A Brit abroad

2 Gyr weekend in Vancouver

The Easter break saw me jetting off to Vancouver to stay with Caz (former postdoc in Davis), Z, Hazel and Andrew in trendy Kitsilano. It appears that she knows me well - as soon as I arrived at the airport I was bundled into the car to look for the roosting Boreal and Saw-whet Owls at Reifel! Unfortunately, it appears both birds left the day before, but this was more than compensated for by magnificent views of my first ever Gyrfalcon.

Thousands of Snow Geese, many Bald Eagles and a Rough-legged Hawk added to the experience.

Next day, we walked around Stanley Park, where I spotted this gull on the Lost Lagoon - I assume it's 'just' a pale Thayer's, but it had me wondering about Kumlien's...

Also on the lagoon, the obliging scaup flock enabled me to get this comparison shot of Lesser and Greater Scaup - note the peakier crown of the Lesser and the all-over bulkier feel to the Greater.

There were large numbers of Barrow's Goldeneye offshore. In the latter picture (taken from north Vancouver), the birds had formed a tight, perfectly circular flock. Can anyone suggest why they might be doing this?

I spent the rest of the day being ridiculed for my poor Barred Owl impressions (the owls weren't impressed either given their lack of response), but got some good coniferous birds including many Red Crossbills (the first ones I've seen in North America), Varied Thrush and singing Winter Wren.

On Sunday we returned to Reifel for another unsuccessful attempt at Saw-whet, but I enjoyed the opportunity to get some close-up shots of the local race of Song Sparrow...

... and Great Blue Heron.

When the sun came out, this Spotted Towhee felt spring was in the air and sang his heart out!

At the end of the day we drove out to Boundary Bay. While we couldn't find January's Snowy Owls, we were lucky enough to have crippling views of another Gyrfalcon.

The bird took off, made an abortive attempt to catch a Mallard, and alighted on a distant telegraph pole, making an interesting size comparison with a Bald Eagle and (presumed) Northwestern Crow.

We also watched a Peregrine making repeated dives at a hapless Dunlin. Needless to say, the thousands of Dunlin present here objected to this, and gave us a stunning aerial display against the setting sun.

Before flying back to Davis, we had a brief stop at the Tsawwassen ferry terminal, where Black Turnstones and this summer-plumaged Common Loon were the highlights.

Some non-birding pictures:

Flying into Seattle provides great opportunities for aerial photography from the plane. Here's Mount Rainier poking up through the clouds:

Coming in to land in Seattle.

We celebrated my first Gyr with a meal in a Greek Restaurant in Ladner. Little did we know we'd be entertained by the amazing Aziz - a fire-eating male belly-dancer!

Friendly Raccoons in Stanley Park.

The Sea Otters in Vancouver Aquarium are very genteel, eating off of plates!

The Belugas were a big hit with little Hazel, especially the cuddly kind!

Lego Village People in the Science Museum.

Grounded

So much for sunny California.... has been raining here for over a week. Hence absolutely nothing to report on the birding front. In my boredom I resorted to looking at birds on the internet. It seems I wasn't alone in enjoying the great photographic opportunities afforded by this year's Great Gray Owl invasion - feast your eyes on these breathtaking pictures on golfpic's website. I also found out who first came up with the idea of digiscoping back in 1999 - the late Laurence Poh. I wonder if he realised just what he'd started...

Wild (and not so wild) county birds

This morning Joan and I followed up a sighting of Steller's Jay along Putah Creek Canyon. We turned up at the spot and were amazed to immediately see two birds, with a probable third bird calling behind us!

While driving out of the canyon we spotted this freshly-escaped Harris's Hawk by the roadside. In the second picture the bird is yelling at a flyover Red-tailed Hawk.

After stopping for a celebratory macaroon, we dashed up to the north of the county and very quickly relocated a Lewis's Woodpecker along County Road 4.

The jay and the woodpecker were both county birds for me - what will be next?

