Spring Hopes, Eternal...

Another week has gone by, and barely a decent bird has passed my bins.
Selected highlights from my lunchtime walks around Langford Lake included my first rufous hummingbird of the spring, to the apparent consternation of one of the local Anna's hummingbirds.
A merlin was chased through by a trio of the latter species midweek, while turkey vultures, red-tailed hawk and bald eagles are seen just about daily.
Siskins are paired up and highly vocal, along with purple finches and the cacophonous red-winged blackbirds. Obvious migrants at the lake include increasing numbers of yellow-rumped warbler and a couple of violet-green swallows.
My visits to the Government House grounds in Victoria have been pretty unproductive over the past few days with no sign of any passage migrants. The local birds are getting on with the job of singing and nesting, etc. and keeping out of the way of the Cooper's hawks. A pair of presumed off-passage varied thrush were among a band of American robins on Saturday, but as many other Vancouver Island and BC birders are commenting, spring seems a little late this year. 
On Saturday night we had a barred owl hunting around the apartment and it gave us cool looks as it flew from the apple tree into the conifer by our back door.

Sunday, it was reasonably bright and dry and given the fact that I'll be away for a couple of weekends (heading back to dear old Blighty for my brother Dave's wedding) I thought I'd better get out and have what will probably be my last crack at locating a rock sandpiper this spring.
Needless to say, I didn't find one. Highlights of my coastal trawl included good numbers of black turnstone and surfbirds at many places (signs of northerly movement?). Other shorebirds included 2 each of killdeer, greater yellowlegs and dunlin (pic) at Oak Bay. A pair of hooded mergansers were close by so I took advantage and got a pic of the rather ridiculous looking drake.

Offshore, black guillemots and rhinoceros auklets were seen in their fine spring garb, a single long-tailed duck joined the multitude of surf scoters, common mergansers and buffleheads, while at Cattle Point a horned grebe almost in breeding plumage showed well (pic).
Singles of savannah sparrow and white-crowned sparrow were the only passerines of note seen here.

This time next week, I'll be tripping over northern wheatears, sand martins (bank swallows), sandwich terns, chiffchaffs, and other common stuff like that. I'll keep you posted!

* Stop Press - I forgot to mention that I saw my first butterflies of the year yesterday (Monday 2) - there were 3 Sara's orange tips flitting around down by Langford Lake in the early afternoon sunshine.

All White On The Night

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!   

Brit Birder Makes Brief Return to Blighty

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.

Migrants Brighten Up Cloudy Morning

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!
 

Woodland Skipper Invasion!

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.

I Wish They All Could Be California Gulls

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...
       

Fun With Flycatchers

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.  

   

Breeding Season Bounds Along

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.

Lazu-like-it

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

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.   

Tanagers and Mystery Revealed

The highlight of my day working from home, came in the form of a female western tanager in an arbutus, as seen from my kitchen window around 1pm. She sat there quite happily for some time but was spooked by 'castle' seeking tourists before I was able to get a pic. Oh well, not a bad addition to my kitchen list.
A late wander around the Government House grounds proved pretty fruitless. If that rain does move in overnight, I'm going to head over to Mount Tolmie bright and early tomorrow just to see what's to be seen...

It's a Mystery...

Can you tell what it is yet?

So, given the relative lack of news, I'll do the old mystery bird thing.
If you can cast your mind back, it was grainy shot of a duck. Given the 4 options, only 2 species attracted votes.
Therefore, we can ignore mallard and wood duck as no-one was even remotely tempted to choose either.
So, we're left with ruddy duck and shoveler.
The former garnered some 11 votes - accounting for 17% of the total.
The latter species was the clear front runner and got a whopping 51 votes in favour of it being that spatula-billed anas.
So, what convinced so many of its identity as a shoveler?
The rufousy flanks could suggest either species, but at any age and stage of moult would a ruddy duck ever show a white, or very pale breast? And how about the dark mantle? Could an eclipse drake ruddy show such demarcation between flanks and uperparts?

Here's one I prepared earlier...

One can see a hint of a pale area around the base of the bill, but anywhere enough to imply the extensive white cheeks of ruddy? Structurally, it doesn't really look like a stifftial, but photographs can, admittedly, be deceptive. But that tail is neither low on the water or raised - again more suggestive of shoveler. Finally, and perhaps most crucially - that bill! It looks pretty huge and distinctively spatula-shaped - further confirming the birds identity as a northern shoveler.
As always, please feel free to argue with my reasoning, or add any other obvious pointers that I have omitted.      
And, don't forget to have a go at the current one on the right...

