It's That Time of the Year Again!

Yes, it's Baillie Birdathon time!

It looks like I will be solo this year for my Mother's Day Big Day, due to some notable field work induced absences, but my Baillie Week started off with a bang when a Lewis's Woodpecker was located at Highrock Park in Esquimalt, of all the random places.

I was in the office, watching posts come in and hoping the bird would stick. By the time my last meeting was finished, I zipped home to change, and made record time getting to Esquimalt. After all the rush and hustle, it took a mere three minutes from time of car parking until I spotted the beautiful Lewis's Woodpecker atop a snag, hawking insects. This has long been a big miss for me in the Victoria Checklist area, a long overdue tick.

Anyway, back to the Baillie Birdathon. I haven't decided on my exact routing yet, but given the incredible birds that have been showing, it is sure to be a great day! If anyone wants to join for the full 24 (midnight to as close to midnight I can get without falling asleep) or for a part, let me know!

To sponsor me, or any member of Rocky Point Bird Observatory's team, head over to our Birdathon Page and click on the link for any of our participants. Remember, 75% of everything raised stays right here with RPBO, let's make this the biggest year yet! We also have several local politicians birding for Rocky Point again this year!

Good birding, stay tuned for the results!

The Insanity Begins

I think we left off with my retreat from the Grand Valley on Mar 29.  My plan for the day was simple - get to Wray for the mandatory 6pm Greater Prairie-Chicken orientation, and find Black and Brown-capped Rosy Finches along the way.  Simple?  Not so much.

Driving back through the mountains, I had to stop at Vail Summit, hoping for Grey Jay, and perhaps a Rosy-Finch or 200.  Nothing of the sort appeared, though I did find this, which seemed picture worthy:



A little Colorado humour maybe?



I decided Silverthorne would be my Rosy-finch attempt, as good numbers had been seen off and on in the vicinity of Lake View Dr.  It was around this time that my GPS decided to play an early April Fool's joke.  It seems there are two Lake View Dr's in the Silverthorne area... one right in town, and the other 30km north.  Can you guess which one my GPS decided to take me to?  After a recovery and an unsuccessful search of the correct area, I continued to Wray, and made it with enough time to check in and unpack the car before walking the two blocks down to the Wray Museum for the 40 minute presentation.

While I was unpacking, I met the couple in the room next to mine, Koos and Susan, who were also on the tour and happen to be from Comox!  Small world indeed, as it turned out the remainder of the tour group was from Colorado or Florida.  The presentation flew by, and it was early to bed for the 5:15am bus trip out to the lek.  After the trip out in a school bus and an orderly filing into the metal viewing trailer Josh, our pistol-packing guide, opened the flaps on the trailer and we waited.

Within 2 minutes of the trailer being opened we heard our first male Greater Prairie-Chicken, followed by a second, a third, a fourth.....  As the night turned to light, the dark blobs that were my lifer tick turned into actual birds, strutting, displaying, calling, and flapping.  I counted 15 males and 4 females, though there may have been more.  The displaying intensified when females ventured into the lek, and when the females left the males sat.  And sat. 

The Greater Prairie-Chicken lek, post-female

Sadly, I didn't get a clear picture of a full display (I did get a few very bad ones), so this will have to substitute.  As always, the Victoria Birder aims to bring you terrible pictures of great birds:

After the females departed we did likewise, boarding the bus for the ride to the Kitzmiller Grazing Association for a great breakfast of eggs, bacon, biscuits, juice, and much needed coffee.

Back at the hotel before 9am, I had plenty of time to load up the car, pass on the info about the next days Lesser tour to Koos and Susan, and head east, into Kansas.  My plan was to drive the 5 hours to Quivira Refuge in hopes of locating Whooping Crane, then driving the 4 hours to Lamar.  I was encouraged by a report of cranes two days previous, and a couple of other species that had been recently seen.  Just before passing into Kansas I found Eastern Bluebird, giving me the third and last species of bluebird, all in Colorado.

Hours and hours of this... it isn't for the faint of heart!

I wish I could say the drive passed quickly, but no..... the endless fields were causing my eyes to cross not long into Kansas, and this sign had me saying "there's no place like home", wishing for my damp coastal air and forests:

Quivira Refuge was an area I would consider visiting again, though I was rushed for time and failed to find cranes.  However, I still consider the long drive well worth it, as at Little Salt Marsh, on the south side of the refuge, one of the first birds I put the scope on was none other than Snowy Plover, my longest standing nemesis bird that I have chased all over the coast and Arizona!  Two had been reported a couple of days earlier, but now there were an incredible 34!  Other notable birds at Quivira included Baird's Sandpiper, Blue-winged Teal, Eastern Meadowlark, and my first Chipping Sparrows of the year.  Also of note, all of the Northern Flickers I saw at Quivira were of the "Yellow-shafted" variety, which I saw nowhere else on my trip.

