a trip to Pitt Meadows for a Prairie Falcon

BEYOND, Birds, British Columbia, Travel

It seems to be a recent tradition of mine to go birding in the Vancouver area after our annual RC Pets conference. Whether it is one day or two I try to make the best of my free time in the beautiful province of British Columbia.

What I would really love to see someday are the Coastal Wolves of Vancouver Island, but that is not practical in February, and so I bird.

I had about 8 hours of daylight available until I had to be the airport on my day off so I connected with Jim Palmer, and we headed out to the “valley”. I had two targets in mind that were being regularly seen in that area, both Falcons. We dipped on one, but I got to see the one I will never see in Nova Scotia, so it all turned out just fine.

We could not locate the Gyrfalcon and believe it may not be around anymore as it hadn’t been spotted in a couple of days, but that’s okay potentially I’ll get one in Newfoundland in April. If not this year, then the next perhaps. We did get to see two Coopers Hawks in the location where the Gyr had been frequenting, and a Red-tailed Hawk was also eyeing up their territory so perhaps the farm area was a bit “over-raptored”.

We did get the Prairie Falcon, which is quite unlikely to ever turn up in Atlantic Canada with its strictly western range. We have never had a report of one in Nova Scotia to my knowledge. It made a brief and speedy flyby just as we stopped the car. Then it flew directly into a cluster of very tall trees in the distance where we would perhaps never have spotted it without being alerted to it’s location

Hopefully this excuses my nearly unidentifiable shot. We did get excellent looks in a 60 zoom scope, as well saw him fly close to the car and then followed with binoculars. My out the window shot is not so wonderful either, but those buggers move fast!

this is with a crop sensor and 400mm lens and this is also cropped and zoomed in on the computer!

got the car window open before I could even get the door open so still not ideal but happy to have documented this wonderful lifer

Of course, I had hoped to get shots like the ones I saw on Cornell before we set out.

image taken from Cornell library – it would appear they set the bar a little too high…LOL

But I clearly did not, so here are some pretty duck photos I took later.

Northern Pintail and a couple of Green-winged Teal heading for the hills it would appear

male Northern Pintail – there were 250 of them in the settling ponds at the Iona Park

I got two other lifers that day, California Scrub Jay (also bad photos) and Marsh Wren.

high up in a tree behind someone’s house was this California Scrub Jay with more time I may have gotten a better photo but you gotta keep on moving or you’ll miss stuff

the Marsh Wrens are small and skulky but didn’t get a bad shot – the real treat was listening to them sing though – super cool little birds – there were lots of them at Iona Park

As usual the best part of birding in British Columbia was the scenery.

a view of Grant Narrows from “the valley” in Pitt Meadows

Perhaps one day when I finally see my Coastal Wolves, I can see some Tufted Puffins too.

Tofino, and maybe someday the mighty Haida Gwaii are calling my name…

the grainiest bird photo I was ever so happy to take

BEYOND, Birds, British Columbia

Earlier this month I spent a bit of time birding in British Columbia in advance of a short work conference in Vancouver. In my tradition of not straying too far from the city for my diversions, I chose Squamish as the out of town overnight.

Last year my epic lifer fail was on the Barn Owls, so I was determined to get them this year and got some help from a guide (Mike Klotz) to up my odds and added American Dipper to the wish list.

As much as I love to see rarities, my preference is to see native species in their natural habitat. Both the Barn Owl and America Dipper are endemic species for the West Coast and would not be seen in Nova Scotia.

After arriving in Vancouver, I took a bus up to Squamish to spend the night. Beautiful setting to spend a bit of time and unwind, and great Dipper country. I noted a little park across from the Squamish bus stop so did a bit of birding, luggage in tow, and got some great looks at a group of Varied Thrush. They have evaded me on previous trips to BC, so I was happy with this serendipitous sighting.

The next morning I arranged for Mike meet me in Squamish at sun up, and we checked a few fast-moving streams where Dippers are known to be present. We dipped on the first one (I know) and I spotted one right away at the second location.

