Backyard Update

Our new outdoor American Goldfinch thermometer 

Yup, there are birds in the backyard, just like there have been for the past couple of years since we started putting up feeders 😁, but only this year since we have taken our birding seriously have we noticed the difference from last year.

Let's start with House Sparrows. Not on the top ten list of backyard favourites and recently in the birding news there have been comments about "where have all the House Sparrows gone?" Last year our feeders were overrun with House Sparrows, so much so that many of the other species couldn't compete with their bullying. This year is the complete opposite with only a few mating pairs which have started to bring their fledglings to the yard. I love all birds but certainly don't miss the House Sparrows.

American Goldfinches continue to be the dominant species around the yard every day since last summer. Even as we arrive back on our street from a birding walk we can hear "the crew" at our home from several houses away. I have to think that our constant supply of sunflower seed chips over the cold winter must be one of the reasons why they're hanging around day after day. Certainly their wonderful bright yellow plumage is a welcome sight at all times of the day.

Lots of American Goldfinches and a Pine Siskin

To our surprise Pine Siskins have been visiting the feeders this past month. Not one or two but up to a couple dozen at a time! The thing I love about the Pine Siskins is that they don't take any crap from the other birds. Being one of the smallest songbirds, they simply don't back down from anything especially when they have established their territory at the feeders. Maybe they are one of the reasons why we don't have the House Sparrow numbers like last year? 

Pine Siskins ..... "This is our tray"

And we set up a water park for the backyard birds 😃

This is our third year of having well stocked hummingbird feeders and this year we have been rewarded for our efforts. It looks like our resident pair of Anna's Hummingbirds had a couple of little ones this past month as they have been visiting the feeders with their parents. The neat thing about the juveniles is that they are so playful chasing each other and they are very curious about us when we are on the deck. Several times I have been tapping away on my laptop only to have an Anna's hover next to my head almost like it is watching the screen. And, I almost forgot, this year a male and female Rufous Hummingbird come and go from time to time. Last year we only had a male visit the feeders for a couple of weeks, then it was gone.

Our female adult Anna's Hummingbird at one of our feeders.

We are now less than 36 hours away from our birding adventure into the interior of British Columbia. 10 days of extensive birding and visiting the Okanagan wineries are in the plans and with the summer equinox nearly upon us we will experience almost 18 hours of daylight each day. I won't be blogging while on the road but we'll put some of our new lifers and glasses of wine up on Facebook, right Robyn? 😉


It looks like we may have a chance to reach our 2019 goal of 200 species during our trip. Only 51 new lifers needed or a combination of some of our past species observed and new lifers. In any case the trip should be a lot of fun .... first eBird checklist on the Friday 6:00 am BC Ferry to the mainland while at the buffet!!



2019 eBird Stats (as of May 27th.)

149 species, 27 lifers

Total lifers to date: 177

Getting to Know Them

The birds are out there ...... billions of them but I'm just looking for a few or even one at times. It can't be that hard to see them right? Wrong!

As our birding experience grows we are now looking for many birds that may only be around for a few months, weeks or even days at this time of year and they are not going to be perched on a branch holding a sign that says "New Bird" to let us know. In fact a lot of the time the birds may not be visible due to the dense foliage of the habitat they are in but they are there if you listen very very closely. 

The funny thing about my previous statement is that up to about a year ago bird songs and calls were just white noise in the environment to us and we simply tuned it out. Well, maybe not all species such as gulls, eagles or crows that always seemed to get our attention. But the other unknown birds to us, their songs just didn't register on our vestibulocochlear nerves at all. Actually that's wrong too, because we were receiving the songs but it was our brains that hadn't received the necessary training to decipher the code of the sounds we were hearing. 

Think of it this way. If you are old enough to remember the late 60's Volkswagen Beetle you can identify it by sound well before you see it. Only when you did catch a glimpse of it did you determine what species it was (year, oval rear window, rag top etc.). The same goes for birding, if you hear it you can narrow it down to a particular number of species relatively quickly but only if your brain knows what to listen for. 

