserted, people-wise (that's a first!) and I was able to sift through the roosting gulls at relative leisure. Other than 9 Heermann's gulls, it was just a large swathe of glaucous-winged and Californias present.
Offshore, it was surprisingly quiet with just a few distant common murres, rhino auklets and pigeon guillemots on view.

Black-bellied plover

Feeding on the kelp covered rocks, as yet un-harassed by dogs and families, were 3 black turnsone and a single black-bellied plover (both pictured).

As the seawatching didn't seem to be up to much, I left after an hour or so and decided to check out Oak Bay Marina. With the tide being low, the large plover roost on the rocky island was much diminished and I could only see 30 or so black-bellied from the marina.

Black oystercatcher

Checking the beach area just to the south of the marina, I came across 13 killdeer, 3 western sandpiper and 3 greater yellowlegs feeding along the shoreline. Several black oystercatcher were also present (pictured).

A belted kingfisher was rattling around, and an osprey flew overhead.

Hooded merganser

A few hooded merganser were paddling around the area (pictured).
Noticing a sizeable collection of gulls bathing in the creek mouth, I continued round to Bowker rocks.
Scanning through the assembled larids, I came across an adult ring-billed gull snoozing on the beach (pictured), surrounded by several mew gulls.

Ring-billed gull

Another 3 greater yellowlegs were feeding in the small pools and a single pintail was dabbling in the creek.
I then popped along to Cattle Point, where the only thing of note was the sighting of a group of 5 river otters fishing close inshore.

Sooke Seabirds Start Slowly

2011-08-27T19:29:00.000-07:00

Today, it was all about seabirds. A mini-pelagic trip had been organised out of Sooke - the plan being to head out to the US border, and cruise along seeing what we could find out there. As we arrived in Sooke around 7.30am it was apparent that, despite the lovely morning we'd left behind in Victoria, things were a little different here... The Fog had descended.
Unperturbed by this potential climactic calamity, I and the other 10 optimistic birders jumped willingly into the Zodiac, resplendent in our lovely survival suits.
About an hour later, we were damp, 2 miles from land and somewhat less enthusiastic. Then it happened. A bird appeared (in fairness, we had powered past many rhinoceros auklets and common murres, but they're dross under these circumstances). A red-necked phalarope. Hoorah!

Tufted puffin

Minutes later, another bird appeared but this was one of those 'must-haves' among Pacific seabirds, a magnificent summer plumage tufted puffin. A sense of palpable relief settled over the boat.
(The pic here was taken, by Rich Mooney, on my last pelagic trip out of Tofino).

Before long, visibility had improved dramatically and we were able to spot gull-infested bait-balls in the near distance. As we sped toward the feeding mass of larids and attendant alcids a pair of jaegers (skuas, for those back in Blighty) came into view. Large, hefty, barrel-chested birds, they had to be pomarine jaegars and as one turned, it showed full tail spoons. The other bird had no tail streamers, but given its shape, size and flight action, it too was almost certainly the same species.
We later encountered another fine adult complete with intact tail, and it showed beautifully as it flew across the bow of the boat.
A small feeding flock of around 10 or so dainty Bonaparte's gulls put in an appearance, too.
Before heading back to dock, we came across many more phalaropes, common murres, rhino auklets, California and glaucous-winged gulls as well as seals and sealions, but unfortunately no cetaceans.
A big thanks to Jeremy Kimm for arranging this mini-pelagic.

Ruff Justice

Once we had gathered our land-legs, a bunch of us headed for Witty's Lagoon where a red-necked stint and ruff had both been found yesterday. Both rare birds in this part of the world, the stint was a potential world tick for me... while, of course, ruff is a common species back in the UK.

Juvenile Ruff - Witty's lagoon, Victoria

We scanned through large numbers of western and least sandpipers, finding only a lone pectoral among them. As I checked out the pair of short-billed dowitchers that Ian Cruikshank had picked up on the far shore a little earlier I noticed the ruff feeding close by.
Eventually, we headed round and got excellent views and record shots of the ruff using my 'scope and Aziza Cooper's camera, (I'd left mine in the car, doh!) but it was scant compensation for not being able to relocate the stint...
A 1st winter ring-billed gull was waddling around on the mud, giving me satisfactory confirmation regarding the identity of the Clover Point bird from a couple of days ago (see the post below).

Thursday's Victoria Birding Highlights

2011-08-26T11:56:00.000-07:00

I had an unremarkable trawl around the woodland trail in Victoria's Government House grounds yesterday morning. The day started out very warm, and early dragonflies were busily hunting, but bird activity was pretty minimal. The regular residents (downy woodpecker, Anna's hummingbird, red-breasted nuthatch, bushtit etc) were all going about business as usual, but other than a couple of rufous hummingbirds there were no signs of migrants moving through.
In the evening, I headed down to Oak Bay Marina for a scout around. Aimed with 'scope, I was able to scan the offshore rocky islet that seems so attractive to roosting shorebirds, and I was able to count 78 black-bellied plover. Among them were at least 3 dowitchers and one each of surfbird and black turnstone. Around half a dozen Heermann's gulls were on the island too, while a further 40+ were snoozing on another larger rock further out.
Closer, in the harbour area were 3 western sandpipers, a killdeer and a couple of black oystercatchers. The group of 7 greater yellowlegs were again roosting on the same small islet as they were the previous day, along with another pair of oystercatchers.

I made my way over to Clover Point, where despite the human and canine activity, there were still a few birds about.
It was quiet offshore, but there were a few interesting gulls roosting on the nearby rocks to scrutinize.
Among these was a very convincing western-type hybrid, and a 1st year bird that I think might have been a ring-billed gull.

I've included some, unfortunately poor, shots here for you to see.
It was obviously smaller than the California gulls it was among, and something about it didn't seem quite right for mew gull.

The weight of the bill, the overall paleness, and the 'spottiness' all seemed to suggest ring-billed to me... or am I missing something really obvious and making a silly blunder?
Advice and comments from those with greater experience of both mew and ring-billed gulls at this age would be most welcome!

Clover Point to Oak Bay Birding

2011-08-24T16:54:00.000-07:00

With September looming, and the first count of the Coastal Bird Survey of the 2011/12 season around the corner, I thought I'd go out and familiarize myself with my new stretch. The area I will be counting includes the area between Harling Point and Gonzales Point.

Rather than simply going to the area in question, I chose to walk from Clover Point and see what I could find along the way.
3 black turnstone, 3 least sandpiper and a juvenile sanderling were on the rocks off Clover Point, while 4 harlequin ducks and 8 surf scoter were in Ross Bay.
Accessing the beach at various points between Ross Bay and Victoria Golf Club, I noted several black oystercatchers, a handful of least sandpipers, more harlequins and of course plenty of California and glaucous-winged gulls. A few Heermann's gulls were seen here and there, but the largest concentration was of around 50 birds behind the golf course.
While I was exploring the rugged and not terribly easy terrain between McMicking and Gonzales Points I flushed a spotted sandpiper from the rocks, before I was drawn to the loud trilling call of another shorebird.
Scanning around I soon picked it up as it headed in-off the sea and came toward me, passing close and proving itself to be a pectoral sandpiper. It flew off over the greens before turning around, passing over me once more and heading off south along the coast, constantly calling as it went.
By the time I emerged from the rocks and back onto Beach Drive, I was pretty exhausted! (I'd actually had to steal through someone's driveway to get off the beach, and looking at some of the houses along there I'm only glad that I didn't find myself strolling through the yard of Victoria's answer to Tony Soprano...).
I continued on to Turkey Head and Oak Bay Marina. Other than the expected alcids, there wasn't much to see offshore. A bunch of waders were roosting on the rocky islands, but as I was without my 'scope they went unidentified.

A single killdeer was flying noisily around, and then I came across a group of 7 roosting greater yellowlegs (just about pictured here). Another was feeding close by.
Yet more harlequins were feeding in the area as were 10 hooded mergansers.
Nothing notable appeared on the passerine migrant front, though there was a steady trickle of southbound barn swallows throughout the day.
I decided I'd had enough at this point and trundled off down Oak Bay Drive and back home, pausing only to watch a thermalling sharp-shinned hawk - my first of the fall.

