50 to go!

Now that Ontario's Cerulean Warblers and Black-billed Cuckoos are but a memory, it is time to get back to some serious birding!

This past weekend I headed out to catch a few of the more common birds that I hadn't found yet this year. First on my list was Ruffed Grouse, and on Friday I headed out to Sooke to an area where Jeremy Gatten and I heard them drumming a few weeks back. Unfortunately the wind was up and the grouse were down, so another dip. Good thing there are six months left in 2011! On the way in, I did inadvertently flush 13 Turkey Vultures and a Bald Eagle off of a bear carcass, and when I returned from the short hike, the Vultures were still in the surrounding trees, waiting for me to leave. Also along the hike were a Hutton's Vireo and a Red-breasted Sapsucker feeding young.

Saturday was an up-island day, and my wife and I started at Spectacle Lake. Instead of walking through the park and around the lake, we decided to hike north from the parking area, and up along a power line cut. There were a couple of bright male Western Tanagers calling around the parking lot, and as the forest turned to brush, everything else started calling as well. There were a couple of House Wrens chattering, a MacGillivray's Warbler feeding, and three species of woodpecker in the trees. Pacific-Slope, Willow, and Olive-sided Flycatchers were also very obvious. It took a bit more walking to find my target for the area, number 200 for the year, Hammond's Flycatcher. The walk back down the hill took me past a small patch of willows, which held number 201, a singing Warbling Vireo!

Our second and last stop of the day, owing to a dinner engagement, was Cowichan Bay, where we hoped to pick up Red-eyed Vireo. I am convinced that Cowichan Bay is probably the best place on the island to find these handsome critters, and they didn't disappoint! There were at least eight singing, and I ended up getting fantastic, eye-level looks at three, for 202! Also along the path were three singing Black-throated Gray Warblers, another missing bird, but they stayed inconveniently and uncooperatively out of sight.

Just under six and a half months to go, with 50 species left to find! There are still 10 days in which I will be out of town as well, unfortunately (a Westport Pelagic followed by a lightning drive down to SE Arizona and back).

Good birding always,