Personal Milestone

I know some birders think lists are silly.  I maintain certain lists as a way to challenge myself.  A couple years ago, Chris Saunders called me up and asked me about my self-found Victoria list.  I had never even thought of keeping such a list, but I decided I would look over the checklist and determine where I stood.  I can't remember what the total was at that point, but it was probably around 225 species.  I thought more and more about the list and decided it was the best way to push myself to get out and find birds.

I had to set some ground rules for this list, so I searched the internet to determine if anyone had developed some guidelines for self-found listing.  A popular UK birding blog by the name of punkbirder had just the set of rules I was seeking.  That side of the pond has a much more ravenous birding scene, so I don't necessarily agreed wholeheartedly about all of the rules.  For instance, news does not always break that fast here and I don't feel the need to keep my finger on the pulse as tightly as birders do in the UK.  It would be anticlimactic to be waiting for news to happen here.  I only have one bird that fits into that loophole, anyways.  A couple years ago I was away working into the beginning of September and I thought I had been keeping up with the Victoria rare bird news.  Apparently not!  I went out to Saanichton Spit and was thrilled at finding my first Vesper Sparrow (Pooecetes gramineus) for Victoria!  I came home and posted it and then realized shortly thereafter that it had been found a few days earlier.  I don't abuse the system, so I feel I can take that one.  Another loophole area that doesn't work well here that I had another bird fall under is re-finding a bird.  In Victoria, when most of the birders have seen a bird they stop checking up on it.  I thought I had missed my shot at Clark's Grebe (Aechmophorus clarkii) off Esquimalt Lagoon while I was in Costa Rica in December, 2005.  That bird was only the fourth record for Victoria, so it drew a fair bit of attention in the eight days it was known to be hanging out in a raft of 300+ Western Grebes (A. occidentalis).  I hadn't heard a single report of that bird until I spotted a Clark's Grebe off the same beachfront nearly four months later.  A bird like that would never be passed over for four months in the UK, but it's not excessively surprising here.  I'll take that one under the re-find clause, though.

Enough background on the whole self-found listing premise.  Fast forward to the return from my last work trip up to Fort McMurray a week and a half ago.  I was anxious to get back to some local birding, so I drove around the airport and then passed through the Vantreight bulb fields.  The airport was fruitless, but a sizable blackbird flock at the bulb fields drew my attention.  I immediately found my self-found Yellow-headed Blackbird (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) for Victoria.  It was my 250th self-found bird.  I actually thought it was my 249th until just a few minutes ago when I looked over my spreadsheet.  Somehow I had failed to mark off Rough-legged Hawk (Buteo lagopus) even though I found one on my own years ago at Rocky Point.  I also had one flying over the ocean towards James Island last year.  The Yellow-headed Blackbird was a milestone I had been working towards for the last year with no idea how long it would take to reach.

What next?  I still have some moderately easy holes to fill in on my self-found list, but it's very hard to pick up new species.  For instance, I have never found an American Bittern (Botaurus letiginosus) in the Victoria checklist area.  It doesn't help that Chris Saunders and Ian Cruickshank seemingly live in sleeping bags on the lollipop boardwalk at Swan Lake.  I will have to put in some time up at Somenos Marsh or just luck into one randomly at an unconventional location if I want a self-found bittern.  Palm Warbler (Setophaga palmarum) has evaded my attempts to find them around small reservoirs and ponds, in hedgerows lining agricultural fields, or in fall mixed feeding flocks.  Short-tailed Shearwater (Puffinus tenuirostris) should be easy enough to pick up if I actually take the time to do some pelagic birding at this time of year.  So, should my next goal be to hit 275 for my self-found Victoria list?