Birding The Point

2011-08-23T17:28:00.000-07:00

Jenny was heading out to Sooke with her family today (no room for me in the car, unfortunately!) so I spent and hour or so at Clover Point this morning.
It was pretty much business as usual, although the water was relatively devoid of numbers of birds. There were common murres, rhinoceros auklets and pigeon guillemots in modest volume, and nowhere near as many as I've been seeing there recently. A single marbled murrelet was lingering close offshore.
Among a couple of hundred California gulls and a dozen or so glaucous-winged gulls on the rocks (hmm -glaucous-winged gulls on the rocks, sounds like a particularly unappetising cocktail..), were 9 Heermann's gulls and 5 black oystercatchers. Just 6 mew gulls were floating around just offshore.
A single least sandpiper flew in, landing briefly on the rocks and picking through the seaweed. A further 5 peeps (probably leasts, too) flew by, heading south.
A lone red-necked phalarope was out on the water.
Five harlequin ducks were present and the usual small flotilla of surf scoter were in Ross Bay.
A couple of barn swallows were flitting backwards and forwards over the rocks.

In Da House

I took a stroll down to Government House in the early evening. There was a little bit of activity along the woodland trail, where highlights included a warbling vireo, olive-sided flycatcher and rufous hummingbird. Presumably, these birds were all off passage.
Regarding rufous hummers - I can only surmise that their relative scarcity in Victoria (as opposed to Nanaimo, where they are common in summer) is down to the abundance of Anna's hummingbird (which is harder to find as one travels up island) in and around the city? Although one might imagine that the Anna's considerably earlier nesting period would reduce conflict and competition, there seem to be very few breeding rufous's in what appears to be suitable habitat down here. If anyone has any theories, I'd be interested to hear them....

Bank Swallow Surprise

2011-08-22T14:41:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, the forecast rain today didn't really start until after 8am, a little too late to drop any nocturnal migrants. Nevertheless, I headed down to Panama Flats just in case any late moving shorebirds had stopped off for a probe in the mud.
It was seriously unbirdy! The total wader count comprised a pitiful 1 western sandpiper, 3 least sandpipers and 7 killdeer...
The good stuff however, was hirundine-shaped. In among approximately 50 barn swallows were single juvenile cliff & tree swallows and a bank swallow. Although a very common bird in the UK, (where it goes by the name of sand martin) this is the first one that I've seen on Vancouver Island.
The collected swallows alerted me to the arrival of a juvenile peregrine, which dutifully reduced the British Columbia European starling population by one.
A young red-winged blackbird was kicking around, as were several savannah sparrows and a couple of common yellowthroats.

Yesterday afternoon, I took a stroll down to the Government House woodland trail. In amongst a couple of chickadee flocks I came across 2 Wilson's warblers and a couple of orange-crowned warblers, plus brown creepers, red-breasted nuthatches, downy woodpecker, Bewick's wren and bushtits. Single juvenile chipping sparrow and white-crowned sparrow were also seen.
Best of all however were a couple of variegated meadowhawks (one pictured).

Panama Flats Birds and Mysteries Revealed

2011-08-20T18:10:00.000-07:00

Least & western sandpipers

Found some time this afternoon to squeeze in a trawl around the Panama Flats area. The pools continue to resemble the moon's surface, cracked and mostly dry, although a couple of small muddy puddles still seem to be holding a few birds.
Least sandpiper were the most numerous with 37 birds present, while just 10 western sandpipers were seen. A single greater yellowlegs continues to hang on in, as does a spotted sandpiper. The latter was in the creek on the eastern edge of the site. A noisy quartet of purple martins came in for a while, feeding over the dried out pools, before heading off west.
In the lush vegetation near the creek there were a few passerines busily feeding, and a Lincoln's sparrow was trailing along with a flock of bushtits.

Mysteries Revealed

OK - I got a bit behind with these... apologies to anyone who might be desperate for the answers!

We'll start off with the last one. As 64% of voters all went with olive-sided flycatcher, I shall reveal that of course, that's what it was. I thought a few more might be tempted to go for other species, thanks to the unusual posture shown in this pic, but I really should know better than to underestimate you all!
Briefly, the other choices were gray catbird (11%) - this can be eliminated as the undertail coverts are clearly visible and lack the obvious rufous colour that would be visible. Similarly, catbird's black cap would show, and the overall colour of our bird is too subtle, catbirds are a striking slate grey.

Northern mockingbird garnered 23% of votes - I was expecting more to be honest. But, again the overall colour just isn't right, our bird is too brown and lacks any greyness. A mockingbird would have appreciatively shorter wings too, and a strikingly longer tail, among other things.
All voters ignored western tanager and eastern phoebe, and quite right too, as it looks nothing like either.

The previous mystery bird was clearly a wader (or shorebird, as is the preferred term in North America).

Again, one species took the lion's share of votes. Ruff attracted a whopping great 75% of thumbs' up.
Upland sandpiper fooled just one voter (actually, that was me trying to throw you off the scent...), pectoral sandpiper seemed like a fair bet for 21% of you while no-one was inclined toward buff-breast.
So, was it a pec? What about leg colour? Our bird has orange legs, not yellow ones as one would expect to see on a pectoral sandpiper. Slightly decurved bill, with an orange base certainly seems good, but doesn't that also fit adult ruff? And how about those bold white marks around the eye? And those clearly barred tertials? All things that point squarely to ruff. And so it was.

The new mystery bird should prove interesting - you might need to think outside of the box (to use a tired and frankly irritating phrase) with this one...

Woodland Skipper Invasion!

2011-08-18T12:19:00.000-07:00

Male woodland skipper

I took a stroll around Victoria's Government House this morning, just to see if any migrants were moving through at all.
It was fairly quiet, overall but there were a few birds of note.
A family of chipping sparrows were feeding on the path, presumably local breeders. The only obvious migrant that I came across was a 1st year Wilson's warbler, in amongst a small flock of chestnut-backed chickadees.
Other common birds included northern flicker, downy woodpecker and Anna's hummingbird.

Male (left) & female (right) woodland skippers

Perhaps the most notable thing, was the large number of skippers seen.
Many were chasing around in pairs or small groups.
Having checked my butterflies field guide, I believe that these are woodland skippers (ochlodes sylvanoides).

On my way back, I noticed a largish dull flycatcher sat on the top of a tree along Joan Crescent. It pretty much looked like a western wood-pewee from its posture and structure.

Change of Scenery

2011-08-17T18:25:00.000-07:00

Jenny's sister Chrissie arrived in BC last weekend, with her partner Andy and their two boys Louie and Laurie.
As they were having a week on the mainland before coming over to the island, we went over to join them for a camping trip to Squamish - a place we hadn't been to for several years.
I didn't get much birding in, but we had a great time exploring Alice Lake, Shannon Falls and ascending the impressive Stawamus Chief (pictured).

The only birds worth mentioning include a food-carrying Swainson's thrush, a warbling vireo feeding fledged young, and a lone cackling goose (pictured) that was being decidedly picked on by the local Canada geese at Alice Lake.
It was fully winged and could fly, so what on earth it was doing here in August I have no idea...
Incidentally, the ferry journey each way was utterly unremarkable, birds-wise.

Panama Flats Falls Flat

This afternoon, I spent a couple of hours trawling around the increasingly waterless Panama Flats.
As far as shorebirds were concerned, there were only 20 least sandpiper, 7 western sandpiper and a single greater yellowlegs present on the diminishing pools when I arrived. However, 5 green-winged teal had dropped in.
A check of the muddy creeks only added 3 more least sandpipers, a single killdeer and 2 spotted sandpiper.

Canada Dry... an increasingly waterless Panama Flats

As I returned to the 'pools' a group of 8 western sandpiper flew in, soon joined by a further 58, bringing the total to 73.
Just goes to show that anything could drop in at any time of the day!
Mind you, without any rain forecast I suspect it might be a while before we have much to see down there.
But, as I say, you just never know...
To get an idea of how much the water levels have dropped, just compare the pic here with the one in the post below - taken from roughly the same spot last week.

On my way home I made a short detour to Clover Point. A couple of red-necked phalarope were bobbing around offshore as were the usual murres and auklets, plus a marbled murrelet.

Pectoral Pair Pip Peeps

2011-08-12T12:35:00.000-07:00

The south eastern corner of the southern pool

With a couple of hours to kill mid-morning, I was drawn to good old Panama Flats once more.
With the numbers of off-passage birds moving through here changing on a daily basis, it's hard not to be consumed by the possibilities of what may show up during the fall.
Of course, that's water-level dependent and the way things are going, we're not going to have much to entice a passing rarity before long...
Meanwhile, there were still some decent birds around today.
The number of peeps has diminished considerably - I counted 48 western sandpipers and just 17 least sandpipers. The tringas still seem relatively happy, with 9 greater yellowlegs and 8 lesser yellowlegs actively feeding around the place.

