Palm Monday

After spending eight weeks on a boat, I am glad to be back on solid ground.  All I want to do is wander around back on familiar territory and get reacquainted with the local birds.  I did exactly that today and decided to take my time and walk around some nice habitats on the Saanich Peninsula.

I started off my day around the Victoria Airport.  While driving along, I spied a hawk sitting out on a perch near the runways and decided to turn around and check it out.  While determining it was just a Red-tailed, I was fortunate enough to have seven Sky Larks fly up and circle around for a few minutes.  Not a bad start!

On a whim, I decided to get out and scour the hawthorns and blackberries around Sandown Park, which is the location of the old horse racing track.  It is certainly an interesting area and I could see something interesting turning up there.  I couldn't draw anything exotic out of the shrubs today, but I had a good variety of the usual suspects.  The highlight was a couple of Lincoln's Sparrows that offered up good views with a bit of coaxing.

Next, I made my way over to John Rd. to see if I could track down any good sparrow flocks or perhaps find a shrike out in the fields.  While driving, I spotted an American Kestrel as it flew off the top of a tree and proceeded to land on a snag.  Before hopping back in the car, I looked at another snag and was graced by a nice adult Cooper's Hawk.  I didn't make it too far before I noticed a decent-sized blackbird flock and I put in a rather frustrating effort trying to sift through it for either a Rusty or Yellow-headed.  The flock never did cooperate, but I have a feeling it could hold a gem.  I'll keep it in the back of my mind for a visit in the near future.  The rest of the fields were rather barren, which was disappointing.

I put in a quick stop at Patricia Bay to see if I could spot the Snow Goose that was reported there.  I always like to double check reports of white geese for Ross', but the only non-Canadas I could find were a couple of juvenile Greater White-fronted Geese.  Other waterbirds in the bay included: Greater Scaup, Surf and White-winged Scoters, Horned Grebe, Common and Pacific Loons, Common Goldeneye, and Red-breasted Merganser.

Next on my agenda was a stroll around the Vantreight bulb fields.  The birding was relatively slow, but I managed to spot a few decent birds.  The fields just north of the greenhouses had a single Western Meadowlark and four American Pipits.  Over by the westernmost reservoir, I had a pair of Mourning Doves, a Wilson's Snipe, and a couple of Lincoln's Sparrows.

Two dapper Mourning Doves showing off at the Vantreight bulb fields

This House Finch also looked very sharp posing on a cabbage leaf

By the end of the day, I gave up on trying to dig out my own uncommon birds and decided to see if the two Palm Warblers reported from Martindale Flats were still around.  As I drove along McIntyre Rd., I got extremely distracted by the geese.  I enjoy the variety of geese you can encounter in Victoria from fall through spring.  In one flock, I had Cackling Geese (Branta hutchinsii minima), Lesser Canada Geese (Branta canadensis parvipes), Dusky Canada Geese (B. c. occidentalis), and Greater White-fronted Geese (Anser albifrons).  If I took my time and analyzed them a little closer, perhaps there was another subspecies or two in there like taverneri and whatever our mutant residents are called.

The darkest geese in our local flocks over the winter are Dusky Canada Geese.  The middle bird, I suspect, is a Lesser Canada Goose.

The three birds on the right are Cackling Geese and the four on the left are Dusky Canada Geese.  I believe the Cackling Geese belong to the subspecies minima.

The six birds in front are Greater White-fronted Geese and the ones in behind appear to be Lesser Canada Geese.

All of the aforementioned taxa are in this photo - test yourself!

Finally, we'll get to the star species of the day: Palm Warblers.  I rounded the bend at the end of the lane that leads to the western edge of Garcia Nursery and recognized the Reader-Lee family unit all aiming cameras at some ornamental maples.  I figured this was a good sign.  As suspected, they had located both Palm Warblers and were documenting the tail-bobbing birds.  Despite the light starting to get a little low, we all worked our camera skills to the best of our abilities.  It was nice to hear this was a lifer for Emma and Rebecca and it caused me to recall that my lifer Palm Warbler was only a few hundred metres away... twenty some-odd rotations around the sun ago!  It was a great way to cap off a relaxing day of birding back on my home turf.

When you capture a Palm Warbler in dull light, it really doesn't do them justice.  The vivid yellow undertail created great contrast to the drab brown back and the cap still had the slightest hint of chestnut.

This is even worse - I make Palm Warblers look like the drabbest birds in the world.  You'll just have to take my word for it when I say it rocked its own style of charisma!

