250



As of September 25, Phase 1 of the Big Year is complete. A Ruff at Boundary Bay was the big milestone bird. Unfortunately, 250 was reached early enough in the year that there remains considerable opportunity for the list to grow. I say "unfortunately" because this means that instead of sitting back with a cold glass of water and relaxing for the rest of the year, I now have to initiate Phase 2: 260-something. Below is a photographic recap of the recent year birds that haven't been featured on my blog

#250 - Ruff - 25 Sep 2015 - Boundary Bay. The Ruff is on the far right end of the island, and an American Golden-Plover is third from the left end.

#249 - Clay-colored Sparrow - 22 Sep 2015 - Stanley Park Rose Garden.

#248 - Sharp-tailed Sandpiper - 22 Sep 2015 - Reifel Bird Sanctuary. 

#246 - Vesper Sparrow - 8 Sep 2015 - Colony Farm.

#243 - Horned Lark - 6 Sep 2015 - Iona Island. Photo taken at the Tsawassen Ferry Jetty on Sep 17, 2015. 

As a tribute to the action-packed fall of shore birding at Boundary Bay, I would like to welcome you to the Boundary Bay Shorebird Simulator. Can you find the Bar-tailed Godwit? And if you're really bored, look for a Red Knot.

New Nemesis Bird

Move over Ruddy Turnstone, there’s a new nemesis bird in town: Red-naped Sapsucker. I spent 9.5 hours over four days looking for three separate Red-naped Sapsuckers during the last week! This species occurs rarely in Vancouver during spring migration, with one or two reported most years. They are reported even less often in the fall, and each repeated opportunity to look for one was highly unexpected. I will again present select excerpts from my Birder’s Diary to tell this grand tale.

Monday, September 14: I am forwarded photos of a “mystery” sapsucker from a private residence in North Vancouver. Though certainly a Red-naped/Yellow-bellied-type, which, or whether a hybrid, cannot be ascertained. I am told I will be informed if it reappears.

Tuesday, September 15: The mystery sapsucker is not seen by the homeowner.

Checking all sapsuckers carefully. (This Red-breasted Sapsucker was found dead on the side of a Douglas fir trunk. It appeared to have gotten its bill stuck in the tree and unable to dislodge it. A very horrible and unlikely fate. Photo: 22 Sep 2015, Stanley Park.) 

Wednesday, September 16: Just as I arrive at Iona in the evening to pursue a reported Brewer’s Sparrow, I receive a phone call alerting me that the mystery sapsucker is back, well photographed and looking very much like a hatch year female Red-naped! The better news still is that the homeowner is willing to let me and a couple crazies come try for it. I consider driving to North Vancouver then, but that would put me through some of the city’s most congested traffic during peak rush hour and would also require abandoning the Brewer’s Sparrow without even looking. Both birds represent good year birds, but I have never seen Brewer’s Sparrow in Vancouver, whereas I have seen Red-naped Sapsucker, so I opt to stay at Iona. No Brewer’s.

Thursday, September 17: Today is a day off work on account of the presence of rare birds. I feel that arriving at the sapsucker property early in the morning is an imposition on the homeowner, so I return to Iona for a second unsuccessful attempt at the Brewer’s Sparrow. We arrive in North Van at mid-day, learn the sapsucker was present earlier in the morning, and wait for 4 hours for its reappearance, which never happens. We leave the property with a new qualifier added to the competition, which is now officially a “No Backyard Birds Big Year”.

Friday, September 18: Half an hour after I finish my pre-work routine (a lap around Queen Elizabeth Park) and arrive at the office, a Red-naped Sapsucker is found at the park. Ouch! Despite receiving news of this bird very promptly, I am unable to find time to twitch it during working hours. I search for two hours after work with MEHA’s help but we are unable to relocate it.  

Saturday, September 19: I spend three hours in the non-stop rain at QE this morning. It seems as if the inclement weather kept many of the migrants present yesterday from leaving; about the same number of thrushes feast on berries by the duck pond, and a mixed flock of similar composition to the day before is moving along the slope of the quarry gardens. But alas, I do not find my sapsucker.  

Monday, September 21: To my disbelief I receive notice of another Red-naped Sapsucker, this one reported from Burnaby Mountain. Curses! For I am at the office without Beatrice (my car) to get me there. Fortunately, I have a very loyal big year support network, and MEHA comes to my rescue, picking me up from work and driving me to Burnaby Mountain with less than an hour of light remaining to find this ‘sucker. As I stick my head in to the foliage of the very first birch tree I find myself looking at the object of my despair. Final score: RNSA 3 vs ILPO 1. Only in the birding world does this translate to a winning score.   

#247. Red-naped Sapsucker. 21 Sep 2015. Burnaby Mountain. Photo: Melissa H.

  

Strait of Georgia Pelagic

No big year is complete without a pelagic trip, even if there aren't any pelagic waters in the checklist area. Sporadic reports of Long-tailed Jaegers and Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels from ferry crossings between the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island offer tantalizing possibilities of what lies beyond reach of a scope on land. And so, to explore those possibilities, a group of us decided to take a boat ride through the Strait of Georgia on September 6.

