Holy Crap: Duncan's Sewage Treatment Ponds

Last Sunday, I decided to reward myself for putting in a day of shopping for my upcoming trip to Thailand.  My plan for the day was to seek out crossbill flocks around Shawnigan Lake due to the prevalence of Western Hemlocks (Tsuga heterophylla).  The White-winged Crossbill (Loxia leucoptera) irruption this year spurred me to check this area because hemlocks are the conifer of choice for that species.  It was a total bust due to my impatience and the lack of good treetop viewing conditions.  I only had two Red Crossbills (L. curvirostris) in the area.  My consolation for the area was a Hutton's Vireo (Vireo huttoni) on West Shawnigan Lake Rd.

Due to the lack of crossbill action, I quickly cut the reigns on my idea and decided to head up to Duncan.  I opted to take a side route in to the town, passing Cowichan Bay on the way.  I turned on to the Cowichan Bay Dock Rd. (Westcan Terminal Rd. on Google Maps) and immediately was deterred by the horde of cars parked by the gate.  I decided to continue on and found a trail I had never taken before around a kilometre further along Tzouhalem Rd.  The trail follows a dike around one of the Dinsdale's farm fields, if memory serves me correctly, and it overlooks a section of the Cowichan River estuary that I have never checked before.  The outing wasn't overly productive, but I turned up a couple of Sharp-shinned Hawks (Accipiter striatus), three male Eurasian Wigeons (Anas penelope) among 90 or so Americans (Anas americana), and the most intriguing was a flock of 20+ American Pipits (Anthus rubescens) that vanished into the relatively short grass.  Normally I wouldn't say that a flock of pipits is intriguing, but the paucity of reports this winter locally paired with the fact that the Citrine Wagtail (Motacilla citreola) is still in the farm fields near Courtenay made me really want to scan through them carefully.  Perhaps there's something interesting like a japonicus American Pipit mixed in?  Unfortunately I only managed to see only two or three of them peeking up above the grass.  Very frustrating!

I was feeling a little defeated after putting in a pretty solid day's effort and coming out pretty empty-handed, so I decided to hit up the Duncan sewage treatment ponds as a last resort.  I think most people know how enamoured birders are with garbage dumps and sewage treatment facilities, but there is a reason!  Birds find our toilet flushings to be the best thing since sliced bread.  I think that saying even works because gulls and ducks love bread.

Look at all those gloriously disgusting scaups and gulls drawn to our waste!

I am now back from Thailand and see that I did not complete this post.  Nice!  I guess three weeks late is better than no post at all.  So, rather than wax poetic about fuzzy details, I'll just get to the stars of the show. One bird that immediately jumped out from the group of gulls closest to the corner I was viewing the ponds (near the Freshwater Eco-Centre) was a second-winter Glaucous Gull!

The overall creamy white colouration and pale iris point to this Glaucous Gull being a second year.

Mmmm... Duncan leavings!

Can you tell the Glaucous Gull ruled the roost?

The other bird was found while carefully scanning through the Lesser Scaups (Aythya affinis) and Ring-necked Ducks (A. collaris) for something like a Tufted Duck (A. fuligula).  One bird had a dark back much like a Ring-necked Duck, but everything else about it was more scaup-like.  It turned out that it was both - a hybrid Ring-necked Duck x Scaup sp.!  Have a look for yourself:

You'll have to forgive the quality, but the bird was quite far away!  The second duck from the left on the back pipe is the hybrid.  You can see the mantle shade is lighter than the black chest, the bird has a broad pale band on its bill, and lacks the obvious white shoulder spur of a Ring-necked.  For reference, you can see all the other birds on the pipes are Lesser Scaup with the exception of the rightmost bird on the second closest pipe (I'm including the pipe you can only see a sliver of in the bottom left), which is a Ring-necked Duck.

Flapping, but blurry so you can't really get much out of it.

You can see the broad pale band on the bill a little better here.

And just one last horrible record shot just for in case it adds a little something.

