Last-minute Gifts

After a lovely breakfast at Le Petit Chou, in Nanaimo, we saw a hawk in a tree. We quickly pointed our binoculars skywards and identified it as a Cooper's hawk. While we were staring at this beautiful bird, a passer-by read the universal language (bird in tree + people with binoculars = birders) and gave us a helpful tip about a mountain bluebird at Pipers Lagoon in Nanaimo.
We didn't have much to do that day, but we knew what we were going to do now! A mountain bluebird is a rare surprise on Vancouver Island and I was thrilled to find it before the calendar turns to 2017 and Big Year ends. The clock is ticking and I would very much appreciate help finding Ancient Murrelets and owls. And any other birds that aren't on my list, of course. (See link)
http://birdymcbirdface.blogspot.ca/2016/04/2016-list-of-birds.html
Ancient Murrelets! We spent the whole two-hour ferry ride from Duke Point to Tsawassen, sitting outside in the freezing rain looking for the little buggers, with no luck.

Butchered!

While we were walking on Comber's Beach in Pacific Rim National Park, we saw a Northern Shrike, identifiable from the Loggerhead shrike by the patch of yellow on the bill. Shrikes found their common name as the Butcher bird, because of their habit of killing small birds, mammals and insects and impaling them on barbed wire and twigs.
Shrikes are showy birds and this one flew alongside us for our whole walk.

Funnily enough, after looking for a shrike for all this time and finally finding one (it has been a hard search!) the very next day, Bingo! another shrike at the Nanaimo River Estuary.
And five days later at the Riefel Bird Sanctuary in Delta, there was another one! I guess Northern Shrikes have decided to be my Christmas present this month.

Field sketch, Northern Shrike

Owls? Owls where? Look up!

On a rainy day in November we returned to the Riefel Bird Sanctuary with the hope of seeing some owls. After a short, disappointing walk down the path, we stopped to ask a nice man named Fred if he had seen any owls. His reply was: "You're standing right underneath one!"

Sure enough, right above us was a great horned owl. Fred was also kind enough to show us a Saw-whet owl in a tree, which could have pooed on our heads and we would have looked up and still not seen it. With its head under its wing, it was so well camouflaged it was basically invisible.

Great Horned owl

Field sketch of Saw-whet

Our cold grey day was lit up by little explosions of black-capped chickadees every few steps.

Birding on The Rock

WELCOME BACK BIRDERS! Sorry for the long wait between posts, but I have been on a birding trip to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, by far the best trip this year. It definitely hits the top 5 best trips of my life. Newfoundland is a memorable place, not just for the way people talk or the puffins – but all of it, from the Bay Bulls to Gros Morne to Cape Ray.      

From Nova Scotia to
Newfoundland is a 16 hour ferry ride

The pitcher plant is Newfoundland and Labrador's provincial flower and we saw lots of them. These plants are related to the Venus Flytrap and Sundew because they eat flies. Their method, which gives them the name Pitcher Plant, is to trap the flies in the sticky liquid at the bottom of their pitcher shaped structure. 

One of the most amazing hikes we went on was at the Tablelands. This is a phenomenal landscape, where Earth's crust is exposed, also exposing many very different and different types of rocks. The strange orange colour is because of the peridodite, which is so full metals that no plants can grow. Another amazing rock was serpentenite.

Serpentenite among the peridotite

Moose are supposed to be EVERYWHERE in Newfoundland, but of course we didn't see one. Everyone's excuse was that it was hunting season which was true, because the only moose we saw had been freshly shot and was in the back of a pick-up truck. We did, however, see moose tracks everywhere, to the point where we thought that someone was going ahead of us with a moose track mold, planting the tracks in the ground....

BIRDS OF NEWFOUNDLAND

The signature bird of Newfoundland is the Atlantic Puffin and we saw them. 
At gull island in bay bulls we saw about 500 puffins, and we didn't even come at the best time
 to see them 

The Piping Plover is an endangered species that lives in some parts of Newfoundland.
It would have been nice to see one, but we didn't

 

 

 

 

 

 

where we went Yellowlegs were all over the place!

 

If you ever go to Newfoundland, I strongly recommend hiking Mount Gros Morne this is a great 8-hour hike with some of the best views I have ever seen

TRIPS, BIRDS AND MORE BIRDS

Recently I went birding/backpacking in Joffre Lakes provincial park near Pemberton with some friends, where we spent 40% of the time chasing away naughty chipmunks trying to steal our food and 60% of the time looking for and at birds. The first day passing through Nanaimo we saw three Bewick’s Wrens and the next evening after eating at a Pemberton restaurant, we saw the beautiful Black and yellow Evening Grosbeak followed by a very very very blue Indigo Bunting while we were looking for a lazuli bunting – what a lucky mistake! On our way up to the mountain lake (which is the same indigo as an Indigo Bunting) there were a few very loud Clark’s nutcrackers, one baby Townsend Solitaire sitting on a gorgeous moraine and a tiny pine siskin eating pine cones.

Matier Glacier

Upper Joffre Lake

Joffre Boulder Field

I’d barely unpacked from Joffre lakes, when I went out on another amazing birding trip, this time with some of the best birders in BC. So after seeing five new birds – most of which I might not have found on my own – I would like to thank Ian Cruickshank and Ann Nightingale for helping me find Red Crossbills, Brown Creepers, Hammond’s Flycatcher, Hutton’s Vireo and Black-Headed Grosbeak.

The Swallow Eggs Have Hatched!

