Fancy a Chat?

After driving Jenny up to Swartz Bay to catch the 8am ferry over to the mainland this morning, I got back home with enough time to squeeze in a quick trundle around the Government House grounds before starting work.
As has been the case for several days now, it was pretty much the domain of the local breeding birds. Along with good numbers of fledged bushits, the chestnut-backed chickadees, Bewick's wrens and downy woodpeckers seem to have done reasonably well with family parties busily feeding all around the site. Lots of pine siskins around too (including a flyover flock of c40 birds), indicating a successful breeding season.
Cooper's hawks were patrolling the woodland, both nests seemingly still active. A very showy warbling vireo was singing his heart out by the parking area.

After a day's scribing, I decided to spend the evening birding and thought I'd go and check out the place by Prospect Lake Road where the yellow-breasted chat has been hanging around for several days. For those reading this back in dear old Blighty, this species is a major rarity in these parts.

Somewhere in that lot, there's a chat...

I found the place easily enough, but was rather over awed by the size of the area!
So, I've got try and locate a an extremely skulking warbler which has occasionally been betraying its presence by letting out bursts of song, often keeping hidden while doing so. Marvelous. 
Oh well, it was a great, birdy place to spend a couple of hours, chat or no chat. Another couple of birders eventually came along, one was trying to see the chat for the 5th time, the other for the 4th. Kind of put things in perspective.

I got ace looks at several of my all-time favourite American warblers; MacGillivray's warbler. I even managed a crappy snap of a cracking male, as you can see here. There were also rufous hummingbirds zipping about, willow flycatchers catching flies, northern flickers and a pileated woodpecker, Swainson's thrush, California quail and all manner of obliging common species. But no sight or sound of the chat.
After 2 hours, I gave up (I'm not overly bothered, it's not a tick - but a wonderful bird to see, nonetheless...) and decided to pop by Charlton Pond, as I was driving right past it.
The water levels were way down from my last visit, and the vegetation had grown considerably making viewing slightly less than convenient. A pair of killdeer with a well grown young 'un were present, and common yellowthroats were seen and heard. I also spotted a couple of Virginia rails feeding in a corner - 2 well grown, adult-sized juvs., though no sign of the parent birds.

Fun With Flycatchers

Olive-sided flycatcher

Howdy. This morning, I decided to take my 'scope down to Victoria's Government House grounds in the hope of getting a few snaps of olive-sided flycatcher. Their proclivity for sitting on exposed perches makes them ideal birds to try and photograph, and the morning was bright but somewhat overcast - great for highly amateur digi-scoping!
Within minutes of arrival I located an olive-sided flycatcher and soon had a few pics in the bag.

Western Wood-pewee

Close by, a western-wood pewee was also flycatching, and eventually posed for a couple of shots. With the exception of yesterday's bird (presumably the same one) the pewees (or pewee singular) that I have seen here have all been pretty silent.
I suppose I may be sticking my neck out with the identification of this bird, but unless I'm very much mistaken, pewees are fairly straightforward birds to ID. Of course, specific identification of pewee species is another matter altogether, but they seem easy enough to separate from the empidonax flycatchers in this part of the world. 

Less easy to put a name to were the 2 silent empids that I also came across today (one of which is pictured here). I'm edging toward willow flycatcher, based on the lack of prominent eye-ring, pale throat, weakish wing-bars and broad bill. Opinions would be gratefully received!

Willow flycatcher?

There appeared to be other birds 'new -in' this morning too. A pair of rufous hummingbirds were chasing each other around, the first I've seen at this site, and a warbling vireo was silently feeding in a garry oak.  

   

Swallows and Swallowtails

The lovely bright morning was a pleasure, even if such weather implies that the birding's going to be a bit on the crappy side...
A single Townsend's warbler, and a couple of Wilson's warblers were seen, and heard. A silent flycatcher (probably a Hammond's, on appearance) briefly showed too, but it was a touch quiet along the Government House Woodland Trail otherwise. The usual Bewick's wrens and orange crowned warblers joined the towhees and robins in their vocal declarations, while tree and barn swallows chirupped busily overhead.

Yesterday, Jenny and I headed up to Mount Tolmie (after observing some of the Victoria Day Parade, of course). We'd been meaning to go and take a peek at this place for a while, and we took a picnic up there. Given the lovely clear conditions, the views were spectacular. I can see now, why this spot would be worth checking out in good fall conditions - the habitat, and elevation, make it a great place to search for early morning migrants.

