More Florida Birding Highlights...

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!)

Bluebird Of Happiness Returns...

Saturday: With just a small window of birding opportunity open to me today, I squeezed in a brief visit to Holden Creek and the Nanaimo River estuary.

The only thing of note at Holden was the group of 5 greater white-fronted geese in the fields and the large number of American robins in the general area.
At the estuary, I could find no sign of interesting passerine migrants, and so contented myself with picking through the large numbers of violet-green and tree swallows in search of other hirundine species. I didn't locate any.
The only new bird I came across was a female American kestrel, which was hunting distantly in the adjacent scrubby fields (pictured). A female northern harrier was cruising around the marsh, and good numbers of thermaling bald eagles and ravens were joined by a couple of red-tailed hawks.

Sunday: Once again, other commitments (and something of a fuzzy hangover) meant that my birding time was limited. And, once again, I headed for the estuary in search of avian goodies. However, it was absolutely dead down there, with no evidence of any passage birds.
After a good scan around, I eventually located a peregrine perched up on a stranded log, and a female northern harrier floated by.    
Disappointed, I decided to try Holden Creek. Just about the first bird seen here was a smart yellow-rumped warbler (Audubon's) - well, that was at least more encouraging!
Scanning the creek, I could only see a few green-winged teal and a couple of bufflehead. A couple of turkey vultures sailed by and a male northern harrier was circling high over the marsh.

Checking the fenceposts, I soon came across a distant blue shape flitting from post to ground and up again. A quick relocation with the 'scope proved it to be what I thought it was - a male mountain bluebird. Excellent. Four days earlier than my first one last year. Given the distance, I could only manage the shot here, but even still it's pretty unmistakable!

Before heading home we dropped by at Quennell Lake, passing the regular male American kestrel, sat on a telegraph pole, as we drove along.
The numbers of northern shoveler had gone up slightly and 18 birds were feeding in a frenzied huddle.
A flock of 62 lesser scaup and 2 ring-necked duck were on the main lake while a few mallard, teal and pintail were dabbling in the shallower vegetated edges. A Virginia rail called, but kept well hidden.
Well over 100 swallows were feeding out over the water and a northern shrike was hunting from fenceposts in the fields by the road.

Late nighthawk, early...

No birding, as such, today but I did see a single common nighthawk flying over the office in downtown Nanaimo around 4.45pm. Presumably a late migrant, it wasn't feeding but heading determinedly south.
Oh, and a red-necked grebe again, down by Mafeo-Sutton Park at lunchtime.

Calls of the Wild

The most notable thing about my morning trawl around the Nanaimo River estuary, was coming to the grim conclusion that, as utterly thrilling as autumn birding may be, it can also be extremely frustrating. In particular, as a relative newcomer to Vancouver Island, the unidentifiable calls of overhead passerines was really galling. No more meadow pipits and wagtails for me, now it's all, well, I don't know!
Despite my frantically scribing poorly rendered vocalisations in my notebook, I came out with nothing. God only knows what was flying over my head...
Equally frustrating was the golden plover sp. that I could clearly hear, but couldn't locate - it was obviously flying but could I find it? No. No, I couldn't.
Okay, now to the birds that kindly showed themselves to me.
A flock of 7 long-billed dowitcher were flushed from the river by a marauding sharp-shinned hawk, and a further pair were roosting on the marsh.
A single orange-crowned warbler, the first I've seen for ages, was in the bushes around the platform. Around 60-70 savannah sparrows were in the area.
The juv northern harrier, an osprey and a merlin were also kicking around, and numerous turkey vultures were moving through.
A cloud of barn swallows, incidentally heading north (huh?), contained a pair of late violet-green swallows.
Hoping that the tide would have dropped enough to allow access to the marsh, I headed for Holden Creek. The shrubbery along the path was quite lively - at least 2 Lincoln's sparrows and my first golden-crowned sparrow of the fall were among a group of savannah and white-crowned. A couple of common yellowthroat, several chestnut-backed chickadees, a Bewick's wren, northern flickers, red-breasted nuthatches and song sparrows were also in the 'hood.
A female pintail was with a pair of mallard on the creek. Out on the marsh a couple of large wet German shepherds were running around proving either that they'd already flushed everything, or that there was nothing much to flush. 8 green-winged teal were the only things that spooked.
The farmer's fields appeared to be alive with loads of sparrows and such, but the creek was still too high to cross and the dogs were slightly off-putting too, to be honest...