A couple of killdeer were kicking around and a pair of pectoral sandpiper (one pictured) were in the far south east corner of the southern pool.
A couple of juvenile spotted sandpipers were still hanging around in the creeks on the Carey Road side, but there was no sign of any solitaries.

Coasting Along

2011-08-11T21:55:00.000-07:00

Eschewing the muddy-loving waders of Panama Flats, today I decided on a coastal recce, starting off at Ten Mile Point. I had chosen to head out over the high tide, in the hope that any shorebirds would be concentrated on exposed rocks close offshore. That wasn't exactly how it panned out, but the theory seemed solid enough!
As I say, I kicked off at Ten Mile Point, which was pretty quiet. If anything, the water levels were probably too high and little suitable feeding or roosting areas were visible. The highlight here was, however, my first Bonaparte's gull of the fall. It was a 1st summer bird and was sat on some kelp alongside a single Heermann's gull. The regular alcids were all present in low numbers.
I then moved on to Cattle Point, where the only thing of note was a mew gull. Again, a few of the usual alcids were seen.

After a while here, I went to Oak Bay Marina / Turkey Head where things picked up a bit. On a rocky islet just beyond the harbour mouth a concentration of shorebirds were roosting. Scanning through, I counted 52 black-bellied plover (including several birds still sporting resplendent summer finery), 4 black oystercatcher, 1 black turnstone and 4 dowitchers. I managed a terrible shot of the assembled waders, as you can see!
Another couple of oystercatchers were by the marina and around 30 least sandpiper were flitting around the area.
I eventually wound up at Clover Point where gull numbers seemed surprisingly low - though on further inspection there were many 100s far offshore. There were just 15 Heermann's on the rocks with several glaucous-winged and Californias. In the surf there were many rhinoceros auklets and common murres, plus a single marbled murrelet.
5 dainty red-necked phalarope were busily feeding on the water's surface, and 9 surf scoters were loafing in Ross Bay.

Brit Birder in Wader Heaven

2011-08-10T13:58:00.000-07:00

I dropped Jenny of at work for 9am this morning and decided to head out once more to Panama Flats in search of transient waders.
There were pretty much the same sorts of numbers of birds present as yesterday (minus one, thanks to a successful sorte by an adult peregrine...).
I roughly estimated around 140 western and 70 least sandpipers, plus 9 greater & 7 lesser yellowlegs. A single pectoral sandpiper was also present, as was a dowitcher.
While I was scanning through the birds, and checking the outer areas for such things as Baird's sandpipers, I was joined by Brent Beach - another local birder I only knew through having seen his postings on the local birding forum.

While we were chatting and searching, he picked up a semipalmated sandpiper that I'd completely missed. Better still, it came very close and gave us great looks and allowed for the two pics here to be taken.
Ignoring the westerns feeding out in the deeper water, it was keeping company with least sandpipers in the wet muddy areas. It was clearly a juvenile bird, but I was thrown initially by its 'buffness', but apparently (as I read later) early juvs may show a buff breast.

Other birds seen included 4 killdeer and in the vegetated creek to the east of the pools, a solitary sandpiper and 3 spotted sandpipers.
The birding here is really great at the moment and the birds are extremely tolerant of human presence and general disturbance. As long as one exercises sensible fieldcraft, the views of some of these shorebirds can be amazing.

The shot of 2 lesser yellowlegs here was taken with a standard compact camera with a 3x zoom!

I popped into Swan Lake briefly on my way home, but it was nearing midday and the place was pretty quiet, bird-wise. The only things of note that I saw included 6 least and 2 western sandpipers, and a Wilson's warbler.

Flats Life

2011-08-09T14:37:00.000-07:00

The day started out cloudy and cool, and I headed off to Panama Flats this morning to see whether the overcast conditions had dropped any new birds.

As I walked down to central bund toward the pools from the Carey Road end, I noticed an adult river otter and her 3 cubs running along the muddy shore of the northern pond.
The Canada geese got a bit flighty, but the majority of shorebirds seemed relatively unconcerned.
The otters had a splash around in what little water they could find and the animals eventually ran toward me, passing within a few feet (pictured).
Having a quick scan over the pools it was good to see that there were plenty of birds around.
I counted approximately 140 western sandpipers and 71 least sandpipers feeding in the muddy waters, but couldn't locate any semi-p sands among them.

There was a lone pectoral sandpiper, and a solitary sandpiper (pictured) present as well as 4 killdeer and a long-billed dowitcher.
There were also 9 lesser and 12 greater yellowlegs in the area.
Mallard numbers have increased too, with around 80 birds present. Among these somewhat suspect ducks were a couple of creamy-coloured 'farmyard' mongrels.

It's All Clover

2011-08-08T14:47:00.000-07:00

Squeezed in a couple of hours down at Clover Point late morning / early afternoon today.
Couldn't dig anything out from the 1000 or so California gulls roosting around the point, other than a few glaucous-winged and 15 Heermann's gulls. 100s more gulls, mainly Cali's were feeding offshore.
There were also hundreds of rhinoceros auklets out on the water, and streaming by in flocks. Common murres were also plentiful, but nowhere as near as numerous as the rhinos. Just 2 marbled murrelets were seen.
A single western sandpiper dropped by briefly, before flying off in a south easterly direction, and a pair of black oystercatcher (pictured) were roosting among the gulls. Thanks to the gulls having congregated on the rocks below the point, the car was spared the usual splattering...

Return To Panama Flats

2011-08-05T15:22:00.000-07:00

3 greater & 1 lesser yellowlegs

Once again, my mind was filled with passage waders this morning so I grabbed my 'scope, and customary optimism, and headed across to Panama Flats for a spot of quality Victoria wetland birding.
And by the look of things, I'd better enjoy it while it lasts.
The glorious weather we've been enjoying lately has taken its toll, and the water is fast receding...
Anyhoo, the muddy pools still held a few birds and over the course of a couple of hours the following were noted:

Killdeer 6
Greater yellowlegs 6
Lesser yellowlegs 11
Solitary sandpiper 1
Spotted sandpiper 4
Pectoral sandpiper 1
Western sandpiper 19
Semi-palmated sandpiper 1
Least sandpiper 47
Short-billed dowitcher 2

Pectoral sandpiper

Both the least and western sandpipers counts are likely underestimates, given their mobility and constant moving around the site.
Other birds present included the ubiquitous barn swallows, plus a couple of cliff and at least 1 northern rough-winged swallow. Oh, and several 'the heron'. And, of course those big stinky noisy geese and a few duckies.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Aziza Cooper for the first time, a Victoria birder with whom I am familiar via her frequent postings on the local birding forum. Slowly, I'm starting put names to faces, and getting to figure out who some of the more active local birdwatchers are.

When I got home, there was a small, silent empid catching flies in the apple tree. It was rather greenish, with a largish pale bill and whopping great eye ring and a bit of a crested appearance. If I were a gambling man, my money would probably be on Pacific-slope flycatcher. But, I'm not a gambling man, and its identity shall remain a mystery...

Wandering tattler - not wandering

Later, after walking downtown with Jenny, who was heading for an evening shift at Eddie Bauer's, I strolled back home via Dallas Road and the splendid Victoria waterfront.
First stop was Ogden Point where my old friend the wandering tattler was defying its moniker and remaining spectacularly loyal to its regular roost. As I was armed with Jen's new camera, I couldn't resist another shot...
The remainder of the walk was rather birdless, and even Clover Point failed to excite. Possibly, the kite surfers, paragliders, dog walkers, kite flyers and other assorted show-offs had collectively scared everything two miles offshore.

Ringing the Changes

2011-08-04T19:25:00.000-07:00

Had a wander down to Clover Point this morning, but as I was 'scopeless I was pretty limited to what was close inshore. There were lots of rhinoceros auklets out there, but I couldn't see much else. Among the 200 or so gulls, mainly California's, were 36 Heermann's gulls. The only wader was a lowly black oystercatcher.
A mink put in an appearance, rolling around and scenting a washed up log.

Late afternoon / early evening I returned with my 'scope and I was at least able to scan further offshore.
There were hundreds of rhinoceros auklets, some in large floating rafts. I also counted at least 50 common murres, though only 2 pigeon guillemots were seen.
4 red-necked phalarope were flitting around and feeding alongside some floating weed racks.
A lovely adult ring-billed gull (pictured) dropped in briefly, joining the assembled gulls on the grassy area.

Not so solitary sandpiper...

