Nanaimo River Kindergarten

I took a wander down to the Nanaimo River estuary this evening, and the place was positively jumping with young birds. It was like an avian kindergarten.
Fledged white-crowned and savannah sparrows were much in evidence, as were American robins. A brood of rufous hummingbirds were tazzing around the place, and one even sat still long enough for me to digi-film it. Not exactly National Geographic, I appreciate, but it's kind of nice to get some footage, however wobbly!
There were good numbers of American goldfinch around too, and 3 cedar waxwings came by.
Spotted sandpipers were by the river and a raft of common merganser were off the estuary mouth.

Coronata Street

The weather was on my side, for once, today. After it raining most of the night, and most of the morning, it actually stopped and brightened up for my lunchtime sorte down to the Nanaimo waterfront.
And, as most optimistic birders know, a bit of spring rain means dropped migrants. And as most optimistic birders also know, a calm spell between the showers means hungry migrants actively feeding up.
Armed with this optimism (when aren't I?) I headed down to the hideously named Sutton-Mafeo Park (apologies, if Mr or Mrs Sutton or Mafeo were hugely important Nanaimo-ites, but really, it's crap name for a park). First up - a turkey vulture overhead... ok, not really what I had in mind.
Then I heard a 'chip', and looking up I saw the expected culprit - a lovely male yellow-rumped warbler. Smart. Then another 'chip', and a female appeared. Good stuff.

Then the male Anna's hummingbird showed up and I pointed my happy snapper at it, and took the rubbish picture you see here.
Buoyed by my first warblers of the spring, I headed back to work, passing a cracking adult white-crowned sparrow grubbing around some ornamental shrubbery in front of the Pacifica building. Not exactly Cape Clear, but it was pretty encouraging!

The weather deteriorated again and it rained for most of the afternoon, and into early evening. With a Jon-friendly clear spell just after 6pm I legged it down to the Nanaimo River estuary. As I got out the car, I noticed the female northern harrier hunting over the fields.
Checking the bushes and shrubbery on my way to the platform things didn't look overly promising...
From the viewing platform I noticed that 200ish violet-green swallows were still feeding at the river's mouth. Then I noticed a short-eared owl sat on a post, nearby. Jolly good.
Finding nothing interesting among the few ducks present I thought I'd check the hedges for migrants. And then POW! A group of 11 yellow-rumped warblers - of which 9 were pristine males, resplendent in fresh breeding plumage - came through at knee height. They were frantically feeding and flitting through the weedy vegetation. Fabulous stuff.
I carried on along the hedgerow, but no more passerine migrants materialised. Then I noticed another short-eared owl. I could still just about see the other one, so it was definitely another bird.
Finding nothing else I returned for a quick look from the platform - from where I could clearly see both owls.
It was now 7.45pm and getting a bit dusky, and showery, so I headed back to the car where I got ace views of another short-eared owl hunting over the fields.
I just adore spring - there's the potential for something new every day... Roll on, April!    
    
    
              

Mystery solved...

Okay, here it is folks. The result of the first ever, bad bird photo identification quiz.

So, where to start. It’s obviously a sparrow; no one fell for my pathetic attempt to mislead by throwing redpoll in there. Well done! Hurdle one accomplished.

Now, one of the obvious things about it is that it has unstreaked flanks, thus ruling out the likes of song sparrow, fox sparrow, Lincoln’s sparrow and, er, savannah sparrow. So, two down, two remaining.

Staying with the underparts, they appear dull and concolourous, suggestive of either of the two remaining species.  Okay, how about the wings? There is certainly one clear wing bar, and maybe the hint of a second. Again, it could indicate either white-crowned or American tree sparrow. How about the head patter, or at least what’s visible?  Rusty cap, and a dark eye stripe. Hmm, very suggestive of tree, but far from conclusive.

But what about that bill? Very pale orangey colour… on BOTH upper and lower mandible. Ah! That means it has to be white-crowned right? Right. In my limited experience, tree sparrow is a much brighter, paler bird but that's not always easy to detect from a rubbish photo...

So, there we have it. Quite a surprising result! It’s a first winter white-crowned sparrow.  So, congratulations to 31% of you! And thanks for having a go – to be honest, as a relative novice at American bird ID, this has been very instructive for me. I hope it has been for others too.

Results: Savannah Sparrow 18% | White-crowned Sparrow 31% | American Tree Sparrow 50%

I've made the next one a bit less problematic - maybe... it was taken during one my 'pre-residence' visits to BC about 4 years ago.

Incidentally, a male Anna's hummingbird was again in Sutton-Mafeo Park in Nanaimo when I took my daily lunchtime stroll down there. Not much else to get excited about... I even dropped by the Nanaimo River Estuary on my way home from work, as it was almost still light. Thought something crepuscular might be out and about but it was rather quiet.