The trip to Lamar passed no quicker, and my review of southwestern Kansas would not encourage any Chambers of Commerce or visitors, so I will skip them.  I got to the Arena Dust B&B just before 9pm and, finding no wifi, went straight to bed (with a whisky detour) for the 3:30am wakeup call.

3:30 came much too early, and shaking off the whisky and little sleep called for extreme measures - a cup off coffee before boarding a bus with no washroom.  The two of us staying at the bed and breakfast boarded the bus, and we picked up the remainder of the tour at a motel in town just after 4am.  Koos and Susan had made it down for the trip, and familiar faces were nice to see.  Fred Dorenkamp, our guide, drove us almost and hour out into the middle of nowhere to the lek, and the drill was similar to the previous day, except this time we stayed in the bus and viewed with windows down.  From our arrival at 5:30, it didn't take long for the birds to show.  Much the same as the previous day, the calls came first, then shadowy movement out on the lek, gradually turning into real birds as light filled the sky.

We had great opportunity to watch the Lesser Prairie-Chickens displaying, and Koos and I commented more than once on the differences in calls, displays, and frequency of different aspects of the display.  Having seen the Greaters the day before, it was a great opportunity to compare and contrast.

Yet more terrible photos.....

Taken with my phone through a scope on a school bus

At exactly 6:50am, the birds suddenly flew off en masse.  I counted 12 males, and no females chose to make an appearance that day.  We made the trip back to Casa Dorenkamp for breakfast, dropping the motel folks off in Holly to grab their cars.  During this brief interlude we added Blue Jay, American Kestrel, Common and Great-tailed Grackle, and others.

The breakfast prepared by Fred's wife, Norma, was easily the best breakfast I had over my entire trip, consisting of egg casserole, sausage, fresh biscuits and gravy, and coffee.  The conversation was lively, and a couple across the table from me, hearing of my finch plight, mentioned that they knew of a spot near Gunnison for Rosy-Finch.  Excellent, assuming they were still around.

With chicken two in the bag and breakfast done I headed west.  I did little birding between Lamar and Pueblo, but did stop to scan the occassional field, finding my first Loggerhead Shrike of the trip, followed closely by my only Lewis's Woodpecker.  I kept focussed on my mid-day destination, Pueblo Reservoir.  A location I have seen many times in rare bird alerts, I figured it was worth a look-see.

Though Pueblo Reservoir failed to deliver any earth shattering rarities, I did have a great walk around the park, and turned up Rock Wren, Eared Grebe, Say's Phoebe, Loggerhead Shrike, Turkey Vulture, and my lifer Canyon Towhee, among others. 

From there it was straight to Gunnison with the occassional stop for a quick, uneventful scan.  I made it to Gunnison with plenty of light left so I checked into my room and headed off to the Wuanita Lek to see if I might be able to catch the grouse displaying in the fading light.  With no such luck I returned to town and picked up my Easter Sunday dinner at Taco Bell.  I must not have paid much attention to my room when I checked in, when I got back with dinner I noticed that there was a mirror above the bed and a jacuzzi tub in the bathroom.... I'm not sure what kind of birding trip they thought I was on, but.....

The rules of  the Wuanita Lek are simple.  Be there an hour before sunrise, stay in your car, and don't make noise.  Sunrise that day was 6:52am, so I showed up at the lek at 5:25, just in case of competition for the few parking spots along the viewing area.  Cassie, a Department of Wildlife volunteer, was there to provide directions and protocol, and I had just enough time to move over to the passenger seat and figure out how to position my scope for viewing the lek.  With a while to wait until light, I sat back with my coffee and a breakfast consisting of Shockers, Pepperoni, and a Tijuana Mama Pickled Sausage.

To give you an idea of viewing distance, the birds were near the arrow

At 6:20am I could finally make out dark shapes moving far out in the distance, and eventually they turned into my lifer Gunnison Sage-Grouse.  The birds, 9 males and 3 females that I counted, stayed on the lek displaying and posturing for almost an hour.  I happened to look down at 7:17, and when I looked up they had all disappeared.  As with the two Prairie-Chickens, the grouse put on a fantastic show, though the only all out wing fight I saw was in the half dark.

More crappy photos shot through a scope with a phone, this time from the passenger seat of a rental car:

Apparently I was so focussed on the birds that I missed a herd of Elk and a couple of Coyotes passing through the far end of the lek.  As I got back into my car to leave the lek, a pair of Rosy-Finches flew over calling, but no identification.  Go figure.

