Typical spring / summer species are starting to arrive daily with the good weather and we have even been treated to a few surprising finds while out birding. Two weeks ago while birding on the Dominion Observatory Hill we spotted several species that we had previously seen in 2018 as well as a couple of new lifers which included several Red Crossbill's and a Hutton's Vireo. The highlight though had to be our second recorded encounter with a Northern Pygmy-Owl while it was feasting on a very fresh kill.
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That would be a rat that it's sitting on! |
Even our own yard has produced some interesting finds which Robyn spotted while working from home. On the same morning within less than 30 minutes she saw a leucistic American Robin in the front yard and a leucistic Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon) in the back yard.
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Leucistic American Robin |
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Leucistic Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon) |
Today we had a very special opportunity to visit a local birder's residence and hang out in his back yard in hopes of seeing a very rare Nashville Warbler that he has been coming to his yard daily since February 13th. As if right on schedule, less than 20 minutes into our stakeout on his back deck, the Nashville Warbler made its appearance at a Hummingbird feeder and it became our 162nd lifer!
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A rare Nashville Warbler |
A couple of nemesis birds for us so far have been the Stellar's Jay and the Brown Creeper. Both of these species we observed numerous times in 2018 but up to a few days ago the Stellar's Jay has been almost non-existent around Victoria, BC in 2019 and we just haven't been able to find a Brown Creeper. While on an outing a week ago we came across several Stellar's Jay's in several locations at the tip of the Saanich Peninsula and last weekend all of a sudden we couldn't miss a Brown Creeper even if we closed our eyes. It's amazing how birds just seem to show up when you aren't expecting them.
Speaking of nemesis birds. Gulls!!!! The past several weeks we have observed a number of gulls which I have photographed in attempt to correctly identify them. They are gulls sp. to us 😡 but there is still hope on the horizon that I'll report on next month.
Next weekend we are taking the Rocky Point Bird Observatory Introductory Bird Monitoring and Banding Workshop that is being held annually at Royal Roads University. This is something we have been looking forward to and there is a little bit of prerequisite homework that we need to do over the next week in order not to look any more like the birder rookies we already do. LOL
We are steadily making progress towards our goal of 200 species seen for the year. Here are our up to date stats.
2019 eBird Stats (March 15nd)
Mark - 112 species, 14 lifers
Robyn - 111 species, 13 lifers
Total lifers to date: 162
Time to put away the outdoor winter wear and start thinking about spring and summer birding ..... finally!!