Cacophonous Cowbirds Cause Concern

I wasn't going to bother going birding this morning, but the gloomy skies and overnight rain convinced me otherwise. I just couldn't get the image of a kingbird perched on top of a garry oak out of my head...
Anyhoo, my premonition proved unfounded (in all honesty, I'm rather relieved that I haven't suddenly developed some life-changing extra sensory perception) and the Government House grounds were pretty quiet.
A Wilson's warbler was enticed out from some dense, verdant undergrowth courtesy of some gentle pishing, and a pair of noisy male brown-headed cowbirds were busily pursuing a female. Even the local starlings seemed unimpressed by these brood-parasites' presence. 
The usual other suspects; red-breasted nuthatches, bushtits, orange-crowned warbler, Cooper's hawk, spotted towhee etc, etc, were all seen or heard around the woodland trail.
I left just in time - a photographer, along with his subjects, was just revving up for the finals of the Great Canadian Shouting Contest. He was very good at it. 

Around mid-day a group of c20 cedar waxwings were at the junction of Pentrelew Place and Fort Street.

When The Red, Red Robin etc...

Not much to report today...
I went down to Government House early this morning, but given the 'nice' weather - calm, clear skies overnight and same this morning - it was obviously not a day for grounded migrants.
Nonetheless, I had a root about and confirmed my thoughts. Other than the resident breeders etc al, it was dead. One thing warmed my cockles however; a doe with a very, very young fawn. It was all a bit Bambi...

Working from home all day, with the windows open, the robins were making their presence felt with their continual singing. Given their mega-rare status back home (yes, I once twitched one) I thought I'd put a pic up that I took through my living room window, just for the folks in dear old Blighty.   

Yesterday evening, Jenny and I had a stroll sown to the waterfront and en route, we saw a male western tanager. It was flying around at the western end of the Ross Bay Cemetery. Nice to get a year-tick so casually!

That Was The Week That Was

Blogger's been ill, so I haven't been able to post until now. So, if you're sitting comfortably, I'll begin...
 
This morning, it was fairly quiet down at Government House with nothing to indicate any birds new in. What was presumably a remnant of yesterday's fall; 12 yellow-rumped warbler, 1 Townsend's warbler and a warbling vireo were moving around in a single feeding flock, and a single Lincoln's sparrow emerged to check out my pishing but that was about it.

Thursday Fall

A bit of a fall was evident early Thursday morning in the grounds of Government House, Victoria.
It seemed pretty quiet until I jammed into a flock of around 30 yellow-rumped warblers feeding high up in some garry oaks, along the lower path. Scanning through I came across 6 Townsend's warblers, 2 ruby-crowned kinglet and a Wilson's warbler. An empidonax flycatcher showed briefly but flew off, silently.
As I moved along the path, a Cooper’s hawk came bombing along and just missed my head.
The distinctive clucking of a hermit thrush was emanating from the understory, and a little persuasive pishing lured it out, but nothing else.
I came across another active warbler flock, this time comprising around 10 yellow-rumped and 2 Townsend's along with a warbling vireo (my first of the year).
Then I noticed a smart olive-sided flycatcher (another year-tick) sallying from a snag.
I decided to gain some height, to check the tree tops and went to the small ‘balcony’ outlook where I was surprised to come eye to eye with a varied thrush.
The olive-sided was visible from here too, and gave better views but there was nothing in the upper branches of the trees.
On the eastern bluffs I saw another olive-sided flycatcher, but otherwise there was little activity there so I headed home for breakfast.

Wednesday Whirlwind

On Wednesday afternoon I had the pleasure of being given something of a guide tour of Victoria and Saanich Peninsula birding hotspots by Ian Cruickshank.
We started off at Panama Flats where, thanks the persistent downpour, the flooded fields were swarming with 100s of hirundines, including a few cliff swallows and one or two northern rough-winged swallows, plus good numbers of Vaux’s swifts (year tick).
Scanning the muddy fringes we noticed a congregation of feeding dowitchers, and a few least sandpipers.
Three spotted sandpiper (year tick) were also working the edges and common dabbling ducks punctuated the water’s surface including several shoveler and a pair of gadwall.

Among other places we visited included Observatory Hill - an impressive spot affording immaculate views. Here we added such things as chipping sparrow, Pacific-slope flycatcher (YT), American goldfinch and house wren (YT).
We came across dowitchers, mostly looking like long-billeds, at several sites including a group of just over 100 at 'Red Barn Flats'. This interesting site, (so named for its location right by, yep, you guessed it - a red barn, well the Red Barn Country Market more precisely.. ) was also teeming with swallows.

A stop at Maber Flats proved interesting with a breeding plumage black-bellied plover, more dowitchers and 18 purple martin (2 of which, pictured).
A flock of 40 cackling geese dropped in and a single greater white-fronted goose made an unexpected appearance.
Along the path, the hedgerow was jumping with YR warblers and I finally caught sight of my first yellow warbler of the year.

