A Great Farewell

I knew that yesterday would be my last birding day in Vancouver, so Daniel and I set out at dawn to see what we could see. It turned out to be a great day, with excellent looks at six owls of three species: Barn, Great Horned, and Barred, plus a few migrants here and there.

But nothing could match the first notable bird of the day.

On a tip from David, we headed straight to Burnaby Mountain. Within a couple of minutes of leaving the parking lot, we heard it: the almost inaudibly low-pitched hooting of a male Sooty Grouse. Walking along the clifftop, we knew that we were not only close to the bird–close enough to tell when it moved its head–but perhaps even at something like the same elevation; but long minutes passed as we stared into the dark tree tops.

Just as we were about to resign ourselves to yet another purely aural encounter, a rush of wings announced the arrival of the bird on a bare broken branch just yards away. It looked around a couple of times, then started to boom–five, sometimes six deep, owl-like hoots, softer and louder as the bird directed its voice towards us, then away.

It was obviously a matter of great exertion to make such a sound. The bird leaned slightly forward, puffed out its belly, then its breast, and the tail vibrated with each emanation. The combs were visible, but the neck sacs remained almost entirely covered by feathers the entire time.

After nearly half an hour of watching, I muttered something about not even wishing for a better look. The grouse took my speaking as its cue to fly towards and between us, landing on the green lawn and strolling a couple of feet into–get this–a bed of daffodils, where it plucked at the flowers for a few seconds before something, probably an introduced eastern gray squirrel, flushed it; it flew back across the fence and down the cliff, landing somewhere out of sight.

This was the first Sooty Grouse I’d ever actually seen, and to watch it boom and perch and fly and feed was almost overwhelming–and a wonderful way to say goodbye to Vancouver.