Swan Song

On Saturday I decided to get out check some of the local flats to check of the waterfowl numbers and diversity.  In the last few weeks there has been multiple reports of Tundra Swans (Cygnus columbianus) and there were other sightings involving Redheads (Aythya americana), Canvasbacks (Aythya valisineria), and Ruddy Ducks (Oxyura jamaicensis).  This was motivation enough for me to see what I could turn up close to home.

I started off at Tod Creek Flats behind the Red Barn Market on West Saanich Rd.  As I came down the hill towards the Red Barn Market, I could see the number of large white dots on the water had gone up significantly in the last week.

The bustle of waterfowl on Tod Creek Flats is accentuated by a picture perfect fall scene with loaded hawthorn shrubs, dead grasses, and turning leaves contrasting the evergreen wall of conifers.

I was excited to get out and sort through those large white dots to see how many were Tundra Swans.  The last Victoria checklist was produced in 2001 and it asserts that Tundra Swans as rare for this area, which means they are annual but typically limited to a few records.  I think the timing of rainfall this fall has resulted in higher-than-average numbers in our area.  The first report this fall came from Ian Cruickshank on October 23rd when he noted nine Tundras (4 adults, 5 juveniles) flying over the appropriately named Swan Lake.  These birds landed on Viaduct Ducts where they were enjoyed by many Victoria birders.  On October 31st, Mike McGrenere noted a flock of 17 adult Tundras passing west over Martindale Flats and the next day he found a group of nine resting on the fields at Martindale that likely constituted a different flock.  Considering Mike is one of the most active birders in Victoria, this quote from BCVIBIRDS says it all: "I think this must be close to the number that I have seen in Victoria since I moved here in 1985."  I don't get to study Tundra Swans very often, so that puts my excitement in perspective.  I was not hoping to find a Tundra, I was expecting it!

Spoiler alert!  Yes I did see some Tundras!  The front and centre cygnet and adult are Tundra Swans.  Compare them to the back right cygnet and adult Trumpeter Swans (Cygnus buccinator).  When adult Tundras have a yellow spot in front of their eye, they are much easier to identify as you can see here.  The juvenile Tundra has a bill that is largely pink, including the base and sometimes extending into the lores.

Almost immediately I spied my first Tundra.  In fact, it turned out to be a group of five.  There were three adults and two juveniles travelling together.  I looked through the whole flock twice and found four more adults, making a total of nine Tundra Swans mixed in with 50 Trumpeters.  There are many subtle features involving the bill that can be used to the separate the two species.  If you're interested in learning more about distinguishing these two species, please check out this swan identification article by David Sibley from his blog.  I spent a fair amount of time scanning through the ducks after sifting through the swans and was tickled to hear the Tundras making their higher-pitched honks for several minutes.  It was a perfect encounter!

I estimated there were more than 2500 waterfowl out on Tod Creek Flats, and you can see the breakdown of that from my eBird checklist here.  I thought I heard Greater White-fronted Geese (Anser albifrons) when I first arrived and eventually tracked one down.  As you may have seen from the checklist, it turned out there was actually a flock of 14 that I was able to observe after they flushed, circled the flats a couple times, then settled back on the water.  I was also pleased to pick out three male Eurasian Wigeons (Anas penelope) amongst the American Wigeons (Anas americana).

Flock of Greater White-fronted Geese about to land on Tod Creek Flats

I went to Viaduct Flats next as there had already been one report of Redheads this fall from Duncan and Viaduct was the location I last saw them in Victoria.  These hunches occasionally work out and this was one of those times.  In with the mix of diving and dabbling ducks were three Redheads and ten Canvasbacks!

I had hour-long birding sessions at Hastings Flats and Tower Point afterwards and just saw a nice variety of the usual suspects.  The only bird I don't encounter all too often that I came across was a male Red-breasted Sapsucker near the parking lot at Tower Point.  I ended the day with 78 species, which was a little surprising considering I wasn't specifically trying to amass a high species total for the day.  I think a big day could easily churn out over 100 species right now.  I do believe a certain Victoria birder with a blog about unsuccessful big years was prodding me to do a November big day.  Maybe that's on the horizon?

Crosses and Crossbills

I'm back on familiar birding grounds and making up for lost time.  On Friday, I stopped in at the Vantreight bulb fields and had my first self-found Yellow-headed Blackbird (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) in a sizable blackbird flock and yesterday (Saturday) I met up with Jeremy K. and did the Sooke-Metchosin-Esquimalt circuit to see if we could turn up any interesting fall birds.

