Rock 'Piper & Rosy-Finch Combo

It sort of felt like Rob ready my last blog post and thought to himself, “You know what would really gripe Ilya off? If I went out mid-week and found the two birds he whined so emphatically about missing.” And so he did just that, first finding two Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches at Mount Seymour on Tuesday, then finding a Rock Sandpiper at Whytecliff Park on Wednesday!

You can probably imagine what happened next: a lot of humming and hawing between Mike and I, before we eventually pressured each other in to being at Whytecliff Park first thing Thursday morning. As I found myself staring at some turnstones and surfbirds foraging along a very distant shoreline, waiting for them to spread their wings in order to make an identification, I began to wonder if Mike hadn’t come to his better senses and stayed in bed. As a matter of fact, he had just simply timed thing better because about 10 minutes after his arrival the ROCK SANDPIPER flew past with ~15 Surfbirds and landed out of view on the back side of Whyte Islet. Although we waited almost an hour for the tide to encourage the birds to move in to view, they never did. It was frustrating to get such brief views, but at least they were got.

Since I was already on the north shore, I decided the only sensible thing to do was to make a stop for the Rosy-Finches on my way to work, which represented only a slight detour up a mountain. Rob had sent me a photo showing the gang lined up with optics pointed at the Rosy-Finches, captioned "how to find a Rosy-Finch". This was exactly how we found them; by walking the perimeter of the parking lot until we encountered a horde of admirers watching our rare alpine visitors.

Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch - 1/29/2015 - Mount Seymour. Tephrocotis subspecies.

Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch - 1/29/2015 - Mount Seymour. Littoralis (a.k.a. Hepburn's) subspecies.

Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch - 1/29/2015 - Mount Seymour. Littoralis subspecies.

Count update: 155 as of Jan 30.

Competition?

On January 10, right around the time when I was at 132 and unsuccessfully looking for Redheads, I received a text message from a friend’s tech center informing me that he had cracked 140. Its hard enough competing against myself, let alone against others, and so I almost ended my big year then and there. However, I often find it difficult to explain to non-birders what I do, and the idea of having to explain that I was also a quitter at it seemed unbearably worse. And so instead, I was now competing not only against myself and “260-something”, but also against his pace.

The duration of this competition is yet unknown. It seems to have evolved in to a “big 2/3 of a winter”, but I’m concerned it may carry on past the end of February since we apparently both like the idea of being ahead of each other. To this end, we both expended some effort searching for unseasonal birds. Below, I present photos of two species that are not guaranteed every year in Vancouver, both of which were observed for the second time while searching for considerably commoner winter birds.

Rusty Blackbird, 1/16/2015, Hornby Dr. & 112th St., Boundary Bay. Note distinctive lack of cowbirds in photo. 

Bohemian Waxwing, 1/16/2015, Alaksen National Wildlife Area.  There were many robins, Cedar waxwings and a few Bohemians feasting on the berries along the entrance road, but nary a Hermit Thrush.

Since a big winter is not the mission at hand, I don’t mind placing second so long as I’m beat with birds that become common later on at the appropriate time of year. However, allowing my competitor to gain an edge with difficult winter species is not a favorable prospect since it could also translate in to a long-term edge and foster ideas of big years.

One such difficult winter specialty is the Rock Sandpiper, and there have been a couple reports from Klootchman Park this winter. This species is not only difficult due to its rarity but also because the turnstone flocks they usually associate with are often hit and miss depending on tide state. If one of us was to luck out and see a Rock ‘piper, it would likely represent a lot of head ache for the other, for whom numerous repeat visits to Klootchamn would then be in order to try and close this gap. This holds especially true for me considering my proximity to Klootchman Park. My local birding habits generally avoid bridges and tunnels, and getting to Klootchman requires at minimum crossing two. To save ourselves this undue stress we made a pact to not look for Rock Sandpiper without each other. Having given up on Palm Warblers and having largely run out of common birds to search for south of all bridges and tunnels, the time to honor our pact had come, and on Jan 25 we headed for Klootchman and then the hills. 