Again, my GPS tried playing another April Fool's joke, suggesting a three hour route to my next destination, which I knew was only 10 minutes north of my hotel.  I found the suggested location without trouble.  Just south of the town of Almont and 10 minutes north of Gunnison, Evelyn Lane was the location of large Rosy-Finch flocks over the winter, and I hoped that a few had stuck around. 

When I turned onto Evelyn Lane there was a large flock of finches in the first tree I came to.  Predictably, they all took off before I could get a look.  A small portion returned, and I was able to get my bins on a Black Rosy-Finch before the skittish birds took off again.  I spent some time walking up and down the road, only getting distant looks at the occassional finch, until I arrived back down at my car, where two larger birds were sitting in the top of a tree.

This Brown-capped Rosy-Finch was my final lifer of the trip, and I got fantastic looks at it and its companion.  I never did get a clean look at a Gray-crowned, but c'est la vie.  A local resident, Jim, invited me in to watch his feeder from inside, and we had a great talk for an hour about all things birds.  Birding, travelling, species splits, etc.

Since this post is getting a little long, I will wrap it up with a quick summary of the following two days.  From the Rosy-Finches I travelled to Colorado Springs, picking up Red Crossbill at Monarch Summit, and Gray Jay, my fifth and final Colorado jay, at the Monarch Ski Area.  Despite a thorough search of Pathfinder Park in Florence, I dipped on the long-staying Red-headed and Ladder-backed Woodpeckers, though I did get my only White-breasted Nuthatch and Belted Kingfisher of the trip.  North of Florence I also found one of the FOY records of Swainson's Hawk for the state.

The next day, my final day of birding, found me birding the countryside south of Colorado Springs, looking for Mountain Plover.  Finding none, I headed north to Denver to Cherry Creek State Park, again searching for a couple of long-staying rarities.

Cherry Creek State Park was not only my last stop for Colorado birding, but also the birdiest.  In my two hours there I picked up 34 species, including first (and last) of trip American White Pelican, Peregrine Falcon, Snow Goose, American Avocet, California Gull, Thayer's Gull, and Franklin's Gull.  I dipped again on long-staying Lesser Black-backed Gull and Glaucous Gull, but it was hard to feel disappointed, even despite the extra two dollar surcharge above and beyond the usual seven dollar State Park Day Use Fee.

It was all downhill after that as I checked into my hotel, returned my rental, and spent an uneventful evening packing for the return trip.  Luckily, I didn't miss anything in Victoria during my absence.  I am looking forward to a return to Colorado during fall migration one of these years, to track down the remainder of the state's specialties - Mountain Plover, Chestnut-collared Longspur, and McCown's Longspur.

All said, after 4 flights and 4000km on the rental car, this trip turned up 110 species, including 8 lifers.  I figure I probably could have added another dozen species with more effort, but oh well, a great trip!

As for where to next, I am thinking maybe Texas in early January?

Playing Chicken

"The Great Colorado Chicken Hunt" got off to a less than auspicious start when, following a couple of weeks of nice weather, a snowstorm chose the day of my arrival to visit Denver, cancelling flights, closing highways, and generally causing trouble.  Luckily for me, my flight wasn't among the dozens cancelled, and was only delayed twice, for a total of an hour and a half.  Upon arrival in Denver, I spent another hour trying to contact my hotel for pickup, eventually managing to drop my bags off in my room and find dinner much later than I had anticipated.  So much for joining an owling walk!

The next morning my good fortune continued when I went to pick up my rental.  After 20 minutes of high pressure upsell attempts on everything from a 4X4 (warning I wouldn't make my destination in the Dodge Avenger I had selected) to extra insurance, I found my car easily enough, snowed into a parking spot.  After 15 minutes I was able to free the car and was on my way, learning through On the Job Training the fine art of driving on ice, the days subsitute for the I-70 in Denver.  Impressive for a Victoria driver, I managed to avoid being a casualty of one of the half dozen accidents I passed, and once out of Denver City Limits, the roads became, for the most part, pavement.

My first planned stop driving west was Silverthorne, home to not only outlet malls (and I did sneak in an hour of very disappointing shopping), but good numbers of Rosy-Finches of all three varieties as well.  My plans to track them down were cut short by threatening weather that had picked up, as well as planned construction delays along the highway.  I decided that it would be best to keep moving through the mountains, and also skipped one of my backup Rosy-Finch spots at Snowmass.

Finally, coming down from Vail, I encountered one last heavy snow around Eagle that slowed traffic, and then the white stuff was gone.  Easy sailing to my destination, Grand Junction, with a few fairly unproductive birding stops along the way, adding birds only to my Colorado list.