2011-08-03T13:14:00.000-07:00

It was a little cloudy overnight, and I woke up with thoughts of grounded migrant shorebirds. Not how everyone greets the day, admittedly, but as we birder's know, the urge to follow our instincts can be just as strong as our quarry's desire to move south at the breeding season draws to a close.

So, I headed to my new favourite Victoria birding spot; Panama Flats.
The northern pool looked pretty lively as I approached, and through my bins I could see plenty of avian activity. There were lesser yellowlegs all over the place, and I counted at least 13. By comparison, 11 greater yellowlegs were also present.
As I scanned through the least sandpipers and western sandpipers, a larger bird caught my eye.

An adult solitary sandpiper. Nice. The bird gave excellent views as it fed close to me, among other species. A few minutes later I picked up another, this time a juvenile, and after about half an hour the two birds were feeding together.
I counted 46 leasts and 17 western sandpipers in total, but due to the fact that they were constantly moving around the area, these counts were probably conservative under estimates.
Also present were a single semi-palmated sandpiper, 5 killdeer, 5 spotted sandpiper and 13 short-billed dowitchers. The dowitchers called clearly identifying themselves as short-billed - I suspect that when I saw 13 'long-billed' a couple of days ago, my interpretation of their brief calls was faulty, to say the least!
Good numbers of barn swallow were around too, and among them I noticed at least 2 cliff swallows and a northern rough-winged swallow. A single purple martin also flew through, but carried on in a southerly direction.

Farewell to Friends, Hello to Solitary Sandpiper!

2011-08-01T17:25:00.000-07:00

On Saturday Jenny and I headed up island once more. Our good friends Rich & Lori Mooney, along with son Nolan, had finally booked their flights and were heading off to a new life in Surrey, England within a matter of days. We had to say our farewells!
Somehow or another (!) Rich and I managed to arrange one last bit of birding and spent some time scouring Holden Creek, while Jen and Lori walked to Jack Point.

Jenny, me, Lori & Rich

To be honest, it was pretty dire. A killdeer and 4 least sandpiper were the sum total of our shorebird finding efforts.
Other stuff included a purple martin, peregrine, red-tailed hawk, osprey, American goldfinch and a pair of Eurasian collared dove (cor!).
To be honest, it wasn't strictly about the birding, but the opportunity to spend a bit of time together before they left for old Blighty... Bon voyage Rich, Lori & Nolan - and good luck in the UK!

Today (BC Day as it happens), I got out for a couple of hours to Panama Flats, late morning.
Quite a contrast to my last visit a few days ago.
The pools were notably busier with waders, and there were 7 lesser yellowlegs, 11 greater yellowlegs, 5 western sandpiper and 29 least sandpiper present, along with 13 long-billed dowitcher.
A couple of killdeer were in the grassy area on the eastern edge and at least 4 spotted sandpiper were seen.

Best of all, however was the solitary sandpiper that had so far eluded me.
This is the first I've seen in Canada and as such, makes it on to my BC list!
At one point the obliging bird even had a good stretch, showing off that distinctive rump that clearly separates it from green sandpiper, a species I am very familiar with. Lovely!
So lovely, in fact, that I've included two photos here for your delight...

Once again the many swallows were on good form and went into a twittering panic when a peregrine came by. It was interesting to watch the least sandpipers, in particular, respond to the hirundines' alarm calls.
They would assume a crouching position, flattening themselves low in the mud or water while watching out for the overhead predator.

Later in the day, Jenny and I had a walk down to Ross Bay, Victoria. A drake white-winged scoter was swimming around close inshore, while we also spotted the usual rhinoceros auklets, pigeon guillemots and what-not.

Dragonfly Delights

2011-07-29T17:47:00.000-07:00

After a spot of dealing with various bits of bureaucracy, I found time late afternoon to make my way up to Panama Flats, just to see if there had been any interesting arrivals.
The two main pools still retain quite a bit of water, but it's disappearing fast.
For the meanwhile it does at least means that there's plenty of shallow water and muddy edges to entice passing waders, so the coming weeks could be really productive. Potentially.
The number of greater yellowlegs had increased slightly since my last visit, and there were 9 present, plus a single lesser yellowlegs. At least 7 spotted sandpiper were around, and just 6 least sandpiper.
I scoured every small vegetated pool and creek but still didn't manage to dig out a solitary sandpiper...
A group of 6, what sounded like, long-billed dowitchers were feeding together on one pool, while another pair of silent dowitchers were feeding on another.
There were around 20 killdeer in the more vegetated areas of the fields. Of course, a handful of mallard and 130 or so Canada geese were here too, as always.

There was lots of dragonfly action, with common whitetails especially numerous in some areas.
A few darners (California or blue-eyed) were also around, plus a couple of cardinal meadowhawks (pictured).
For those back in the UK, as you can see meadowhawks are sympetrum dragonflies - known in Britain as darters.

Birding Panama Flats

2011-07-27T14:40:00.000-07:00

Now that I am officially unemployed (a temporary measure, one sincerely hopes), at least I have a bit more time on my hands to get out birding. Every cloud, and all that...
So, I spent a couple of hours this morning at Panama Flats, one of my favourite Victoria birding sites. It was considerably quieter than when I came with Rich at the weekend, but there were still a few birds around worth looking at.
On the more northerly of the two larger pools, a single lesser yellowlegs was feeding, and before long was joined by a greater yellowlegs and a mercifully vocal short-billed dowitcher.
A further 4 greater yellowlegs (roosting bird pictured) were on the other pool, though no other waders other than a couple of spotted sandpiper were to be seen.

An adult peregrine flew in, and sat up in the dead tree (pictured) - much to the irritation of the many barn swallows in the area. Small numbers of northern rough-winged, violet-green and cliff swallows were also hawking over the fields and pools.
I eventually found a group of just 6 least sandpiper feeding in a small muddy pool, alongside a juvenile killdeer. Another couple of spotted sandpipers showed up including a not-yet-fledged fluffy youngster.
The swallows' alarm calls signalled the arrival of 3 turkey vultures as they drifted low over the area, and as I looked up I noticed an adult and an immature bald eagle sailing over, high.
A female belted kingfisher flew through, noisily, but carried on in a southerly direction - perhaps to Swan Lake?
Insects-wise, there were a few Lorquin's admirals around, as well as blue-eyed or California darners (I need to get a really good look at one of those to determine which...)

A Tale of Two Tattlers - Brit Birders on Shore(bird) leave

2011-07-25T21:48:00.000-07:00

On Sunday I was joined by my chum Rich Mooney, who had decided he wanted to do some birding around Victoria in advance of his pending return to England after several years in BC.
I had a bit of work to do, so we didn't get out until midday, but nevertheless, we had a great afternoon and managed to clock up some 13 species of shorebird.

We started out at Panama Flats and soon located a small gathering of feeding waders, in the first of the two remaining larger pools. Here were saw 1 greater and 2 lesser yellowlegs (one pictured below, in comedy pose), 5 dowitchers (silent, but we suspected were long-billed), a spotted sandpiper, 15 least sandpiper, 1 western sandpiper, 1 semi-palmated sandpiper and a pectoral sandpiper (pictured above). Not a bad start!
The next pool was somewhat quieter with just another spotted sandpiper and 2 more greater yellowlegs.
We walked around the southern perimeter, and in a ditch just below Carey Road we came across another trio of greater yellowlegs and a family party of spotted sandpipers (1 ad, 3 juvs). We also had ace looks at lots of common whitetail dragonflies, and saw a meadowhawk sp. and a couple of unidentified darners... and western tiger swallowtail.

There were fewer killdeers present than on my last visit, with just a small family group seen. We came across another juv spotted sandpiper, and made our way down the central bund, once again grilling the small group of scattered waders we had initially encountered.
Satisfied with our haul, we headed to the coast, stopping first at Oak Bay Marina. The wonderful sunny weather had brought out the crowds and the birds were pretty thin on the ground. We added black oystercatcher to the growing shorebirds list, and also noted the usual pigeon guillemots offshore.

Hoping that the wandering tattler was still in the Ogden Point area, we decided to check it out. Again the hordes were out enjoying the sunshine but we soon located the tattler roosting on a rock below the breakwater. And next to it - another tattler! (pair pictured)
We had a quick scan around the harbour, noting 11 black turnstone on the Pier A wall, along with more black guillemots.
We headed back with the intention of walking along the breakwater so that we could look down onto the tattlers but soon noticed that they had disappeared from the rocks. As we passed the pilot boats we relocated them, just feet away from us. One of the birds was quite vocal, and they showed wonderfully in the bright sunlight.