If you want to see the Glaucous Gull, it has now probably moved its way up to the Parksville-Qualicum area, so head up there for some great gulling in the next few weeks!

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!

Gull-lover's Travels

Migration is pretty much at its peak right now and I've been reading about some extremely tantalizing rarities from the Lower Mainland and Washington.  Many of the recent vagrants have been shorebirds - Washington has had Lesser Sand-Plover (Charadrius mongolus), Ruff (Philomachus pugnax), Bar-tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica), and Wilson's Plover (Charadrius wilsonia) along with Buff-breasted Sandpiper (Tryngites subruficollis), Stilt Sandpiper (Calidris himantopus) and Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (Calidris acuminata), while the Lower Mainland has hosted Sharp-tailed, Buff-breasted and Stilt Sandpipers and a Ruff, as well.  The Wilson's Plover is just mind-blowing and something that is unlikely to be repeated any time soon, but wayward Asian shorebirds are never out of the question.  Heck, we just had our own Sharp-tailed Sandpiper at McIntyre Reservoir less than a week ago!  With that in mind, Jeremy K. and I decided to focus our efforts out west with a trip to Port Renfrew with stops at Whiffin Spit and Jordan River along the way.

I could try to reinvent wheel and write a full report of this outing, but Jeremy K. already rolled up his sleeves and did the dirty work.  I often dropped my birding intensity to snap off some shots of gulls and anything else that would oblige, so that will be the focus of this post.

Starting at Jordan River, I walked out to the big flock of gulls at the point near the river's outflow into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  The lighting wasn't conducive to getting photos of the two adult American Herring Gulls (Larus smithsonianus), so I opted to sneak in on a second-cycle Heermann's Gull (L. heermanni), an adult Glaucous-winged Gull (L. glaucescens), California Gulls (L. californicus) of three different ages.

I have tentatively aged this Heermann's Gull as a second-cyle, but I am finding it hard to pin down for sure. I would think a third-cycle bird would have obvious grey to white tips on the retrices and the head would be grizzled with white. Does anyone have more experience in aging Heermann's or would someone be willing to give a better assessment by looking at the state of molt?

Glaucous-winged Gulls are the standard Pacific Northwest gull.  You can almost always find other gull species right through the summer, but this is the only species that breeds locally.  This adult shows primaries that more or less match the shade of the mantle, which is a classic Glaucous-winged feature.

This first-cycle California Gull is not always easy to identify at first, but the strongly bicoloured pink-and-black bill with parallel edges and long, black primaries are good indicators.

First-cycle California Gulls are known to be quite variable.  This individual still shows all the same diagnostics as the previous one, but still manages to look different due to the dark mottling on the head.  This species is quite common for over half the year, so it is important to become familiar with all ages.

This second-cycle California Gull has several features that are different from the above examples of first-cycle birds.  Most notably, the mantle has the odd pure grey feather filling in, the bill is pale pink and black with a pale tip, and the legs are a pale bluish-flesh colour.

This is a classic adult California Gull.  The legs are yellow, the bill has a red spot with a touch of black, the eyes are dark brown, and when in the company of other gulls it is medium in size.

Here's another shot of an adult California Gull displaying its red gape nicely during a yawn.

In Port Renfew, the rather slow birding caused me to seek out more shots.  I started with a more worn juvenile California Gull.

This California Gull appears to be an extremely worn juvenile compared to the two I photographed at Jordan River.  This is another great example of how variable this species can be at this age.

Even if the birding is slow, you can at least appreciate the scenery when you go to Port Renfew.  The San Juan River estuary is truly a grand scene.  I image crisp mornings with a slight fog or late afternoons with low sun from west create amazing photography conditions.

I think the government should just install old pilings all along the coastline for tourism.  I am pretty sure they always add a certain charm to the scenery.

While enjoying the estuary's majesty, a Merlin (Falco columbarius) darted in to a patch of alders and was amazing cooperative.  This dark little falcon belongs to the coastal subspecies suckleyi, which are sometimes referred to as Black Merlins or Coastal Forest Merlins.

The inset (top right) shows the "tooth" that falcons have on their bill to dislocate the neck of their prey.

