A Great Weekend by Any Measure!

As many of these posts have, this one begins with a Friday afternoon phone call from Jeremy Gatten, a casual "so, we have a probable Red-necked Stint at Witty's Lagoon, come in from Tower Point". This was more than enough to send me running for the car, dialing a couple of other local birders on the way. As I was getting ready to pull out, I got a text from Jeremy, reporting a Ruff in the same flock! A Ruff in Victoria is great, a Red-necked Stint incredible, but both in the same spot?

This is also a lesson about knowing where the trails are. Had I known about the trail that Jeremy was referencing, which is at the end of Olympic View Dr, it would have been a much drier walk. I arrived at Tower Point itself and, finding no trail, hopped into the water and waded over to Witty's Lagoon, crossing carnivorous mud and waist deep water to reach the area where the birds and birders were. When I reached the other side, I was met by Jeremy and guided to the discovering group of Nathan Hentze, Jamie Fenneman, and Pierre-Paul Bitton, who had the juvie Red-necked Stint lined up in the scope for me already, showing the peg-like bill, short legs and long primary projection. Eventually the feet were seen as well, clearly showing a lock of webbing to seal the deal. A great bird, and well worth the bath on the way over! Thirty seconds later, one of the scopes was in line with the Ruff, also in juvie plumage. Jeremy G et al had to leave at that point, and I stuck around to keep track of the birds for the other incoming birders. The Ruff stuck around and showed well, but a Merlin came through just before everyone else arrived, and the peep flock flew off. Also in the area were a Pectoral Sandpiper, Semipalmated Sandpipers, a Yellowlegs, and 2 Dowitchers.

If this wasn't enough, Saturday morning was the Mini Pelagic Trip out of Sooke, with Russ Nicks from Sooke Coastal Explorations. The fog was thick as we left Sooke, headed for the US Border due south of Otter Point. We had no luck finding any feeding gatherings of gulls or other birds as we cruised along the border, so we headed a little closer to shore off Sooke. As we were slowly cruising, someone yelled "Puffin!" Sure enough, there was a beautiful adult Tufted Puffin about 40ft or so off the side of the boat. All aboard got great looks at the bird. Our next stop, where we ended the 2 hour journey, was Beechey Head, where bait and gulls alike had been gathering. As we approached, we saw two jaegers off the front of the boat, but no one was able to get an I.D. on either. This proved to not be a big deal. As we approached a small gathering of feeding gulls, a larger bird flew in, showing off the long, twisted tail streamers of a Pomarine Jaeger! We ended up getting incredible looks at a second Pomarine on our way back in, as it flew by very near the boat. Other birds on the Mini Pelagic included Red-necked Phalaropes and a small flock of Bonaparte's Gulls. There is lots of opportunity out there, and this is the time to take advantage of it. Thanks to Russ for a great trip!

Sunday morning found me doing the census at Rocky Point Bird Observatory. The birding and banding was quiet, but as I left I had a voicemail from Chris Saunders, reporting a Northern Waterthrush at Swan Lake. This bird was almost expected, as they have been annual for the last few years, during the last week of August, at the switchback portion of the boardwalk. I arrived to find Chris, Ian C, David C, and Mike M listening intently, though the bird hadn't been heard for 20 minutes or so. I was hoping for the best, as I only had 20 minutes to hang around. A couple of minutes of waiting, and the bird started calling. Then a second bird chipped in as well! Both called on and off, but never showed themselves. C'est la vie!

I returned to Swan Lake this morning (Monday) on my way to the office, hoping for the best but preparing to come away empty-handed, as there had been no followup reports. As I stepped onto the switchback part, a Waterthrush called, very close, and I looked up to see the bird perched in the open about 12 feet off the ground, calling continuously and providing just incredible looks. The second bird was about 5 feet away from the first, and they chased each other around the branches while I called Chris. In the 30 seconds or so that it took Chris, David, Mary, and Kirsten M to get to where I was, the birds both stopped calling and disappeared. In the next half hour that I stayed, they provided brief looks, and everyone ended up getting to see at least one.

Four days and five new birds, bringing me to 223, and 29 away from beating the record! It should be an exciting next few weeks around Victoria, and I wonder what will be next!

Good rarity hunting!

Still summer.....

...and I have been lazy with the updating! Somewhere between the last post and now, I snuck in Coho trip number four, which was fairly uneventful, with good numbers of Common Murre during the crossing, and an incredible 300+ Heermann's Gulls on the Port Angeles side, the majority of them on Ediz Hook. I also finally picked up the Sibley Guide in a Port Angeles book store, saving myself almost $16 in the process. Not bad for a birding trip!

