Bunting hunting

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

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.

Lazulike-it

After a pretty rubbish day yesterday, when I couldn't find any birds anywhere, today was a significant improvement.
Just to put yesterday morning into perspective: I arrived at the Nanaimo River estuary to find top local birder Steve Baillie tapping determinedly into his Blackberry. He informed me that I'd missed a male lazuli bunting by minutes! Nice find, Steve!
Despite an hour searching the area, I failed to relocate it - or anything else of interest. Ralph Hocken arrived, and after a while I decided to go and check the mudflats, in case any shorebirds were out there taking advantage of the low tide. Ralph came along and we soon discovered that the food-rich estuary was being spectacularly ignored by any long-billed transients. A quick, desperate, stop at Holden Creek was equally bleak.
Ever optimistic, I returned to the estuary in search of a certain bunting late afternoon, to no avail. Though, a pair of warbling vireo in the oak provided a pleasant distraction.

So, I decided to take Sunday a lot more easily. Jenny and I took a leisurely stroll to Hemer Park, before the rain commenced. Highlights here included: chipping sparrows, western tanager, black-headed grosbeak & gadwall.

Later, I headed down to Holden Creek and gave it a thorough once-over. A single pectoral sandpiper was on the 'back pool' - see pic. Other than that, just the usual spotted sandpipers, killdeer, red-tailed hawk, yellow warbler etc were noted. An osprey flew over.
I drove over to the estuary and decided to have a careful creep around the bushes near the big oak - just in case...

After rousing a few white-crowned sparrows, my pishing was met with a distinctive 'tick' call, considerably less metallic sounding that the w.c. sparrows'. I continued to pish and BINGO! Up popped the lazuli bunting. It sat out in the open for a short while, allowing a snap or two, before diving into the brambles. Thrilled (yes, it was a world tick!), I decided to leave it alone and have a quick check from the platform.
The rain was coming in now, and other than 3 green-winged teal on the river, there was little to get excited about. I headed back to the car and was amazed to see the lazuli bunting feeding on the footpath between the oak and the car park! It flew up and landed on the wire fence, posing nicely before flying off towards the fields.