Next stop was Clover Point. From here we spotted rhinoceros auklets, a common murre, more pigeon guillemots and 8 surf scoter offshore. A lone Heermann's gull sailed by, and we were rather surprised to see a flotilla of 26 red-necked phalarope feeding on the water's surface.

So all in all, a wonderful afternoon's birding. There was a real sense that things are really starting to change, and that autumn's just around the corner... It was good fun to get out with Rich for what may have been our last Canadian field excursion together!

Birds Gullore

2011-07-22T19:55:00.000-07:00

It was reasonably choppy offshore, when I paid a visit to Clover Point this evening, but despite the blustery south westerly wind there was little to get excited about.
Few alcids were seen, just a handful of rhino auklets.
Only the gulls proved interesting, with a total of 11 Heermann's gulls among the more numerous glaucous-winged and Californias.
As gulls numbers continue to build, it will be interesting to see if anything out of the ordinary drops by in the coming weeks...

...and in more breaking tattler news...

2011-07-20T18:38:00.000-07:00

The urge to do some birding was too strong to ignore this afternoon, and by 4.30pm I'd downed figurative tools, grabbed my bins and 'scope and was heading toward Clover Point, Victoria.
It was pretty much business as usual offshore with lots of rhinoceros auklets all over the place. A few pigeon guillemots were present, as was a single common murre.
4 Heermann's gulls were once again among the large numbers of the commoner species. The only shorebirds in evidence were 3 black oystercatcher.
A pair of harlequin ducks and the 7 surf scoter in-residence were bobbing about.

After desperately trying to find something more unusual, and failing, I decided to go and see if the wandering tattler was still to be seen around Ogden Point.
I checked the small harbour first, and soon came across the bird roosting on the rocks by the pilot boats dock. The light wasn't great, but it was certainly an improvement on the other day and I managed a couple of reasonable shots.

A brief post-work visit to Turkey Head, by Oak Bay Marina, yesterday evening proved quite interesting. Offshore, among a throng of feeding birds, including California & glaucous-winged gulls, pigeon guillemots, rhinoceros auklets and cormorants, were 29 Heermann's gulls.

Wandering Tattler Doesn't Wander Far

2011-07-19T15:56:00.000-07:00

I bobbed down to Ogden Point yesterday evening (Monday) to see if the wandering tattler was still hanging around. The sun was out, and the breakwater was busier than the Trans-Canada Highway as hordes of folk strolled up and down it. The small beach area too, was awash with families and as a result my usual optimism was severely dented...

Unperturbed, I had a walk along the seawall, checking here and there for any shorebirds. A Caspian tern flew by and a rhino auklet was fishing in the shelter of the harbour mouth. Scanning the wall below Pier A I could see the hunched figure of a medium sized wader, and a quick scan with my 'scope confirmed that it was the tattler. I returned to the harbour area, and was able to see it slightly better from there but the low evening light and distance prevented me from getting any decent pics. Hence the really shoddy one here. Pity really, as this is a lovely adult bird.

Stopping off at Clover Point on my way home I saw the usual stuff; rhinoceros auklet, pigeon guillemot, surf scoter, California gull, glaucous-winged gull etc. 4 black turnstone flew by.
Among the gulls roosting on the rock on the south side were 3 Heermann's gulls (pictured), with another offshore. I like to think of them as the New World's version of Audouin's gull...

Wader Weekend

2011-07-17T18:55:00.000-07:00

After work on Friday I spent an hour or so down at Clover Point, Victoria. Despite the drizzle, visibility wasn't too bad and thanks to the calm, flat sea it was relatively easy identifying the birds that were out there.

As per usual it was mainly rhinoceros auklets and pigeon guillemots, though there were at least 5 marbled murrelet present too. A lone adult Heermann's gull was sat out on the water with a large raft of glaucous-winged and a few California gulls. A single harlequin duck and 7 surf scoters were in Ross Bay. A single peep flew by offshore, and several harbour porpoise broke the surface.
With just a short window of time left before I had to go and pick Jenny up from work, I stopped off at Ogden Point and set off along the breakwater. I got about half way along when a medium sized, darkish wader flew by, heading back toward the beach. No wing bars, fairly concolourous upperparts, longish straight bill - it had to be a wandering tattler.
So, I turned around and walked back to the shore, checking and scanning the rocks and beach as I went. Eventually I relocated the bird on the small beach area just below the sea wall, where I was able to get a good look at it. A cracking adult, it showed well for a short while before flying off again.
I hastily drove into town to collect Jen and we set off up island. I eventually managed to send Chris Saunders a text when we stopped briefly at Mill Bay, in the hope that other local birders might catch up with the tattler.

We were in Nanaimo to spend time with our pals David and Susan, and the attend the Green Mountain Music Festival. As a result my birding was severely limited to the flock of around 20 black swifts that flew by Dave & Susan's apartment, and similar numbers that were feeding over the festival site on Saturday evening.
On our way back today, we stopped very briefly sat Holden Creek - just to see if there were any waders present. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to get out and cover the marsh but even from the viewing platform I could see reasonable numbers of least and western sandpipers feeding in the creek and in the pools. The wetter summer has certainly ensured that there are plenty of areas to attract and hold passing shorebirds.
Then, as I scanned the creek edges a pectoral sandpiper flew in and landed on the mud. It seemed quite agitated, and soon flew off and disappeared in the boggy marsh.
Other stuff seen here included red-tailed hawk, lots of swallows - northern rough-winged, cliff, tree, violet-green and barn all present - American goldfinch, white-crowned sparrow, band-tailed pigeon etc.

Late afternoon, back in Voctoria, I headed out to have a look around Panama Flats, where I bumped into Ian Cruikshank and Mary Robichaud. Among other things, there were 11 dowitchers (pictured above) and 2 greater yellowlegs feeding in one of the larger pools. Scattered around the site were good numbers of least and western sandpiper, plus at least 3 spotted sandpiper.
Those open grassy areas look very good for attracting something interesting in the coming weeks... maybe a golden plover, buff-breasted or Baird's sandpiper?

Evening Wader Watch

2011-07-13T20:18:00.000-07:00

After finishing work today I managed a visit to Panama Flats, keen to see if there were any waders present.
Water levels were generally pretty low, bar the two main pools. There were good numbers of barn swallows feeding all over the place, plus a handful of violet-green and a couple of northern rough-winged swallows.
A group of 6 dowitchers were on the bank of the larger pool. When they flew, they called and they all sounded like long-billed.
Around the pools edges were 3 spotted sandpipers.
In the far south east corner, in a vegetated muddy area. there were approximately 230 peeps feeding. Scoping through them, the ratio of birds seemed to be about 60/40 western to least sandpipers.
After around 45 minutes of thorough scanning, I finally picked up a single semi-palmated sandpiper among them. Another spotted sandpiper was also here as were up to a dozen killdeer, including 2 very young, unfledged birds.
Walking back, I noticed a pair of greater yellowlegs (pictured) that had appeared from somewhere or other.
At one point a peregrine came through, spooking everything, before sitting up in a bare tree to the consternation of a local robin.

No Pain, No Cain...

2011-07-10T16:10:00.000-07:00

Following an invite I couldn't refuse, I headed up island on Friday afternoon to meet up with Rich Mooney and Justin Lynch. They were planning a trek up to the summits of Mount Cain and, conditions permitting, Mount Abel.
Knowing that they have both seen white-tailed ptarmigan in that same area, I was definitely happy to accept their offer to join them.
Leaving Nanaimo around 6pm, we eventually arrived at the Mt Cain ski area about 10pm. This area is about 20km from the community of Woss, and just under 300km from Nanaimo. After we set up camp we got our heads down and, despite the best efforts of the immense local tree frog population, we actually got some sleep before rising just after 5am.
Following brekkie, we commenced our ascent. Practically the first bird we came across was a fine singing male pine grosbeak - a great way to start any day! We added gray jay to the list, and hearing the distinctive hoots of a male sooty grouse we soon located the bird sat up in a tree and watched it 'singing'.

Before long we got into ptarmigan habitat and we were all finely tuned to any sound or movement. We optimistically discovered piles of ptarmigan droppings (pictured) and even came across a few feathers. But no birds were forthcoming.
A high altitude American robin was something of a surprise, and we had a fly-through merlin.
Then a large dark finch with a pink rump flew by emitting a distinctive 'churp' sound. Hoorah! Gray-crowned rosy-finch! One of the true alpine specialists that I was really hoping for. Later we heard what we assumed was it singing, but couldn't locate it. In this same area we also saw an American pipit and heard this bird singing too.