* Oh, I forgot to mention - there seemed to be Steller's jays all over the place today. It seemed like everywhere I went, I was seeing ones and twos.

All quiet on the western front. And semi-p front... and everything else front.

All day, I was looking forward to a post work visit to Nanaimo's Holden Creek, convinced that last night's and today's rain would have dropped, and held, some waders.
Things looked relatively promising as I arrived, noting a group of 14 least sandpiper feeding in the channel. A quick scan along the creek however, suggested otherwise. Other than a juvenile great blue heron it was birdless. It's hard to believe that this site was once one of Vancouver Island's premier birding sites, as far as migrant waders are concerned. Perhaps it's just a particularly quiet year, or maybe the habitat management simply hasn't benefitted passage shorebirds.
I crossed the channel and made my way along the flood bank, scanning the empty marsh. The rain had done little to raise the levels in the dry pools and other than a fly-through pintail, there were no birds of note to be seen.
Of interest, was a large flock of 20ish white-crowned sparrows of mixed ages, along with a single very recently fledged cowbird among them. Later, I encountered similar numbers of savannah sparrows. A couple of common yellowthroat were in the brambles.
Other than a small group of 5 least sandpiper at the upper end of the creek, there were no other shorebirds on site.
Back on the channel later, a merlin came through with intent, scattering the sandpipers.
      

Vancouver Island Pelagic Birding Trip - what a weekend!

All Aboard!

I've been itching for a chance to get offshore since I moved out here, and I finally arranged to join a pelagic trip with Just Birding out of Tofino on Saturday. I'd managed to talk Rich Mooney into coming along (didn't take much, to be honest) and we headed west in the early hours, having had about 2 hours sleep...

Me and Rich (left) relaxing onboard...

We arrived in Tofino at 6am, and after a bit of
general farting around, we took off toward the continental shelf on board a small boat with just half a dozen other paying customers, the skipper and on-board bird-guide, Adrian Dorst.
The conditions were immaculate. Visibility was excellent and the ocean was flat calm - even 35 miles from shore!
This calmness may have been a contributing factor in the relative small numbers of birds we encountered, but the lack of large fishing vessels was the main reason we didn't locate any big flocks.
Nonetheless, we did find some great stuff, and the whole experience was well worth the effort.
I did get 4 lifers, which was good enough for me!

Tufted puffin by Rich

These included tufted puffin, of which we had at least 7 sighting - all superb adults in full breeding regalia. The attached pic was taken by Rich.
Cassin's auklet was another new bird for me, and we saw lots of these diminutive alcids and had great opportunities to observe them at close quarters and in flight.
One of the birds I was expecting, and really looking forward to seeing, was fork-tailed storm-petrel - I wasn't disappointed, we came across many and got ace views. Thanks to Adrian for the attached pic.

Fork-tailed storm-petrel by Adrian Dorst

The final tick, was a species I really hoped we'd bump into, but given the absence of fishing boats, I wasn't too optimistic about our finding one. Thankfully Rich picked it up, as a black-footed albatross came in from the horizon. We didn't get great views, but it was a relief to get on one in the bag, so to speak.
Other stuff we saw on the 6 hour trip included common loon, harlequin ducks, good numbers of both sooty and pink-footed shearwaters, plenty of fulmars (the majority of which were dark-phase birds), couple of wandering tattlers, black turnstones, surfbirds, and both red-necked and red (or grey, to UK readers) phalaropes, large numbers of Heerman's gulls, common murres, pigeon guillemots, marbled murrelets and rhinoceros auklets.
Unfortunate omissions included Sabine's gull, and jaegers (ie skuas, dear Brits), terns, Buller's shearwaters and Leach's petrels, never mind any of the scarcer stuff. A pair of distant silhouettes were almost certainly South Polar skuas, but we got onto them too late to be sure. Dagnabit.