Despite those three relatively easy pick-up species, I actually inched my way up to 251 on October 24th after an enjoyable but fruitless outing with Paul Lehman and Barbara Carlson from San Diego.  They were hoping to see their first Harris' Sparrow (Zonotrichia querula) for British Columbia, but the Harris' had other plans.  They only had time for a morning's worth of Victoria birding before I had to drop them back off for their Holland America repositioning cruise to San Diego.  I had taken the day off work, so I figured I'd get in more birding before picking up Janean back in Sidney at 5 p.m.  I was struggling to figure out what to do and through a rather convoluted thought process I eventually ended up at Uplands Park.  I was only out of the car for a couple minutes before a bird knocked my socks off!  I stood next to a patch of blackberry brambles and started pishing.  An unusual call started up and I wasn't able to process it.  I eagerly watched a patch of Oceanspray (Holodiscus discolor) for the source of the call to pop into the open.  And there it was.  But I still couldn't come to grips with what I seeing - a yellowish patch on the wing?  The bird's tail flicked and revealed salmon-yellow flashes.  American Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla)!  I then saw all the glorious features you'd want to see even though the encounter was brief.  It was a female-type bird sporting a grey hood, brownish back, and those characteristic salmon-yellow flashes in the wings and tail.  The Victoria checklist published in 2001 lists only two records of American Redstart, but four or five more records have come in over the last decade.  Of those records, none of the birds have really been chaseable.

The American Redstart was not only my 251st self-found Victoria bird, it was my 288th Victoria checklist area bird.  The relevance of this is my next milestone.  I am trying to push towards 300 species in the Victoria checklist area.  I am much more likely to see 12 new species for my Victoria list versus 24 new self-found Victoria birds.  I have only one "easy" tick left to pick up for Victoria, which is Grey Jay (Perisoreus canadensis).  I have been picking up several species each year for the last two years because I have been helping Jeremy K. on his big year quests.  Every time I add a new species, the difficulty of achieving the next seems to get incrementally harder.  I love the challenge and I hope I can keep inching my way along, slow and steady.

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!

Take the last tern when you get to Calgary...

Sometimes you don't even need to try to find something unusual.  This was one of those occasions and it always seems this sort of event happens when I'm not on familiar ground.

After my three week work trip up to Fort McMurray, I dropped in for a visit at my uncle's place at the south end of Calgary in a community called McKenzie Towne.  Today, I offered to take my uncle and grandma out to lunch so we headed out just after noon.  While my uncle drove, I looked over at a small pond just around the corner from his place and I noticed a tern fluttering over the water.  I was quite surprised as I thought all the terns would have passed through already.  Then again, I don't really know the typical windows of all the birds in this unfamiliar territory.  I decided I would wander over when I got back from lunch.

After lunch, I looked in the corner of the pond where I saw the tern darting about, but it was nowhere to be seen.  I decided I would walk to the far end and see if it was by chance just out of view.  Once again, the tern wasn't immediately obvious.  I scanned a little patch of muddy shoreline at the far side and was happy to see not one but two terns.  Being from British Columbia, I am not very familiar with Forster's Terns (Sterna forsteri), but I know they have a black smudge over their eye as juveniles and non-breeding adults.  These two fit that description and I felt confident that's what they were.  I took some very distant record shots and then worked my way around to get better shots.  I only had a work camera that doesn't function properly, but still managed some decent shots between two visits this afternoon.

This Forster's Tern shows the classic black smudge over the eye, while the brown-tinged scalloping on the back points to this being a juvenile.

Without a DSLR handy, I only made a couple attempts at catching them in flight.  On this occasion, I happened to catch it scratching!

I rarely see terns land on water, but I watched the two juvenile Forster's Terns land on the water twice this afternoon.

Finally, here's a shot of the two juvenile Forster's Terns together in the same frame - what a nice and unexpected find!

Looking back over eBird, I can only see one report entered for Forster's Tern between October and November in the past decade.  This does not necessarily reflect reality as many people probably did not go back and enter in their older notes into eBird.  It does, however, give an indication as to how rare it is to find this species in Alberta at this time of year.  This year, you can see that all records of Forster's Terns in October are well south of the two I encountered today (although I don't know if the link will get updated or not to reflect my record).

I don't have much to add, but I figure I may as well add a shot of one of Calgary's dirt birds that we only get on Vancouver Island on very rare occasions.  This is one of those birds that everyone takes for granted if you live around them, but you see them in good light and they are just the most spectacular birds!

Unfortunately the light wasn't hitting this Black-billed Magpie (Pica hudsonia) quite right, but they're striking birds regardless of how the light hits them!