The pre-dawn crispness greeted me on my first day of real birding, and I headed further west, into Utah, stopping at a viewpoint for my first Utah bird, Mountain Bluebird.  This was followed closely by a few more, as well as a sign warning to watch for eagles on the highway.

Things picked up nicely when I turned off the I-70 onto Highway 128, a back route to Moab that a friend had suggested.  Immediately after turning off, Horned Larks appeared in droves along with Common Ravens, and finally, two of the promised Golden Eagles not far off the road.  The secenery also became spectacular at this point as Highway 128 wound through a river canyon, and I got my first looks at Utah's rock columns.

 

 

A few more birds appeared on the way, including Say's Phoebes and Red-tailed Hawks, plus a few "lifer" mammals, White-tailed Prairie Dog, White-tailed Antelope Squirrel, and Rock Squirrel.

 

Arches National Park near Moab lived up to it's reputation, and even though I had come as much for one of my long-standing nemesis birds as I had for the scenery, I spent much more time admiring the rock formations than I did searching for birds.

 

I will leave further pictures of the park to your searching, needless to say I took lots!  Arches was fairly quiet on the bird front, but did give up a pair of Cassin's Finches, a small flock of Black-throated Sparrows, easily my favourite sparrow, and more ravens.  Finally, after pishing throughout every bit of juniper in the park, near the end of the road, my pishing stirred up a very upset Juniper Titmouse, my first target of the trip, and a nemesis bird.  The remainder of the day was anti-climactic, with little else showing in Utah, or my return to Colorado.

The following two days were spent exploring Mesa County from my base in Grand Junction.  A trip up the scenic byway over Grand Mesa was disappointing in that every sideroad was closed by 4 to 6 feet of snow, and I didn't find my hoped for birds near the top, but the trip up did turn up several birds near the town of Mesa, including my first Western Scrub-Jay.  The backside of the mesa also produced some interesting birds, including Colorado's first two Red-naped Sapsuckers of the season, also the first March record for this species in Delta County, where I found them.  A flock of Sandhill Cranes near the town of Delta was a nice add, though I missed the numbers that had been seen in the Grand Valley.

A walk around a nature trail in Grand Juntion turned up two early Lincoln's Sparrows and most of the expected waterfowl, and I joined the local Audubon bird walk on the Colorado River trail on the Wednesday.  I always like to connect with local birders where I can, to get a little local knowledge and insight.

One such bit of local knowledge was an explanation of all of the laundry baskets I had seen in trees.  Apparently, after West Nile decimated the local magpie population and the nests had fallen apart or been destroyed by the young Great Horned Owls that were raised in them, a lack of suitable owl nests prompted the locals to put up laundry baskets as substitutes.  The walk along the river also turned up my only Wood Ducks of the trip, a couple of Gambel's Quail, and a small flock of Cedar Waxwings, a nice surprise for all.  I was welcomed at the walk with open arms, and had great chances to chat with the other folks.  A quick spin through Connected Lakes State Park yielded little, aside from my my only Bushtits of the trip.

Wednesday afternoon was my final birding in Mesa County, as Thursday was to be a tourist day.  After a fantastic lunch at 626 on Rood in Grand Junction, I headed up to Colorado National Monument, supposedly a very birdy area.  My first stop, the Devil's Kitchen trailhead, most certainly was.  No sooner had I left the car then Canyon and Rock Wren were both heard, and the bird I had travelled to Utah for, Juniper Titmouse, was present in multiples.  The remainder of the Monument turned up little of interest, besides more spectacular scenery.

 

 

 

After touring the National Monument I spent an enjoyable hour and a half watching feeders and talking birds at the home of a local birder, hoping for titmice and Rosy-finches.  Though neither showed (the Rosy-finches had last been seen a couple days prior), we enjoyed great looks at Lesser Goldfinch, Gambel's Quail, and Pinyon Jay.

 

Finally, while in Grand Junction that evening, a group of 8 Turkey Vultures put in an appearance, one of the first sightings for the county, and my first of the trip.

 

The next day I played tourist and enjoyed a little rest and relaxation, my last for the trip.  I will wrap up my adventure in another post in a couple of days.

 



Out of Moth Balls!

Well, it is maybe about time to update this blog, as it has been silent for a few months!

Luckily, nothing exciting has happened in the meantime, unless you count two Canada firsts and a couple of exciting Victoria area vagrants, all of which have been well publicized.

The Victoria Birder is set to be back on the road soon!  Following the success of last years Great Canadian Chicken Hunt with Russ and Ilya, I have decided that a followup is in order, and am kicking off the Great Colorado Chicken Hunt in a mere six days.

