Category: Canada

Wow. I’d thought that a maritime climate meant that we wouldn’t have to worry about precipitation of the white flavor, but I was wrong.

The north shore mountains were white when I stepped outside, and they stayed that way all day. Fortunately, the dusting on roofs and lawns here in town vanished pretty quickly, and my doughty Long Weekend crew had a great morning on Sea and Iona Islands.

Here we are standing on the Iona causeway, admiring the same flock of 3,100 Dunlin that caught the eye of an adult Peregrine Falcon. As we watched, he (a small bird) dropped out of nowhere onto a hapless Dunlin, which he carried across the little cove to eat from a conspicuous perch. That’s one falcon that’s got it made for the winter, I’d say!

The sturdy Snow Geese grubbing in the marsh at low tide had nothing to fear from that bird, of course, though I noticed that they deigned to raise their heads and move a bit into the vegetation whenever one of the local wintering Bald Eagles got up and around. Not even the eagles seemed to trouble the Trumpeter Swans, though, grumbling contentedly to themselves a bit offshore.

This species is clearly arriving in the Fraser Valley: we saw small flocks at every one of our stops, and the last was trailed by three Tundra Swans, a nice surprise and an uncommonish bird here on the coast.

Passerine birding was a little bit harder this morning in the cold and the breeze–and it wasn’t made any easier by the presence of two dashing Northern Shrikes on the island.

This one, perched above the outer ponds at Iona Beach, had his eye on the Golden-crowned and Song Sparrows, but I bet he wouldn’t have turned up that hooked beak of his had one of the four late Barn Swallows we found happened to come within easy reach.

Our timing once again proved excellent. Just as we started to get a little tired, a little cold, and a lot hungry, the skies open and we got the first real rain of the day. So it was into the cars and back to Kitsilano for a warming lunch and a review of our list, which after two mornings is now approaching 80 species.

Tomorrow: Vanier and Jericho Parks. I checked Vanier after dropping the group off at their hotel–a nice selection of ducks on the little pond, including the winter resident Eurasian Wigeon, and a couple of thousand Surf Scoters on the waters of the bay.

It’s going to be another good day. Cold, but good.

I’ve never had any trouble identifying female Eurasian Wigeon.

That should be the sort of prideful proclamation that precedes a tumble, but in fact, it’s a shame-faced confession. Put another way, I’ve never managed to find a female wigeon that I thought problematic.

And that, sadly, has nothing to do with skill or experience; it bespeaks rather a willingness to simply overlook any wigeon that doesn’t stick out conspicuously as one species or the other. I suspect that I’m not alone in this: even where Eurasian is relatively frequent among the flocks of Americans, as it is here in even the most urban parts of Vancouver, it’s just so much easier to look for a dark-headed female (or a drake!), ignoring the more subtle birds. And there must be more subtle birds.

If you’re interested in joining me in my resolve to start paying attention to female wigeon, have a look at a fine article by Jessie Barry and Cameron Cox; I’m not convinced that every character proposed there holds up for every bird, but they provide an excellent checklist of features to look at when examining a potentially difficult bird.

There’s never a bad time to look closely at American Wigeon, but this time of year is especially rewarding, with Eurasian Wigeon a real possibility pretty much anywhere in North America. I didn’t find any today at Reifel Refuge, but I did run across this fine-looking “pied” male American.

Birds like this–where the ground color of the head is a nearly unmarked white or rich cream–are rarish, but they’re known throughout western North America. Surprisingly, there remains very little written about this variant. Who wants to take on the challenge and produce a little paper about “pied” wigeon?

How beautiful these past warm mornings have been here in Vancouver!

The birds have been enjoying the weather, too, and I walked through Jericho this morning to the accompaniment of all kinds of song, from Red-winged Blackbirds to Golden-crowned and Sooty Fox Sparrows.

The voice of the morning, though, belonged to the Pacific Wrens.

After weeks of relative silence, these little feathered blobs have started to sing and sing and sing, and the woods and the brambles once again sound alive.

To my surprise and relief, the Nature Vancouver group this morning neither drowned nor froze: the cold weather seems to have held off, and our three hours at Jericho Park were rain-free–even if dim and damp.

The big news of the morning was geese. Thirty-four Cackling Geese were on the beach when I arrived, and a couple lingered or returned, scofflaw dog owners notwithstanding, for us all to study at leisure later in the morning. Conveniently, the birds we saw best were mixed with Canada Geese, giving us great opportunities for close-up comparison.

A slightly shyer flock of 13 cacklers out on the grass included a striking leucistic individual.

Odd white patches are very common in Canada Geese, but this was the first time any of us had ever seen a Cackling Goose like this one.

There was more anserine fun in store. Bev picked half a dozen Snow Geese out of a Branta flock high overhead, an infrequent sight here in urban Vancouver. And two adult Greater White-fronted Geese flying circles over the duck pond were even “better” by local standards. It could be an exciting winter at Jericho.