Given the high volumes of snow still present after the record winter, we struggled to find much in the way of suitable habitat for the ptarmigans to breed in. There were relatively few areas of open heather and rocky scree, and so perhaps the birds had moved to an area where food and suitable nesting sites were easier to come by? I can only imagine that if the birds were in this area we would have found them fairly easily, given the minimal snow-free habitat. Of course, small 'islands' were present here and there, and perhaps they were sitting tight in those?

Me, Rich & Justin at the Summit of Mount Cain

All in all, it was an excellent day, and other than my unscheduled speedy (and I have to say, rather scary) descent of 100 metres down into the East Bowl, it was a thrilling experience. The weather remained on our side throughout the day and the views were simply breath-taking.
The only bird of note we saw on the descent was another sooty grouse, this time a lovely female.
Rich and Justin's enthusiasm and energy made the whole thing even more enjoyable, and I'm extremely grateful to them for allowing me to join them. I feel privileged to have been able to venture into an area of Vancouver Island that would have otherwise remained a mystery to me.

Read Rich's account of our day, and see more pics, at his Birding Field Notes blog.

Ross Bay Walk

2011-07-04T21:24:00.000-07:00

Just managed a post-work walk down to Ross Bay, Victoria with Jenny this evening.
Even still, there were plenty of interesting birds around. I could see that the gull roost at Clover Point had built quite a bit, and it became even more apparent as approximately 150 gulls were flushed up into the air by a passing bald eagle. At range, I could only make out one adult Heermann's gull among the numerous glaucous-winged and California gulls.
Bobbing about on the water were a few rhino auklets, 3 harlequin ducks and 5 surf scoters. A party of 4 white-winged scoter flew by. That's all 3 scoter species here in the past few days... what a strange summer..!

There's a great gull here, man. (Heermann's gull - get it?)

2011-07-02T19:38:00.000-07:00

Had a stroll down to the waterfront and checked out Ross Bay and Clover Point today.

I went via Moss Rock Park where I narcissistically took a self portrait - purely to illustrate the wonderful view you understand...
While bumbling around here, I came across a lizard - the first I've seen here. It looked pretty much like a wall lizard, and when I checked what lizard species occur on the island, I discovered that it was a wall lizard. Apparently they were introduced here sometime on the 1970s. I don't know, us European gets everywhere!

A few harlequin ducks were feeding close offshore, while further out the expected rhinoceros auklets and a couple of pigeon guillemots were seen.
Among the growing numbers of glaucous-winged and California gulls was a splendid Heermann's gull. I was 'scopeless today, so I'm afraid I can offer no improvement on the very sketchy pic on my last post. As the summer progresses the number of Heermanns' will increase significantly, so I'm sure I'll get more than a few chances to get some reasonable shots of these stunning larids.

Later, I took a wander around the Government House grounds, but it was pretty quiet - as has been typical of late.

Black Thursday

2011-07-01T18:44:00.000-07:00

After a few days of hardly doing any notable birding, yesterday I decided to give Ian Cruikshank a call to see if he fancied trying to relocate the black phoebe reported on Wednesday at Mystic Pond. What was presumably the same bird had been found up the coast in Sidney on Monday, and while I couldn't be bothered going up the peninsula to see a bird I've seen before, now that it was closer to home I rather fancied having a look for it. Plus, I knew that Ian had dipped on it on Tuesday.
So, once I finished working I picked Ian from his home and we headed over to the aforementioned, brilliantly named, Mystic Pond.
We were entertained by the nesting great-blue herons, and violet-green swallows as they skimmed over the water's surface, but had neither sight nor sound of the phoebe. We checked out the beach area, and a few nearby spots that might harbour a hungry vagrant flycatcher but had no luck.
Ian pointed out Ten Mile Point, a rocky promontory we could see, and suggested it might be worth a visit as it's a pretty good if under watched seawatching spot.

And so we did. Upon arrival, we set up scopes and started checking the water. After a couple of minutes, a rather excited Ian beckoned me over. As I got close, he asked (somewhat rhetorically, one presumes) "Are these black terns?" to which I replied with a resounding yes. And indeed there they were, 3 black terns actively feeding over the water by a small lighthouse.
There were two obvious adults in breeding plumage and another odd-looking bird which we now think was probably a second summer bird (Adult left, sub-adult right, pictured).
Although familiar with black terns in Europe I had never seen the distinctive American form, and I was rather pleased with this discovery. But it was only Ian's obvious giddy delight that hinted just how big a deal it was to see this species on Vancouver Island.

We made a few calls and eventually the first birders started to arrive - and I witnessed my first Victoria twitch! Unfortunately, I had to leave just after 8pm and I abandoned Ian to scrounge a ride home from another benevolent birder.
Among other decent birds seen here were an early Heerman's gull (pictured, extremely badly), a couple of fly-by white-winged scoters and the usual rhino auklets and what-not.

Today (Friday), I spent a couple of hours checking a few places up and down the coast - somewhat inspired by yesterday's events. I didn't see much to get excited about, lots of rhinoceros auklets, pigeon guillemots, black oystercatchers etc. I even dropped in at Ten Mile Point, but there were few birds present. Perhaps the combination of a low tide and great Canada Day weather, with the resulting plethora of boats out on the water, helped keep the area bird-free...

Better Lake, Than Never

2011-06-26T16:48:00.000-07:00

The Bridge at Swan Lake, Victoria

As far as many birders are concerned, the pace slows down quite a bit around this time of year. The majority of birds are busy with breeding duties, and other than the early movements of failed or non-breeders, the avian landscape changes relatively little from day to day. Of course, there's lots to observe and record in the way of nesting birds and such, but there's not much to get excited about as far as passage is concerned. This will all change soon enough, as the first shorebirds will start to appear, as they depart their Arctic breeding grounds and commence their journeys south.

In the meantime, it's usually a good time to get out and look for butterflies and dragonflies. Warm sunny days are best (not too many of those yet this year...) and better still, you don't have to get up particularly early to look for them!
With this in mind, I thought I'd go for walk around Swan Lake yesterday. I'd only been once before, briefly, just over a year ago and as I am currently a resident of the fair city of Victoria, I thought it was about time I reacquainted myself with this impressive reserve.
Unfortunately, the day was cooler than I'd hoped and somewhat overcast, with a few sunny spells here and there. Hence the target insects were all but absent.
Nonetheless, I walked the perimeter of the site for the first time and still saw some nice enough birds. Always a treat for a Brit birder, cedar waxwings were all around the reserve and are guaranteed to brighten any day. Better still was a lovely, singing black-headed grosbeak, the first I've seen this year. Yellow warbler, common yellowthroat, red-winged blackbird and other common species provided with me with plenty to look at on the way round.

They're geese. They're in Canada. They must be Canada geese.

The lake itself was very quiet, with just Canada geese and mallards present.
As I neared the end of my trail around the reserve I bumped into Chris Saunders, so we stopped and had a chat and did a bit of birding. While we were talking, a series of dark, foreboding clouds gathered and brought with them, as one would hope, swifts. First we picked up a couple of Vaux's swift, and soon noticed several black swifts as they moved through. Very nice. Also, while we were in the car park a young Cooper's hawk came by, upsetting the local robins, and a peregrine sailed over.
I'll make a point of getting up to this wonderful site more often, especially as autumn approaches and the birding really picks up again.

This morning (Sunday) I took a trundle around the Government House grounds, once again with butterflies on my mind. Sadly, other than a few tatty whites it was bereft of anything interesting. Birds-wise, the bushtits were extremely active, and one large feeding flock included some very recently fledged birds. It was great to see the 'extended' family members helping out with the feeding of these youngsters.
I walked on down to the waterfront and as I made my way along the pebble beach at Ross Bay I noticed a dark duck close offshore. I was somewhat surprised, once I got my bins on it, to see a very unseasonal drake black scoter. Its presence somewhat undermined my 'birding's crap at this time of year' theory... Also on the water were the more expected pigeon guillemots and rhinoceros auklets.

All At Sea

2011-06-23T21:28:00.000-07:00

Pigeon guillemot

Once again, I felt the need to get out of the house early evening and headed down to Victoria's Clover Point.
And, once again, it was fairly quiet on the bird front. The wind seemed to have switched more to the south west, and while it seemed pretty choppy out there it wasn't really so lively as to force anything in. In fact, there were fewer birds out there than on any recent visits. A few rhino auklets were seen but that was about it, other than a few glaucous-winged and California gulls.
After about 45 minutes of staring at waves I decided to move along the coast a bit and see if anything was seeking shelter off Oak Bay.

