Last weekend, while I was in Whistler, news broke about a possible Eastern Phoebe discovered by the Saturday birding group in the abandoned Aquattro development lot near Esquimalt Lagoon. I think we were just being humoured with the "possible" label because the fuzzy photos first posted had just enough detail to leave little doubt as to its identity.
The next day the phoebe was again found working its way around a small pond and several birders were able to see it. The bird was elusive at times, though, and many birders also missed the bird after spending a couple hours searching for it. I was first able to get out to look for this major local rarity - the first photo-documented record to be exact - on Tuesday and I spent the first few hours of the morning trudging around bearing boots and binoculars. The weather was lousy. It rained for almost the entire time I was there and I unfortunately had to leave just as the sun broke. I was suffered with good birding company around me as Aziza Cooper, Barbara Begg, Jeff Gaskin, and, just as I was on my way out, Alan MacLeod and Ron Satterfield were all in attendance to look for the bird. I believe only Aziza and David Stirling saw the bird by the end of the day and their sighting came about an hour after I had left.
Today, I had only two hours to work with and about an hour of that was dedicated to driving out to the site. When I got there, I was quickly greeted by Cathy Carlson and her hour's worth of effort was fruitless. Geoffrey and David Newell were also there and they also had not connected with the phoebe. Good eyes had already covered the obvious spots, so I decided to search a spot I noticed on Google Maps. The main pond the phoebe has been found around is actually part of a series of small ponds connected by a little stream. I decided to walk west around a fence and try to find the uppermost pond that appeared to be of equal size to the main pond. When I found the pond, I had a good feeling about it. The unfamiliar chip note I was hearing from the far end of the pond was also promising. The whitish spot in the alders in the direction of the call was very, very promising. I raised my binoculars and my eyes soaked in the details of a perfect Eastern Phoebe specimen. Dark cap, pale throat, and a very slight yellow wash to the belly were noted. The bird then fluttered down to snap up an insect just over the water and sallied back up to the alders.
I didn't even take the time to enjoy the bird and decided I would try to Geoffrey and David Newell over to see it. I wasn't sure if it was a lifer for them, but I have seen them many times when I worked in the Peace Region. I ran back to the main pond as fast as I could, but by the time I got there they had seemingly departed. I headed back to get better looks, but the phoebe had worked its way into the close corner and when I made it out near the pond it flew into the flooded marshy section of the forest patch to the south. I could hear it calling for another minute and then lost track of it.
I was happy to see an Eastern Phoebe in the Victoria area, which puts me up to 291 in the Victoria checklist area. The additions were very sparse last year and it's not too often I am actually around when something exciting turns up. What's next you ask? Well... hopefully the amazing-yet-heartbreaking news about a Redwing can be rectified with a miraculous relocation of the bird. If you haven't heard the news, a photograph of a bird seen on Wilkinson Rd. in mid-December was recently circulated and identified as a Redwing. What a dream bird! It is not only the first record for British Columbia, but also just the third record for western North America! So... fingers crossed!
Showing posts with label esquimalt lagoon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label esquimalt lagoon. Show all posts
Wednesday, 5 March 2014
Wednesday, 11 September 2013
Where my peeps at?
The answer is Esquimalt Lagoon! I made a run out to Esquimalt Lagoon after work today in hopes of catching up with the Franklin's Gull that was seen off and on last week. It hadn't been reported for a couple days and a similar-looking bird turned up at Clover Point yesterday, so I wasn't too hopeful.
As I rolled along, I saw a birder set up with a scope and thought I would hop out and see if they had found anything of interest. The birder introduced herself as Monica and I said I was Jeremy. Just using my first name puts birders that haven't met me in a tricky position if they follow the birding groups. Am I Jeremy Kimm, Jeremy Tatum, Jeremiah Kennedy, or Jeremy Gatten? She guessed Gatten and I guessed Nugent and we were both right. Monica was over to look for a few species that are a little trickier to find over on the Lower Mainland, including Black Turnstones, Rhinoceros Auklets, and Heermann's Gull. She had knocked off her targets and was just exploring some of the local hot spots. When I asked if she had anything interesting at the lagoon, she said she had a group of sandpipers. I scanned out with my binoculars and could see a handful of Leasts and a Western. Looking further along the shoreline, I could see a couple other peeps. One appeared to be a Western Sandpiper resting and the other appeared to be larger and quite uniform in colour on the back. I had an inkling it was a juvenile Baird's Sandpiper and a look through Monica's scope confirmed my suspicion.
I walked along the beach to get a closer look and to try to snap off a few shots of the Baird's. I didn't want to flush it, but I wanted to get right at the water's edge to get the light as close to being at my back as possible. The peeps were all relatively close together and I gave them a decent amount of room, so my shots actually provide a nice comparison of the three species. If I was better at capturing a broad depth of field, it would have been a really good comparison. Instead, the shots have the Baird's as the primary focus and Leasts and Westerns are slightly out-of-focus.
