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.