Our day started with a frigid stroll to the tip of Whiffin Spit and back.  This walk always seems to be the football equivalent of a Hail Mary pass - nine times out of ten it doesn't pan out, but the rewards are huge for the one time you make the pass.  Today was not the big payoff we had hoped.  Bird activity was plentiful with flocks of Zonotrichia sparrows, but we just couldn't seem to dig out anything unusual.  We did manage to start a running theme for the day here when we saw a Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus) cruise over, followed by a few Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), and a Merlin (Falco columbarius) zipped through in pursuit of a morning meal.  Every stop hereafter we managed to see a raptor of some sort.

A stop in at the Goodrich Peninsula wasn't quite as brisk as Whiffin, but the level of success was similar.  My personal highlights for this stop were a lone Bonaparte's Gull (Chroicocephalus philadelphia) flying over the marina and a flock of Black Turnstones (Arenaria melanocephala) and Surfbirds (Aphriza virgata) on the floating logs by the docks.

We continued on to Metchosin via Lindholm Rd. and stopped to check out the small farm pond near the Galloping Goose crossing.  The pond was quiet but we located a huge, uncooperative blackbird flock.  We only managed short, partial views of the flock and consequently came up empty.

The best stop of the day was Swanwick Rd.  We started with a nice flock of geese on the main field, which contained 26 Greater White-fronted Geese (Anser albifrons) and 30 Cackling Geese (Branta hutchinsii) in with the usual Canada Geese (B. canadensis).

Three species of goose in one flock is always a nice sight!

My personal highlight for the day came next as three Red Crossbills (Loxia curvirostra) descended from the top of a conifer to a couple of puddles right in front of us.  I believe it was a family group as there was a single juvenile bird with an adult male and female.

The male Red Crossbill is the reddish bird with dark wings, while the streaky, olive-infused is a juvenile.

Here's a better look at the streaky appearance of the juvenile Red Crossbill.

This is the female Red Crossbill and she is really showing off her namesake crossed bill!

Swanwick Rd. was also our best raptor location of the day with two Red-tailed Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis), a Sharp-shinned Hawk, a Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperi), a Peregrine Falcon (F. peregrinus), and seven Turky Vultures (Cathartes aura).

After a rather fruitless stop in at Albert Head Lagoon, we finished our day off at Esquimalt Lagoon.  The high  tide limited the amount of birds along the shore and the close flocks of ducks and gulls all seemed to be at the north end of the lagoon.  We were starting to study a male Eurasian x American Wigeon (Anas penelope x A. americana) when a Bald Eagle put all the birds.  I managed one distant shot that shows some of the key characteristics, including mottled grey and pinky-brown flanks and oddly-coloured head pattern.

Note the male's (right) largely grey flanks which is a feature of a Eurasian Wigeon, whereas the head pattern is closer to that of an American Wigeon.  This bird looks much less Eurasian-like than most reported hybrids.

After the dust settled from the eagle stir-up, I noticed an adult Thayer's Gull (Larus thayeri) had landed on the shore.  Shortly after, I found a nice American Herring x Glaucous-winged Gull hybrid (L. smithsonianus x L. glaucescens).  After commenting on its identification to Jeremy K., a classic adult Western x Glaucous-winged Gull (L. occidentalis x L. glaucescens) joined the other bird.  I couldn't pass up the opportunity to photograph the two side by side!

The dove-headed look is a good way to distinguish Thayer's Gulls from the more block-headed American Herring Gulls.  With experience, this species is not too hard to identify (with exceptions of course) but it is hard to tell you exactly why it is a Thayer's and not one of superficially similar species.

The left bird is a typical Western x Glaucous-winged Gull based on the mottled head and not overly dark mantle, while the right bird appears to be an American Herring x Glaucous-winged Gull due to the slight fading to the primaries and dark eyes.

Here is a closer view of the American Herring x Glaucous-winged Gull hybrid, which shows the slight fading in the primaries mentioned above.  The structure of this bird is more representative of its American Herring side as it is more slender than you'd expect for a Glaucous-winged.

That's all I have from this weekend's outings.  I hope to get out during the week, but whether I'll have anything worthy of posting is another story altogether!