I have enjoyed some of the sights I've taken in over my stay in Alberta, but I'm excited to get home and start taking photos of some of the fall birds in Victoria.

Rock out with your hawks out!

Broad-winged Hawk (Buteo platypterus) alert!  In that last few decades, the mystery of Broad-winged Hawk migration has been slowly unraveling on southern Vancouver Island.  Every fall, the species is now recorded in small numbers (usually <10 individuals) primarily from hawk watch efforts at Rocky Point Bird Observatory and Beechey Head.

I had an unfortunately brief but exciting encounter with a juvenile Broad-winged Hawk at Mount Tolmie on Friday (September 21, 2012) afternoon.  I had never seen a juvenile Broad-winged Hawk on southern Vancouver Island and I'm not sure if that's because I primarily hone in on the more obvious pattern of adults or if they're genuinely less frequent here.  I always enjoy actually identifying something rather than complacently accepting it as the obvious choice by range.  As a result, I decided to go through the identification of this bird as a juvenile Broad-winged Hawk and not a Red-shouldered Hawk (B. lineatus).  Before a well-documented record of an adult Red-shouldered Hawk over Rocky Point in 2009, the species was considered hypothetical based on a handful of sightings with insufficient details.  Obviously I had a vested interest in trying to make it a Red-shouldered, but seeing a juvenile Broad-winged would be quite exciting as well.

I managed a couple photos which I mildly adjusted due to compensate for the extremely backlit conditions.  When I first saw the bird, it had its wings swept back and was moving rapidly past me.  It was much smaller (approximately two-thirds the size) than the Red-tailed Hawk (B. jamaicensis) just ahead of it, so my immediate reaction was Broad-winged Hawk.  I thought I was never going to be able to say for sure because I lost sight of it in seconds, but I jogged up to upper viewpoint of Mount Tolmie on the off chance that it would find a thermal to rise up on and start circling again.  And that's what happened.  With a better look at the bird, I still suspected it was a Broad-winged Hawk but felt like I was in slightly over my head because it was a juvenile.  I noted the pointed wings which seemed reminiscent of my previous encounters with adults, and that proved to be a helpful feature.  Here are a couple cropped shots of the bird in question.  I know the lighting is still bad, but I didn't want to make it too unnatural and possibly distort the actual appearance.

This bird lacks dark patagial marks (the "shoulder" area) on the leading edge of the wings and a band of streaks on the belly that form a distinct band.  Instead, you see the chest and belly is uniformly streaked, the underwing coverts are  flecked with dark spots with no strong patagial mark, and the throat has a central dark stripe, which matches a juvenile Broad-winged Hawk.

This shot shows the pointed wings off nicely, which is apparently good for Broad-winged Hawks and should distinguish it from the more squared look of a Red-shouldered Hawk's wings.  Additionally, a pale crescent near the  wing tips would likely be visible in this backlit shot if it was a Red-shouldered Hawk.

Aside from the wing shape and pale wing crescents, I was having trouble finding obvious differences between Broad-wingeds and Red-shouldered Hawks.  I then realized most of the references I was looking over referred to the lineatus subspecies from the east and I should have been comparing to the western subspecies elegans.  The bird documented in 2009 belonged to the latter and it is expected more will show up with their slow-but-continual northward expansion.  Western juveniles have stronger barring on their flight feathers and are heavily marked with rufous-brown on the underwing coverts not unlike an adult, as indicated by a helpful information sheet from Princeton Press found here.  As a result, if my bird was a Red-shouldered Hawk it would show some rusty tones on the underside of the wings.  The individual I saw definitely did not possess any rusty tones under the wings.  There has been one record of an eastern Red-shouldered in California, however, so it was good that I noted the pointed wings and lack of crescent-shaped panels near the wing tips just to eliminate this unlikely scenario, as well.

This exercise has been very enlightening for me and I think I will be that much more ready if a Red-shouldered Hawk decides to cross my path.  Hopefully you gained something from this breakdown analysis as well.  If you want to see more photos to compare some juvenile hawks, check this juvenile hawks in flight entry on the Stokes Birding Blog.  Now get out and enjoy the hawk migration while you can!