Later, we had a brief check of the Martindale area where the highlight was an adult female northern harrier.

After a quick stop at Island View Beach where we watched a Caspian tern fishing, we headed back.
It was great to be in the company of someone who knows not only the area, but the birds so well.
Ian's incredibly acute hearing, and ability to ID everything that calls, was a grim reminder that my battle-worn ears are well and truly past their sell-by date.
Add to that, my relative lack of familiarity with the region's birds' vocalisations and it's fairly obvious that I could be missing a not inconsiderable percentage of passerines while out birding. Oh well, at least my eyesight's still 20/20. For now...
Thanks again to Ian for his enthusiasm, and generous welcome to Victoria's birding scene!

Walking In A Whimbrel Wonderland

The wind had turned a little too much to the west for my liking when I got up this morning, but I headed down to the grounds of Government House nonetheless - just in case.
Passing the solitaire's hangout, I noticed that the holly was almost completely bereft of berries, and that the bird was nowhere to be seen. Not so surprising.
As I trawled the Woodland Trail, I was increasingly aware of the apparent lack of new birds and the only migrants noted were a couple of Wilson's warblers and a hermit thrush, along with the regular orange-crowned warblers. Both adult Cooper's hawks came out to play, but otherwise it was pretty quiet and I found myself at home by 8.45am.

Later, after some work and a few more job applications dealt with, Jenny and I took a walk down to the waterfront and followed Beach Drive, through the golf course (no whimbrels, but lots of golfers) up to Oak Bay Marina. While sat on a bench enjoying a cup of tea at the evocatively titled Turkey Head, we watched as a bald eagle flew across from one of the islands clutching a nearly fledged gull. Lovely.
Soon after, the distinctive call of a whimbrel alerted me to a single bird flying by, heading due south, low over the water. I believe that may well be the first I've seen on the island, and certainly the first hudsonicus I've seen anywhere for a few years.
Used as I am to seeing the nominate race back in the UK, it was great to see this bird in flight, showing the diagnostic features of this distinctive form. It made the considerable walk back along Oak Bay Ave to Rocklands that bit more bearable!

Neat Townsend's...

Following three rather hectic but extremely enjoyable evenings (The Pixies on Thursday, and Olympic-qualifying ale swilling on Friday and Saturday nights) I needed a bit of a lie-in this morning.
Rising just after 8am, I just got on with work. By midday Jenny and I decided a stroll down to Thrifty was in order and we trolled off, finding it pleasantly mild and overcast.

Townsend's Solitaire - no, really...

On our way back, we came eye-to-eye with a Townsend's solitaire on Joan Crescent - it showed exceptionally well, just a couple of metres away from us. It was in the very same garden that the recent cedar waxwing flock had favoured, and the fruiting holly bush was the apparent reason for its current location.
The photo here is pathetic even by my usual poor standards, and is helped even less by the fact that I forgot to take it off black and white mode before shooting. Genius. 
Delighted with this unexpected year-tick we headed home where I was rather surprised to spot a hermit thrush under, then in, the apple tree outside the kitchen window. It then struck me that perhaps I should have been out early...
Half an hour later, and I couldn't concentrate on my work for thinking about what other grounded migrant might be lurking in the neighbourhood. So, I set off to the Government House grounds in search of avian delights.
Now, by this time it was mid-afternoon and quite possibly the worst time of the day for finding birds. Add to that the Crufts-esque parade, the walkers, the cyclists and what-not and my expectations lowered significantly as I set off along the trails. Almost immediately, I located a Hammond's flycatcher and watched it at close quarters as it sallied from the garry oaks just below the car park. 
Along the lower path I caught some movement high up in a tree and was, let's say, a little disappointed to see a female house sparrow busily nipping buds. But then I noticed another bird, and got my first Townsend's warbler for the year, swiftly followed by a second. What cracking birds!
The rest of my amble was comparatively dull, with little else on show. I couldn't help but wonder what I may have encountered had I been down here at 7am...
Oh, and walking back around 3.45pm I was pleased to see that the solitaire was still present in the same spot.

Today's New Bird For The Year Is...

Spurred on by the overnight rain and the persistent drizzle this morning, I headed off to check the grounds of Government House. As I walked along the sodden streets, thoughts of sparkling neotropical migrants dripping from the trees whirled through my over-active mind.
Well, as it happens the only things dripping from the trees, were actual drips. Even the resident birds were keeping their heads down and only the robins and a lone Bewick's wren were even bothering to sing.
After a lot of pishing and creeping around in the waterlogged shrubbery, I eventually came across a bushtit flock which had attracted a Wilson's warbler. Encouraged, I plodded on until I caught the shadowy rear end of something flitting away from me beneath a bush. I got down low and tried my patented warbler-scaring pishing and squeeking. Again, it flitted, and vanished. This went on for a few minutes and eventually I got a look at it as it sat for what seemed like a nano-second before silently slipping off into the understory once more. Good enough, though. It was a cracking male MacGillivray's warbler. Common enough, but a personal favourite. I emerged soggier, but significantly happer.
The juvenile Cooper's hawk was, meanwhile, sat above me throughout my endeavours.
The remainder of my visit was unremarkable. On my way out an adult Cooper's hawk came by, landing in a bare tree close to me. I could see that it was banded on the right leg, but with just binocs the number was indecipherable.   
     