My route is not going to be the most efficient, and as this is a solo trip, I won't have anyone to share the driving with, but starting in Denver next Saturday, I am going to head first to Grand Junction, a smaller town in Western Colorado.  From there I will be able to access several great birding locations, as well as use it as a base for a day trip to Moab, Utah, where I will spend the majority of my time beginning a Utah list and hunting for Juniper Titmouse, if the scenery doesn't distract me.

Next, I will be retracing my steps back through Denver to Wray, located in Eastern Colorado, a few miles from the border with both Nebraska and Kansas, for an early morning Greater Prairie-Chicken tour through the Wray Chamber of Commerce.  After wrapping up this tour I am headed to Lamar, where I will be doing a Lesser Prairie-Chicken tour the next morning with Arena Dust Tours.  Now to most, the 3 hour drive from Wray to Lamar would be a great opportunity to bird casually along the way.  The Victoria Birder is not most, however, and I will be taking the scenic route, driving from Wray to Quivira Refuge in Stafford, Kanses, a major stopover for the critically endangered Whooping Crane.  With two hours at Quivira, I will then complete the 7-8 hour drive, winding up in Lamar with enough time to sleep before the next mornings tour.

After the Lesser tour, I will be heading West again to Gunnison, home of the "other" Sage Grouse.  The endangered Gunnison Sage-Grouse is limited mainly to a very small area, the Gunnison Basin, and is a victim of habitat loss.  Thankfully, Colorado Parks and Wildlife maintains a viewing area at the Waunita Lek, 19 miles east of Gunnison.  This viewing area opens on April 1, and I will be there opening day, hoping for great looks.  Also in the area of Gunnison and Crested Butte, I will be hoping to track down Black and Brown-capped Rosy-Finches, if I haven't already found them.  Following the Gunnison birds, I will be heading to Pueblo and Colorado Springs, hunting for gulls, waterfowl, and passerines at the Pueble Reservoir, and passerines and Mountain Plover at Chico Basin Ranch.  Winding up the 12 day trip, I will be flying home on April 3.

This trip will have my smallest travelling target list to date (13, with many longshots, plus another 4 that I haven't seen in the United States), so I am thinking I am going to have to start travelling further afield.  I may also have to start considering warmer locations, after last years March trip to southern Alberta, and now this one.  Jeremy Gatten may have the right idea, heading to Thailand or Panama during the winter season.....

Stay tuned for post-trip updates, and Good Birding!

I'm on a Boat (again.....)

For those of you that follow, ever since an incredible pelagic trip with Westport Seabirds in July, 2010, I have had a bit of a run of bad luck, having had 3 trips in a row since then cancelled due to weather (Jan '11, Sept '11, and Jan '12).  In fact this January Nathan Hentze, Jeremy Gatten, and I ended up all the way down in Ocean Shores prior to the cancellation of the trip, but still enjoyed a couple of rarites (see my post "The Longest Twitch").

My brother and I were keeping our fingers crossed from start to finish.  We lucked out early on, getting the second to last spot on the Coho despite showing up two and a half hours early for the 10:30am sailing on Friday morning.

The crossing was very quiet, with very few birds and no pelagic types present.  From Port Angeles, we headed south along Highway 101, enjoying the scenery and the odd bird enroute to Ocean Shores, where we planned to hunt down a number of vagrant shorebirds that had been reported recently.

Lake Crescent, between Port Angeles and Forks.  This lake is an
incredible blue-green, my pictures do it no justice.


 We really didn't run into anything of interest until we pulled into Ruby Beach, a unit of Olympic National Park.  We were greeted by Chestnut-backed Chickadees, and a little surprised when we set up our scopes and quickly noticed a line of Sooty Shearwaters moving north to south, and we estimated 3000 in the 15 minutes we were watching.  Also at Ruby Beach, our first Brown Pelican of the trip (and apparently my Jefferson County life tick, if I were keeping track!).  We took the long way around to get to Ocean Shores, making the turnoff onto the Moclips Highway.  The detour proved very worthwhile, as we encountered a stunning male Ruffed Grouse along the highway.

The Game Range at Ocean Shores was our first stop, as Ruff and Sharp-tailed Sandpiper had both been reported the day before.  Unfortunately for us, a Peregrine Falcon had the same idea, to go looking for shorebirds!  We located a good number of Pectoral Sandpipers, Western Sandpipers, Dunlin, Greater Yellowlegs, and a single Baird's Sandpiper, but nothing with an accent.  From there we checked out the Ocean Shores Sewage Treatment Plant followed by the Point Brown Jetty, but only succeeded in adding my first for Washington Northern Shoveler, an American Pipit, Savannah Sparrows, and a seemingly endless stream of Brown Pelicans.

The next morning we were up early and at the dock, greeted by a harbour covered in fog, and assurances that it wouldn't last.  The boat loaded and the lecture given, we headed out into the harbour and the ocean beyond.