I saw my first Anise swallowtail (pictured) of the year - always a treat!
Bird-wise it wasn't too thrilling, hardly surprising given the time of day. We did see red-tailed hawk, 5 turkey vultures, a warbling vireo, chipping sparrows, an olive-sided flycatcher, a single brown-headed cowbird and the usual Anna's hummers, Bewick's wrens etc. Given that it took less than 10 minutes to drive there from home, I'll certainly be heading that way next time we get some promising conditions.

That Was The Week That Was

Blogger's been ill, so I haven't been able to post until now. So, if you're sitting comfortably, I'll begin...
 
This morning, it was fairly quiet down at Government House with nothing to indicate any birds new in. What was presumably a remnant of yesterday's fall; 12 yellow-rumped warbler, 1 Townsend's warbler and a warbling vireo were moving around in a single feeding flock, and a single Lincoln's sparrow emerged to check out my pishing but that was about it.

Thursday Fall

A bit of a fall was evident early Thursday morning in the grounds of Government House, Victoria.
It seemed pretty quiet until I jammed into a flock of around 30 yellow-rumped warblers feeding high up in some garry oaks, along the lower path. Scanning through I came across 6 Townsend's warblers, 2 ruby-crowned kinglet and a Wilson's warbler. An empidonax flycatcher showed briefly but flew off, silently.
As I moved along the path, a Cooper’s hawk came bombing along and just missed my head.
The distinctive clucking of a hermit thrush was emanating from the understory, and a little persuasive pishing lured it out, but nothing else.
I came across another active warbler flock, this time comprising around 10 yellow-rumped and 2 Townsend's along with a warbling vireo (my first of the year).
Then I noticed a smart olive-sided flycatcher (another year-tick) sallying from a snag.
I decided to gain some height, to check the tree tops and went to the small ‘balcony’ outlook where I was surprised to come eye to eye with a varied thrush.
The olive-sided was visible from here too, and gave better views but there was nothing in the upper branches of the trees.
On the eastern bluffs I saw another olive-sided flycatcher, but otherwise there was little activity there so I headed home for breakfast.

Wednesday Whirlwind

On Wednesday afternoon I had the pleasure of being given something of a guide tour of Victoria and Saanich Peninsula birding hotspots by Ian Cruickshank.
We started off at Panama Flats where, thanks the persistent downpour, the flooded fields were swarming with 100s of hirundines, including a few cliff swallows and one or two northern rough-winged swallows, plus good numbers of Vaux’s swifts (year tick).
Scanning the muddy fringes we noticed a congregation of feeding dowitchers, and a few least sandpipers.
Three spotted sandpiper (year tick) were also working the edges and common dabbling ducks punctuated the water’s surface including several shoveler and a pair of gadwall.

Among other places we visited included Observatory Hill - an impressive spot affording immaculate views. Here we added such things as chipping sparrow, Pacific-slope flycatcher (YT), American goldfinch and house wren (YT).
We came across dowitchers, mostly looking like long-billeds, at several sites including a group of just over 100 at 'Red Barn Flats'. This interesting site, (so named for its location right by, yep, you guessed it - a red barn, well the Red Barn Country Market more precisely.. ) was also teeming with swallows.

A stop at Maber Flats proved interesting with a breeding plumage black-bellied plover, more dowitchers and 18 purple martin (2 of which, pictured).
A flock of 40 cackling geese dropped in and a single greater white-fronted goose made an unexpected appearance.
Along the path, the hedgerow was jumping with YR warblers and I finally caught sight of my first yellow warbler of the year.

Later, we had a brief check of the Martindale area where the highlight was an adult female northern harrier.

After a quick stop at Island View Beach where we watched a Caspian tern fishing, we headed back.
It was great to be in the company of someone who knows not only the area, but the birds so well.
Ian's incredibly acute hearing, and ability to ID everything that calls, was a grim reminder that my battle-worn ears are well and truly past their sell-by date.
Add to that, my relative lack of familiarity with the region's birds' vocalisations and it's fairly obvious that I could be missing a not inconsiderable percentage of passerines while out birding. Oh well, at least my eyesight's still 20/20. For now...
Thanks again to Ian for his enthusiasm, and generous welcome to Victoria's birding scene!