Humpback whale & pink-footed shearwater by Adrian Dorst

On top of the ace birding,we also had unbelievable views of several humpback whales. Again, thanks to Adrian for the shots. (ps that's a pink-footed shearwater to the right of the whale.) Harbour porpoise and harbour seals were also spotted, as was a family of sea otters, lurking in the kelp beds, as to be expected.

Back to land and normality...

Jenny joined me on my BC Coastal Waterbird Survey at high tide, late morning today (Sunday). It was pretty unremarkable, as to be expected in August. But, it was a lovely day, and we enjoyed the walk down to Jack Point. 
     
I headed down to Holden Creek after the tide subsided, and was delighted to see that the high water levels had replenished the dry pools with lovely bird-attracting water!

On the creek were a dozen least sandpipers and a pair of dowitchers (pic of one here). I was inclined toward short-billed, but I'd be interested to hear what others might think. If only they'd called!
The back pool was hosting 3 lesser yellowlegs and a pair of green-winged teal. The now watery, bog-of-eternal-stench had a further 8 lesser yellowlegs, 1 greater yellowlegs, 1 long-billed dowitcher, 6 least, 1 semi-palmated & 3 western sandpiper.

Pre-juv lull...

Not too much going on down at Nanaimo's Holden Creek, when I finally managed a spot of birding there today. The tide was pretty well out, but just starting to turn so I couldn't really hang around for fear of having to come into contact with that horrible creek sludge, otherwise referred to as 'water'.

A few peeps were feeding on the main creek - 10 least sandpiper, 1 western and 2 semi-palmated sandpipers.
A nice group of 6 long-billed dowitchers were feeding on one of the marsh pools (see pic) alongside another semi-palmated sandpiper.

Yesterday's 'hot-spot' has continued to dry out and consequently, it's appeal is starting to wane. Just a not-particularly-choosy pectoral sandpiper was there.

I imagine that once the juvenile birds start moving south, it could get very interesting down here, as long as we get some water in those flashes to entice them...

Flower Power

The birding's been a bit crap for the last couple of days, to be honest. 'Highlights' have included the remaining greater yellowlegs at Holden Creek, 6 spotted sandpiper at Nanaimo River and another 8 at least at Holden, osprey and merlin from my office window, black oystercatcher and surf scoter on my lunchtime amble down to the waterfront, and not much else really.
I did, however, come across this rather stunning flower at the estuary. I have since discovered that it is a common camas -  a relative of the lily family. 
Apparently, the sweet tasting bulbs of common camas were highly valued and traded as a food by various indigenous peoples, including the Coast Salish of Vancouver Island, Squamish, Comox, and Kwak-waka'wakw of the British Columbia coast. 
This plant seems to be associated with wet meadows and often grows near Garry oaks, so it seems odd to me that there should be camas on tidal saltmarsh. 
I'm sure that local botany experts will tell me either a: that this is a normal occurrence or, b: that they've been artificially introduced, intentionally or otherwise. Anyway, whatever, it's a lovely flower with an interesting local history and in the absence of any ornithological excitement, and an almost total absence of butterflies and dragonflies, I'm happy to share it.

Ruddy heck, a noteworthy duck!

Didn't really get any birding in today until early evening when an, ill-timed, visit to Holden Creek coincided with a spell of persistent drizzle. Nice.
Not too much to report, as a result. A single least sandpiper was on the creek, and at least 5 spotted sandpipers were chasing each other around. A couple of Wilson's warblers were feeding in the gorse.