Sage Grouse spectacular

Still glowing from yesterday's success, we spent a leisurely Sunday birding northeast California. Klamath Lakes held a fine variety of waterfowl, including thousands upon thousands of Ross's Geese, displaying Western Grebes and a good number of Bald Eagles. This Great Horned Owl was roosting in the rock face near the Tule Lake visitor centre.

At the entrance to the tour loop we listened to Rock and Canyon Wren, and managed to locate a Harris's Sparrow amongst the Golden-crowns (only my second ever). The weather was remarkably hot - in fact, the whole place resembled the deserts of Arizona!

The rather quiet journey to Susanville yielded a single Clark's Nutcracker, Golden Eagle and occasional Black-billed Magpie. Next morning we left Susanville at 4:30am(!) to drive and hike to a nearby Sage Grouse lek. The outlandish display of the males is one of the strangest and most compelling sites I've seen in my time in the US.

Before heading home over the Sierra, we picked up a few quality birds in Susanville and nearby Janesville. This Dipper was apparently camera-shy...

... while this Collared Dove is a much bigger deal in this part of the world than you might think (and a US lifer for my two travelling companions).

We rounded off a delightful weekend's birding with a fine view of this Lewis's Woodpecker.

Falcated Duck for breakfast, Hawk Owl for dinner!

A series of fortunate coincidences allowed me to join Joan Humphrey and Lisa Hug on a weekend trip to Oregon and northeast California. Having dipped the 'undippable' Falcated Duck at Coburg back in January, we didn't fancy our chances of seeing the bird this late in the year. However, we were delighted to be proved wrong, and the bird gave spectacular views alongside American Wigeon and Aleutian Cackling Goose on its favourite pond.

Is the bird displaying in this picture?

After a gorgeous drive across the Cascades we arrived in Bend to seek out the wintering Hawk Owl. It was surprisingly warm here, and 3 hours of scanning the burnt juniper forest yielded no sighting. Fortunately, there were plenty of interesting birds in the neighbourhood to keep us occupied. A Townsend's Solitaire and a stunning male Mountain Bluebird came about as close as my scope would focus!

A large flock of Pinyon Jays circled the hill once in a while (only my second encounter of this elusive species).

This male Merlin was wreaking havoc amongst the local House Finch population.

After some fantastic Greek food we decided to try our luck with the Hawk Owl again at dusk. To the great relief of everyone present, the bird put on a wonderful display over the next hour, giving close-up perched and flight views.

This wraps up a wonderful winter for owls for me - if I could just find Saw-whet and Barred I'll have the full set of North American owls!

Canadian owls and the magic 500 - day 2

A brief check of Saturday's bird news online revealed that a Boreal Owl had been seen on the Leslie Street spit close to downtown Toronto. Having dipped a second bird in the Kingston area and a long-gone Hawk Owl in Welcome, we decided to try our luck with this bird. On walking out along the spit, I stopped to scope a flock of several hundred 'gulls', only to find that they were all Long-tailed Ducks!

We were fortunate enough to bump into a group of birders who had seen the Boreal Owl that morning. Such was my desperation to see this bird, I walked past 2 Great Gray Owls without stopping, and only briefly looked at my life American Tree Sparrow (ABA area bird no. 499)! A very long walk and several wrong turns later, I noticed a suspicious-looking trail of footprints away from the main path. I followed them up to a small conifer and found myself eyeball to eyeball with a gorgeous Boreal Owl! As with yesterday's Great Gray, I fired off a couple of full body shots before retreating to a respectable distance to digiscope. Here are the results.

I swear this bird is winking at me!

With the pressure well and truly off, we took a moment to enjoy the view of Toronto's skyline.

On the way back, we stopped to scan a small area of open water which was crammed full of ducks, including this smart drake Redhead,...

... a pair of Black Duck,...

... and this female White-winged Scoter chowing down a crab.

We couldn't resist finishing off the day with another Great Gray. This bird was presumably intent on a rodent rustling under the ice - the huge head is particularly apparent in this shot.

Here's the same bird digibinned...

... and digiscoped.

It's not often that birds leave me speechless, but Great Gray is a bird I'd dreamed seeing of all my life, and to get such outstanding views of a Boreal for my 500th ABA bird is more than I could possibly have expected. Not quite sure how I'm going to top this one...

