As mentioned before, we’re heading into several weeks of birding doldrums.  There are a few migrants, like Green Heron, Black Swift and Common Nighthawk for me to round up, and an adventure or two planned, but by and large we’re into a “went out birding, didn’t find anything new” stage.  It’s also that tricky time of year when things start to ramp up for Rocky Point Bird Observatory’s monitoring season.  Our Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship program started its twelfth year this week, and for that to happen, gear needs to get organized, net lanes need to be trimmed and stations set up.  There will be a lot more of this in coming weeks, too. (If you wish to follow RPBO activities, like our page on Facebook and follow our blog edited by Jannaca Chick.)

I’ve been grateful for the feedback I’ve received on my previous posts.  While I want to keep my “audience”, I don’t want to bore everyone with a lengthy description of repeat visits to the same places with the expected (non)-results.

To keep myself motivated, I have a couple of projects above and beyond just listing the species I’ve encountered.  I am trying to visit new places on the island and I’m trying to get some nice pictures for use in future slide presentations.  Today, I’m presenting some of my favourite destinations and photos from the last week.

I joined in with the VNHS Saturday Morning Birding Group for part of their trip up Observatory Hill. Lots of great birds, including a much more cooperative Western Wood-pewee, Olive-sided Flycatcher, and the object of their attention here, a beautiful Western Tanager.

 

We weren’t even into June when I took this, but the signs of the end of the breeding season for some species is already evident.  This male Yellow-rumped Warbler is showing signs of wear and will soon molt his pretty spring wardrobe.

Word posted on the BCVIBIRDS Yahoo group of a Yellow-headed Blackbird at Buttertubs Marsh sent me flying north.  I found out en route that the sighting had actually occurred five days earlier. Needless to say, I didn’t find the blackbird, but I did observe Purple Martins nesting in the bird boxes at Buttertubs, apparently a first for the spot.  And I got to have a first for me, a visit to Jack Point and the Duke Point Ferry Terminal. From there, you look back towards the Nanaimo River Estuary.  A very different perspective and a place that I will visit again.  Follow the signs to Biggs Park and Jack Point to get to the parking lot.

From the ferry terminal parking lot, you can look across to Gabriola Island where Pelagic Cormorants are nesting.  With a scope, you can even make out the nests.  As I left the area, I just meandered down random streets and came across a building with about 20 ravens on the roof.  I stopped to get a photo and discovered about 100 more up in the rafters of this open building.  As soon as I got out of my car, the alarm was sounded and they took off, but they returned just as quickly when I left the area.  I was surprised to see such a large roosting flock so early in the year, but by their voices, I know that some of these were recently fledged.

I visited the Mill Bay/Cobble Hill a few times this week, looking for new spots and new birds. I found some wetlands and ponds, but sadly no new species.  It is fun, though, to just take random roads to see what’s there, or bring up Google satellite view on my phone and look for an interesting location from a birds eye view.

Bamberton Provincial Park is probably an underbirded location just a short drive from Victoria.  When I visited it this week, a class of elementary school students were celebrating the end of the school year with a beach seine.

Baby birds were in evidence everywhere.  From crows to hummingbirds, robins, juncos, finches and many others were just out of the nest or being tended to by their parents.

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At the entrance to the dike is a rustic home shared by humans and a few photogenic animals.

Over the course of the week, I visited Swan Lake, Mt Tolmie, Clover Point, Maber Flats, Mt. Newton, Buttertubs Marsh, Observatory Hill, Sandown Raceway, Charlton Pond, Saanichton Spit, Elk/Beaver Lake Park and many other places.  We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful place.  It’s such a pleasure to be able to just get out and enjoy the environment. Sometimes the birds are just an excuse.