Merge-gansers

Fall is upon us now if you haven't noticed.  Head out to the maples and see for yourself - the leaves getting mottled and starting to drop.  Some telltale birds are also moving in to our area and I found one such example on the last day of summer at Saanichton Spit.

I got to the spit late in the afternoon and it felt much darker than usual because it was the first day with full cloud cover in a couple weeks.  I made my way out to the north-facing shoreline and could see a group of Common Mergansers (Mergus merganser) resting at the water's edge.  They got nervous at my presence and pushed off into the water and I was able to see the entire group with ease.  One bird stood out due to its more delicate structure, dull orange-brown head that smoothly grades into the grey of the chest and flanks, lack of a white chin, darker back, and spikier crest.  It was a lone Red-breasted Merganser (Mergus serrator) in with the Commons.

The bird at the back in the center is noticeably different in this group.  It is a Red-breasted Merganser and its head is a dull gingery colour compared to the rich orange-brown of the dozen Common Mergansers around it, and the crest is more upswept and spikier.  The first Red-breasted Mergansers return in mid-September but they are not considered common until more return in October.

Looking at that photo a little closer, you can see the straight-lined separation of the rich orange-brown head and paler chest and grey back and flanks of the Common Mergansers compared to the smooth transition of the lone Red-breasted Merganser (far back on left).

The merging of mergansers was great to see and I always enjoy seeing two related species side by side for comparison.  If you struggle with these two, I hope you can see a couple differences in this photo.  If not, feel free to pipe up and I'll do my best to break down the identification even further.

Pelagic Magic

Jeremy K. gave me the heads up that there was an opportunity to do a pelagic trip in the second week of September and asked whether I'd be game.  Three of the Fur & Feathers 500 were chartering a boat to head out of Tofino in hopes of pushing towards their goal.  Knowing full well my schedule was open, I wanted in on the action.  I have never been able to get out on a proper pelagic birding trip in British Columbia.  I signed up for one years ago with the British Columbia Field Ornithologists (BCFO), but the weather was marginally too rough to head out.  My hopes for this trip were to see pelagic species I had never seen in Canada, such as Black-footed Albatross (Phoebastria nigripes), Pink-footed Shearwater (Puffinus creatopus), Buller's Shearwater (Puffinus bulleri), Flesh-footed Shearwater (Puffinus carneipes), and Long-tailed Jaeger (Stercorarius longicaudus), and also catch up with a couple I had never seen before like Laysan Albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) and Scripps' Murrelet (Synthliboramphus scrippsi).  On top of all the birds, I always get excited by marine mammal encounters and was hoping to see something new like Risso's Dolphin (Grampus griseus), Pacific White-sided Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens), or Northern Fur Seal (Callorhinus ursinus).

The pelagic trip was set to take place on Wednesday, September 12 so Jeremy K. and I set out at 8 a.m. on Tuesday to get some birding in on the beaches in Pacific Rim National Park and the Tofino waterfront.  After the long haul up, we started at Wickaninnish Beach where we hoped to get out and find a bevy of shorebirds.  Instead we found a bevy of biped mammals walking up and down the beach, ensuring any shorebird flocks were long gone.  We moved on to Combers Beach which was nearly shorebirdless as well, but we eventually spied a couple of Western Sandpipers (Calidris mauri) flying in.  We also had a nice flock of gulls on the beach that contained around 30 American Herring Gulls (Larus smithsonianus) among California Gulls (L. californicus) and Glaucous-winged Gulls (L. glaucescens).

I managed to catch the American Herring Gull stretching out its wings.  Compared to the California Gull (right), it has pink legs, a paler mantle, no black spot on its bill, a pale yellowish iris, and is slightly larger overall.

We zipped in to the airport due to the numerous reports we had read over the years from this location.  Unfortunately the terminal is not the place to go, so it was rather disappointing.  That didn't stop me from photographing a nice Western Tiger Beetle (Cicindela oregona) and Pine White (Neophasia menapia).

Tiger beetles are predatory as evidenced by their impressive large, serrated mandibles

This Pine White is posing on Heather (Calluna vulgaris) which is introduced and very common in the Tofino area

Long Beach was our next stop and we finally found a decent shorebird.  It was nothing earth-shattering, but we were pleased with fantastic looks at a Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus).