Canadian owls and the magic 500 - day 1

An incredible invasion of northern owls is occurring into southern Canada and the northern US this winter. I had been toying with the idea of heading north for a while, especially after hearing about Marcel's trip to Minnesota for mind-boggling numbers of Great Gray Owls and his first Boreal Owl (his 700th lower 48 bird). I was finally spurred into action by a series of coincidences last Tuesday.

1. Both Great Gray and Boreal Owls were being regularly reported around Kingston, Ontario.

2. Andrew (who visited CA last week) is a postdoc in Kingston - I'd been meaning to visit him there for a while.

3. A quick internet search for flights to Toronto yielded flights leaving Friday afternoon and returning early Monday for a reasonable $350.

4. I got paid!

After a loooong journey on Friday Andrew picked me up in the rental car. Ecologically-minded as we are, we had booked a small, fuel-efficient Hyundai. However, it appears that all the small cars had been taken and we were given a free upgrade to this 8-seater monster! It was a veritable gas-guzzler, but probably saved us from a few hairy moments on snow-covered roads.

Saturday morning came, and Andrew, Laura and I headed out ridiculously early into -20C temperatures in search of Great Grays. One of the first birds we saw was this Ruffed Grouse feeding in the treetops.

Not too much later we came across 3 Great Gray Owls, all actively hunting. This magnificent bird looked stunning in the early morning light.

Note the frost on this bird's whiskers and facial disc!

After a celebratory breakfast courtesy of Laura, we decided totake the ferry to the Owl Woods on Amherst Island. To my surprise, most of Lake Ontario was frozen here (we even saw 2 Coyotes marching out over the ice).. The first birds noted at the Owl Woods were Black-capped Chickadees - these birds are used to being fed by humans and they didn't stop harrassing us for the rest of the day! No digiscoping was needed for this shot...

The bird feeders here were attracting much attention from this Hairy Woodpecker...

... along with single White-breated Nuthatch, Brown Thasher and Downy Woodpecker. We spent the next few hours searching unsuccessfully for Boreal Owl, but found an excellent consolation prize - while walking trails through the Jack Pines I looked up, and not 6 feet above me was this beauty.

I retreated to a respectable distance and got this in-your-face shot through the telescope.

A quick jaunt to the eastern tip of the island yielded my first ABA area Snow Buntings and a couple of Rough-legged Hawks. What a day!

Hummingbird diary

Gene Trapp and his wife Jo Ellen are fortunate enough to have an Anna's Hummingbird nest inches from their study window. For the best part of a month their life has revolved around taking notes, pictures and video of the young as they grew up. They very kindly allowed Joan and I into their home to share in this spectacle. Here is a short montage of photos taken over two eventful lunchtime visits.

Day 1: two very large nestlings looking like they've well and truly outgrown the nest.

Feeding time!

Day 2: They've fledged the nest!

While the larger fledgling headed straight for deep cover, the younger sibling sat out in the open, giving us great views.

Where's Mum?

Refuelling...

Time to stretch those wings....

... we have lift-off!

Just when we thought the show was over, Joan discovered that the industrious adult female was busy constructing a second nest!

Watch this space for more updates...

Early March miscellany

Last weekend was spent in lovely San Francisco, doing 25-mile bike rides (I swear 20 of those miles were steep uphill climbs) and eating lots. In a Berkeley cafe I bumped into Darcy, who was an undergraduate at the same college as me in the UK! I paid my respects to the Sealions at Fisherman's Wharf...

... and got wet feet chasing Willets through the surf at Ocean Beach.

This was one of many confiding American Wigeon in Golden Gate Park - note the reddish area behind the eye, often taken as a sign of hybrid origin when they turn up in Britain.

Back in Davis, Caz came to visit from Vancouver, so I took her to see the wintering Merlins.

Doing the rounds with Joan today produced no great surprises, but nice views of Prairie Falcon and Peregrine, plus this incubating Great Horned Owl (hopefully a good omen for this weekend's impending crazy trip...)