The way out.
 

We immediately found more Brown Pelicans and various mutt gulls.  Soon, Common Murres began to show, followed by Sooty Shearwaters.  Eventually we came upon a fin sticking out of the water, which created a buzz among the birders on deck, many commenting on the shark we had come across.  It wasn't, however, a shark showing us its fin, but something much, much better!

This was the best of many pictures showing the Ocean Sunfish, or Mola Mola that we had come across.  Everyone on board was in awe at the size of this fish, the first and biggest of the 10 or 12 that we would come across.  Our next surprise came shortly after the first sunfish, when Captain Phil slowed the boat down very quickly, and Ryan Shaw called out the next bird....

 

 

 

This fairly distant shot would almost make a good quiz bird.  Here is a heavily cropped picture that my brother got of the Scipps's Murrelet, of which everyone on the boat got incredible looks.

 

 

Scripps's Murrelet is a recent split, having formerly (up until a couple of months ago) comprised one half of Xantus's Murrelet.  The Northern population was split off as Scripps's, while the Southern population, which shows white above and in front of the eye, became Guadalupe Murrelet.  I believe the bird pictured above is the first Washington record since the split.

 

In short order we added Sabine's Gulls, Pink-footed Shearwaters, Black-footed Albatross, Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels, and a couple of Pomarine Jaegers, plus a very distant Buller's Shearwater, before stopping well offshore to chum.  The chumming brought in few birds, due in no small part to the lack of wind.  From there, Captain Phil decided to chase after a shrimp boat that we had seen in the distance.  The shrimp boat hosted a large crowd of birds, mostly Northern Fulmars and California Gulls.

 

 

 

With a couple of Black-footed Albatross mixed in......

 

 

With time running short, we turned in the general direction of Westport, having taken a long detour to chase the "Jackpot".  On the way back in we finally got good looks at a Buller's Shearwater that cut right beside the boat, and then the boat stopped quickly for a log.  Wait, a log?

 

 

 

This Northern Fur Seal put on a show for us, stretching in every way possible and peering at us over its body.  We added a mystery shark, and as we got closer to shore we ran into more shearwaters including another Buller's Shearwater, this one perhaps only 3 miles offshore.  We also ran into a very early Yellow-billed Loon, and a bit of nostalgia - a cloud of Common Terns being chased by Parasitic Jaegers.

 

For some great pictures from the trip out of Westport, and many other pictures of Westport, Washington, and other birds, you can also check out Ryan Shaw's Flickr Page.

 

After returning to the dock we headed first to Bottle Beach, where there were no shorebirds, and then headed for Midway Beach south of Grayland, where we spent almost 2 hours on a wild Snowy Plover hunt.  There were good numbers of dowitchers, Sanderling, and Pectoral Sandpipers (including a couple of very bright individuals), and an American Bittern that my brother spotted in the reeds.

 

Sadly, this is the closest we got to Snowy Plover

 

 As the sun set over Midway Beach, we finished up with dinner at the One-eyed Crab. 

 

Sunday morning found us headed to Bottle Beach as soon as it was light enough to see.  We had no problem finding the shorebirds we were seeking, and we quickly located Western, Least, and Baird's Sandpipers, Black-bellied Plovers American and Pacific Golden-Plover (one of each), Short-billed Dowitchers, Sanderling, Red Knots, and a large squawking mass of Marbled Godwits.  We had scanned the beach up and down a couple of times when a small group of peeps flew in, and with them a larger bird, a juvenile Ruff.  Later in the day, after we had departed to ensure our passage on the Coho, a female Bobolink was seen and photographed along the trail at Bottle Beach as well.

 

Our return trip was very uneventful, and the Coho trip from Port Angeles to Victoria was even quieter than the trip down.

 

All in all though, it was a great trip, huge thanks to Westport Seabirds (and to Capt Phil, Chris, Bruce, Bill, and Ryan!) and to everyone who posts to Tweeters for the timely sightings!  I found one of my targets (Buller's Shearwater) plus another bonus lifer in Scripps's Murrelet.

 

I am not sure when my next Westport Trip will be, but I am definitely looking forward to it!

 

Good birding,

 

Further West? AKA: The Jeremies and the Search for the Holy Grail....

Port Renfrew is about as far west as you can get, right?

Maybe not..... Jeremy Gatten and I joined up with Rick Shortinghuis, Charles Smith, and Ray Woods, Phil Cram, and Brian Elder of "Fur and Feathers 500" fame on a pelagic trip out of Tofino on September 12th.