Introducing . . . Tiny, Tadpole and Merlin. And possibly Peregrine, (I just can't see him or her). Stay tuned for more swallow updates soon to come! Or to meet the proud parents, see my blog post, Swallows, Swallows, Swallows ...
http://birdymcbirdface.blogspot.ca/2016/05/swallows-swallows-swallows-oh-and-some.html

Tiny, Tadpole, Merlin . . . and possibly Peregrine (underneath!)
Such a soft warm nest

Snowy Plover!

Lately I have had bad luck with finding rare birds. We didn't see the code 5 White Cheeked Starling or the code 4 Scissor Tailed Flycatcher on Chesterman's Beach. After a very disappointing mission to look for a White Winged dove in Ucluelet, we got a call from Adrian Dorst stating that there was a Snowy plover at Florencia Bay. So we set out again, readying ourselves for another defeat. Following the instructions, we walked to Lost Shoe creek, then headed southwest after about 20 paces. We set up the scope and this is what we saw. A Snowy Plover, very rare here and we were the second ones to see it!

Snowy Plover in breeding plumage

Thank You Pentax

Thank you to Sun Camera Service, who repair all Pentax equipment. They fixed my broken monocular at a discounted price. I'm so happy to have my trusty companion back by my side!

Neighbourhood Rescue!

Our neighbour Joey found a crow making off with a baby robin yesterday. She saved the robin from the crow. It dropped the robin, but we had to prevent the crow from returning. All the robins in the forest were very angry at this one crow. Joey's daughter Aqua and I took care of the baby robin and every once in a while it would open its mouth wide and gaping – and squeak! We fed it salmonberries. We put it out of reach of cats, in a box, near its parents. When we came back later to check on it, we found it had made its getaway into the trees. The evidence is here:

Before

After

The story of a small duck called a... SMEW!

This is a bird only rarely spotted in Canada on the Aleutian islands 

but found commonly in Europe and Asia. I love this bird (I have to confess mostly because of its unique name,) but also because of its perfect combination of adorable and elegant.
Even before my big year, my family I loved this bird and we have a standing joke about it.

Swallows, swallows, swallows... oh, and some other new birds

Since my pelagic boat trip, I've reached my goal – and passed it! I'm now at 128 birds.
In the last few days I've seen short and long-billed dowitchers, blue-winged teal, a peregrine falcon, red knots, golden plovers and black scoters, northern rough-winged swallows – which I have also seen in the last few days are one of my favourite swallows and I'm sad because these adorable plump little brown birds are often overlooked in comparison to the beauty of violet-green, tree or barn swallows. Every bird has its own special personality and I can't choose a favourite.
Thanks you for all the help from Adrian Dorst, Pete Clarkson and Artie Ahier. It is very nice for me to live in a community with some of, in my opinion, the best birders in BC.

After our martial arts demonstration at SOBO restaurant,
Pete Clarkson told me there were red knots at Greenpoint.
We raced out there with 30 minutes of daylight left and ... there they were!

Last year we had two barn swallows that built a nest under the ramp at the Crab Dock. They've returned this year and are building another nest in the same spot. I've had some really fun times with these two swallows and have named them Rufus and Tawny. I can't tell them apart but I still feel like they need to be named.

Our Pelagic Trip, photos by Marla Barker

Black Footed Albatross

Black Footed Albatross and gulls

Northern Fulmar

 

Prawn Dragger

Birdy

Dad and ornithologist, Mark Maftei

Birdy and Dad

Rhinocerus Auklet

By the Wind Sailor jellyfish (velella velella)

Fur seal thermoregulating

Northern Fulmar

Adventures at Sea!

This last week was the Tofino shorebird festival, during which I went on two birding trips as part of the celebration. 

The first was a trip to Cleland island.  I was sponsored by Jamie’s Whaling Station and saw 6 new birds! (see list, at http://birdymcbirdface.blogspot.ca/2016/04/2016-list-of-birds.html

The next day I went on an Ocean Outfitters 9-hour pelagic trip, 30 miles offshore, to Clayoquot, Loudoun and Barkley canyons, where you could barely see land, but you could see: albatross, shearwaters and northern fulmars eating the by-catch from a prawn dragger; a few Cassin’s auklets scooping up plankton from the surface; three red-neck phalaropes sitting in the deep water; the occasional fur seal thermoregulating, (sunning their flippers, to maintain their body heat); my first ever sperm whale, and – another first! – the second biggest whale in the world, the fin whale! Now I am at 119 birds – just one away from my original goal!

I am very thankful to Jamie’s Whaling Station, https://www.jamies.com Ocean Outfitters https://www.oceanoutfitters.bc.ca/ and Mark Maftei www.harbourliving.ca/event/event/pelagic-seabirds-of-the-bc-coast-mark-maftei/2016-03-03/ our guide for both trips, who helped me a lot.
Also thank you to Marla Barker for these photos:

Here are a few and more are coming soon.

Just leaving Tofino

Birdy Mcbirdface in action

101 Birds!

Yesterday I saw three new birds, starting with an American Dipper and its nest, which was just inches above a rushing waterfall. Then we saw a Pileated Woodpecker, tapping on a tree. And to top the day off, we found more nests including one with a Hairy Woodpecker in it.   
Thank you everyone for all your support. I have now checked more than 100 birds off my list! 
Also, check out these awesome bird drawings, here: http://rowanafloat.blogspot.ca/2016/04/if-you-would-like-too-see-some-other.html

Pileated Woodpecker