Woodland Skipper Invasion!

Male woodland skipper

I took a stroll around Victoria's Government House this morning, just to see if any migrants were moving through at all.
It was fairly quiet, overall but there were a few birds of note.
A family of chipping sparrows were feeding on the path, presumably local breeders. The only obvious migrant that I came across was a 1st year Wilson's warbler, in amongst a small flock of chestnut-backed chickadees.
Other common birds included northern flicker, downy woodpecker and Anna's hummingbird.  

Male (left) & female (right) woodland skippers

Perhaps the most notable thing, was the large number of skippers seen.
Many were chasing around in pairs or small groups.
Having checked my butterflies field guide, I believe that these are woodland skippers (ochlodes sylvanoides).

On my way back, I noticed a largish dull flycatcher sat on the top of a tree along Joan Crescent. It pretty much looked like a western wood-pewee from its posture and structure.

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.  

   

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...    

I Never Saw A Sora

I've been checking the Government House grounds over the past few days, and to be honest, there hasn't really been that much to report. Particularly in light of the superb birds being found by the birding elite of Victoria in the past couple of weeks!
For those not in the know, these have included British Columbia's 3rd record of lesser nighthawk (and only the 2nd one alive...), a Sabine's gull, a singing magnolia warbler, yellow-headed blackbird, and today, Ian Cruickshank located a Brewer's sparrow. Not bad going.
I'm only pleased that I don't 'need' any of these species, or I would have spent the last few days chasing rare birds, as opposed to getting on with work.
That said, I am rather keen to see something new, so I headed out with the aforementioned Ian yesterday evening to see if I could finally add sora to my life list.
I have never bothered twitching this species in the UK, despite their relative frequency, and I've been spectacularly unlucky on my various trips to this side side of the Atlantic, having never come across one. I heard one last year, but I will never tick a bird on call alone. So, aware that one had been showing at a local pond, I decided a mini-twitch was in order.

Anyhoo, Ian directed me to the controversially named Raper's Pond (known also as Rapier's Pond and Charlton Pond - though if we're all allowed to make up our own name for it, I'll call it I Never Saw A Sora Pond). We caught several glimpses of comedic fluffy black Virginia rails darting between clearings, but no adults and, as intimated above, no sign of sora. No worries, it was good to visit a new site and I'll doubtless return early one morning, or later one evening.
A drake gadwall was consorting with the local mallards and mallard-ish things, plus common yellowthroat and killdeer (pictured) were present. A foraging raccoon put everything into panic-mode for a moment, but failed to flush any rails...
While we were at the pond, Ian demonstrated once again his supernatural hearing and call recognition skills with occasional cries of 'western wood pewee' and 'black-headed grosbeak' as they called a mere 3 miles away.

Earlier yesterday I had found a very obliging western wood-pewee in the Government House grounds, but little else.
As it happens, Jenny and I were just out taking stroll around the neighborhood this evening and we came across what was presumably the same bird, feeding close by an olive-sided flycatcher, allowing for a lovely comparison. 
Minutes earlier, a single Vaux's swift had passed over.   

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...