Dippers are a little hard to photograph as they are small, dark, and favor mountain streams. Even if it’s sunny out, the mountains cast a shadow and creates a dimly lit environment. However, I’m relatively happy with my photos, but more importantly I was thrilled with the experience. The first bird we found sang beautifully for a while, which was an unexpected treat so early in February.

The second bird we saw in another location put on a great little show flying up and down the stream, stopping to forage for food. When we zoomed in on some of our photos, we realized he was actually that some of what he was finding, and eating were Salmon fry.

The weather was perfect, so we enjoyed some casual birding on the trails in the lovely mountain setting.

not a bad spot to wake up and do a bit of birding in I thought

Many of the birds are also native to Nova Scotia, although some have colour variants such at the Red-bellied Sapsucker (our is yellow) and the Northern Flicker (ours is yellow-shafted, BC has red-shafted). Most of the Eagles had moved on but we saw a few. December I believe would be the time to see the 1000+ strong convocations of Eagles following the Salmon run. Someday if can find the time that would certainly be something to see in such a lovely setting.

We have large groups of Eagles in Nova Scotia, but sadly it’s because someone feeds them chicken carcasses to attract tourists. Not my idea of watching birds in natural habitat. Although we do get large groups in the fall at the Cape Breton causeway following the Billfish (Atlantic Saury) run which is fun because lots of other critters such as White-sided Dolphins enjoy that as well. Still I don’t think we would ever see 1000+ Eagles all at once in Nova Scotia without a man-made circumstance of some sort.

Anyway, I only had two target birds for the day, so we were off to find my Barn Owl next. Mike had a lead on a location in Point Roberts, Washington where we thought there would be enough light in the barn to get good photos, but the owls were not there.

However, it was supercool to do some sea birding on a little beach in Washington. “Point Bob” is basically the most southerly tip of BC that is cut off by the 49^th parallel. Birding never fails to bring me to interesting places, to provide different viewpoints of our world.

I even had an opportunity to do some birding in Washington!

Knowing how important it was to me to see my first Barn Owl, Mike had a backup location. And a backup to his backup, which fortunately we didn’t have to use.

The barn was very dark, and the second story rafters were very high. Even with binoculars it took a bit of work to locate two Barn Owls that were seated high in a corner. After seeing then in my binoculars, I made a few feeble attempts to photograph them at ISO 1600 that I had set from the first location with more light, and immediately realized I’d have push the sensor to the max and settled on the full ISO 256000. My grainy shot is still a great accomplishment by my budget priced Nikon SLR given the conditions, but even better it shows how amazing the Barn Owl camouflage is.

what amazing camouflage the Barn Owls have!

These wondrous creatures look they are part of the barn boards. You can see other camouflage in this photo too that prove once again Mother Nature always has a few great tricks up her sleeve. And so is the story of the grainiest bird photo I was ever so happy to take.

The afternoon owl theme continued as we stopped at to visit some Great Horned Owls, and then went in search of a Northern Saw Whet Owl.

The Saw Whet search was not so successful, but we had great fun trying at the Reifel Bird Sanctuary.

one of the resident Sandhill Cranes at the Reifel Bird Sanctuary

As if that wasn’t good enough, we spotted a Short-eared Owl at dusk as we ended our day.

Short-eared Owls and me have quite a back story.

Short-eared Owl heading off to nab something I’d say

I had a great adventure and I’ve now seen most of the birds I’ve wanted to see in BC. My next British Columbia visit goal is to photograph a beautiful Coastal Wolf, but realistically I’ll probably just do wide angle shots in Gastown ?

Saanich and serendipity : birding the Swartz Bay to Victoria route on Vancouver Island – February 2018

BEYOND, Birds, British Columbia, Canada, Travel

Following a wonderful work conference in Vancouver last week, I took the opportunity to visit Vancouver Island for the first time over the weekend.

The quest for the perfect birding location not too far from downtown Van began last fall and I quickly narrowed it down to the Victoria region after consulting the Birding in British Columbia website.

A few years ago, I spent the day with a great birder in Las Vegas, Je Anne, who taught me to study the birds of the area you are visiting in advance and this has always stuck with me.

