Plans for the trip to Mount Cain changed several times over the week, but the final roster of participants was Randy Dzenkiw and me in the Honda Fit heading to the mountain on Friday, and Daniel and Sofia Donnecke with Sandy Briggs coming on Saturday after a side trip to a mountaineers’ event near Gold River on Friday.
We didn’t have to rush, but since we didn’t really get out of Victoria until about noon, we headed on a more or less direct route. There was time, however, to stop at Dawson Road in Parksville to see if we could find the Lazuli Buntings. Much to our surprise, we found not two, but four of them! It seems like only yesterday they were first seen, but they were feeding at least two young in the bushes where the adults had been regularly seen.
On Sunday evening on our way home, we stopped by again and saw the female. We have confirmed breeding. The references say this is a species that can double or even triple nest during a season. Will there be a repeat? mid-island folks, keep looking!
We arrived at Mt. Cain about 7 1/2 hours after we left Victoria, or about 2 1/2 hours longer than Google thought it would take. A problem with GPS and Google maps is that they don’t take into consideration the human factors: traffic lights, grocery shopping, Tim Hortons, bio-breaks and birding! Although the sun was getting low, it would remain light until after 10 pm.
We were hearing some strange noises coming from the area of the ski cabins. Gunshots? Bears shredding things? Wind blowing sheet metal around? Every ten minutes or so, something we couldn’t quite get a handle around. The Mount Cain Alpine Park Society is a non-profit, volunteer group that has put this amazing site together. We contacted them to get permission to camp to give us more time to actually climb the mountain. At the moment, the park facilities are only active in the winter, although there are a number of privately owned ski cottages on site.
Eventually, it all became clear. Walking up the road were about half a dozen guys. It was kind of weird seeing a group of people walking up there. You expect vehicles but not pedestrians! Turns out there was a bachelor party weekend at one of the cabins. We still don’t know what the noise was, but we chatted with the guys several times over the weekend. The party was to celebrate the upcoming Salt Spring Island wedding of Rob Buckler and Jean Burrows. The guys said that they were also planning on climbing the mountain, but I think they thought better of it in the morning and they went swimming instead!
We set up camp as the wind started howling. Rocks were needed in tents to keep them in place while we tied things down. It was a full moon, so flashlights were totally unnecessary. It wasn’t a particularly restful sleep, though, as the tents barely resisted getting airborne. An unexpected bonus was that the ski hill washrooms were open!
The next morning, Randy and I made our way up the lower T-Bar slope, crossing over to a ski run to get to the ridge trail. Here is the official map:
There was an awful lot of up, interspersed with boonycrashing. Although the experts had suggested it would take about 90 minutes to get to the top of the upper T-Bar, I figured it would take me about double that, going at birders’ speed and my own comfort level.
We had arbitrarily set a goal of 20 species for the mountain, with White-tailed Ptarmigan at the top of the list.
The trail wasn’t exactly easy going, either up that first slope or along the ridge. We took a lower trail when given an option and came to the bottom of the upper T-Bar. Man, that one is really steep! I guess that makes sense since it is in the middle of the black diamond runs. A little along the lower trail, we had been hearing a Sooty Grouse hooting. We went looking and found it!
Now if ptarmigans would just be as cooperative!
Backtracking to the ridge trail, we continued our upward trek. Our path took us along the ridge between the west and east bowls. Apparently, they can be fun to ski, but they didn’t look like great places to hike.
Along the ridge, just below the top end of the upper T-Bar, I caught the movement of a ptarmigan-sized bird out of the corner of my eye. The colour wasn’t right–more gray than brown or white. We scoured the area and couldn’t refind it. We carried on.
While sitting on the edge of the east bowl, scanning for any signs of movement or whiteness of male ptarmigans, we made radio contact with Daniel. His group had arrived and were making their way up–the steep way up.
It only took Daniel, Sofia and Sandy an hour to climb to the point that had taken us three. They were both much more fit and determined. With five sets of eyes, we were set!
The trio had been at a gathering of mountaineers the night before and had the scoop on ptarmigan. Just a little farther along the ridge (and by farther, I mean both along and of course, up!), there is a famous spot where skiers fire off golf balls after a day of skiing. They’d been told that this was a sure-fire place for ptarmigan. 10/10 times. At that point, Randy and I had been unable to find even any evidence of ptarmigan droppings, so we were game.
