A Brit abroad

It's a long way to dip a rarey...

Life here is never dull. Marcel and I had been thinking about a trip to the Pacific northwest for the mouthwatering array of rarities that have showed up this winter (McKay's Bunting in BC, Falcated Duck in Oregon, Baikal Teal and Redwing in Washington). After hearing of Alison's 100% success rate on the previous weekend, Marcel finally snapped and a 2000-mile weekend road trip (central California to Vancouver!) was hastily arranged. At the last minute we were joined by Joan Humphrey and Lisa Hug, and with high hopes the four of us started the long trip north.

The trip list started well with a roadside Burrowing Owl and thousands of Snow, Ross's and White-fronted Geese in the Central Valley. The weather in the mountains was gorgeous - much warmer and sunnier than Davis! A couple of rest stops here yielded a calling Evening Grosbeak, Mountain Chickadee and Steller's Jay. After a great dinner in Portland, we made it in very reasonable time to Olympia, ready to look for Redwing the following dawn. The signs weren't looking too good when we met someone who had spent all day Friday looking for the bird without success. We spent a good 90 minutes looking, in which time we saw several Pine Siskin flocks, 2 Peregrines, Black-capped and Chestnut-backed Chickadees, Winter Wren and Golden-crowned Kinglet - but no Redwing.

Undeterred we carried on to Kent Ponds to look for the Baikal Teal, only to hear that there had been no sightings the previous day (it had been seen daily for weeks prior to that). Given that the bird was a lifer for all of us, we spent the rest of the day looking. Again, a no-show, but there was plenty to keep us ticking along, including a Bald Eagle catching and eating a Muskrat, a Eurasian Wigeon, an obliging River Otter and this immature swan. We tentatively identified this bird as a young Trumpeter Swan, based on bill shape and length and plumage (Tundras are supposed to moult earlier than this).

In the rare breaks between the rain, the local race of Song Sparrow would occasionally perch out in the open to dry off.

As the light (and our hopes) faded, this Peregrine proceeded to kill and eat a Starling.

Another long drive north and we ended up spending the night in Richmond, BC. On checking the internet, Marcel made the horrible discovery that our third target bird, McKay's Bunting, had also gone AWOL in the last 48 hours. Given that the Falcated Duck was still showing in Oregon, we made the tough decision not to try for the McKay's and to spend the first hours of Sunday birding in Boundary Bay. A good decision, it turns out, as the bunting has not been reported since!

The day got off to an excellent start, with more Bald Eagles than I've ever seen in my life. The birds seemed to be literally on every telegraph pole - Joan counted 75 of them in one sweep!

However, the highlight of the year so far has to be Snowy Owls - we saw 4 of these charismatic birds, including this co-operative individual, at point blank range.

Seeing these birds framed by the sea and the snow-capped Olympic Peninsula was something I won't forget for a while - a far cry from the pathetic oiled bird I saw in a the Port of Felixstowe many moons ago. Other good birds here included an incredibly dense swarm of Dunlin along the shoreline, and a smart juvenile Tundra Peregrine. The whole experience was marred only slightly by dipping my umpteenth Gyr Falcon - I'm beginning to think these birds don't exist!

Given the constraints of daylight, we promptly headed south towards Oregon, pausing only for a mixed swan flock near Skagit (Trumpeters above, Tundras below).

At first I assumed that the displaying birds were all Trumpeters, but this photo reveals 2 Tundras on the left displying to 2 Trumpeters on the right!

We then headed at full speed for Oregon, and pulled up at the RV park Falcated Duck pond with half an hour of daylight left. In keeping with the rest of the trip, we were saddened, but not entirely surprised, to hear that the duck had disappeared overnight and had not been seen since... even a very obliging Eurasian Wigeon and Hooded Merganser couldn't lift our spirits!

So, we travelled 2000 miles over 3 days to miss all four of our target birds, which all disappeared in the 48 hours before the trip, having been present for at least a month previously. Surely this must be a candidate for the biggest dip ever! Nonetheless, as we moped in a 50's diner listening to such classics as 'It's over' and 'Just my imagination', I had to concede that any weekend spent watching Snowy Owls and Bald Eagle flocks in the company of three great birders can't be that bad....

Posted by rjhall at January 24, 2005 10:26 PM