Along the way I’ve also learned not to wish for birds, but to look for what is expected in an area for the habitat and season.

Victoria is quite warm compared to the rest of British Columbia and migration comes earlier, although by and large I wanted to tick expected species not native to Nova Scotia such as the Chestnut-backed Chickadee.

Last year I birded Stanley Park after the conference and was most disappointed that I could not locate a Black Oystercatcher, and believe it or not, a Chestnut-backed Chickadee. So, the wish list starts there.

By Vancouver standards, quite a bit of snow had fallen overnight, and the city looked just beautiful from the Skytrain.

The bus ride from the train to the Twassen Ferry was quite messy as they didn’t plow, and we got a little stuck at one point but it was no big deal. Besides, we passed a group of Trumpeter Swans in some flats on the way and it was the first lifer of the trip so I knew I was on track. My co-worker who was also heading for Victoria, was underwhelmed by this sighting as is often the case with non-birders. We birders are used to this and shan’t be discouraged…LOL

Once we boarded the ferry I left my bags inside with my fine friend and went outside in search of feathered ones. I dipped on a few Alcids that I believe I missed by about a week, so I have a reason to return I suppose.

Rhinoceros Auklet and Ancient Murrelet were the two who got away. But I did pickup many Pacific Loons in the pass, which was pretty amazing but sadly no photos as there were so many birds I couldn’t figure out who to shoot.

From the ferry I headed for the car rental place which turned out to be right on the road I’d been told to visit for Eurasian Skylarks. As predicted they were fairly easy to hear, and just as impossible to see. Next.

I had my heart set on finding Canvasback Ducks but believe I missed them by days. With a heavy heart I set out to leave the Viaduct Flats but as I approached my car I heard the Robins making a ruckus and looked up to see the biggest Fox Sparrow I’ve ever seen high on a branch. Wait a minute, is that a Northern Pygmy Owl? Holy binoculars batman that is amazing! Backlit, Robin-sized, and perched high my shots will not be NatGeo quality, but I’ll take it.

On that note, the pressure I put on myself to achieve great photos in these circumstances is ridiculous. Riding around by myself to marshes and flats nobody who lives in the area even heard of with hardly time to stop in each place, overwhelmed by the songs of new to me birds, and changing lighting conditions, it is what it is. I must accept that a photo shoot is a very different beast. This is birding, and it’s all about doc shots. Some turn out not too badly and maybe someday you get to have a bit of time to do a shoot with a favorite down the road.

Anyway, I sort of thought that was good enough for one day and was thinking about calling it a day and trying to formulate a plan for the morning.

I got it in my head pretty early on that the Martindale Flats would be the mecca of my birding time, so when I saw a large sign on the highway for Martindale Road I couldn’t resist putting in some more birding time before supper even though I’d skipped both breakfast and lunch.

Serendipity for the second time that day as I met two of the best birders from the area, Daniel and Michael, who gave me a little tour of a local hotspot in the flats and helped me located a flock of Western Meadowlarks, Golden-crowned Sparrows and Brewers Blackbirds after looking over my list.

Mike and Daniel

Golden-crowned Sparrows

I did eventually head off for supper with a new major nemesis on the brain. Damn you Barn Owls, this is not over!

Sunday morning, I decided to start early right on the property where I was staying. The habitat at the Swartz Bay Farm and the end of Land’s End Road near the ferry is nothing short of amazing. Landed four lifers (here is my list) before I finished my morning coffee! As well the sheer quantity of songbirds on the property is amazing and there was only one small feeder that may not have even had food in it.

There were several birds I could not identify on site that eluded me. One was grunting and sounded large so possibly a ground/game bird?

One bizarre large sounding loud alarm call in the brush with the Towhees I never did identify. I’ve never heard anything like it and nothing came to mind, although perhaps to locals it would be familiar. I like a good mystery, so I’ll be back (or maybe for now I’ll just stalk other people’s eBird reports as it’s long drive from Nova Scotia).

