Anas Penelope Pitstop

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.

New Year, New Yearlist...

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. 

Pewee's Big Adventure

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...    

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.

Waxwing lyrical...

Had a pretty bird-free weekend, as it was Jenny's birthday, and we spent the weekend gorging ourselves on fine food and damaging our, already battered, livers down in Victoria. I did manage a year-tick in the form of an olive-sided flycatcher in Beacon Park, but otherwise I wasn't really make an effort...

Got back home with time to blast round the Nanaimo River estuary for an hour or so late this afternoon.
A cedar waxwing was perched up on wires along Raines Road.
As a Brit, I'm amazed how common these birds are here, having always associated waxwings (albeit Bohemian) with winter. In the UK, these eruptive birds only show up when poor berry crops, or severe weather, cause them to move from further north. In some years they're very scarce, while in others they can arrive in massive numbers. In fact, I along with many hundreds of other birders twitched the only English cedar waxwing that was found among a huge flock of Bohemian's in Nottinghamshire back in 1996. A Scottish record pre-dated that one, and recently the species made its Irish debut when a Cedar waxwing was discovered last October.

Later, I came across a single bird (pic) and then a pair nest building.
I saw my first western wood-pewee of the year, it was flycatching from the small trees near the large oak.
The usual supporting cast of goldfinches, assorted sparrows, purple finch, 2 ospreys, spotted sandpipers, cowbirds and what-not were in evidence and kept me busy.

Of note: I found a swathe of common camas in a more likely looking spot, and discovered one with white flowers (pic) - quite scarce, from what I believe...        

Oriole surprise

A quick visit to Holden Creek after work this evening was pretty unproductive - the tide was rolling in but nothing was being flushed out of any channels, boggy nooks or, indeed, muddy crannies. At least 5 spotted sandpiper were seen, with some renewed courtship taking place.

I decided to leg it round to Raines Road, to check the estuary from there. I arrived to find the river rising significantly, and the marsh flooding. I scanned around but other than two very distant flying peeps, there were no shorebirds of note. The pair of spotted sandpiper were moving noisily around the place and a pair of killdeer were also present.
Paddling around with the few mallard still in the area, were 9 gadwall and a lingering drake American wigeon.
A bald eagle was taking advantage of the high water levels and grabbing at something from a flooded grassy area by the river (pic).
A surprise came in the form of 3 cedar waxwings that were flycatching from a hawthorn near the viewing platform.

Just before I left I thought I'd have one last look out by the 'bluebird posts'. Glad I did. I spotted a distant, medium-sized passerine flying into a small bush out on the flooded marsh. Through bins at considerable range it looked greenish. Huh?
Keeping my eye on the bush, I erected my tripod and got onto it with my 'scope, just as it flew! I could see yellow on its head and undertail... I found it again as it clambered around in a small crabapple. Oriole! White wing bars, brownish upperparts, pale belly - female Bullock's oriole. Nice one. I watched it distantly for a few seconds as it moved around from small bush to small bush, and I even managed a quick, crap, shot (pic) before it took to the air and flew high in the direction of Holden Creek.