The Royal Consolation

Just before Christmas last year, I received a phone call from fellow Victoria birder Jeremy Kimm saying another January Westport pelagic birding trip was scheduled.  The January pelagic trips are notorious for pulling in rare albatrosses and also for being cancelled.  The last two trips to go out in January were in 2000 and 2001, which not only resulted in several Laysan Albatross sightings, but one had a Shy Albatross and the other had a Short-tailed Albatross, respectively.  Jeremy K. said there was a reserved spot with my name on it if I wanted, so I jumped at the opportunity.  We also recruited our good friend Nathan Hentze, currently residing in Burnaby, to get in on the action and he promptly signed himself up with the prospect of finally catching up with Laysan Albatross.  In fact, that was all the incentive needed for all of us.  The allure of a mega rarity was just an added bonus.

Fast forward to the afternoon of Thursday, January 26th.  Jeremy K. and I had caught the 5 p.m. ferry over to Tsawwassen and were heading to a skytrain station to pick up Nathan.  While grabbing something quick and dirty to keep us fueled on our drive down to Tacoma, we received an e-mail from Westport Seabirds saying the weather was looking decent and it appeared the trip was going to sail.  Elated with the news, we picked up Nathan, headed south of the border through the Peace Arch border crossing, and rolled into Tacoma around 11:30 p.m.

After beers and stories to around 2 a.m., we took in a meager five hours of sleep and were up and eating breakfast at IHOP at 7:30 a.m.  I dared to be different and got chicken and waffles.  We hit the I-5 and continued south towards Aberdeen and, after passing through Olympia, we got a call from Westport Seabirds saying the weather forecast had changed and winds were expected to pick up to 35 knots.  Another January trip axed.  Feeling a little dejected, we set a modified version of our back-up plan in motion.  We decided if we were already south of the border and we received notice that the trip was canned, we would head north up to Dungeness Spit and search for the two Emperor Geese that had been reported on and off for the past four weeks.  That plan only worked if we received the notice late Thursday night or very early Thursday.  As we were already south of Olympia, we opted to continue on to Ocean Shores which has also hosted an Emperor Goose for around two months.  Additionally, Damon Point, a few kilometers south of Ocean Shores, has had a female King Eider that was first sighted back in July of 2009.

Once in Ocean Shores, we managed to locate the golf course where the Emperor Goose had been regularly sighted.  It wasn't long before we found a group of Canada Geese so we hopped out and checked through them.  That would have been the easiest twitch ever, but alas it was not in the group.  For non-birders, a "twitch" is birding lingo for chasing a rare bird.  If you attempt to "twitch" and miss the bird, it is called "dipping".  Luckily we did not dip on the Emperor Goose.  We hopped back in the car and drove down the next road which offered a view down another fairway.  There were two small groups of geese and a quick scan through the closer group revealed a grey-backed goose with a black neck and throat and a white head.  We got out the scopes and enjoyed great views of the Emperor Goose as it helped maintain a nicely manicured fairway.  The rest of the flock containing the Emperor was made up of two Greater White-fronted Geese, two Dusky Canada Geese, and a Cackling Goose.

Normally found wintering on the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, this Emperor Goose is a local celebrity
in Ocean Shores, WA where birders have enjoyed its presence for nearly two months

From left to right: Greater White-fronted, Dusky Canada, Cackling, and Emperor Geese

I took a bit of time to get a photo showing all four geese taxa together and managed the above shot.  The Greater White-fronted can be distinguished by its pinky-orange bill with white feathers at the base, hence "white-fronted", while the two different white-cheeked geese can be separated by size as the Dusky Canada slightly dwarfs the Cackling.  The Emperor Goose has many diagnostic features, such as the strip of black running up its neck and throat contrasted by a white head, the heavily scalloped chest and back, the overall grey tone to its body, and a white tail.  The cooperative Emperor, significantly south of its typical winter range, was a lifer - that's birding lingo for a bird you've never seen before - for both Jeremy K. and I, while Nathan had seen a dozen or so up near their breeding range in western Alaska.

At Damon Point, we quickly located a mixed flock of scoters and were optimistic the female King Eider would be floating among them.  Sure enough, Nathan spotted her in short order.  The eider stood out due to its rich brown colour, distinct head shape, and sail-like tertial feathers.  There were several other birders wandering around Damon Point, mostly to experience the Snowy Owls further out along the point, and we took the time to chat to a few and point out the eider.  We scoped out along the sandy point from the base in hopes of spying a distant Snowy but could only see where one was likely huddled out of our view.  One birder told us the same disgraceful behaviour that has been going on at Boundary Bay near Vancouver is happening at Damon Point.  Bird photographers have flocked to locations hosting multiple Snowy Owls and the stories are less than flattering to the bird photography community.  The issue is exacerbated as interested onlookers see the owls and want photos of them, too, so they trudge out there with camera phones or short-range point-and-shoot cameras with no understanding of bird behaviour.  The end result is a daily omnipresence of humans disturbing the owls and it sickens me.  Needless to say, we did not walk out to see the owls at Damon Point.  As we walked back to the car, we saw park rangers heading out there and we can only hope they were going to educate offenders that are harassing wildlife and perhaps even send a message with a fine or two.