In the Port Renfrew townsite, I managed to get a less-than-amazing shot of a Wilson's Warbler (Cardellina pusilla) and documented one of the many Eurasian Collared-Doves (Streptopelia decaocto) that have established there.

If you get a good look at a male Wilson's Warbler, there's no mistaking it!  The male's solid, small black cap separates it from all other warblers.

If you haven't seen any Eurasian Collared-Doves in your neighborhood, give it a year or two.  In the last few years, they have managed to establish themselves quite firmly in many areas of southern British Columbia and reports have come from all over the province. 

The last shot of this entry comes from a quick stop we made one our leisurely route back to Langford.  We quickly popped in to a pond at the Metchosin Golf Course to see if any shorebirds were working the edge.  Instead, we were treated to a lone Blue-winged Teal (Anas discors).

The dark eyeline, white eye arcs, and bill shape point to this being a Blue-winged Teal as opposed to a Cinnamon.

Spaghetti Western

This morning I toured around the Metchosin area in hopes of catching up with a couple spring birds.  My first stops provided a combination of lingering winter fare and resident birds.

Gadwalls (Anas strepera), such as this male, are a resident species of waterfowl to the Victoria area

My luck changed near Weir's Beach when I heard the distinctive whir of a Rufous Hummingbird's (Selasphorus rufus) wings.  I scanned through a patch of flowering Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis) and spotted a male darting from flower to flower.

With a bit of persistence, I eventually managed this capture of the male Rufous Hummingbird visiting a Salmonberry blossom

The Salmonberry flowers were looking so vivid and fresh that I couldn't help but take an extra shot or two.  I'm sure you'll agree it was worth the effort!

The flowering of Salmonberry is perfectly synchronized with the arrival of Rufous Hummingbirds

I detoured over to the Goodrich Peninsula in hopes of finding Mountain Bluebirds (Sialia currucoides) due to their presence a couple kilometres away at Whiffin Spit.  There were no bluebirds to be found, but I did have my first Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata) and migrating Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis) of the year.  Fox Sparrows (Passerella iliaca)were in abundance again at this location, including a couple singing males.

One of the Fox Sparrows was kind enough to pose for a minute on one of the many Himalayan Blackberry (R. armeniacus) shrubs

I finished my day off at Esquimalt Lagoon where I decided to take some photos of a couple birds that would likely be identified as Western Gulls (Larus occidentalis) to the laybirder.  I personally have no idea where the spectrum of northern Western Gulls (ssp. occidentalis) stops and hybrids with Glaucous-winged Gulls (L. glaucescens) - also known as Olympic Gulls due to their prevalence around the Olympic Peninsula - begin in terms of mantle shade.  Personally, I felt these were Spaghetti Westerns.  That's really just a term I made up, but I think it's suitable.  In birding, if someone deceptively reports a bird, it is termed "stringing".  During big days (a competition to see who can find the most birds in a day), I'm sure a few stringy Western Gulls sneak onto lists.  Spaghetti is stringy, hence Spaghetti Western.  The birds I saw today appear quite similar to a typical Western Gull, but the mantle shade is a touch paler, the primaries (wingtips) don't quite seem truly black, and the orbital ring appears to have a touch of pink mixed in the yellowish tone.  It is subtle but it would be more apparent if it was side-by-side-by-side with a Western and a Glaucous-winged for an idyllic comparison.  Here are two examples of Olympic Gulls:

The hot Jerry Springer topic in the bird world is: interspecies relationships

This one's bill is a little more orange, but the wingtips are a bit greyer

If I get the chance in the next while, I'll try to get a photo of what I believe to be a pure Western Gull for comparison.  Enough of the gulls, though. Also at the lagoon, there is a big flock of blackbirds and starlings and they are quite entertaining to watch.  Surprisingly, there was a nice adult male Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater) in the mix, but it flew a second after I noticed it.  I did, however, get a couple shots of male Brewer's Blackbirds (Euphagus cyanocephalus), so that will be the finale for this entry.

