Getting horny

Haven't done too much birding this week, with one thing and another. I've noticed a couple more turkey vultures migrating through here and there but otherwise it's been a bit quiet.
Jenny and I got out yesterday (Saturday) for a good walk - we set off to Oak Bay Marina and continued along the coast to Ross Bay. We made a small but exhilarating detour up through Walbran Park, the views from here were superb and I couldn't help but think what a great 'vis-mig' point this could be...
Anyway, despite the miles of coastline trudged, we saw very little to get excited about bird-wise.

Bewick's wren

On Sunday I spent a bit of time rooting around in the Government House grounds. There was lots going; the air was filled with singing Pacific and Bewick's wrens (pictured), dark-eyed juncos, pine siskins and house finches while excavating red-breasted nuthatches and downy woodpeckers worked industriously.
Looking skyward, a Cooper's hawk was engaging in fabulous aerial display and a lone sharp-shinned hawk even spiraled over heading northward.

Great horned owl

I looked in vain for a resident barred owl but was rewarded big-time by the discovery of my first great horned owl on the site (pictured). I wonder if this was a transient short-range-migrant or a local bird seeking new territory? It'll be interesting to see whether this bird hangs around...  

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.

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.   
     

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.

Good Morning For A Mourning Dove

Although it was encouragingly overcast as I looked out the window this morning, the forecast rain had failed to materialise. Nonetheless, I trundled off to Government House just to see if the southerlies and cloud cover had caused anything to drop. The cloud ceiling was a touch high, and my optimism waned somewhat as I walked through the gardens toward the bluffs.
It was eerily quiet, with few birds singing. Even the Bewick's wrens and towhees were reticent, and took a while to get revved up. In fact the noisiest birds were the Cooper's hawks - a juvenile bird was making a right racket and was being chased around the place by the adult male. In fact, this went on throughout the hour or so I was there, and every time the young bird approached the area of the park where the nest is located, the adult came out to see it off. Later, I located both adult birds near the nest; the female was pulling some hapless songbird apart while the male looked on, from several feet away. I'm assuming that it's too early for a fledged bird of this year, and that the youngster is one of last year's offspring?
As I slowly made my way around the trail I came across several orange-crowned warblers, a lone male yellow-rumped warbler, a couple of ruby-crowned kinglets and the other usual denizens of the area.
Just as I coming away, however I noticed a mourning dove sat up in the trees near the parking area. I think I'm right in saying that this is the first one that I've ever seen on the island, so that certainly made the walk worthwhile!
On my way back, I once again saw the flock of cedar waxwings on Joan Crescent - there were 16 present.

Hump day 'hawks

Made a brief stop at Holden Creek this evening, just to see if anything was being pushed out by the rising tide.
One of the resident red-tailed hawks was sat in its usual spot as I arrived, and I flushed a Cooper's hawk from the small trees, by the sluice.
On the creek a mixed flock of least and western sandpipers were feeding on the fast vanishing muddy edges. Probably 50 birds in total with around a dozen being westerns.
Swallows were notable by their relative absence - just a handful of birds around the barns.
A merlin came through, and had a go at tackling a couple of starlings, to no avail. A bald eagle was sat out on the telegraph poles (or hydro poles, or whatever they're called over here).

At around 6.30pm I noticed a few common nighthawks feeding over the estuary - a quick count revealed 30 or so. Before long they had been joined by more, and as I watched, nighthawks came pouring in until they peaked at around 200 birds.
They would occasionally break up, with flocks passing over me and heading off toward Cedar, while others headed out over Raines Road, before returning 5 or 6 six minutes later, and again swarming in one big flock over the marsh. Great stuff.
Impossible to photograph though, with a compact digital camera (see accompanying evidence).
It's times like this that I really miss my 35mm cameras... I must invest in a digital SLR one of these days.    

Friendly, neighbourhood web-slingers

It was absolutely lovely down on the Nanaimo River estuary this morning, with the early sunshine illuminating the hundreds of spider webs, low in the weedy vegetation and as far as the eye could see. Which, given the great light, was actually quite far.  
My theory about the savannah sparrows was totally unfounded - there were loads of of them, singing from every available twig, stump and bush. Presumably, they just shut up and go into hiding early in the evening.
A female northern harrier was preening on a snag out on the marsh, while a northern shrike was occupying the posts previously favoured by the bluebird.
There were a couple of singing white-crowned sparrows, while a few more were back in with the golden-crowned. The flock was scattered, and feeding on the ground this morning and difficult to go through, so I wasn't able to locate the white-throated.
7 greater yellowlegs were on the river. Then it was 8.30am and I had to go to work... p'ah.

At lunchtime, I clocked the male Anna's hummingbird at Mafeo Sutton Park, plus a singing yellow-rumped warbler was down there.

Jenny, Chrissie and I went for an early evening wander to Hemer Park, but it wasn't overly birdy. As usual, great to hear varied thrushes singing away from the depths of the forest. A pair of wood duck, 3 ring-necked duck and 4 hooded merganser were on the pool. On the walk back we got buzzed by a rufous hummer and a Cooper's hawk flew up onto the telegraph wires beside us (see pic). A little further along a merlin was sat up in a conifer near the house.

The Lake Late Show

Despite, or probably because of, the rain, decided to have a look around Quennell Lake this evening.
Not too much really to report, though there was an apparent increase in lesser scaup. I counted 56.
Also, around 60 common merganser were also there. Still approximately 60 or so shoveler, plus 30ish bufflehead and a few green-winged teal, pintail, mallard and American wigeon.
Good numbers of both tree and violet-green swallow were feeding over the lake and a bald eagle was cruising up and down.
As usual there were great-blue herons all over the place... oh, and best of all a beaver swan across! Forgive me, but I doubt I'll ever tire of seeing those...

Yesterday evening, Jenny and I walked to Hemer Park. Not excessively birdy, but it was great hearing the melancholic varied thrushes' haunting whistles throughout the forest.
A couple of ring-necked duck were on the pool along with pied-billed grebes, hooded mergansers and, er, mallard. A very loud barred owl was barking away from the depths of the forest, and kindly totally took no notice whatsoever of my crappy efforts to imitate it. On the way back home, a Cooper's hawk flew past us.
Incidentally, on my way home from work yesterday, a sharp-shinned hawk was being harried by a northwestern crow near the dump, and a turkey vulture drifted over the road at Cedar. Oh, and a pair of 'doves' flew across the road near the Co-Op gas station near the Cedar Rd junction. They looked like collared doves from the brief view I got...

And I'm starting to think that the current mystery bird is wwwwaaaayyyy too easy..!