As it started to clear, I headed to Quennell Lake to see if I could find anything interesting there. Again, a single least sandpiper was on the muddy ex-lake, as were a couple of killdeer with 1 chick.
A lone drake green-winged teal was with 5 mallard at the back and a drake wood duck was on the actual lake (ie the one with water). Tones of hirundines were feeding around the place - northern rough-winged, barn, tree, violet-green and cliff were all present in good numbers. I couldn't resist snapping a couple as they sat on the wires in the low sunlight. (For those not familiar with American swallows, the pic shows from left to right, violet-green, cliff & tree). A Vaux's swift came through and fed briefly before heading off north.
Something of a surprise was a female ruddy duck on the lake. I think they're pretty scarce 'round these parts... I think this is another species I last saw on vancouver Island back in the early 90s.

Glad to see such a good response the most recent mystery bird... answer, and a new one, coming soon!

Black Friday

After seeing our guests off at 6.45am, I headed off to the Nanaimo River estuary for a spot of pre-work birding, despite the downpour.
As soon as I arrived at the parking area it stopped raining - wow, what luck!
The area around the big oak was jumping with yellow warblers, plus a couple of Wilson's. It became apparent however, that little had been dumped in the rain and my hopes of a kingbird, redstart, or such treasure, drained away along with the rain water.
As I was leaving however, a handful of black swifts appeared overhead and as I watched them, yet more  pass through - I estimated a total of around 70 birds. They continued to feed over the estuary and drifted toward Holden Creek.  

After work, I went to the aforementioned creek but it was just as quiet as yesterday, really. On the plus side, the spotted sandpiper numbers had crept up to an impressive 8 birds.

Devil birds over Nanaimo

The undisputed highlight of my day was noticing some dark scythes heading my way, as I glanced out of the office window just before 11am today. A small flock of approximately 12 black swifts started feeding around the building, having come in just ahead of a gloomy, dark cloud. They continued to whizz around for about 40 minutes before spiralling away. Excellent stuff - another bird I hadn't seen for quite a few years!
The only other ave of notice was the male Anna's hummer down at the Mafeo Sutton Park at lunchtime.

In the evening, Adrian joined me for his final Canadian birding jaunt down to Holden Creek, before heading back to Blighty in the morning. It was pretty unremarkable - 3 spotted sandpiper were the only waders seen. Otherwise, it was hirundines, cowbirds and goldfinches... and Mike Ashbee.

Everything damp but my spirits

Well, it was back to normal today with customary grey skies and rain. I took a soggy wander down to the seafront in Nanaimo for a spot of lunchtime birding, where a fine breeding plumage pigeon guillemot was paddling around near the float plane jetty.
Otherwise it was pretty quiet, with the usual common goldeneyes, buffeheads & double-crested cormorants  on the water. A handful of mew and glaucous-winged gulls were kicking around.
Several American robins and dark-eyed juncos were feeding together on the grassed areas - passing through?

Regular readers of this blog may recall my moaning about how Virginia rails were failing to behave properly at Buttertubs Marsh, when it was flooded, and then frozen over recently. To put things into perspective, the attached pic, taken by one of my chums back on my old patch back in Blighty, demonstrates clearly just how they should go about their business. The photo, for those who don't know, shows a European water rail (Rallus aquaticus). 

Check out the Aldcliffe blog, in the links on the bottom of the sidebar to the left of this page, to see more pics of these, usually, secretive birds.    

Birding on a Sunday afternoon

Spent much of the afternoon down at the Nanaimo River Estuary today. Again, it was fairly undisturbed and in 3 1/2 hours fewer than 10 other people were seen. Just the way I like it!

I started off at the platform, scanning the area just to get an idea of what was about. I quickly realised that a good sized sparrow flock was feeding nearby and decided to concentrate on that for a while. Good idea, as it turned out as I was soon looking at the white-throated sparrow which, as you will see, stayed still long enough for a quick digisnap. The pic also confirms it as a 1st winter, white-striped, bird. Also here were plenty of golden-crowned sparrows (pic2), dark-eyed juncos, spotted towhees, song sparrows, 4 white-crowned sparrows (pic3), house finches (p4), 2 Bewick's wrens, a couple of purple finches and a ruby-crowned kinglet.

