Blitzing Westward

If you happen to follow the Tweeters mailing list - that is not some social media site, it's the Washington birding listserv - you would know that coastal Washington has been absolutely on fire with rarities.  In the last week alone, reports of Elegant Terns have been dotting the coastline, a Smith's Longspur and Buff-breasted Sandpiper have been seen near Ocean Shores, a Hudsonian Godwit turned up at Bottle Beach, a Great-tailed Grackle has caused a stir in Puyallup, a Long-billed Murrelet was reported from Edmonds, and pelagic birding has produced a Great Shearwater.  While writing this, I just found out a Lesser Sand-Plover was found at Ocean Shores today, too.  The bottom line is: there is no way all those rarities have skipped by us and we have no usual birds around.

Jeremy K. and I decided we needed to at least try to remedy the situation by heading out to Whiffin Spit first thing in the morning to check on the shorebirds and then continue on to Jordan River to beat the bushes for migrants.  As I told Jeremy K., the J&J style is to swing for the fences and fall short... but at least we try!  In the end, we had a great day with a few nice birds along the way, but nothing earth-shattering like the cluster of megas south of us.

At Whiffin, we got the ball rolling with a long-staying female Bufflehead.  I know that sounds rather blasé, but it is a surprisingly good bird in September!  Jeremy K. scanned along the shore and spied a flock of peeps out near the breakwater.  They had flown by the time we got out there, but we relocated them in the usual stretch that shorebirds seem to favour.  While scanning through the flock of ten or so Western Sandpipers, I passed over a Black Turnstone.  As is often the case, there wasn't just one turnstone but rather a small, well-camouflaged flock.  A Ruddy Turnstone had been reported over the past few days, so I surveyed the scene and promptly found the much rarer and sharper-patterned Ruddy partially obscured by a rock.  It eventually started to walk around and I managed to get a decent record shot of the occasion.

This Ruddy Turnstone at Whiffin Spit was one of the highlights of the morning

After Whiffin, we booked it out to Jordan River to try to catch the tail-end of heightened passerine activity.  During the drive, Jeremy K. had one of his highlights of the day when a Black Bear darted across the road.

At Jordan River, we almost immediately locked on to a nice flock of passerines and possibly muttered something about "birds dripping from the trees".  It was dizzying trying to keep up with each new source of movement.  We quickly tallied Cassin's and Warbling Vireos, Yellow and Orange-crowned Warblers, some juvenile White-crowned Sparrows, and then a different bird came flying in.  We raised our binoculars and were surprised to see a Lazuli Bunting.  I wouldn't want to put any money on it, but it may have been a fall female.  At any rate, I did take a rather lousy record shot.  Amazingly, Rocky Point Bird Observatory banded one the day before, as well.

The sandy-brown back, whitish belly, and buffy-orange chest give this bird away as a Lazuli Bunting

We couldn't dig out anything else of interest, but the birding was consistent.  We had a good number of migrants to pore over and we hooked into some interesting mixed flocks.  We walked down the gravel road just around the corner of the "town" and, with some pishing and pygmy-owl tooting, we managed to draw out: 1 Western Tanager, 1 Black-headed Grosbeak, 1 Hutton's Vireos, 6 Yellow Warblers, 2 Wilson's Warblers, 1 Orange-crowned Warbler, 1 MacGillivray's Warbler, 1 Pacific-slope Flycatcher, 2 Golden-crowned Kinglets, and 12 Chestnut-backed Chickadees.  My personal favourite event, however, was birding along the bird-themed roads (Petrel, Cormorant, and Murrelet) just west of Jordan River.  These roads were set to be developed years ago, but an economic downturn put it on hold.  Areas that were cleared to showcase the lots have since filled in with alders and I always suspected these young deciduous swaths would be good during migration.  We initially had minimal luck, but we finally found some activity as a Pacific-slope Flycatcher darted out and back in to the dense alders.  We noticed more movement further along the road, so we walked to check it out.  We managed to find around a dozen flycatchers hawking insects through the alders, with Pacific-slope, Hammond's, and Willow all taking advantage of the insect-rich smorgasbord.  Additionally, we found a Warbling Vireo, ten or so Yellow Warblers, a couple Orange-crowned Warblers, and single Wilson's and MacGillivray's Warblers.  If there was a good drizzle that put the birds down, I could see this area being extremely productive!

We spent the entire morning at Jordan River and ended up with 72 species, which was better than we expected.  We headed back east to Muir Creek and found the activity to be rather underwhelming.  The highlight for me was a couple of male Saffron-winged Meadowhawks, including one that eventually posed for some photos.

You can just make out the "saffron" veins along the leading edges of all four wings of this Saffron-winged Meadowhawk

We worked our way through to Metchosin via Lindholm Rd., stopping to check a couple reservoirs along the way and coming up empty on birds worthy of mention.  At Albert Head Lagoon, we were surprised to see a flurry of gull activity straight out from the parking area.  We set up scopes and could only see Heermann's, California, and Glaucous-winged Gulls and unfortunately no signs of our hoped-for terns.  We checked the lagoon for shorebirds and that was also pretty lackluster with only a couple Greater Yellowlegs and lone Killdeer in attendance.  We sifted through the ducks at the far side of the lagoon and were surprised to find a couple of early American Wigeons.  We sat on the logs and put in another attempt find something interesting like a jaeger among the gulls.  I did eventually find a nice bird - the closest gull was actually an adult Ring-billed Gull!  We were looking way out into the heat haze and the best bird was right in front of us!