This individual effectively using its long, decurved bill to probe the sand for invertebrates

This angle shows the Whimbrel's diagnostic dark cap split by a thin pale stripe

And one last shot of this amazingly cooperative Whimbrel that really shows off its blue-grey legs

We made a quick and disappointing stop at Grice Bay before visiting Chesterman Beach.  We eventually came across a small but rewarding flock of peeps.  The group of eight birds had seven Western Sandpipers and a single Baird's Sandpiper (Calidris bairdii).  I managed to settle in close to the flock and they eventually worked their way towards me for some absolutely crippling views!

One of these peeps is not like the others

One of these peeps just doesn't belong

Can you tell which peep is not like the others by the time I finish my blog?

The scalloped mantle, long primary projection, and slightly down-curved bill are good indicators you've got a juvenile Baird's Sandpiper.

Baird's Sandpipers are not unusual to encounter during fall migration on the West Coast and only occasionally do we encounter adult birds

It looks like a good catch for the Baird's, but I was pretty darn happy myself with catching this shot!

This feeding juvenile Western Sandpiper shows the distinctive rufous-and-black upper scapulars contrasting drab grey lower scapulars

The bill of a typical Western Sandpiper is slightly drooping and has a fine tip, unlike that of a Semipalmated Sandpiper which is usually much straighter and has an ever-so-slightly bulbous tip

Just another shot of a juvenile Western Sandpiper because the peeps were so obliging

This will be the last Western shot - the lighting truly was great for photographing these sharp little shorebirds!

While watching the peeps, Jeremy K. spotted a flock of Sanderlings (Calidris alba) flying by and I went in for a couple shots as we headed back to the car.

Sanderlings running at the edge of the water - how cliché!

The Sanderlings were not overly cooperative, but I think you get the picture - nice birds on a nice shoreline

We poked in to a couple other local lookouts along the shoreline and even retraced our steps to end the day, but the only other decent sighting we could muster was a continuous flow of heat-shimmered Sooty Shearwaters (Puffinus griseus) undulating along the horizon.  We hoped it was a good omen for the pelagic.

The view towards Incinerator Rock from Long Beach after the sun dropped below the trees

Looking the other direction over Long Beach, you get a very different view that is equally spectacular!

We managed to get to bed early enough to take in a solid sleep and were up at 6 a.m. the next day to meet with the rest of our seabound crew.  From the Fur & Feathers 500 we had Phil Cram, Brian Elder, and Ray Woods, then we had a nice fellow with a big lens named Charles Smith from Ontario, and longtime birding pal Rick Schortinghuis out for his first pelagic adventure.  The trip was chartered through the Whale Centre and we had a very Captain Highliner-like skipper named Mike and a spotter named Artie.  We donned floater suits and made our way down to our seaworthy vessel.

As we motored out, the water was only slightly rippled but we had a little swell - overall the conditions were great for viewing but far from optimal for pelagic birding.  Our first pelagic species was Sooty Shearwater, which could well have been the same continual stream that we spied the evening before in the distance.  From there on out, we had small waves of shearwaters pass by and among them was our first Pink-footed Shearwater.  More expected offshore species like Sabine's Gull (Xema sabini) and Cassin's Auklet (Ptychoramphus aleuticus) were found in short order, as well.

The real action began as we approached Clayoquot Canyon when Artie announced "Black-footed Albatross!"  We all looked back to see a long-winged, large bird lumbering low over the water.  This was immediately followed by obligatory oohs and aahs.  We pushed on and spotted a few more Black-footeds and decided it was time to set out the first batch of chum.  We decided to move along and set out another batch and check on it later.  At the second batch of chum, we had rapid success when a lone Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel (Oceanodroma furcata) darted in and fluttered over the slick with floating fish skins.  We watched for several more minutes and it seemed like the action had fizzled as quick as it had started.  We started to move back to the first batch when I noticed a jaeger checking out the action.  We moved in for closer inspection and were treated to great views of a classic adult Parasitic Jaeger (Stercorarius parasiticus).