With visions of pterodromas dancing in our heads, we left Victoria at 8am on Tuesday, Pacific Rim National Park in our sights.  After a quick stop at the Tim Hortons in Port Alberni, which netted us a Yellow-rumped Warbler, Red-breasted Sapsucker, and Eurasian Collared-Dove, in addition to coffee, the all great life-sustaining bean beverage, we headed on to our first serious stop, Wikkaninnish Beach.

The Long Beach Airport, which chose to deny us on this day.  The next day, the FF500

found 2 Pacific Golden-Plovers here.

We found the beach to be fairly quiet, with very few passerines, including a single Fox Sparrow, and only a few Red-necked Grebes (recent arrivals) in the surf.  From there we headed to Comber's Beach, where we a few more species, including an incredible 30 Herring Gulls, but only Black Oystercatcher and Western Sandpiper in the shorebird category, the main reason for our many stops.  Long Beach provided a bit more excitement, with a Whimbrel feeding high on the beach, and another Black Oystercatcher.  Grice Bay was also quiet.

A cropped shot of the Long Beach Whimbrel, I will leave the award winning

photography to The Naturalest Naturalist

Chesterman Beach is a location that neither Jeremy nor I had visited in the past, and we made a point of walking the entire length.  This stretch of sand and rock turned out to be the highlight of our days birding, as we turned up a single Baird's Sandpiper foraging with 14 Western Sandpipers, a flock of 14 Sanderling, and 8 Black Oystercatchers and 4 Black Turnstones. Not bad at all, but still none of the Asian vagrants we had hoped for.

Chesterman Beach, mecca for Surfers and Shorebirds

Our last pre-dinner stop was the end of Sharp Rd, where we scoped 200+ Western Sandpipers without so much as a Semi-palm or Least.  A quick stop at Wildside Grill was dinner, after which we headed back to Long Beach.  The Whimbrel we had found earlier was still in pretty much the same spot (and pretty much the only bird around), but we did manage to add 100+ Sooty Shearwaters streaming by over the horizon.

Wednesday morning dawned full of promise, with a Swainson's Thrush calling outside our five star room at the Dolphin Motel (chosen for convenience, as it is located at the corner of Sharp Rd and right near Chesterman Beach.  Nice rooms, but definitely no resort!).  We made our way to the rendezvous point with a coffee stop along the way, and were suited up and on the boat just after 7am.

We were only a few kilometers out when we started seeing our first birds, Sooty Shearwaters, followed not long after by the odd Pink-footed Shearwater.  Soon, Red-necked Phalaropes and Cassin's Auklets began showing, the latter providing stunning, boatside looks.  A real treat for any birder!

As we approached the edge of Clayoquot Canyon and began to contemplate chumming, we were surprised by a lone Black-footed Albatross that had managed to sneak up behind us, no doubt following the trail of orange peels I had left for it.  After ascertaining that we had nothing to offer, the albatross left us as suddenly as it had appeared, and we continued on to set out some chum.  At this point we also had distant looks at what appeared to be a Long-tailed Jaeger harassing Sabine's Gulls.  We gave chase, but the jaeger proved faster than the boat, and we lost sight of it.

Getting no bird love from the chum we moved further into the canyon, to a point our guide, Artie, called "The Abyss".  A little daunting, and perhaps melodramatic, but this is where we set out our second bit of chum, a concoction of fish bits and cheerios (even tubenoses need to watch their cholesterol, apparently).  Before long we had a taker, a Black-footed Albatross, which was quickly joined by another, then by a stunning Parasitic Jaeger.  Eventually, the mixed feeding flock totalled 6 Black-footed Albatross, 2 Pink-footed Shearwaters, 2 Sooty Shearwaters, the jaeger, and a drop-in Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel that gave everyone looks before taking off.

Two of our lunch guests

 

 

After the lunch show we turned for the 42 mile journey back to terra firma, finding the occassional flock of phalaropes or flyby shearwater.  Among a scattered flock of alcids, we located 3 Tufted Puffins, always a treat to see!  These birds were in various stages of acquiring their winter look, which trades snappy black and white with gold edging for all black, maintaining the honking orange bill.  Luckily, these birds still had their golden "tufts".

 

About 11 miles off Cleland Island, we encountered another treat, a group of Humpback Whales.  True, they aren't birds (and how would Victoria Whaler sound as a blog title?) but they were absolutely stunning as they approached us.  We had cut all power and had been drifting for 10 minutes or so when they passed closely beside us, thrilling all on board, and carried on to where ever it is that whales go.  For a very shaky YouTube video of the encounter, check here. 

 

 

 

We added a few other birds on the way back in, including Marbled Murrelet, Pigeon Guillemot, and Red-necked Grebe, but the last highlight was definitely sightings of 4 Sea Otters drifting in the kelp!

 

The trip back in.

