Varied and Sundry

The snow continues... forecasts imply a hideous day of 'freezing rain' tomorrow, whatever that may be. Water halfway between liquid and ice? Oh, so a sort of snow then.
I don't believe that's one of Kate Bush's 50 Words For Snow...
Anyhoo, I was working from home again yesterday and once again the apple tree was notably attracting many of the neighbourhood birds.
A couple of varied thrushes have pretty much taken to residing in it, pecking at the remaining fruit for hours on end.

I absolutely love these delicately patterned thrushes, easily one of my favourite North American birds. As you can see I snapped a couple of shots.

British birders of a certain vintage will doubtless recall the first, and still only, UK record of this species back in November 1982 when a 1st year bird in aberrant plumage was found in the rarity hotspot of Nanquidno, Cornwall. At the time it was also the first record for the Western Palearctic, only surpassed by a spring 2004 record from eastern Iceland. 

There has been no sign of the western tanager for a couple of days, perhaps it has succumbed to the freezing overnight temperatures and perished.
Or maybe it just realised that it's a relatively short flight down to California from here.
Anna's hummingbirds, dark-eyed juncos, golden-crowned kinglet and Bewick's wren have all been seen visiting the apple tree, while house finch and American robin have joined the queue to get a bit of their five a day.
Having taken the hummingbird feeder in overnight, I was greeted at first light by the distinctive, and rather impatient 'tick-ticking' of the resident male Anna's, eager for his first energy boost of the morning. 

All White On The Night

Western tanager tries to blend in with the apples...

It threw a fair bit of snow down last night, so rather than risk sharing the road with the bewildered drivers of Victoria I worked from home today. And I'm rather glad I did, as the snow just kept coming throughout much of the day and I wouldn't have much enjoyed the homeward-bound bumper-car session on the highway. In the dark.
So, being confined to barracks I was pleased to note that the western tanager visited the apple tree outside the house several times during the course of the day. I managed to get a shot of it as it fed intently on an apple. I don't suppose there are too many pics of western tanagers in snow!   

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.

Rusty Blackbird Makes The List

Today, I decided to go and look for a specific bird.
No, not the BC mega - a brambling that local birders have been getting all excited about, but a rusty blackbird that has been seen on and off in the Martindale Road area in Saanich.
I did try and see one of these a couple of years ago when one was in the Victoria area but I dipped, and have since been rather keen to catch up with one. 
According to the limited info available, the rusty blackbird has been seen hanging out with a flock of Brewer's blackbirds and European starlings in the agricultural area to the southwest of Island View Beach.
Jenny had a desire to visit nearby Michell's Farms Market, rather conveniently, so it provided an ideal opportunity to do some birding in this large open area.
The wet fields had attracted lots of Canada geese and a small number of cackling geese. Two Canadas were sporting red collars, but they were too far away for me to read the numbers. A pair of adult trumpeter swans were by one flooded field while a lone juvenile was close by.
A sizable flock of American wigeon contained no Eurasians, though 4 gadwall were a pleasant sight in among the many mallards.

Ring-billed gull

Scanning through the mew and glaucous-winged gulls I came across a smart ring-billed gull (pictured), always a treat to see on the island.       
After checking a few stubble fields and likely looking roosting trees we eventually came across a flock of mixed starlings and blackbirds along Welch Road. The birds were sat up in roadside trees and after quite some time I located the rusty among the squawking throng. It wasn't exactly giving itself up easily, keeping its back to me and remaining in the centre of the tree. I managed a few crappy shots (one of the better ones seen here) before the birds flew down to feed in the roadside field.

Rusty blackbird

Here the rusty blackbird really came into its own and looked spectacular, even if the flock was constantly moving at a rapid pace. Another icterid in the bag!
Pleased with our fine find, Jenny and I headed over to the Indian Food Store on Cook St, procured some pakoras and samosas and went to Swan Lake for an impromptu picnic and a walk around the nature reserve.
We didn't see much, but the stroll was a pleasant enough way to spend the early afternoon. 
 