Rhinoceros auklet

Scanning from Turkey Head, just by the marina, there were good numbers of pigeon guillemot actively fishing.
The considerably calmer waters allowed for a few pics to taken, even though the birds were some way out.
Good luck to any Brit birders who fancy claiming one of these in UK waters... how you'd separate one from black guillemot at sea I really don't know. While long-billed and ancient murrelets, Pacific loons, tufted puffin and glaucous-winged gull (plus a first-summer drake white-winged scoter is also currently entertaining twitchers in Scotland) have all been recorded around the British coast in recent years, I don't see this one making it onto the list anytime soon!

A handful of rhinoceros auklet were also present and, again, the flat sea meant that I was able to get some slightly better shots (pair pictured). A flotilla of harlequin ducks too, were seen.
Clamorous black oystercatchers made their presence felt, as they careened about the place in noisy packs.
Lounging around on exposed rocky islets offshore, were several blubbery seals.

Eight-legged Groove Machine

2011-06-22T20:03:00.000-07:00

Pieces of Eight...

After yesterday's chat casing fun in the sun, I opted to stay local this evening at went for a spot of post-work seawatching.
The wind had picked up a fair bit today, but by the time I arrived at Clover Point it was blowing in what seemed to be a pretty unproductive direction.
I stuck it out for an hour but it didn't seem very promising. Even rhinoceros auklets were thin on the ground and I only picked up a single pigeon guilllemot.
The glaucous-winged and California gulls were being bounced around from one roost to the other by boisterous people, and numbers were fairly low even off shore.

A young bald eagle (pictured) was dining on the washed up carcass of an octopus, before being discovered by gawping hordes who soon flushed it.
As you can see from the photo, it was a formidable beast (I'm talking about the octopus) and must have been an impressive sight when intact! For scale, I've placed my cell phone alongside the stinky mollusc remains...

Incidentally, Bernard got back to me, and reckons that the 'winter plumage' marbled murrelet that I saw a few days ago is actually likely to one of this year's juveniles. I'd assumed it was too early for one to be offshore here so soon, but he assures me that it's about the right time for the first young to be showing up. Cheers Bernard!

Fancy a Chat?

2011-06-21T21:30:00.000-07:00

After driving Jenny up to Swartz Bay to catch the 8am ferry over to the mainland this morning, I got back home with enough time to squeeze in a quick trundle around the Government House grounds before starting work.
As has been the case for several days now, it was pretty much the domain of the local breeding birds. Along with good numbers of fledged bushits, the chestnut-backed chickadees, Bewick's wrens and downy woodpeckers seem to have done reasonably well with family parties busily feeding all around the site. Lots of pine siskins around too (including a flyover flock of c40 birds), indicating a successful breeding season.
Cooper's hawks were patrolling the woodland, both nests seemingly still active. A very showy warbling vireo was singing his heart out by the parking area.

After a day's scribing, I decided to spend the evening birding and thought I'd go and check out the place by Prospect Lake Road where the yellow-breasted chat has been hanging around for several days. For those reading this back in dear old Blighty, this species is a major rarity in these parts.

Somewhere in that lot, there's a chat...

I found the place easily enough, but was rather over awed by the size of the area!
So, I've got try and locate a an extremely skulking warbler which has occasionally been betraying its presence by letting out bursts of song, often keeping hidden while doing so. Marvelous.
Oh well, it was a great, birdy place to spend a couple of hours, chat or no chat. Another couple of birders eventually came along, one was trying to see the chat for the 5th time, the other for the 4th. Kind of put things in perspective.

I got ace looks at several of my all-time favourite American warblers; MacGillivray's warbler. I even managed a crappy snap of a cracking male, as you can see here. There were also rufous hummingbirds zipping about, willow flycatchers catching flies, northern flickers and a pileated woodpecker, Swainson's thrush, California quail and all manner of obliging common species. But no sight or sound of the chat.
After 2 hours, I gave up (I'm not overly bothered, it's not a tick - but a wonderful bird to see, nonetheless...) and decided to pop by Charlton Pond, as I was driving right past it.
The water levels were way down from my last visit, and the vegetation had grown considerably making viewing slightly less than convenient. A pair of killdeer with a well grown young 'un were present, and common yellowthroats were seen and heard. I also spotted a couple of Virginia rails feeding in a corner - 2 well grown, adult-sized juvs., though no sign of the parent birds.

Clover and Out

2011-06-19T21:03:00.000-07:00

I put in another hour, or so, seawatching early evening today down at Clover Point, Victoria.
The number of rhinoceros auklets seemed considerably diminished compared to yesterday, although they were still relatively plentiful. Again, there were a few pigeon guillemots further out and a lone common murre, moulting into winter plumage was just off the point.
A pair of Caspian terns came through, and the number of California gulls was seemingly greater than yesterday, and even an adult bird was present.
A couple of bald eagles kept the roosting gulls and foraging crows active, as did numerous rock-hopping humans.

I Wish They All Could Be California Gulls

2011-06-18T19:11:00.000-07:00

Following a thoroughly dull trundle around the Government House woodland trail this morning, I headed down to Clover Point for a spot of afternoon seawatching. The idea had been place in my mind by Ian Cruikshank who had called to say he was going to do that very thing; I didn't get out until later, and obviously missed him.

So, while he may well come back with reports of tufted puffins, terns and shearwaters, my hour and a half of scanning the ocean waves revealed little to cause excitement.
As usual, there were good numbers of rhinoceros auklet around (pictured), mainly in pairs or small feeding groups. Further out, pigeon guillemots were seen in small numbers and I was delighted to pick up a pair of marbled murrelet fairly close in. A third murrelet was also noted, but surprisingly was in non-breeding plumage. I'll have to ask my pal, and marbled murrelet aficionado, Bernard Schroeder if this is typical for some non-breeders at this time of year...

Other than a few pelagic cormorants, I failed to turn up anything else of note offshore.
The noisy alarm calls of black oystercatchers drew my attention to a passing flock of 11 birds and I noticed that gull numbers were starting to build up quite a bit. Among the numbers of glaucous-winged gulls, of all ages, there appears to have been something of an influx of California gulls (pictured), mainly 2 & 3CY birds from what I could figure out.

* Apologies to Brian Wilson (I'm sure he reads this blog, avidly) for the terrible title pun...

Birding in the Nanaimo Area

2011-06-15T20:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Jenny had to go up-island to deliver some pieces to Chemainus Theatre Gallery for an up-coming exhibition of her work. After which, she needed to go to Nanaimo for the afternoon on business -so, being the loyal husband that I am, I decided to accompany her. Well, when I say accompany her I mean on the journey - as soon as we got to Nanaimo, I dropped her off and went straight to Holden Creek. After all, if I'm going to take a day off, I may as well make it worth my while, eh? Oh, and on the way we saw an American kestrel hunting at Nanaimo airport.

The tide was way out, and thanks to the below par weather the mosquitoes were just about tolerable. While I lamented the fact that it was a little too late for northbound shorebirds, and a little too early for post/non-breeding birds I still enjoyed trudging around, checking the muddy pools and creeks.
I counted a total of 7 spotted sandpiper (pictured) and 3 killdeer. With every step I wondered what had passed through a couple of weeks ago, unnoticed and unrecorded...

The expected swallows were all present in fair numbers: cliff, barn, violet-green, tree and northern rough-winged. American goldfinches seemed especially conspicuous, and other typical birds of the area were seen and heard including yellow warbler, Swainson's thrush, red-tailed hawk, purple finch, northern flicker and willow flycatcher (pictured).

I then paid a visit to the Nanaimo River estuary, where the undoubted highlight was a group of 17 Caspian terns out on the mudflats. Another couple of spotted sandpiper were present here, with a fine displaying male. Again, the regular swallows were all busy feeding over the river and turkey vultures and bald eagles punctuated the overcast sky.
A western wood-pewee was a nice surprise - in almost the exact same spot that I found one last spring! Common yellowthroat, white-crowned sparrow and more goldfinches added to the list.

With an hour left to kill before collecting Jen, I decided to pay a visit to Buttertubs Marsh.
Few birds were on the water; a few mallard, 3 hooded merganser and around 20 or so wood duck (drake pictured), including a female with a brood. A pied-billed grebe with 2 stripey headed youngsters was a nice sight. The vegetation around the pools was exploding with the constant sound of singing yellowthroats, marsh wrens and red-winged blackbirds while song sparrows and yellow warblers did their best to compete from the thickets. A male brown-headed cowbird posed nicely for a pic.