That gull with the black ring on its bill... yeah, that's a Ring-billed Gull conveniently enough!

We finished the day off at Esquimalt Lagoon.  We had more peeps than I expected, but no Semipalmated Sandpipers in the mix.  We did get our first Least Sandpipers of the day and I snapped off a few shots of a very cooperative Western Sandpiper.  Our last day bird was a lone Caspian Tern on the gravel bar near the bridge, which put us up to 93 species for the day.  We were not target birding to fill in our gaps, so we could have easily cracked 100 if we tried to fill in our easy misses and also hit up the Victoria waterfront for increased shorebird variety.  I'll close this off with one of the shots of the Western Sandpiper from Esquimalt Lagoon.

Classic Western Sandpiper showing off the rusty accents on the scapular feathers

The Help

Allow me to reword the IMDb synopsis for "The Help" which is currently nominated for Best Picture in the 84th Academy Awards:

"An aspiring blogger during the big year movement of the 2010s decides to write an entry detailing his point of view on an obsessed twitcher that he assists, and the birds they encounter over the day."

For the record, I am that aspiring blogger and Jeremy Kimm the obsessed twitcher.  I don't mean to detract from the importance of the movie... I just try to spice up my lead-ins.  Today, I joined Jeremy K. on his big year quest with a tour of Metchosin and Sooke.

We started our day in Metchosin by searching for flocks of gulls on golf courses and open fields.  We encountered a couple decent gull flocks, but they were composed of the expected species.  Taylor Rd. was bustling with activity due to what appears to be a relatively new feeder.  The hedgerows there often host a good sparrow flock but it was much easier to view the birds due to the feeder being positioned in the middle of a lawn.  At one point I thought I saw a hybrid White-crowned x Golden-crowned Sparrow but I lost track of it and couldn't find it again.  The feeder had a flock of Red-winged and Brewer's Blackbirds, two Eurasian Collared-Doves, around 30+ Golden-crowned Sparrows, one White-crowned Sparrow, and 15+ Dark-eyed Juncos.  Near Swanwick Rd., the flock of 30 or so Greater White-fronted Geese that has been around for over a month was still loafing about in the big field.

We made our way to Sooke and made Whiffin Spit our first stop.  We quickly spotted a group of Black Turnstones wheeling over the water, landing, and vanishing among barnacle covered rocks.  Closer on the shore, three Black Oystercatchers were feeding at the water's edge.

One of several Black Oystercatchers seen at Whiffin Spit today

There weren't any showstoppers at the spit, but a Red-throated Loon off the tip was nice to watch.  At the open section, a few Golden-crowned Sparrows were feeding around some logs and one sat still long enough to snap a couple photos.

Golden-crowned Sparrow sitting up on driftwood at Whiffin Spit

After Whiffin Spit, we decided to check a couple golf courses for geese and ducks.  At the John Phillips Memorial Golf Course, we found a very confiding flock of 68 Greater White-fronted Geese.  I made a slow and careful approach and made sure the group didn't flush, which allowed me to get a few decent shots.

A small portion of the Greater White-fronted Geese at John Phillips Memorial Golf Course

This individual is not only sporting the namesake "white front" at the base of  its bill, but also shows black
 mottling on its belly which is why they are colloquially dubbed "Specklebellies" in North America

We decided to check the Demamiel Creek Golf Course but missed the turn off and ended up turning around up near Sunriver Estates.  I hopped out at the entrance to a gated logging road for a pee break and was rewarded (not that I deserved a reward) with four Evening Grosbeaks passing over.  When we got to the golf course, we spied a nice flock of American Wigeons with a couple conspicuous male Eurasian Wigeons in with them near a small pond.

We made another quick waterfront stop that gave a different view of Sooke Harbour but it was relatively uneventful.  I did, however, get a decent shot of a male Anna's Hummingbird that seemed a little perturbed by our presence in his territory.

Unfortunately this male Anna's Hummingbird had its head turned the wrong way to show off its brilliant pink gorget

We finished our day at the Goodrich Peninsula.  We added some new birds for the day, including Green-winged Teal, Barrow's Goldeneye, and Gadwall but it was pretty quiet overall.  I managed a photo of one of the many Fox Sparrows we encountered in the blackberry brambles on the peninsula.

Who knew Fox Sparrows had terrifying talons?

Back at the base of the peninsula, we wandered onto the Sunny Shores RV Resort grounds and this is where I became "The Help".  Jeremy K., bless his heart, has been having some issues catching up with Hutton's Vireo.  Through the wind, I faintly heard what I thought sounded like a Hutton's.  Jeremy K. has apparently lost the "zu-weep" tones because he didn't hear it.  We wandered over to a patch of conifers in the direction of the call and the Hutton's started up again, confirming my suspicion.  Then a second one started calling.  Turns out Jeremy K. can hear them and he also got brief views of them, too.  The vireo put him at 139 for the year.  I'll need to dig him up some rarities if I want to maintain my status as "The Help".