I heard one song I would call Townsend’s Solitaire but won’t list it as I can’t be certain and didn’t locate the bird for sighting. Heard the Vireo scold call several times so would assume it was a Hutton’s Vireo but won’t list that either. Both are expected migrants for this time of the year, so I would not think either out of the question. The one bird I heard very distinctly that is not expected and rejected by eBird is a Black-throated Green Warbler. However, that is a bird I know by ear unmistakably so if it was not present then a mimic bird such as a Starling must be up to some tricks (and that is something that does happen for you non-birders). Again, nothing like a good mystery. I’d be delighted to see some eBird reports for this area. Perhaps get permission to bird the property as the people who run the inn are very nice. As well the little walking path by the highway across the street continues to be very birdy. I can’t make it back until next year at best, but it was great to be fully immersed in the music of songbirds. Overwhelming at first, things started to make sense as I put sightings together with songs and eliminated species and did some detective work. My spring ears aren’t even on yet as it’s the dead of winter in Nova Scotia, so I am pleased with how things turned out overall. Learning regional birds takes time so it’s coming along slowly for my British Columbia lists.

I had a free hour and a half for birding before meeting a good friend for lunch in Sidney, so decided to check out the Saanichton Spit. It took me a long time to find it but it was really worth the effort. Much of what I expected to see was not around this week (the theme of the weekend) but I got good looks at some Western Meadowlarks and was greeted by a group of 18 Northern Pintails and a number of very nosy Anna’s Hummingbirds so left pretty happy. Next time I will dedicate more time to this area and it’s spectacular habitat.

Western Meadowlark

Anna’s Hummingbird

I put an end to land-bird hunting for this trip and devoted the afternoon to search for shorebirds and seabirds. Much dipping ensued but that is not always bad as you know.

The Black Turnstones and Surfbirds were both to be an easy catch, alas neither made an appearance. I figured at this point I’d narrow things down to my one shoreline nemesis, the Black Oystercatcher, and was prepared to put in the rest of the time before my flight for a look at one.

As I ran out of places to search at Cattle Point, a nosey group of River Otters popped up on the rocks and that was so wonderful I thought that was the end of gifts from the universe for the day.

River Otters

No sooner did I put the keys in the ignition did two Oystercatchers pop into sight right in front of my car. Hopped out and got my photos before they flew up alarmed and back out of sight.

Honestly, at this point it’s all gravy so I took a little stroll down at Turkey Head and saw yet another Black Oystercatcher, but this time much closer.

Black Oystercatcher

Overall a pretty great day, and as often happens to me the minute I got in the car and started driving it started raining hard.

That is always my signal that the little portal to the birding heaven has closed for the day.

Get it where you can I say, we all need a little bit of wonder in our day.

Sixteen new to me birds for this weekend included:

Black Oystercatcher
Northern Pygmy Owl
Trumpeter Swan
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Bushtit
Eurasian Collared Dove
Eurasian Skylark
Red-breasted Sapsucker
Red-shafted Northern Flicker (ours in Nova Scotia are the same, only Yellow-shafted)
Bewick’s Wren
California Gull
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Pacific Loon
Pigeon Guillemot
Western Meadowlark
Brewers Blackbird

Favorite photo of the weekend is not the sharpest, but it makes me smile.

Golden-crowned Sparrow with a sleepy friend

Thank you, Mother Nature, for being most agreeable, and to all the lovely people I met along the way. Until we meet again…Happy Birding.

Angela

a perfect April day in Stanley Park, Vancouver

BEYOND, Birds, British Columbia, Travel

My camera (left the bins at home since my super zoom doubles as a scope) had come out of checked baggage with a blurry viewfinder and the idea of spending the day birding in British Columbia with no optics loomed over me like the rain clouds.

The first two days in Vancouver were spent with my coworkers from RC Pets (the best pet company in North America and the best coworkers too btw!) and they took us on an amazing tour of the Sea to Sky highway and up the Sea to Sky Gondola. I was frustrated with the camera of course but managed to nab my first lifer of the trip, a Steller’s Jay. We also heard the amusing calls of the Sooty Grouse under the suspension bridge. Groups of small chattery birds flew by several times but without my zoom I couldn’t figure out what they were. My guess best guess would be Mountain Bluebirds based on impression but I’ll never know. Guess I better go back someday! The snowshoe hikes looked like great fun in fact.