My primary target was Heermann’s Gull, which I had already seen at Point Roberts, WA, but the objective was now to get one in Canadian waters. Wandering Tattler was target number two, since we are gradually passing their period of peak occurrence and there still have been no sightings in the Vancouver checklist area! But, lastly, Parasitic Jaeger was the only target I truly expected.

Our trip took us from Point Grey to Point Roberts, through waters three fathoms deep and alongside inaccessible breakwaters known only to the hardiest seafarers. It also offered a very different perspective on Vancouver birding, offering novelty in an otherwise thoroughly birded landscape.

Figure 1: Strait of Georgia pelagic route.

Our first stop along the tip of the Iona north jetty produced 11 Surfbirds, 4 Black Turnstones and 60 Sanderling. Offshore from Sturgeon Bank we observed our first Parasitic Jaeger, giving chase to a feeding flock of Common Terns.

#244 - Parasitic Jaeger - 6 Sep 2015 - Strait of Georgia.

At the end of the Sand Heads jetty, which sticks out some 6 km to the west of Steveston, sat my primary target: Heermann's Gull. We observed a second Heermann's Gull closer to the base of the Sand Heads jetty with a gull and tern roost on a sandbar (which contained some 90 Caspian Terns). We estimated 3,000 Western Sandpipers roosting along the outer two thirds of the jetty, and 200 Black-bellied Plovers closer to the base, which also had 2 Red Knots mixed in. I can only imagine all the rare birds that have sat on these rocks over the years! 

#245 - Heermann's Gull - 6 Sep 2015 - Sand Heads Jetty,  Strait of Georgia.

We observed a second Parasitic Jaeger offshore from Roberts Bank, which displaced a group of Common Terns roosting on a floating log. The highly anticipated loop around the 'backside' of the Tsawwassen ferry jetty breakwater was tattlerless, but afforded close views of 60 Brandt's Cormorants. A third Parasitic Jaeger was observed just south of the Iona south jetty on our return trip and close views were had of Common Terns roosting on a floating tern mattress.   

Parasitic Jaeger - 6 Sep 2015 - Strait of Georgia.

Common Tern - 6 Sep 2015 - Floating Tern Mattress, Strait of Georgia.

Many thanks to Melissa for organizing the trip and skipper John for piloting!

Count update: 245 on Sep 6. 

The Hunt for Ruddy

As we approached the mid-way point of August, one of my easier remaining target birds was Ruddy Turnstone. A couple adults had been seen in Boundary Bay while I was out of town in late July, and the juveniles were due to arrive any day. This year they made me work for them. The following are excerpts from my Birder's Diary. 

Friday, August 14: I headed for Boundary Bay during the passage of a low pressure system, hopeful that it would bring the next batch of shorebirds. There I found KELO, and we took turns using each other as a wind shelter while staring teary-eyed through our scopes. Final Ruddy count: 0.

Saturday, August 15: Two juvenile Ruddy Turnstones are found by KELO at Boundary Bay. Meanwhile I'm in West Vancouver, celebrating a successful tattler hunt that unknowingly took me out of checklist bounds.

Sunday, August 16: I'm back at Boundary Bay where the shorebird showing is poor.

Monday, August 17: My third attempt for Ruddys yields the exact same number. But I found a consolation prize better than my primary target: a Buff-breasted Sandpiper (#239). Views were distant but good, but no photos were obtained because the tide shuffled the birds as I approached closer and the Buff was not to be seen again. 

Tuesday, August 18: Together with a foolish cohort in pursuit of the same goal, I staked out a private hummingbird feeder where a Calliope Hummingbird had been photographed. It turns out we are two days too late. As I try to drown my woes in a bowl of pasta, text messages start coming in about Ruddy Turnstones showing well at Boundary Bay. A mad dash from Coquitlam to Boundary Bay gets me there right at sunset (made possible only by MEHA's twitching-mode driving). In the failing light I desperately plead to borrow a dejected shore-birder's scope, then proceed to falsely exclaim "Buff-breasted Sandpiper!", and miss Ruddy Turnstone for the fourth time in five days. These were a productive 15 minutes. 

Wednesday, August 19: I head back to Boundary Bay with a case of twitch-dip blues and a hurt pride. My Ruddy record diminishes further to 0/5, but I find a redemption bird: three Hudsonian Godwits feeding with a plover flock. They were observed simultaneously by MITA from further west, and then they buggered off, not to be relocated again on the rising tide. If I hadn't seen one earlier in August, this would have been another huge score.

Saturday, August 22: A successful connect with a Great Egret (#240) in Tsawassen encourages another attempt for Ruddy. But another evening high tide is shaping up like another Ruddy dip. I stand at the foot of 96th St. with MAWY, as two motorized paragliders make low flights over the mudflats spooking all shorebirds. As their activity subsides, I spot a turnstone a long way out and a long way west. While MAWY stays on the bird, I race further west and lock on to it for closer views: white throat, dark necklace and orange legs clinch the ID as a Ruddy (#241). I snap a record shot and MAWY comes over for a closer look, thereby satisfying MITO's earlier request to have all my birds verified in light of the Buff incident. At last, I'm 1/6. Victory! 