Incidentally, I came across a yellowthroat feeding a young cowbird - as with cuckoos back in Britain, I'm always amazed at the evolutionary genius of brood parasitism. How do these birds 'identify' themselves as cowbirds once they leave their foster parents? How do they avoid having their host species imprinted upon them? Brilliant, sinister stuff...
Meanwhile, an osprey was sat upon the nest-free 'osprey platform'. Other birds of note included California quail, cedar waxwings and a pair of highly vocal Eurasian collared doves.

Fun With Flycatchers

2011-06-11T14:03:00.000-07:00

Olive-sided flycatcher

Howdy. This morning, I decided to take my 'scope down to Victoria's Government House grounds in the hope of getting a few snaps of olive-sided flycatcher. Their proclivity for sitting on exposed perches makes them ideal birds to try and photograph, and the morning was bright but somewhat overcast - great for highly amateur digi-scoping!
Within minutes of arrival I located an olive-sided flycatcher and soon had a few pics in the bag.

Western Wood-pewee

Close by, a western-wood pewee was also flycatching, and eventually posed for a couple of shots. With the exception of yesterday's bird (presumably the same one) the pewees (or pewee singular) that I have seen here have all been pretty silent.
I suppose I may be sticking my neck out with the identification of this bird, but unless I'm very much mistaken, pewees are fairly straightforward birds to ID. Of course, specific identification of pewee species is another matter altogether, but they seem easy enough to separate from the empidonax flycatchers in this part of the world.

Less easy to put a name to were the 2 silent empids that I also came across today (one of which is pictured here). I'm edging toward willow flycatcher, based on the lack of prominent eye-ring, pale throat, weakish wing-bars and broad bill. Opinions would be gratefully received!

Willow flycatcher?

There appeared to be other birds 'new -in' this morning too. A pair of rufous hummingbirds were chasing each other around, the first I've seen at this site, and a warbling vireo was silently feeding in a garry oak.

Pewee's Big Adventure

2011-06-10T18:46:00.000-07:00

I've barely found the time to get out birding this week and my scant forays have been pretty much limited to bumbling around on the Government House woodland trail.
Yesterday morning the highlight was an olive-sided flycatcher.
Today's highlight was an olive-sided flycatcher.
Actually, as well as the flycatcher, there was also a western wood-pewee there early evening, so technically that was the highlight.
Otherwise, it was down to the usual bits and bobs to keep me on my toes.
Yesterday Jenny and I did find the time to go for a stroll around Uplands Park in the late afternoon - it's a place we had never been to previously. It looks like very productive habitat, and so close to Cattle Point that one could imagine it positively hopping with migrants under the right conditions.
We didn't see too much in there, a purple finch and 22 cedar waxwings were the most notable birds present. Jenny enjoyed eye-level looks at a downy woodpecker, and she even tolerated my explaining the difference between European and American barn swallows...

Breeding Season Bounds Along

2011-06-08T18:46:00.000-07:00

Can't see the birds for the trees...

It's been rather quiet the past couple of days, bird-wise, down at the Government House grounds. Well, as far as unexpected or passage birds is concerned, at least.
There is actually plenty of activity - house sparrows and house finches are all over the place, mainly foraging for invertebrates in the oaks.
Violet-green and barn swallows are equally busy, as are the downy woodpeckers. Some bushtits have already fledged, and family groups can be heard pinging in the undergrowth.
Meanwhile, the Cooper's hawks seem to be keeping a low profile, though I imagine it's more a case of them being less visible in the heavily leafed trees. There are two active nests, one with an adult female the other with a sub-adult female (banded - red darvic on left leg, metal ring on the right). I suspect there is just one, polygamous, male but I can't be 100% sure.
The highlights of a wander down there yesterday evening included 4 flyover Caspian terns and the first chipping sparrow that I have seen on the site.

Bunting hunting

2011-06-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

The lazuli bunting was seen yesterday morning by at least one early birder, but I didn't get down there until late afternoon / early evening when there was no sight nor sound of it. Mind you, the couple who seemed to be cavorting right in the middle of the area where the bird was, might not have encouraged it to stick around.
It's a particular bugbear of mine; despite signs asking visitors not to let their dogs off the leash, do not cycle around the woodland trail, please keep to the paths and do not disturb the fenced off areas (labeled, clearly, if perhaps over-emotively, as a delicate ecosystem), I witness all the above being flouted with frustrating frequency. I suppose if there's one thing you can guarantee about people - build a lovely path around something, and a significant number will feel the need to crash through the middle of it.
Anyhoo, grumble over, a silent Pacific-slope type empid was the only other thing noted.

This morning, I was out just after 7am. Again the place appeared to be a bunting-free zone. Another empid showed up, alerting me kindly to its presence by actually calling and confirming its identity as a Pacific-slope flycatcher. Otherwise it was the usual fare, Cooper's hawk, orange-crowned warblers, etc etc. It was a beautiful morning down at Government House, and it was a joy to get out for some fresh air before heading home to slave over a hot computer.

Lazu-like-it

2011-06-04T19:23:00.000-07:00

After a day of doing stuff that needed doing, and of course enjoying the fabulous weather at the same time, I eventually managed to squeeze in a bit of early evening birding. Some hockey game or other was taking place, and the streets were deathly quiet as Jenny and I walked down to Government House for a stroll.

Within a couple if minutes, I stopped to scan a distant bird sat high up in a fir. Cowbird.
I then brought my bins down a touch and spotted a towhee sat on top of a snag. Just to the left of was another bird with its back to me... hmm, it appears to quite blue.
Blue?
A male lazuli bunting! Lovely - just the very bird I've been half expecting to bump into down here.
As it happened, I had my digital recorder in my pocket, and the sole passerine song I have on there is - yep, you guessed it - lazuli bunting.

I played the recording and the bunting came hurtling in to check it out.
As I only had my compact camera with me, the pics are quite dreadful, but at least show the bird.
I didn't want to disturb the bunting unduly, by playing the song too much, and it soon went back to feeding among the house sparrows it seemed to have temporarily hooked up with.
We saw little else along the woodland trail, but as we returned to the area the bunting was first seen we heard it singing.
It seemed quite mobile, singing from numerous prominent, and not-so prominent, perches in one smallish area.

I Never Saw A Sora

2011-06-03T20:01:00.000-07:00

I've been checking the Government House grounds over the past few days, and to be honest, there hasn't really been that much to report. Particularly in light of the superb birds being found by the birding elite of Victoria in the past couple of weeks!
For those not in the know, these have included British Columbia's 3rd record of lesser nighthawk (and only the 2nd one alive...), a Sabine's gull, a singing magnolia warbler, yellow-headed blackbird, and today, Ian Cruickshank located a Brewer's sparrow. Not bad going.
I'm only pleased that I don't 'need' any of these species, or I would have spent the last few days chasing rare birds, as opposed to getting on with work.
That said, I am rather keen to see something new, so I headed out with the aforementioned Ian yesterday evening to see if I could finally add sora to my life list.
I have never bothered twitching this species in the UK, despite their relative frequency, and I've been spectacularly unlucky on my various trips to this side side of the Atlantic, having never come across one. I heard one last year, but I will never tick a bird on call alone. So, aware that one had been showing at a local pond, I decided a mini-twitch was in order.

Anyhoo, Ian directed me to the controversially named Raper's Pond (known also as Rapier's Pond and Charlton Pond - though if we're all allowed to make up our own name for it, I'll call it I Never Saw A Sora Pond). We caught several glimpses of comedic fluffy black Virginia rails darting between clearings, but no adults and, as intimated above, no sign of sora. No worries, it was good to visit a new site and I'll doubtless return early one morning, or later one evening.
A drake gadwall was consorting with the local mallards and mallard-ish things, plus common yellowthroat and killdeer (pictured) were present. A foraging raccoon put everything into panic-mode for a moment, but failed to flush any rails...
While we were at the pond, Ian demonstrated once again his supernatural hearing and call recognition skills with occasional cries of 'western wood pewee' and 'black-headed grosbeak' as they called a mere 3 miles away.

Earlier yesterday I had found a very obliging western wood-pewee in the Government House grounds, but little else.
As it happens, Jenny and I were just out taking stroll around the neighborhood this evening and we came across what was presumably the same bird, feeding close by an olive-sided flycatcher, allowing for a lovely comparison.
Minutes earlier, a single Vaux's swift had passed over.