Parasitic Jaegers are mid-sized jaegers with short, pointed central tail feathers 

Adult Parasitic Jaegers have a dusky collar which is quite faded in this individual

This angle of the Parasitic Jaeger shows off the short, pointed central tail feathers

Multiple Black-footed Albatrosses soon moved in to check things out, followed by a couple Sooty Shearwaters and a few Pink-footed Shearwaters.

I had only seen Black-footed Albatross once prior to this trip and the views in Clayoquot Canyon far trumped my first experience!

The Black-footed Albatrosses were definitely the stars of the show out there

These photos don't do these hefty-yet-graceful birds justice

Here's a 2-for-1 shot: Black-footed Albatross taking off in the foreground and a Pink-footed Shearwater cruising by in the background

I caught this Pink-footed Shearwater banking, which shows of their white belly and underwing coverts and namesake pink feet

I see some great pelagic bird photos and I have a new appreciation for them - it is hard to get a good shot on a rocking boat!

One last mediocre shot of a Pink-footed Shearwater that made several passes over the chum before finally landing

We made our way back slowly, searching along the way for any new pelagic species and only managed one more: Tufted Puffin (Fratercula cirrhata).

I had never seen a Tufted Puffin transitioning between breeding and non-breeding plumage and I must say it's an interesting look!

We also encountered several more small groups of Cassin's Auklets and I managed to get a couple record photos of them.

Cassin's Auklets are small and ashy-grey with a short, thick grey bill

You can just make out the small white dab above the eye of the Cassin's Auklet in the back.  Unfortunately you can't see that they have pale irises, which can be seen at close range.

Even though some of the pelagic birds were pretty spectacular, I won't deny that encountering a group 14 Humpback Whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) was the highlight.  As the whales surfaced, we were able to hear deep groans and rushes of air.  I certainly hope this wasn't a once in a lifetime experience, but I can say it was unforgettable.  Let's see if these shots give a sense of how amazing it was to be right alongside these impressive creatures.

Here's an example of the characteristic stubby, irregularly-shaped dorsal fin of a Humpback Whale

This dorsal fin has a couple barnacles growing on it

Individual Humpback Whales can be identified by the pattern on the underside of their tail or "flukes".  Compare this individual's pattern with a limited amount of white and a scar on the left fluke to the one below.

The extensive gleaming white underside of the flukes easily separates this individual from the above whale

The right tail is the same at the one above and the left is a different individual from the one with a scar on its left fluke

Pretty spectacular sight set against a nice mountainscape

Three surfacing at once - awesome!  On the back individual you can see small bumps on the head which are called tubercles, and they are actually large hair follicles.

This photo ups the ante to four individuals surfaced at the same time!

I really wanted to get some shots of them blowing, so here is a moment with three Humpbacks just surfacing

This is right in the middle of the blow, so you don't get a good sense of the shape of the characteristic low, bushy blow Humpbacks make

I think I captured this one right to get a sense of the shape of the blow

Apparently a giant, dark solid object surfacing right beside these Red-necked Phalaropes is not that startling!

I momentarily broke away from the whales when we approached a couple groups of alcids.  First I got a shot of a Rhinoceros Auklet (Cerorhinca monocerata) and not long after got a group of Common Murres (Uria aalge).

This Rhinoceros Auklet doesn't really represent its name very well.  In the breeding season, adults boast a "horn" on their bill.

The two Common Murres on the right are transitioning out of breeding plumage into the non-breeding plumage shown by the two left birds

We cruised around a few islands on the way back and were treated to a couple sightings of Sea Otters (Enhydra lutris) floating in the kelp beds.  Knowing the history of this species along the coast of British Columbia, it's always encouraging to see them doing well since their reintroduction from 1969 to 1972.

Sea Otters can often be spotted floating on their backs wrapped up in the kelp like this one

Another Sea Otter lounging in the kelp

Some of the treed islands we passed on the transit back in to Tofino were rather picturesque

This island was my personal favourite with a lone tree permanently angled away from the wind it has endured over the years

In the end, I picked up a couple birds I had never seen in Canada but couldn't connect with my grail birds.  I guess I'll just have to see what opportunities arise and do it all again!