Another New Bird For the Year

This morning's 'first for the year' was a lovely bright Wilson's warbler, seen along the lower path at the Government House grounds. It really was something of a saving grace, as until I had the pleasure of seeing it the birding had been dull as ditch water.
It didn't really pick up much after that to be honest, and the remainder of my visit was taken up with seeing the regular birds in-residence.

For those reading this blog who may be unfamiliar with the commoner birds of western Canada (or at least this wee pocket of Victoria...) here's a full list of birds seen and heard this morning.

Great blue heron (flyover)
Mallard
Cooper's hawk
Glaucous-winged gull
Anna's hummingbird
Hairy woodpecker
Downy woodpecker
Northwestern crow
Violet-green swallow
Chestnut-backed chickadee
Bushtit
Red-breasted nuthatch
Brown creeper
Bewick's wren
Golden-crowned kinglet
American robin
Eurasian starling
Orange-crowned warbler
Wilson's warbler
Spotted towhee
Song sparrow
Dark-eyed junco
House finch
Pine siskin
House sparrow

So, while that would be an exceptional day on the Scillies or the Outer Hebrides, down here that's fairly mundane stuff.

I'm surprised, as others seem to be, at the lack of number of common migrants passing through so far this spring. I have had no falls of anything - last year I was regularly encountering 30+ groups of yellow-rumped warblers and such, and I find it quite amazing that I have only seen 1 rufous hummingbird so far...
Perhaps the 'good' weather has allowed direct passage to breeding grounds, allowing migrants to bypass stop-offs? There doesn't seem to be any blocking weather to the south of us, so I can't see any reason for a hold-up. Be interesting to see how the spring develops.

* Oh, and thanks the Nathan Hentze for providing the relevant contact info regarding the Nanaimo vesper sparrow. Cheers.

Flycatchers and Deer and Racoons, Oh My!

I was hopeful, thanks to the overcast skies, that this morning might prove more fruitful than the past couple of days and I headed off to have a walk around the grounds of Government House at 7am.
A band-tailed pigeon was sat up in the trees near the back car park, indicating that there was at last some migrant movement. 

The deer photographed here was more intent on keeping its eye on the dog being walked past - I offered little threat, obviously.  
As I carefully and slowly made my way along the trails, stopping for the occasional bout of pishing, I soon realised that I wasn't going to find myself in the midst of an historic fall of epic proportions. A hermit thrush showed and a couple of skulking golden-crowned sparrows emerged from the brush but otherwise it was business as usual for the most part.  
I continued to pish, make pygmy owl noises and tweak my rustic 'Audubon Bird Call' as I made my way along the path and eventually got some response from a yellow-rumped warbler. I looked up, it was a female.
Then another bird caught my eye up on a snag. It was an empidonax flycatcher - nice, my first of the year. 
It flitted between a large fir and the exposed branches of an adjacent garry oak, keeping mainly in the upper reaches.
It looked like a Hammond's flycatcher, then it called, further confirming it. Phew. That was easier than it could have been!

As I was grilling this small empid, a rather cumbersome racoon (pictured) came along to check me out. I'm sure that long-time residents and natives of this fair land are ambivalent about these mammals, but I have to say I'm still very much charmed by them... 

All Quiet Around The House

Another early wander around the Government House gardens and woodland trail this morning failed to reveal much of note.
A fox sparrow was seen as were two hermit thrush, with a third heard. Just 3 territorial orange-crowned warblers were heard and seen, and only one ruby-crowned kinglet.
Pine siskins were bombing around, chasing each other in pairs.
Other than the usual towhees, Bewick's wrens, nuthatches and such it was pretty quiet.

A morning trundle around the Government House grounds on Thursday was equally unremarkable,
the highlights being 1 each of hermit thrush and fox sparrow.
A couple of ruby-crowned kinglet were seen but it was otherwise quiet passerine-wise.
An adult Cooper's hawk was busy doing that flappy nighthawk-like display flight over while a young bird was also doing the rounds.
Two large skeins of white-fronted geese passed over - very high. One group contained around 120 birds, the other about 160. At least 3 smaller birds, presumably cackling geese, were discernible.