Our effort represented arguably the lamest attempt at Rock Sandpiper ever, as the tideline was rather high against the Grebe Islets and not a shorebird was in sight. I suppose we could have checked the tide tables beforehand, but neither of us would probably be able to interpret them for that area anyhow. We also searched for a previously reported Gray-crowned Rosy Finch at Whytecliff Park, dipping on that too, but seeing a Hutton’s Vireo brought my year list to 150.

We had another key target in mind for the hills, and this one represented our day’s big success, albeit not at our first stop. Many of the birding forums have recently been saturated with full frame portraits of Northern Pygmy-Owls taken at a location east of the Vancouver checklist area. In contrast, I offer this more unique image.

Northern Pygmy-Owl, 1/25/2015, Coquitlam. 

Although the pygmy-owl is a bird that shouldn’t be missed in Vancouver with sufficient effort, I don’t tend to bump in to many due to the whole bridges and tunnels thing. Getting this one early and not having to worry about it for the remainder of the year represents a sigh of relief, especially considering I still have another 107 species to stress over.

Count update: 153 as of January 25.

Partial Rarity Round-Up

“Quality over quantity” is my governing rule at the start of a year list. Finding the carry-over rarities from the previous year is my top priority since another opportunity to see them may not present itself later in the year. Thus my first two weekends of 2015 were spent following up on some rare-ish birds, with mixed results.

At the top of my target list were Pine Grosbeaks that had been present on Burnaby Mountain since December 29. Carlo Giovanella came out of his self-administered birding sabbatical to aide me in my pursuit and on the morning of January 2^nd we headed straight for Burnaby Mountain, drove right past our off-ramp and ended up at Maplewood Conservation Area. There, we puttered around in the rain getting saturated while finding the exact number of Pygmy-owls we always find at Maplewood: zero. After seeing a SPOTTED SANDPIPER, courtesy of Paul Kusmin, we admitted defeat and headed for the Viterra grain terminal. With his steady bins, Carlo promptly spotted the GYRFALCON perched beneath some eaves, attempting to stay dry. Our second attempt to find our way up Burnaby Mountain was a success and once there, the PINE GROSBEAKS did not disappoint.

Pine Grosbeak - 1/2/2015 - Burnaby Mountain.

Also high on the hit list was a pair of Redheads present in Pitt Meadows since Dec 17 and the resident pair of Western Scrub-Jays in Maple Ridge. I was optimistic that both species would remain at their respective locations, so on January 3^rd I opted to follow up on a report of Common Redpolls at Reifel instead. This has been a poor winter for redpolls in Metro Vancouver and I welcomed an opportunity to knock them off early. No redpolls were had but a SWAMP SPARROW afforded my year’s first view of this species.

Swamp Sparrow - 1/3/2015 - Reifel Bird Sanctuary.

I again chose not to drive to Pitt Meadows on January 4^th due to winter storm warnings. Instead I spent the afternoon practicing contortion with an unfolded tripod in the back seat of my Corolla, while scoping gulls in the midst of a blustery downpour at the Boundary Bay turf farm.  I could not locate the possible Kumlien’s Gull reported by Kevin Louth, nor find a consolation Glaucous to drown my woes.

Thayer's Gull - 1/4/2015 - 72nd St. Turf Farm. A crappy photo showing some good field marks, namely the black on the undersides of the primaries restricted to a narrow subterminal band and extensive white tongue-tips on the top of the primaries.

As a result of these unforeseen events, my trip to the far-flung corner of the Vancouver checklist area that is Pitt Meadows had to wait until Jan 10^th. I was accompanied by Melissa and we had a successful start with the WESTERN SCRUB-JAYS in Maple Ridge. The Redheads, however, eluded us. Melissa has much better luck finding Pygmy-Owls than I, so I thought an effort to follow up on some reports from earlier this winter in the Port Coquitlam area was in order.  Turns out my poor luck outweighed Melissa’s good luck and we dipped at two different locations. I must admit, missing these birds does not bother me (I guess I’m used to it) nearly as much as the idea of having to return to look again!

Western Scrub-Jay - 1/10/2015 - Maple Ridge.

On January 11^th I helped conduct a Bird Studies Canada BC Coastal Waterbird Survey in West Vancouver, which added three alcid species to my year list: Marbled Murrelet, Pigeon Guillemot and Rhinoceros Auklet. Since the weather in North Vancouver was quite poor and I felt that I had dipped on enough Pygmy-Owls to kick-off 2015, I decided not to go up Cypress Mountain and instead headed for Boundary Bay.