Thankfully, due to the advancement of technology, birders now have the internet, iPhone apps and other devices that allow them to research (brain training) in advance of the bird songs, calls and images of the species they are looking for. 

For example, my latest nemesis bird was the House Wren. They were being reported on eBird checklists all around our area but yet the last few weeks we never saw one sitting on a branch holding its "New Bird" sign. Sheesh, they must be rare if so hard to find! Nope, I just needed brain training!

So yesterday before heading out on a birding quest I spent less than 10 minutes researching the House Wren's song, calls and images and wouldn't you know it my brain actually learned something. Amidst the chatter of Dark-eyed Junco's I heard something that sounded very familiar, it was a wren, listen again, not a Bewick's, listen again, not a Marsh, listen again, I learned that earlier in the morning.... House Wren!! 
Gradually I was able to determine its location by sound and when my brain trained eyes saw it's field marks a "New Bird" lifer was ours! 

So, if you are looking for a new bird don't expect it to just show up with its "New Bird" sign. Bring the bird to you by learning it's songs and calls and studying images of it. It really works! 


We are just over a week away from our birding trip into British Columbia's Okanagan / Thompson regions. Our brain training is underway for the species being reported there on eBird so that we can take full advantage of the opportunity to see as many new lifers and many of the birds that we have seen on the south coast during the winter months. As of this morning there are 60 species reported via my eBird Needs alert for the Okanagan region alone that we have never seen before! 


2019 eBird Stats (as of May 20th.)

148 species, 26 lifers

Total lifers to date: 176 

Our Best Day Yet

Spring migration is an opportunity to rediscover birds seen the past few years or add new birds to our growing lifer list.

Our first sighting in Victoria, BC of Sandhill Cranes on May 5th.

The past couple of weekends we have been focused on Warblers but today we decided to look for shorebirds after researching a few hotspots around the capital region. One hotspot in particular has been Panama Flats which during the winter months floods and is a great source for water fowl sightings and as it starts to dry out in the spring, the Sandpipers start to arrive as well as a few rarities. In just over 3 hours we spotted 40 species and probably missed several more just because we had no idea what we were looking at (Rookies!) but still we identified 7 new lifers and added 11 species to our 2019, 200 species goal!

Yesterday a rare male Yellow-headed Blackbird and a Green Heron were seen several times during the day around the hotspot and as expected the birders and photographers arrived too. Robyn and I are early birds during the workweek and so we decided to be on site at 7:00 am and we were rewarded with sightings of a Whimbrel, several Long-billed Dowitchers and a Cinnamon Teal just as we started to walk the trail around the flats.

On a typical birding morning we usually observe for an hour or two before heading somewhere (Starbucks of course) for coffee but today the lifers kept coming into view. By the time we starting to get the growlies we had discovered the Solitary Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper, Long-billed Dowitcher, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Pectoral Sandpiper, Cinnamon Teal and Blue-winged Teal species. You can also see our photographs of these birds on our Lifer page. 

Just as we were leaving, fellow birder Mike McGrenere flagged us down to look at a rare Yellow-headed Blackbird that he had spotted. What was great about this sighting is that this wasn't the male that was seen yesterday, it was a female! 

Female Yellow-headed Blackbird

Tomorrow we are volunteering with the Rocky Point Bird Observatory at the World Migratory Bird Day festival taking place at Elk / Beaver Lake Regional Park. There will be banding demonstrations of passerines and hummingbirds as well as displays and birds walks throughout the park.

We are now only 3 weeks away from Robyn & Mark's Okanagan Birding Adventure and we are getting very excited researching many of the hotspots and wineries that we'll visiting. 10 days of nothing but birding and wine!! 

With just over 6 months left to reach our goal of 200 species observed for 2019 we now only have 58 species to identify and I can think of at least 20 of those that can easily be discovered within a couple hours of travel from home. But the question is how long will they stay here until they migrate further north or begin their southbound journey to the wintering grounds? 

Happy migration birding!!



2019 eBird Stats (as of May 10th.)

142 species, 26 lifers


Total lifers to date: 174