A Good Walk Out Workout

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.

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

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!

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

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

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...