There, a Palm Warbler had been reported to eBird for the first time this year yesterday. Between December 21 and 27, there were in fact two Palms being regularly sighted in the vicinity of 72^nd St., flocking with Yellow-rumps. My success rate locating them during that period was 2/2. After December 27, the butter-buts dispersed and spent a lot of time foraging in the marsh away from the dyke and the Palms were not reported again until now. I am currently locked in a fairly intense competition with an unnamed individual to see who can post the worst success rate at locating these Palm Warblers after they went A.W.O.L., and with this latest visit I was able to drop to 0/4, which is still nearly twice-better than my competitor. Unlike my other misses, the Palm Warblers are actually quite frustrating since they seemed like they would be a reliable rarity to start off 2015 as the new year approached.

Count update: 138 species as of Jan 11.

January 1st: The Casual Big Day

A casual big day around the Fraser Delta on New Year's day has become somewhat of a tradition. This year our casual big day team comprised of Mike & Sharon Toochin, Yousif Attia and myself.

For those unfamiliar with big days, the concept is simple: identify as many birds as possible within 24 hours. Casual big days and ordinary big days are similar in practice, but differ in principle. Having the word 'casual' precede 'big day' makes a low tally excusable and a high tally much more impressive. I recommend that anyone attempting big days should do them casually. No matter how casual, all successful big days require knowledge of the local birds, careful scouting and strategy. So, let's begin...

Free parking is offered along the White Rock promenade until 10 am and was thus our strategic starting point. We welcomed the year's first sunrise over glassy calm waters as we quickly picked up targets such as Long-tailed Duck, EARED GREBE and Red-throated Loon. A BLACK TURNSTONE on the breakwater and a COMMON MURRE offshore were both bonus birds. A stop at West Beach produced the sought after Black Scoter, Barrow's Goldeneyes and Harlequin Ducks, but no Western Gull.

The evolution of Swarovski Optik spotting scopes (left to right): ST series, ATS series, STX series. If the fine folks at Swarovski are reading this and would like to sponsor us next year, I'm sure a new Canadian winter big day record could be set if I had a new pair of EL binoculars. 

At Kwomais Point we knocked off most of the common forest birds, although finding a Varied Thrush required dropping my scope for good luck. Several PACIFIC LOONS were spotted in flight but required a lot of time spent scanning.

At Blackie Spit we quickly found the LONG-BILLED CURLEW and 3 MARBLED GODWITS at the base of the spit, and the SURFBIRD at the mouth of Farm Slough, which also had 30+ Greater Yellowlegs. We looked for Townsend's Warbler and Hutton's Vireo at their CBC locations near Crescent Beach without luck; however, a Bewick's Wren, which was little consolation at the time, proved to be the day's one and only.

A couple quick stops along 40th Ave. west of HWY 99 produced several CACKLING GEESE mixed with Canadas, and YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS at the manure pile. Not many icterids were seen so we decided to pass on Brown-headed Cowbird at this location hoping to find one later, which we never did. As we left around 10:45 the day list was at about 80 species.

At the horse stable at 112th St. and Hornby Dr. we spotted the RUSTY BLACKBIRD within minutes of arrival, and right before the flock flew landing back-lit by the sun. We scanned a couple swan flocks in the area for Tundras but half were sleeping and the other half were Trumpeters.

Another case of impeccable timing was had at the foot of 104th St. where an ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER briefly alighted in an apple tree just as we exited the vehicle. A Northern Shrike along the dyke here was our day's only.

At the turf farm on 72nd St. we picked up Thayer's and Herring Gulls, and serendipitously, a TUNDRA SWAN flying over with a small group of Trumpeters. At the foot of 72nd St. the GOLDEN EAGLE was perched in its favorite poplar. Along the dyke we picked up a few more Yellow-rumped Warblers (but no sign of the Palms), Lincoln's Sparrow, Western Meadowlark and 3 AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS about 300m east of the car park.