Despite the obvious attraction of the brambling (UK readers may find this amusing, but consider the excitement that any Yank passerine causes in Blighty - after all aren't twitchers back home chasing a dark-eyed junco around Hampshire at the moment?), I've been more interested in a visitor in my own back yard this week.

Every morning there has been a western tanager in the apple tree outside our kitchen window (pictured). Now the reason that this bird hasn't attracted much attention from the locals, despite its incredibly rare status as a wintering bird in this part of the world, is that western tanagers are pretty easy to find in spring and summer. So, I suppose it's a bit like finding a wintering sedge warbler at Leighton Moss - certainly noteworthy but not exactly front-page news!

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.

Birding Time is Tight

Black turnstone

A quick post-earthquake / pre-hightide visit to Clover Point this afternoon was disappointing as far as seabirds were concerned.
Very few alcids were visible, and even gull numbers were very low.
Among the few gulls around the point, there were 4 Heermann's gulls.

Surfbird

Checking the weed-strewn rocks, there were 8 black turnstone (pictured) and 5 surfbirds (also pictured) feeding. 

Thanks to some rather pressing diversions, I've found little time to do any birding this week.
I have, at least, squeezed in a few brief visits to the woodland trail at Victoria's Government House thanks to its proximity to home.
While it hasn't exactly been jumping down there, I have noted a few interesting migrants including Pacific-slope flycatcher, several Wilson's warblers and white-crowned sparrows and a juvenile male western tanager. A family of northern flickers seem to have taken up residence, and the number of American robins seems to have increased notably.

Hopefully, I'll find a few hours in the next few days to get out a bit more... after all it IS autumn and ANYTHING could be out there!

Fall birding picks up a pace...

Popped down to the Government House grounds this morning in search of passage migrants. Didn't discover anything too thrilling, but there were certainly numbers of birds present.
In among a couple of bushtit flocks I came across at least 8 Wilson's warblers, 1 very grey-headed orange-crowned warbler (without a tail), 2 willow flycatchers and a drab female western tanager. Of course, the regular chestnut-backed chickadees, brown creepers, red-breasted nuthatches and what-have-you were all in attendance too.

A sharp-shinned hawk came through, hotly pursued by a trio of angry Anna's hummingbirds.
Otherwise, the other highlight was a very noisy young racoon (or racoonlet, as I like to call them) that was clambering around in an oak, while its mother kept watch below. It wouldn't keep still enough for a good pic, so here's the best I could manage.

In the evening I nipped down to Clover Point to see what was going on. Gulls. That's what was going on. Thousands of gulls. The rocks below the point were covered with glaucous-winged and California gulls, with about half a dozen Heermann's gulls thrown in. Offshore, birds simply carpeted the water. Among the large rafts of gulls were good numbers of rhinoceros auklets, common murres, a few pigeon guillemots and at least 5 marbled murrelets.

Small groups of red-necked phalaropes were moving around, and a string of phalaropes were picking delicately at the surface. I counted a total of 106. Here's a fuzzy picture of just 2 of them.
As the tide continued to rise, a moulting adult black-bellied plover flew in, joining 4 black turnstone on the rocks.

Thursday Coastal Birds
In between various bits of more important stuff, I managed a couple of hours of coastal birding yesterday.
Starting off at Clover Point, I just about managed to check through the roosting gulls before the rock-jumping hordes and cavorting canines did their best to rid the area entirely of avian life.

Among the multitude of California and glaucous-winged gulls were 9 Heermann's gulls, 5 mew gulls and a single Bonaparte's gull (pictured). Yet more gulls were scattered around offshore but the lingering morning fog made seawatching a waste of time. Within range, I could just about make out good numbers of rhinoceros auklets and common murres, but little else.
Heading along the coast toward Oak Bay I made a few stops at likely looking spots, but found little more than I'd seen at Clover Point.
At Oak Bay Marina things picked up a little. The big yellow rocky island, so beloved of roosting shorebirds, was once again the focus of attention. 'Scoping from Turkey Head, I counted 83 black-bellied plover, 1 dowitcher, 14 black turnstone and a surfbird. At one point the plovers all took to the air, showing a full complement of black axillaries, ruling out the presence of any attendant golden plovers.