I have also added on species since the last post, a Pectoral Sandpiper that has been hanging around Panama Flats with great numbers of several other species. The ocean side birding has been a little slower, with neither of my targets putting in an appearance, despite daily stops in prime areas. The shorebird migration is still young though, so I don't expect them to be targets for much longer.

Also coming up, we can expect our pelagic types to finally show up. For those who have been following along, I have been waiting for them for about six months now! Hopefully a couple of boat trips out of Pedder Bay, plus the now full August 27 mini-pelagic to the far reaches of the checklist area, will fill in the jaegers, shearwaters, and others. If you are interested in perhaps joining in on one of the Pedder Bay trips, let me know! The boats have room for 4 or 6 people, depending on the boat rented.

There have been incredible birds showing up just about everywhere along the coast from Haida Gwai to the Salton Sea (Bar-tailed Godwit, Wood Sandpiper, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, etc), and hopefully it is just a matter of time before we turn a few up in our neck of the woods!

Good birding,

A Nice Day for a Walk!

This past holiday Monday, my wife and I decided to take a bit of a walk up to Tugwell Lake, just north of Sooke, to do some birding. As some of you know, the only problem with Tugwell Lake, is this:




This gate was put up, under 24-hour lock, a few years back in response to vandalism of logging equipment. Tugwell Lake lies roughly 12 uphill kilometers from the base of Butler Mainline and the gate.

We started off just before 8am with the idea of beating the heat. Birding the first 4km or so was average for the area, but we had yet to run into the coveted Ruffed Grouse, one of two birds I had come to find. Passing the 4km marker, the brush opened up a little, and suddenly there were birds everywhere, with MacGillivray's Warbler being the surprise leader in numbers. We ended up counting 23 in total, including a couple of what must have been family groups. The odd Band-tailed Pigeon would fly over, as would small groups of Red Crossbills.

Likely the steepest hill of the whole trek winds up to the 8km marker. Luckily, we had broken out the energy shots at the bottom, and were alert enough to notice this little guy and his friend in the open area just past the marker:

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I am the master of the "record shot" and not much else. Luckily, this Grey Jay (now here's the game, try to spot the bird!) stayed in the open long enough for some admiration and a distant photo. Try as I might, I couldn't lure it closer with either peanuts or trail mix. This was the second bird I had hoped for on the hike, as they have been known to hang out around Tugwell Lake (historically, anyway), and Ian C, Mike McG, and Rick S had heard them there a couple of weeks ago. Kilometer 8 is a far sight closer than Tugwell, so I counted myself fortunate. A bit of a surprise was a very vocal House Wren just off the road. One target down, one to go!

Continuing along, we kept our eyes on the fringes of the road, looking for grouse and bear sign. At about 8.5km, something rustled in the bushes to our right, and a beautiful adult Ruffed Grouse hopped onto a low branch before taking off, leaving me without a picture. Target two, and well short of the lake! We could have trimmed 7km off of our round trip at this point, as I had found everything I wanted to, but we carried on uphill, walking to an unending chorus of Olive-sided and Pacific-slope Flycatchers in the trees.

At the 10km marker, the bird life changed ever so slightly yet again, and all of a sudden the air was filled with the song of Hermit Thrushes. A left turn on to an old streambed leads up to Tugwell Lake itself, where we planned to kick back for an hour or so before heading home. For those of you toying with the idea of a hike, somewhere between Kilometer 10.5 and Kilometer 11, there is a sign nailed to a tree that says "B". Just past this sign, watch for the old streambed.

Signs of campfires past were clearly visible, as were beer cans half-buried in the mud at the bottom of the lake, but even they couldn't take away from the beauty of this little gem! We had the entire lake to ourselves, and found a convenient rock jutting out into the water to lounge on for a while. The birds quickly showed themselves, as we hadn't even unpacked our water bottles before four Common Nighthawks appeared overhead. One of these performed it's full display numerous times, and another thrilled by coming down to the lake to pick a bug off of the surface. Also overhead were two Black Swifts and a Band-tailed Pigeon. Three more Hermit Thrushes were singing, and we located three Yellow-rumped Warblers in the trees, the first I have seen in many weeks.

Forty-five minutes of relaxing was enough, and we headed back down the streambed toward Butler. Nothing new appeared on the way down to the car, but the hills certainly felt much steeper than they had going up. Perhaps I was distracted by all the birds and hadn't noticed.... We found one little bit of bear scat around the 9km point, which wasn't overly fresh, but no bear. We also could not locate the grouse or the jays on the way down, so we had apparently been very lucky on the way up!

All in all, it turned out to be a great day, totalling 35 species, adding 10km onto my previous longest day hike, scoring two much sought after species for the Big Year for a current total of 216, and finding some great places for future birding!

Now about those shorebirds.......