Checking out over the water, the usual hundreds of pintail, American wigeon and green-winged teal were present with smaller numbers of mallard and gadwall. There were also common and red-breasted merganser, bufflehead, common goldeneye, a flotilla of greater scaup, a common loon and a sealion!
A couple of California gulls were amongst the large numbers of glaucous-winged.

A peregrine was sat on a snag out near the water's edge. Even at 3 times the distance of that falcon I saw in oldtown last week this was soooooo clearly a peregrine. The white cheeks were clearly visible, even through bins, as was the contrast between the upper and underparts. The wings were obviously equal in length to the tail and even though this was a big female-type, it was nowhere near as immense a creature as the Nanaimo bird...  

The juv northern harrier made several appearances, hunting extensively over the various bits of the marsh.  

Good to see a northern shrike was back on territory, hunting from scattered shrubs around the marsh.

Oddly, the trumpeter swans all cleared out during the afternoon going from around 50 birds to just 6 by the time I left. I imagine they were going off to feed somewhere more exciting. They left intermittently, in small parties, and all headed off toward Cedar - Quennel Lake?

I trawled the long hedge but it was hard work. The most exciting thing I came across was a downy woodpecker, which says it all. I keep scouring the exceedingly long-eared-owl-friendly hawthorn/willow scrub but have yet to discover one alive...

No gun salute

It was a bit grizzly out there this morning. Misty and grey with a lot of moisture in the air and occasional showers to add to the fun. Nonetheless, it was OK weather for birding and I had the Nanaimo River estuary to myself for almost 3 hours. Not a hunter in sight.
As I arrived, I did meet a birder who was coming away from the area, he'd not seen too much though he did mention a peregrine.

Undeterred I headed out and opted to 'do' the long hedge first. As it turned out it wasn't such a bad idea as I soon found a mixed flock and almost immediately saw the white-throated sparrow. Once again the majority of birds here were golden-crowned sparrow (c.20) and dark-eyed junco (c.40) plus a few song sparrows and towhees thrown in for good measure.
A juv northern harrier then drifted in from out on the estuary, hunted briefly over the marsh then went and alighted on a dead tree in the fields, where it remained for a couple of hours or so. A red-tailed hawk was also sat up on a snag nearby.
4 Western meadowlark were sat up in a tree out in the fields - the first I've seen here in a while.
Up to 60 trumpeter swans were on the marsh along with some 'newly' arrived Canada geese (do they know the hunting season's over?) and a small group of American wigeon.
I eventually came across another mixed group of passerines and hoped that this was the flock with the American tree sparrows. Despite my best efforts I couldn't see or hear any, although a very smart Lincoln's sparrow was amongst them.
I headed back down along the hedgerow, but with the exception of the resident flickers and a gang of red-winged blackbirds it was pretty uneventful.
From the viewing platform I could see that the majority of the ducks were out on the water - it was low tide and they were quite some distance. Scoping through them, I picked out a lone Eurasian wigeon amongst the many American wigeon (ironically, back in  Lancashire, many of my old birding chums have been heading out to see an American wigeon in with a load of common Europeans - quite a rarity!). As usual the bulk of the wildfowl comprised of pintail, A. wigeon, green-winged teal and mallard. Gadwall numbers were up with around 40 birds present. Buffleheads, common mergansers and common goldeneye were also seen.
A rather impressive 22 great blue herons were on the marsh, and of course bald eagles were a constant presence.
I came across the big flock again, near the platform, and once more saw the white-throated sparrow in with them but, as usual, it eluded being photographed. The ruby-crowned kinglet was with them again.
I walked out to river mouth a short way and was delighted to flush a short-eared owl, which then proceeded to hunt briefly over the marsh before taking to ground again. Whether the owl was as delighted as I was, is up for debate...
      
On my way to collect Jenny from work in the early afternoon, I made a  quick stop at Buttertubs Marsh  which was rather unremarkable. Apart from the return of the mallards, a dozen ring-necked duck, 2 hooded merganser and a pair of pied-billed grebe it was somewhat on the quiet side.