#240. Great Egret. 22 August 2015. Tsawassen, BC.

#241. Ruddy Turnstone. 20 August 2015. Boundary Bay, BC. Long-range, in-the-dark, shorebird photography; my specialty.

Count update: 241 + 1 on August 22.

Waterthrush

Northern Waterthrush is an uncommon fall migrant through our area, with their passage peaking in the second half of August (I. Povalyaev 2015, anecdotal data).  In anticipation of their arrival I had already started checking places like Reifel where I have previously seen them just as the reports started coming in according to schedule. I took my birding kit (bins, scope, camera, census shoes) to work on Monday with the intention of going to Stanley Park that evening to look for a NOWA reported there the previous day. Instead, I got word of another report from Hastings Park that morning. This is just up the street from my office, so, by the end of my lunch break I had waterthrush on my year list. 

#238 - Northern Waterthrush - 17 Aug 2015 - Hastings Park, Vancouver.

The Tattler That Didn't Count

Following the report of a whack of good birds (Wandering Tattler, Heerman's Gull, Ancient Murrelet) from Howe Sound on Aug 3 a group of us decided to take a zodiac out on Aug 15 to see if we might have any such luck. Most of these birds were reported from Pam Rocks, a stack of rocks in the middle of Howe Sound, just south of Christie Islet, which itself is south of Anvil Island. To the best of my knowledge, the western Boundary of the Vancouver checklist area winds down the middle of Howe Sound, halfway between the mainland and Gambier Island, then wraps around Bowen Island and out in to the Straight of Georgia. Pam Rocks is pretty much in the middle of Howe Sound, so whether it falls in or out was a bit of mystery.

Pam Rocks is the barely visible speck above the red arrow.

Success was had at Pam Rocks when we spotted the crevice dwelling Wandering Tattler. I collected a GPS waypoint knowing that I would later need to sort out which jurisdiction it belonged to and we carried on to Christie Islet. Not having anything more to go by than a rather vague written description of the western boundary, I decided to defer to eBird and let it tell me which "county" the place mark fell in. Queue drum roll…. Sunshine Coast. D'oh! But a fun day on the water regardless, with good company and some interesting bird and marine life.

#238. Wandering Tattler. 15 Aug 2015. Pam Rocks, Howe Sound.

Carrying on to Christie Islet (left of JEKE's head), with Anvil Island in the background.

On the way back we checked out the mysterious back side of the Grebe Islets, where we enjoyed close up views of 90 Surfbirds.

Adult Surfbird in pre-basic moult. 15 Aug 2015. Grebe Islets, West Vancouver. 

Juvenile Sufbird. 15 Aug 2015. Grebe Islets, West Vancouver.

Count update: 237 + 1 on 15 Aug 2015.

Guttifer's Nested Checklist Theorem

Guttifer's Nested Checklist Theorem, named after pioneer lister Tringa Guttifer (read about T. Guttifer here), states that the total of one checklist area cannot exceed the total of a second checklist area, if the first checklist area fits within that second checklist area. 

Birders unfamiliar with this theorem are likely still aware of its principle. For example, Vancouver Island is part of BC and thus an individual's Vancouver Island life list cannot exceed their BC list, since any bird observed there would, by default, also represent a BC bird. BC is nested within Canada, and so it goes on.

However, the official Vancouver checklist area is an international one, and blatantly contradicts Guttifer's Nested Checklist Theorem, through the inclusion of Pt. Roberts, WA. Due to this outrageous discrepancy with one of listing's founding principles, many local birders are opposed to including anything seen at Pt. Roberts on their Vancouver list. Many players now choose to go by the new eBird Metro Vancouver County checklist area, which for all purposes is identical to the official Vancouver checklist area with the exception that it excludes Pt. Roberts. 

So where does this leave me? Pt. Roberts is a fantastic birding area offering some of the best and most easily accessible sea watching around Vancouver. I often wish it was part of BC, but then suddenly realize how quickly it would get developed, and immediately become thankful that it isn't. It would be a shame to disregard such a birding hotspot, but in order to compare apples to apples, a distinction needs to be made between birds seen only in Pt. Roberts. As such, my list will be reported as 2XX + Y, where Y represents Pt. Roberts additions. 

There are two species that are most easily seen within the Metro Vancouver checklist area at Pt. Roberts: Heerman's Gull and Ancient Murrelet. The time to see Heerman's Gulls locally is now, and in between high tides on August 3rd I visited Pt. Roberts to get my "security" Heerman's Gull.

#231 + 1. Heerman's Gull. 3 Aug 2015. Lighthouse Park, Pt. Roberts, WA.

I now plan to make a subsequent effort to see a Heerman's Gull in the Vancouver checklist area north of the border because, if for no other reason, 2XX + Y is such an ugly format for a list total.

Count update: 236 + 1 as of August 6, 2015.