From a fellow birder, we learned that the Point Brown jetty, just to the north, had Rock Sandpipers in with a group of fellow rock-loving shorebirds so we decided to make that our last stop before heading back north to the border.  What we saw next was foreshadowed as we stepped out of the vehicle and had a couple of birders tell us they had just done the beached bird survey.  I must have misheard the numbers, but I caught that they had found a dead Rhinoceros Auklet and a dead puffin.  The scene there was easily more disturbing than the harassment of the owls, but the human side of the picture was thankfully more compassionate.  As we approached the beach, we could see a couple standing above a Western Grebe that was stranded on the shore.  We approached them and learned they were talking to the local Audubon Society to find out how they could help the bird.  A family was sitting on logs and watched on with concern.  We then noticed there was another Western Grebe closer to the rock jetty.  I walked up to it and could see it was less lively.  I turned around and saw Nathan was closer to the water's edge looking at a struggling Ruddy Duck.  The three of us had never witnessed a stranding event and it was quite heart-wrenching to have a helpless Western Grebe looking up at you and calling, seemingly in distress.

Long-necked and elegant Western Grebes, with their intense red eyes, have a history of stranding after windstorms

At the time, we could only speculate why the grebes were stranded and couldn't tell if they were oiled or not.  Both grebes had disheveled feathers on their flanks and towards the back end of their body, but there was no obvious signs of oil.  What we did know, however, was they were stuck once on land and were unable to walk or take flight.

The legs are positioned so far back on Western Grebes that they cannot walk once on land

I found an article from 2001 when a similar event happened at Ocean Shores.  Strong winds, similar to those experienced a week ago, was the culprit then and could well have been underlying cause of what we were witnessing.

Wave after relentless wave was the scene at Point Brown south of Ocean Shores, which
made it impossible for grebes and other stranded birds to return to sea

The article goes on to say that the grebes are not only susceptible to starvation, but sand and debris can get into their feathers stripping them of their natural waterproofing and, consequently, their insulative capacity.  Luckily we noticed a park ranger vehicle had pulled up to the beach and we went over to inform the rangers that two grebes and a Ruddy Duck were stranded.  They phoned to get another vehicle over to collect up the birds and take them to a rehabilitation centre.

We walked along the beach to see what other birds were affected by the event and quickly found four Rhinoceros Auklets and two more Western Grebes, all dead.  Additionally, we relocated the Ruddy Duck and were disheartened to see it panting with a dab of blood on its bill.  Nathan attempted to scoop it up to safety but a big wave came in and pulled it back out to sea and the next wave sent it right back into the rocks again.  Another attempt was made to get it, but the bird had a lot more life in it than we had imagined. We knew the outcome looked grim but we left it to nature to determine its fate.  As we made our way back to the car, a couple of younger park rangers pulled up and headed to the beach with gloves and a box.  We pointed out the two grebes and mentioned the Ruddy Duck down the beach was not looking good.  They put the grebes in a box and transported them to the wildlife rehabilitation centre.  We were happy to give the two grebes a fighting chance but the event left us feeling sombre.

One of four dead Rhinoceros Auklets washed up following heavy winds off the Pacific coast.

We proceeded to make the hellishly long haul back from Ocean Shores north to Delta with a couple stops along the way to keep our hunger at bay and our eyes open.  Jeremy K. was a real trooper and drove the whole stretch.  In Delta, we dropped off Nathan, grabbed one last coffee, and headed to the ferries.  We were already too late to get the last ferry to Swartz Bay (Victoria) so we had to catch the ferry to Nanaimo.  Even though it was an extremely long and tiring day, we made a brief side trip as we entered Duncan at 1:45 a.m.  I had to take a quick pee break and Jeremy K. needed to stretch out his legs, so I suggested we take a slight detour that might give us a shot at owls in the process.  As luck would have it, we spotted a Barn Owl cruising over a field right beside the road.  That was the final bird of our epic adventure.