I usually find interesting things washed up at the high tide line along Wickaninnish Beach in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve—fresh bull kelp is common, as are various types of shellfish and moulted dungeous crab shells. Sometimes the odd sand lance silvers in the sand, and once I found a dead seal. Birds are much more rare. A couple of …
Birding
An Occupation of Snow Geese
If you’re in or visiting the Lower Mainland over the next couple of months, make sure to make your way out to either Richmond or Ladner and take in the seasonal spectacle that is the wintering flocks of snow geese (Chen caerulescens). The word flock doesn’t really do justice to the sheer number of birds: gaggle is more appropriate to a …
Golden-crowned Kinglets!
Earlier this week I ran into a flock of close to twenty golden-crowned kinglets (Regulus satrapa) feeding in the hedgerow alongside a country road in rural Merville. With the thick fog of the last couple days, it seems that birds are hunkering down and feeding in large mixed flocks. There were a few song sparrows skulking on the edges of …
Totally Tubular Tube-noses
The semi-annual WildResearch pelagic trip out of Ucluelet is a spectacular way to see some impressive off-shore birds and this year’s fall trip was no exception. It was interesting to compare the birds with those seen on the spring pelagic trip out to La Pérouse Bank I did in 2012—there were some repeats but there several birds that were new life birds …
Wandering Tattler Tale
Halfmoon Bay is one of those spots in Pacific Rim National Park that is often overlooked by visitors with only a short amount of time. Access is via the 1.4 km long Willowbrae Trail—at the 1.3 point, just before it descends into Florencia Bay, the trail splits. The trail that leads off to the right runs through a stretch of …
Boundary Bay Birding
Last weekend I went over to Vancouver with two other birders/photographers to “twitch” the red-flanked bluetail and brambling reported on British Columbia Bird Alert. Part of our plan was to spend the remainder of the day out looking for owls and other birds out at Boundary Bay. Large drift logs with root masses make for great places for lichen to …
Where’s Wagtail?
Update: March 24, 2013 Last confirmed sighting of the Citrine Wagtail on eBird was Thursday, March 21. However, since that time, access to the farm lane has been restricted due to active farming and the lane is gated. Update: March 6, 2013 Checked the original farm site on Wednesday, March 6 with Viktor Davare and had a really nice look at …
Port Alberni CBC – December 30, 2012
The Christmas Bird Count season on Vancouver Island is pretty much wrapped up and it’s nearly time to put away the heavy duty rain gear and focus on better weather birding when one isn’t “required” to go out and count birds. This weekend I joined the crew out at Port Alberni for their annual Christmas Bird Count. Those of you …
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Harris’s Sparrow, Brown Pelican – Twitch
OK – I’m not a hardcore lister by any stretch of the imagination (I’ve finally just broken 200 on my restarted BC list) but sometimes unexpected birds are a good excuse for a road trip. I’ve been fortunate that the extremely rare citrine wagtail is a mere five minutes away from my house, and perhaps adding that bird to my …
Citrine Wagtail – Mega Twitch Dip Tick
Update: March 24, 2013 Last confirmed sighting of the Citrine Wagtail on eBird was Thursday, March 21. However, since that time, access to the farm lane has been restricted due to active farming and the lane is gated. Update: March 6, 2013 Checked the original farm site on Wednesday, March 6 with Viktor Davare and had a really nice look at the …