Next was a quick stop at the Tsawassen Ferry Jetty where the water was again beautifully calm. Here we found John Reynolds, a flock of Western Grebes, Pelagic and Brandt's Cormorants and Black Oystercatcher. 

It was then on to Reifel, joined by John, with our second American Kestrel and Rough-legged Hawks of the day en route in the fields around Robert's Bank. Arriving at Reifel we were worried that our big day had taken a turn for the worse, finding a full parking lot and frozen sloughs. However, an overflight of 30+ BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS over the parking lot was another huge stroke of luck. And it continued: AMERICAN BITTERN hunting a frozen slough by the tower (thanks John!); two SWAMP SPARROWS calling from below the tower; HARRIS' SPARROW sitting motionlessly with crowned sparrows in a dense bush not far from the information board past Fuller's slough. We also breathed heavy sighs of relief as we spotted our first and only Purple Finch, Cooper's Hawk and finally finding every Gadwall in the sanctuary gathered around a small patch of ice free water. But no Pied-billed Grebe.

My big day shutter count was zero, but fortunately Peter Candido joined our entourage at Reifel and snapped this photo of the Harris' Sparrow perched deep in a thicket.

We stopped at Tamboline Slough for another attempt at the grebe; no luck, but two Ring-necked Pheasents in the pumpkin patch and 5 AMERICAN PIPITS in overflight were welcome additions to the day list. At Canoe Pass we got Common Merganser, but still no grebe.

We spent the remaining daylight at Brunswick Point looking in desperation for the remaining possible day birds. At this point we were tired; I told Yousif that "I could see the bird he was sleeping with" in reference to a suspicious gull he was speaking of, sleeping on the mudflats. Good birds at Brunswick Point included more American Pipits in overflight, a flock of 15+ Western Meadowlarks, and following a half hour wait at sunset, a VIRGINIA RAIL finally called.

Owling after dark was largely unsuccessful, as we managed to spot only 1 BARN OWL, missing both Great Horned and Barred, and ending the day with a modest 119 species. Despite seemingly impeccable timing with a string of rare birds we still managed to miss numerous common birds along the way, making the list of possibilities for a serious winter big day quite tantalizing.

An Overview of Vancouver Big Years

“To become the greatest birder in the world, you have to win the big year.” – Brad Harris.

I am generally reluctant to get involved in an undertaking such as a big year. The inherent conundrum is that big years require a lot of effort which, being lazy, I’m unwilling to expend. Furthermore, there is a risk that if done successfully at the appropriate geographic scale, they can bring about unfathomable fame, wealth and success.  Because I much prefer to diddle in anonymity, it is critical to select the appropriate micro-scale for this trivial pursuit; one that will not attract much attention and leave no lasting impact. I have thus settled to focus my effort on the Vancouver checklist area.

The Vancouver checklist area covers the area from the International Border (but including Point Roberts, WA) north to 49° 35’ N (approximately Furry Creek), west to the middle of the Strait of Georgia, and east to 288^th St. in Abbotsford/Maple Ridge. The checklist stands at an impressive 411 species, but includes so many vagrants that only about 2/3 of these species are recorded annually. According to eBird, the mean number of species annually recorded within the Metro Vancouver County over the last five years is 264 (σ=1.73).

Vancouver Checklist Area, art by Ilya Povalyaev, ca. 2015, Microsoft Word line drawing on Google Maps,  14 x 19".

For most birders that have pursued a Vancouver big year 250 species has been the coveted grail, a threshold that would represent seeing 95% of all the species reported that year, if eBird data is treated as complete. I am aware of only one birder (although there might be others unbeknownst to me) reaching this hefty plateau since 2004: Rob Lyske who tallied exactly 250 in 2013. I don’t know what the actual record is, but have a foggy memory from long ago of someone telling me it stood at 260-something. However, this dates back over a decade so I may have fabricated the number or perhaps the scenario entirely.

Regardless of what the record may be, 260-something seems like a perfect target since it defies most components of S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound) goal setting. It is not specific, it is unattainable with the effort I’m willing to invest, and it is not ‘relevant’, which coupled with ‘big year’ is an oxymoron. With an unrealistic goal of 260-something failure becomes excusable, acceptable and expected, meaning there should be no disappointment at the end of this.   

Wish me luck!