“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 2nd 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 3rd 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 4th 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.
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 10th. 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 11th 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 72nd
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.
I laughed a lot during this post. Did not know you were such a comedic writer ;-)
ReplyDeleteLovely shots of the scrub jay and pine grosbeak in the snow!
You will get your pygmy owl yet! Not so sure about those Palms though ;-)
Cheers.
Mel