On the beach, a group of 7 killdeer were feeding alongside a single spotted sandpiper. Nearby several black oystercatchers were seen, with a further 3 killdeer. 4 greater yellowlegs were feeding along the shore. 
Although I take killdeer totally for granted these days, it's not all that long ago that had I received a call telling me that one was running around on Heysham Golf Course, I'd have been off like a shot to see it. With that in mind, here's a nice pic of one of the Oak Bay birds, just to remind myself of just how smart they really are (and to rub my Brit birder buddies' noses in it a bit...).

Tanagers and Mystery Revealed

The highlight of my day working from home, came in the form of a female western tanager in an arbutus, as seen from my kitchen window around 1pm. She sat there quite happily for some time but was spooked by 'castle' seeking tourists before I was able to get a pic. Oh well, not a bad addition to my kitchen list.
A late wander around the Government House grounds proved pretty fruitless. If that rain does move in overnight, I'm going to head over to Mount Tolmie bright and early tomorrow just to see what's to be seen...

It's a Mystery...

Can you tell what it is yet?

So, given the relative lack of news, I'll do the old mystery bird thing.
If you can cast your mind back, it was grainy shot of a duck. Given the 4 options, only 2 species attracted votes.
Therefore, we can ignore mallard and wood duck as no-one was even remotely tempted to choose either.
So, we're left with ruddy duck and shoveler.
The former garnered some 11 votes - accounting for 17% of the total.
The latter species was the clear front runner and got a whopping 51 votes in favour of it being that spatula-billed anas.
So, what convinced so many of its identity as a shoveler?
The rufousy flanks could suggest either species, but at any age and stage of moult would a ruddy duck ever show a white, or very pale breast? And how about the dark mantle? Could an eclipse drake ruddy show such demarcation between flanks and uperparts?

Here's one I prepared earlier...

One can see a hint of a pale area around the base of the bill, but anywhere enough to imply the extensive white cheeks of ruddy? Structurally, it doesn't really look like a stifftial, but photographs can, admittedly, be deceptive. But that tail is neither low on the water or raised - again more suggestive of shoveler. Finally, and perhaps most crucially - that bill! It looks pretty huge and distinctively spatula-shaped - further confirming the birds identity as a northern shoveler.
As always, please feel free to argue with my reasoning, or add any other obvious pointers that I have omitted.      
And, don't forget to have a go at the current one on the right...

Landlocked landlubber

Holden Creek, Nanaimo.
I was hoping that the tide would have dropped enough by 7am to allow me to get out onto the marsh this morning, but it wasn't to be. In fact, the channel was only just about crossable, with caution, when I left at 8.30am.
So, landlocked, I decided to just sit it out and see what came in and out.
First good bird was a McGillivray's warbler, feeding with a mixed group of orange-crowned warblers and white-crowned sparrows along the gravel pathway. A couple of groups of American goldfinch were buzzing about and a downy woodpecker came down and showed well.
A cedar waxwing and willow flycatcher were feeding in the small mixed trees by the viewing area.
The first returning green-winged teal were out on the marsh pools - a flock of 10, all in eclipse plumage, and 4 mallard were also present.
A group of 5 lesser yellowlegs (presumably the same as have been present for several days) were mobile, feeding on the marsh and creek while only a dozen or so least sandpiper whizzed around, uncertain as to where to settle.
A pileated woodpecker flew in to the tall trees and a Cooper's hawk made an appearance, unnerving the hirundines. A female belted kingfisher rattled through.

Post-work, Jenny and I took a stroll down to Hemer Park. It was good to see young black-headed grosbeaks in the area where I've been seeing and hearing adults all summer. Other stuff we came across included, a western tanager, pileated woodpecker, red-breasted sapsucker, northern flicker etc.
A pied-billed grebe was on the pool, along with the usual wood ducks and mallards. Plenty of red-winged blackbirds here too.