Interiorly Decorated

How ironic... or something resembling irony!  On International Migratory Bird Day, two species decided to show us they are not so apt at finding their normal range.

I woke up early this morning after getting to bed earlier than usual last night, so I opted to go for a walk at Saanichton Spit.  The spit was deader than I've seen it in ages, so I decided to make tracks and head out to the airport.  I had nearly finished my circuit around the airport when I made one last stop just east of the terminal.  I scanned out over the fence lines and fields and noticed a hawk low over the field.  I thought "Hmmm... that has quite the dihedral going on!"  When it banked, it showed black primaries and secondaries - it was a classic light phase Swainson's Hawk (Buteo swainsoni)!  I hopped out and put it in the scope and saw other key features, such as a brown hood, a clean white chest, and a sandy grey-brown back.  I even watched it dive into the grass a couple of times in hopes of snagging a vole or a snake!  I called up Jeremy K. and he was in the exact spot he didn't want to be at that moment, which was smack dab on the top of Mount Wells.  He booked it down the mountain, met me at my place and we zipped out to the airport, which ended up being a shade under two hours since I last saw the bird.  We pulled over at the spot I had originally seen the hawk and started scanning - is it that one?  Nope... Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis).  That one above it?  Nope... another Red-tailed Hawk.  How about the one over the control tower?  Yes!  We watched the light phase Swainson's Hawk wheeling around over the fields for a couple minutes before noticing another interesting dark phase hawk.  It had several features in line with the light phase, but its chest was uniformly chocolate brown.  When it banked and showed its back, we could see it was the same sandy grey-brown colour as the light phase's and it graded abruptly stopped at the blackish primaries and secondaries.  Additionally, the tail didn't have a trace of rusty-red like any of the dark version of Red-tailed Hawks.  After watching it for a while, we were quite certain it was another Swainson's Hawk!  Below are pictures (not great) of the two different Swainson's seen today.

Light phase Swainson's Hawk - no doubt about this classic bird!

Dark phase Swainson's Hawk at the Victoria International Airport - note the white undertail coverts (if you squint)

I managed to capture the light phase and dark phase Swainson's in the same frame for comparison - awesome!

We continued on to the Vantreight bulb fields where things were slow, then Jeremy K. abruptly said "We have to go!"  I thought that was a tad urgent, but I knew he had early afternoon plans.  He then clarified by turning his phone to show me a message indicating there was a Wilson's Phalarope (Phalaropus tricolor) at Panama Flats.  We turned tail, hopped in the car, hit the highway, and made our way out to the flats.  We luckily picked the right corner of the flats and were soon looking at two female Wilson's Phalaropes!  What a great day of birding with two species normally found in the interior of the province!  And two of each to boot!

One of the Wilson's Phalaropes in the southeast pond at Panama Flats

Female Wilson's Phalaropes exemplify a rare case (aside from humans) where the females are more striking than the males.  Their mating system is polyandrous, which means there is a role reversal where males perform most of the parental duties while the female competes for mates.

Stilt-A-Whirl

That's the wild ride that is sweeping the Pacific Northwest!  We are currently experiencing something extraordinary in Victoria on our flats and I was fortunate enough to witness it over the past couple of days.

Yesterday (April 24), I finished up some local field work and when I got home I checked if there were any sightings of interest.  My jaw dropped when I saw a pair of Black-necked Stilts (Himantopus mexicanus) were found by Mary Robichaud at Panama Flats.  I called up Jeremy Kimm and asked if he would be willing swing by and get me because Janean was at work.  He didn't put up much of a fight and half-an-hour or so later I was at Panama Flats.  It was almost anticlimactic because a chase usually entails a bit of a search.  When we got out to the edge of the southwest corner of Panama Flats, Ann Nightingale and Marilyn Lambert were casually watching the pair of stilts.  I raised my binoculars and there they were.  That's always the desired result, but I still like to work for a bird a little!

I always get a kick out of Black-necked Stilts' comically long, bubblegum pink legs

Black-necked Stilts had only been recorded in Victoria three times prior to this event, and the window they turn up in is quite narrow.  It seems the last week of April is prime stilt time here. I had never seen a Black-necked Stilt in Victoria so I really wanted see them and put myself one notch closer to my goal of 300 species in the local checklist area.  Once my eyes locked on to the stilts, I inched closer by moving up to 286 species.

You would think it ends there, but there's more.  I talked to my dad when I got home today (April 25) and we decided to go for a quick outing before dinner.  We ended up at Maber Flats because I was thoroughly impressed with the way the southern field looked for shorebirds when I visited last weekend.  When we got to the marsh edge, I scanned out and saw what appeared to be stilts.  I put them in the scope and indeed they were!  We were very excited and I speculated that the pair we were looking at might be the same set from Panama Flats because one had a pinkish wash to the chest and the other lacked it.  But what was at the back of the flats - two more tall, black-and-white shorebirds?  I looked at one pair of stilts and immediately panned back to the other just to see if I missed the first pair quickly relocating.  Nope.  Four Black-necked Stilts in one area!

With a whole slew of southern interior birds turning up in the Pacific Northwest, I wonder what else is waiting to be turned up?  So far we've had: Lewis' Woodpecker, a handful of Yellow-headed Blackbirds, a Western Kingbird, three Long-billed Curlews, and, in Vancouver, a male Calliope Hummingbird.  Hopefully the stellar cast continues over the next couple weeks!