Steller’s Jay

It was sad to leave my coworkers and friends but also fantastic to have an upcoming day to myself. I headed to English Bay for the evening after a fabulous farewell supper with some of the gang.

A White-crowned Sparrow singing loudly outside my window at the Sylvia as my alarm went off inspired some hope. I decided I had to do something about this situation. I phoned my other half back home and we googled the prices of cheap binoculars. As I contemplated picking up a $50 set at London Drug just to make the day somewhat worthwhile the suggestion was made to google “blurry viewfinders”.

White-crowned Sparrow

The clouds parted as I located the diopter on my camera and corrected the view. On with room service, shower, and Stanley Park then! Whew!

Greeted by Canada Geese, Glacous-winged Gulls, and Northwestern Crows I made my way along the beach in English Bay toward this glorious urban haven.

Northwestern Crow – a little different that our American Crows back home on the East Coast

Glaucous-winged Gull (my first lifer in English Bay!)

Glaucous-winged Gull – we don’t have these on the East Coast – not the lack of black on the wing tips – the distinguishing feature from our Herring Gulls

Northwestern Crow – courting behavior – I had a little crow porn outside my window at the Teahouse at that…oy!

Armed with my wish list of lifers (and 2 down already!), the Spotted Towhees loudly and immediately checked themselves off my list.

Stanley Park is known for it’s hummingbirds, and although I’m not a huge fan the Rufous Hummingbirds were a bit of a showstopper admittedly.

Rufous Hummingbird male

Rufous Hummingbird female

Having done my homework for the time of year the coastline seemed the better bet, so I followed the sea wall dreaming of Oystercatchers and Canvasbacks along the way.

Although they never appeared, hundreds of Barrow’s Goldeneyes accompanied me throughout the day, along with an initial greeting from a pair of Horned Grebes in breeding plumage.

Barrow’s Goldeneye male

Barrow’s Goldeneye female

Woodland birds called along the way and took me on marvelous diversions into the old growth forest for at least half of the time. The Pacific Wren were the highlight of my adventure and with some patience I got a marvelous show from one of these teeny songsters.

The easiest bird on my checklist (Chestnut-backed Chickadee) managed to evade my sightings, although I did hear them all over it never seemed important to track one down for a photo. As well my Eagle sightings were both Bald and neither Golden, but this was a day for wandering and not twitching.

Lost Lagoon was full of Wood Ducks and I also got a nice show from a Fox Sparrow.

My outdoor classroom for the day was filled with song, wonder, and lessons on habitat. An old-growth forest is like nothing else on this earth. Back home in Nova Scotia there we have very little of it (please consider supporting the Nova Scotia Nature Trust), but in the pockets that still exist our equivalent woodland birds and critters are just as happy.

Trusting that nature would take care of me I trekked the kilometers through the park and when I thought I could take no more, the Teahouse oasis appeared.

Another scan of the seawall didn’t net the results I had hoped for but the Pelagic Cormorants appeared, and a solo Harlequin Duck put on a lovely show alongside a pair of Green-winged Teal.

Pelagic Cormorants

Sore feet snuck up on me, and the perfect path took me into the middle of the park to avoid the long sea wall trek. A sheltered oasis of stream and marsh greeted me in the Beaver Lake area of the park. Great Blue Heron fished for minnow in the creek and Swallows snatched insects amidst the waterfowl.

My camera battery died as I meandered out of the park but not before a Pileated Woodpecker appeared who let me so close I was able to get this video on my phone without the need of any zoom.

A perfect day in Stanley Park. I will return.

Birds, Barks, Beyond

wildlife & portrait photography by Angela Granchelli

British Columbia

a trip to Pitt Meadows for a Prairie Falcon

the grainiest bird photo I was ever so happy to take

Saanich and serendipity : birding the Swartz Bay to Victoria route on Vancouver Island – February 2018

a perfect April day in Stanley Park, Vancouver