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| 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!
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| 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
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