 

 

The weather and company couldn't have been any better for this trip.  While the birds were not as dense as we had all hoped, you just never know what those pelagic species are going to do!

 

Huge thanks to Ray, Brian, and Phil for organizing this trip and having us along, and to Rick and Charles for rounding out a fantastic group!  For another perspective on the trip and some fabulous pictures, see the Fur & Feathers 500 blog here.  The Naturalest Naturalist also got some fantastic pictures over both days, and should have those posted soon as well.

 

A quick lunch at Big Daddy's Fish Fry and Jeremy G and I were headed south again, making one fruitless stop at Long Beach before heading straight for Victoria, with breaks only for coffee in Port Alberni and Ladysmith.

 

All in all, not a bad way to spend a couple of days, the countdown clock is now on for the September 22 Westport Trip!

 

Good birding,



 





Go West Young Man, Go West!

Wow, 5am comes early!

Jeremy G and I decided to head west to Port Renfrew and Jordan River today, in search of shorebirds and trans-Pacific vagrants, and as such met up at 5:20am at the Langford Tim Hortons, our usual meet up and breakfast stop.

A quick fuel up for me at Tim's, and for Jeremy G at the Sooke McDonald's (where we found two Lincoln's Sparrows), and we were on the ground at Whiffen Spit by 6:20.  Whiffen is a spot full of potential, and has turned up birds such as Lesser Nighthawk, Ruff, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, and many others, but today we had to settle for Western Sandpipers, Black Turnstones, California Gulls, Mew Gulls, and a single female Harlequin Duck.  There were no different sparrows with the 20-odd Savannah's or the few White-crowneds.

Jordan River was our next stop, another migrant trap that can greatly reward those willing to make the drive.  We found 41 species along the waterfront and back in the trees, including Bewick's Wren (unusual that far west), 300+ California Gulls, 2 Herring Gulls, a Spotted Sandpiper, a flyover Greater Yellowlegs, and a great variety (of garden variety) passerines.  We didn`t encounter anything of the magnitude we had hoped, but the birding was great anyway!

 

The San Juan River

 

The lure of vagrants and strays drew us further west, to the end of the road.  We started off birding the young alder and sand of the San Juan River estuary.  Immediately we started picking up new birds for the day, including Long-billed Dowitcher, American Goldfinch, Red Crossbill, Osprey, Ring-billed Gull, and a Western Gull.  We also noticed four American Wigeon, a somewhat early arrival, while 2 Black Swifts flew overhead.

 

A hike through the two campgrounds along the river and bay also turned up new birds, including a Mourning Dove and a Red-necked Phalarope, both of which we flushed out of the grass.  Three Horned Grebes and two Red-throated Loons in almost perfect breeding plumage were seen in the bay, and while we saw many good-sized Coho jumping, it seems that they all managed to elude the swarm of anglers as well as the patrolling Ospreys. 

 

One of Port Renfrew's residential pockets was our last stop before lunch, and we turned up our first Eurasian Collared-Doves and Red-winged Blackbirds, as well as a very grey headed Orange-crowned Warbler and a couple Wilson's Warblers.

 

 Yours Truly Searched High and Low for Vagrants, whilst the Naturalest Naturalist took some time out to

get the perfect Collared-Dove picture

 

As far as I am concerned, there is only one place for lunch in Port Renfrew, and that is Coastal Kitchen Cafe.  When we ordered, the crowd was light, but it was packed by the time we left.  In order to maximize birding time, we decided to sit at one of the tables out in the garden area, where we added Rufous Hummingbird, plus another lunch companion.

 

 

This Pacific Chorus Frog chose not to order, but was still pleasant company.

 

 

After a fantastic lunch of Halibut and Chips, we decided to try the Botanical Beach parking lot before heading back to civilization.  Yet another migrant magnet, this parking lot has attracted Lark Bunting and Brewer's Sparrow in the last couple of years.  Unfortunately, the parking lot was full of cars and people, and we only managed to turn up one bird - our first and only Dark-eyed Junco of the day.

 

As it was getting to be home time, we headed back east without our much desired rarites but decided to make a quick swing through Metchosin on the way.  The Metchosin Golf Course turned up a female Blue-winged Teal, more Black Swifts, 4 Purple Martins, and a Pied-billed Grebe that I originally mistook for a very grebe-shaped stick, while Albert Head Lagoon added Mute Swan and Semipalmated Sandpiper to end the days adventure at 85 species.

 

And now for something completely different - from the rugged coast to a golf course pond!

 

Birding the western part of the South Island, while not as lucrative in terms of species count as Victoria and the Peninsula, is still a great time.  You just never know what could show up once away from the shelter of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and Coastal Kitchen Cafe is worth the drive!

 

Good birding,