For something called a "blackbird", they have a lot of nice colours coming off those feathers

My Relationship with Gulls is on the Rocks

I headed down to Clover Point on Saturday in hopes of finding some gulls on the rocks to add to my personal gallery.  The scene was pretty typical for the location, with Harlequin Ducks in the surf just off the rocks, a sparse flock of Mew and Thayer's Gulls off the west side of the point, and a group of assorted hybrids on the grass in the middle of the driving ring.

Harlequin Ducks get their name from the male's clownlike feature reminiscent
of pantomime jesters dressed in diamond-patterned costumes

The unique pattern and contrasting colours puts Harlequin Ducks
among the sharpest waterfowl in the world in my opinion

A first-winter Glaucous-winged Gull sized up this clam for a while and I never did see how it dealt with it

This first-winter Mew Gull giving a lazy yawn

The dark-tipped bill and molt pattern of the wing coverts allow this bird to be aged as a second winter Mew Gull

The pure yellow bill and uniform mantle shade are good indicators this Mew Gull is an adult

A nice example of an adult Thayer's Gull that is starting to lose the winter head streaking

This adult Thayer's Gull shows the dusky mottling on its head typical of a winter adult

Not a bad session out with the gulls.  They allow close approach if you're patient but be prepared to get chilled along the waterfront!

Gull Bladder

I have a weak gull bladder so I decided to drain my urge today with a scan through any flocks I could come across.  Over the last week, a Glaucous Gull (Larus hyperboreus) has been sighted among the usual Mew (L. canus), Thayer's (L. thayeri), American Herring (L. smithsonianus), and Glaucous-winged Gulls (L. glaucescens) on the Saanich Peninsula.  Glaucous Gulls are an expected but scarce winter bird on southern Vancouver Island, with only a few records occurring in a typical winter.  As the etymology of 'hyperboreus' implies, they  come "from the north" after breeding in the high arctic.

Locally, the method for finding unusual gulls in a flock usually involves looking for pale or dark-backed individuals.  Glaucous Gulls fall into the former category.  Today I could only find one decent-sized flock of gulls on the polo field adjacent to Maber Flats in Brentwood Bay.  Scanning through the group, nothing really jumped out.  The Glaucous Gull was originally located near Maber Flats by Mary Robichaud on Friday, February 10th and it later was seen by several others when it was relocated at the Vantreight bulb fields a few days later by Kirsten Mills.  When I passed by the Vantreight bulb fields off Central Saanich Rd., I saw a whopping six gulls on one field and once again nothing jumped out of the mix.  After wandering around Sidney for a couple hours and having a bite to eat, my day ended with a check at Patricia Bay.  Last year in March, I found a first-winter Glaucous Gull at the mouth of Wsikem Creek where it drains into the bay.  I hoped to relive the magic but was a little deflated when I got to bay and saw all the gulls were heavily backlit by the low sun to the west.  I still gave my best effort and could see one gull that was intriguing.  I made my way down to the beach and walked out towards the sparse flock of gulls until the viewing conditions improved and the bird in question could be identified.  The overall paleness of the bird was not a trick of the light - the wingtips were nearly pure white, the body appeared to be uniformly dingy white, and its bill was pink with a black tip.  A perfect specimen of a Glaucous Gull.  I think it was a second-winter bird but I'd like to see it in better light to slap a proper age label on it.  I wasn't able to get a photo due to the low light, but I will share a couple shots of the first-winter bird from March last year at the same location:

This classic first-winter Glaucous Gull is distinguished by its white wingtips, white mantle with grey-brown vermiculations, sharply bicoloured bill, and overall bulk (approximately the same size as the hybrid Glaucous-winged x Western Gull to right)

The bird is aged as a first-winter Glaucous Gull by its dark eye; typical second-winter birds have a pale iris

The sighting gave my gull bladder the sweet relief I needed.  I'm sure I'll have to go again by midweek, so I may sneak back down to Patricia Bay and try to relocate the bird or perhaps something rarer from the dark-backed end of the spectrum.  Fingers crossed!