In the above photo, the leftmost bird appears to be the largest and this is the juvenile Baird's Sandpiper. Baird's are slightly bulkier than both Least and Western Sandpipers, averaging an inch longer and weighing approximately one-third more. In addition to their size, juvenile Baird's can be distinguished by their brown-buff upperparts, scalloped appearance to the back created by pale-edged feathers, long primary projection and ever-so-slightly decurved bill that tapers to a fine point. It is also worth noting that the bill and legs of Baird's Sandpipers are black. The front bird and one behind it are Western Sandpipers. The overall impression of a Westerns is a greyish-backed bird with rufous upper scapulars, a relatively long, drooping black bill, and black legs. Westerns average around half an inch longer and one-fifth heavier than Least Sandpipers and one of the first steps most take to separate them is to look at their legs and bill. In addition to the front two, the first and last bird of the rightmost group of four at the back are also Westerns. Least Sandpipers have yellow legs and a shorter, slightly more strongly decurved, finer-tipped bill. Adult Leasts are drab brown on their upperparts, while juveniles have dark-centred back feathers that are rufous-edged. The bird that has the Baird's Sandpiper's bill crossing it, also partially obscured by a Western, is a Least. Even harder to tell is the centre two birds in the righmostt group of four at the back, which are also Leasts. Nothing beats experience in the field with multiple species in close proximity. The photo does not do the best job of showing the differences but you hopefully get the idea.
I added one more shot to show the Least Sandpiper a little better. Based on my description above, you can see the Least is a juvenile. Typically the majority of the adults move through first and then juveniles, so most of the birds in the late summer are juveniles. The other feature this shot shows off nicely is the long primary projection of the juvenile Baird's - note how the primary tips project past the tail. That's one of the classic field marks for the species.
Now is a good time to get out for peep diversity, with Least, Western, Pectoral, and Baird's as the likely species to be encountered. Get out and see what you can find at your local shorebird hot spot!
As I rolled along, I saw a birder set up with a scope and thought I would hop out and see if they had found anything of interest. The birder introduced herself as Monica and I said I was Jeremy. Just using my first name puts birders that haven't met me in a tricky position if they follow the birding groups. Am I Jeremy Kimm, Jeremy Tatum, Jeremiah Kennedy, or Jeremy Gatten? She guessed Gatten and I guessed Nugent and we were both right. Monica was over to look for a few species that are a little trickier to find over on the Lower Mainland, including Black Turnstones, Rhinoceros Auklets, and Heermann's Gull. She had knocked off her targets and was just exploring some of the local hot spots. When I asked if she had anything interesting at the lagoon, she said she had a group of sandpipers. I scanned out with my binoculars and could see a handful of Leasts and a Western. Looking further along the shoreline, I could see a couple other peeps. One appeared to be a Western Sandpiper resting and the other appeared to be larger and quite uniform in colour on the back. I had an inkling it was a juvenile Baird's Sandpiper and a look through Monica's scope confirmed my suspicion.
I walked along the beach to get a closer look and to try to snap off a few shots of the Baird's. I didn't want to flush it, but I wanted to get right at the water's edge to get the light as close to being at my back as possible. The peeps were all relatively close together and I gave them a decent amount of room, so my shots actually provide a nice comparison of the three species. If I was better at capturing a broad depth of field, it would have been a really good comparison. Instead, the shots have the Baird's as the primary focus and Leasts and Westerns are slightly out-of-focus.
 |
| These are always the most instructive situations - multiple species side-by-side for a perfect comparison! |
In the above photo, the leftmost bird appears to be the largest and this is the juvenile Baird's Sandpiper. Baird's are slightly bulkier than both Least and Western Sandpipers, averaging an inch longer and weighing approximately one-third more. In addition to their size, juvenile Baird's can be distinguished by their brown-buff upperparts, scalloped appearance to the back created by pale-edged feathers, long primary projection and ever-so-slightly decurved bill that tapers to a fine point. It is also worth noting that the bill and legs of Baird's Sandpipers are black. The front bird and one behind it are Western Sandpipers. The overall impression of a Westerns is a greyish-backed bird with rufous upper scapulars, a relatively long, drooping black bill, and black legs. Westerns average around half an inch longer and one-fifth heavier than Least Sandpipers and one of the first steps most take to separate them is to look at their legs and bill. In addition to the front two, the first and last bird of the rightmost group of four at the back are also Westerns. Least Sandpipers have yellow legs and a shorter, slightly more strongly decurved, finer-tipped bill. Adult Leasts are drab brown on their upperparts, while juveniles have dark-centred back feathers that are rufous-edged. The bird that has the Baird's Sandpiper's bill crossing it, also partially obscured by a Western, is a Least. Even harder to tell is the centre two birds in the righmostt group of four at the back, which are also Leasts. Nothing beats experience in the field with multiple species in close proximity. The photo does not do the best job of showing the differences but you hopefully get the idea.
 |
| This is same scene but a little shuffled to give better perspective on the Least Sandpiper just right of the Baird's Sandpiper |
I added one more shot to show the Least Sandpiper a little better. Based on my description above, you can see the Least is a juvenile. Typically the majority of the adults move through first and then juveniles, so most of the birds in the late summer are juveniles. The other feature this shot shows off nicely is the long primary projection of the juvenile Baird's - note how the primary tips project past the tail. That's one of the classic field marks for the species.
Now is a good time to get out for peep diversity, with Least, Western, Pectoral, and Baird's as the likely species to be encountered. Get out and see what you can find at your local shorebird hot spot!
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