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.