From this higher elevation, you could see Mt. Waddington, the namesake of the regional district, on the mainland far away.
Now I don’t mind endurance efforts, as long as I can go at my own pace, but I don’t like steep vertical climbs. When we got to the “Golf Club”, I put my foot down. Both feet. I wasn’t going up there unless they saw some sign of a ptarmigan! If they did, they’d see just how fast I actually can do a vertical ascent.
I took a kinder, gentler slope just across from the Club and scouted from there. We had great views of the bowls, and at one point when Daniel climbed down into the trees, he was certain he heard one, but we couldn’t get a look or repeat vocalization. We played calls, which apparently work like a charm, but nothing, nothing, nothing. We waited and watched for a couple of hours, but still nothing. Daniel and Randy climbed a little way down into the bowl to try to find what Daniel had heard. Finally a chance to get some concept of the scale. You’ll need to enlarge this one to see both Daniel and Randy sitting down in the middle of the picture.
Eventually it was time to head back down. Taking a different route down, we were just below the upper T-Bar station when a gray bird flew in front of us. Gray Jays were around, so that seemed the logical culprit, but a closer look turned up a crow-sized bird. Clark’s Nutcracker!
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The bird was skittish, and even voices seemed to move it around. We got some evidence shots and then it was gone. This was most likely the bird that had caught my attention earlier, which meant that it had been sticking around the same area for several hours. I wonder if there is any possibility of breeding going on there. If you are up on Mt. Cain, keep an eye out!
This was an even “better’ bird than a ptarmigan. While there are definitely ptarmigan on the island (mostly out of my range), nutcracker sightings are flukes. I was happy to take this bird as number 231 for my big year list.
The trip down the mountain was actually more treacherous than the trip up. A good chunk of it was on a poor condition, steep service road where the gravel slipped under foot frequently. As much as I complain about “up”, I was more concerned about hurting myself on this section than any other of the trip.
The mountain wasn’t especially birdy, although crossbills were there in good numbers. The butterflies and plants put on an excellent show, though. Here are a few shots I managed while waiting for ptarmigan. Sorry that I don’t have identification for many of them. If I waited until I had that, this post would never get written.
The next day, we started off with some great birds in the parking lot. Both Pine and Evening Grosbeak showed up, and a family of Gray Jays entertained us greatly. One even went into my car and perched on the steering wheel, but I missed that.
We also puzzled over the smoke hanging over the mountain top. Did it come from the mainland? Was there a fire just over the ridge? How would we know? Ultimately, we decided if we started seeing water bombers, we would beat a hasty retreat, but none showed up
Daniel, Sandy and Sofia went back up to make good on their plan to reach the summit of the mountain. Randy and I were more sane, so took a meandering route down the mountain. The clear views from Friday night were replaced with a growing haze, probably from the Port Hardy fire.
It was much worse on southern Vancouver Island.
More birds, flowers and butterflies from the descent:
By the time we reached the highway, we had 37 species, almost doubling our original target. No ptarmigan, but a Clark’s Nutcracker was such a good find, only my legs are disappointed. I guess they’ll have to go on another ptarmigan quest.
A quick stop at Hoomak Lake added Steller’s Jay, Warbling Vireo and Hammond’s Flycatcher to the list for 40 species for the Mt. Waddington area.
Daniel and crew caught up to us in Parksville where we waited with the female Lazuli Bunting. As is often the case, it flew off just a couple of minutes before they arrived, but Common Nighthawks overhead lessened the blow.
All in all, a great weekend adventure, with a wonderful prize and some special moments with young buntings and jays.
Randy suggested that it’s time for me to ask for opinions on what my next species will be. Any takers? I’ll try to come up with a prize for the first correct guess–before I actually get the bird.
Also, one other thing I am doing this year, even though I know that birds could show up here while I’m gone, is the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival from Nov. 4-8. If you are interested in going, check it out. It’s an awesome festival with lots of trips with less stress options, and I’m pulling a loose group together for it. Several birders from Victoria are already registered and some of the trips fill up quite quickly. Let me know if you plan to go. I can get some group “perks” for us. 🙂