Gone, Back, Gone and Back

Where did June and part of July go? Let's see if I can summarize it by saying that we went on a 10 day birding / car camping trip in BC's Okanagan at the beginning of June, did a bunch of Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) volunteering with the Rocky Point Bird Observatory the rest of the month then headed out on an 8 day kayaking / birding adventure out of Port Hardy to the God's Pocket Marine Provincial Park area. It's been a busy 45 days or so and looking at our calendar it's about the same through until the end of October!

At the end of May we were sitting on a total of 149 species observed for 2019 with a goal of reaching 200 by the end of the year. Our Okanagan trip added 39 species to that count of which 31 were lifers for us, and although we thought that we might reach 200 on that trip we missed a number of species simply because we drove just over 1000 km to get a sample of the birding opportunities in the interior of BC. Still we came home with some amazing finds, saw some great scenery and of course drank a bunch of Okanagan wine along the way!

Calliope Hummingbird

Lazuli Bunting

Western Bluebird

Back home for a few weeks, we volunteered for a bunch of MAPS shifts in hopes of getting some experience extracting passerines in preparation for the upcoming Migration Monitoring which starts near the end of July. The RPBO banders and seasoned extractors took us under their wing (sorry for the pun) and we both were able to successfully extract a number of species including Anna's and Rufous Hummingbirds. During this time our species count only increased by 1, the nemesis (at the time) Hairy Woodpecker.

 MAPS Bushtit extraction

July rapidly approached which meant it was time to pack up our sea kayaks, binoculars, camera gear and field guides and head to Port Hardy which would be our launch point. Over the 8 days and almost 100 miles of paddling, we discovered where many of our southern Vancouver Island winter birds migrate to as every day we were serenaded by Varied Thrushes, Hermit Thrushes, Fox Sparrows and Pacific Wrens just to name a few. Bald Eagles weren't counted as individuals but rather by the 10's especially when they were feeding on the tide lines with hundreds of Rhinoceros Auklets, several Humpback Whales and Sea Otters!

Juvenile Fox Sparrow

Pacific Wren

One of the many highlights that we experienced was having a lifer walk right into our camp at Nolan Point (Balaklava Island). A female Sooty Grouse and her 3 fledglings casually fed on clover around our feet as we continued about our camp activities.  

Sooty Grouse

Fledgling Sooty Grouse

We're back home for the next month and a half and now the real fun starts!! The southbound migration has started and with that we have volunteered for a number of passerine morning shifts and evening Northern Saw-whet Owl evening shifts with Rocky Point Bird Observatory through to the end of October. Then we'll rest!!!

Hatch Year American Goldfinch (our backyard) 

So, here's where we're at with our 2019 goal of observing or hearing 200 species for the year. 


2019 eBird Stats (as of July 15th.)

192 species, 61 lifers


Total lifers to date: 209