I don’t know how many of you tried to figure out what bird 232 might be, but I’m willing to wager that not one of you gave a thought to Crested Caracara.  Why should you?  None had ever been seen on Vancouver Island.  Until last Monday, that is.  I had just settled down to do some of the many things I’d promised others, including getting the rest of the banding gear and supplies ready for the RPBO season opening on Tuesday. That’s when Jeremy Kimm, who is one of the folks managing the BC Rare Bird Report in Russ Cannings’s absence forwarded a report, complete with photo(!) of an unmistakeable Crested Caracara seen in Nanaimo Monday morning.  This is the best bird seen on Vancouver Island this year, and the chase was on.

I took just enough time to fire off a couple of emails, including one to the finder, Graham Ford, to try to get more details, and then hopped in the car.  The responses had two hours to get to me before I’d be close to the sighting scene. En route, I called a few other people that I thought would want to know, and hoped that some of the mid-island birders might be able to join in the search.

By the time I got to Duncan and made my first stop to check messages (and tie my shoes—I’d left in such a hurry, I hadn’t even done that!), Graham had responded with an address and exact time he’d seen the bird.  It had been a few hours by then, opening up the possibility that the caracara might have travelled some distance.  Guy Monty was heading to Nanaimo from the north, so we split the territory.  I would check the Nanaimo airport and estuary, and Guy would check Nanoose and north Nanaimo, heading to the area where the bird had been seen.  I don’t know how people did this before cell phones!  Christopher Stevens also joined in the chase.  The three of us covered the area pretty well, including duplicating some of the higher potential areas such as Piper’s Lagoon.  The wind was a bit of an issue with a strong southeastern system possibly moving the bird away, but we were optimistic. After all, a caracara isn’t a small bird.  They have shown up in the Pacific Northwest in recent weeks in unprecedented numbers. Finally it was our turn!

We kept up the search until around 3 pm, but with no sign and no further reports, and other commitments looming large, we called it a day and headed home.  I took some of the backroads to cover agricultural areas, and found some perfect trees for this vulture-like falcon, but it had disappeared. It may be the bird of the year, but sadly, it’s not on my list.

 

Between Nanaimo and Ladysmith, I checked messages again and saw that Ralph Hocken was now reporting that he may have seen the caracara four days earlier.  It was a fly over, seen without binoculars, and such a far-fetched id, that he didn’t feel confident to report it. His sighting was at Neck Point Park, only about 1 km from where the photo was taken.  I swung around, vowing to look until dark.  Dave Baird joined in the search as soon as he got off work, and between us, we covered and recovered the territory near the two sightings—sadly to no avail.

Disappointed and tired, and knowing I had at least a couple of hours of work to do before my 3 am alarm would sound, I headed home. Then came the bombshell: someone had apparently seen the bird at noon at Piper’s Lagoon, but hadn’t reported it until late Monday. I was distraught.  Who was this “birder” who would relocate such an important bird and not call in the masses to share in the find? We’d been less than 10 minutes away from the lagoon at noon. There was a time in birding where seeing a rare bird that wasn’t seen by other birders held some cachet; these days, greater prestige is gained by sharing sightings.  Was this an “old-school” birder who was attempting to one-up the rest of the community?

I managed to squeeze in exactly one hour of sleep before I had to get up for the first shift at Pedder Bay. As soon as my duties were fulfilled, I headed north to try again for the bird. Now We really had to relocate the caracara.  Guy, Christopher, Dave and I were all in again.  Guy staked out the lagoon, and the rest of us tried other areas, including taking a trip up to a viewpoint which allowed us to see for miles all around the region. Surely a hawk-sized white bird would be possible to see. But it wasn’t. Eventually, we had to admit defeat, but not before the mystery surrounding the Monday noon sighting was solved.  It turns out that there was a miscommunication.  Ralph had contacted the local rare bird line with the information about his possible Thursday sighting. It was like the game of “telephone”.  By the time the report made it to the public, the sighting had occurred at the time of the call—which was not the case.  Still disappointed in not finding the bird, we were all greatly relieved to know the story behind the Piper’s Lagoon sighting and had our faith in the birding community restored.  Whew!

I had planned to take the van to Tofino on Wednesday, but having spent my two prep days chasing the caracara, I decided instead to finally fix my broken van plumbing (damaged on my Winter Harbour trip). I spent much of the day under the van, and I got it fixed (yay). I manage to fix a few other little things at the same time, and relocate the floor in my car. It’s been buried under even more of a mess than usual with chasing, season openings, and other odd jobs.

My early Thursday start to Tofino turned into a late Thursday start, and by the time I arrived, the Green Point campground was full (as expected.) There are private campgrounds, but the ones I checked online cost as much as $62 a night with a two night minimum.  That wasn’t going to happen.  I found a nice quiet place to park on Thursday night.  I’ll tell you the location if you might need to use it, but I don’t want to put it here in case steps might be taken to restrict it.

Friday morning, I did a bit of beach walking for shorebirds and gulls, got checked into the campground (only because the rain scared enough people off) and made arrangements to go out on a whale watching trip in the afternoon.

 

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I had been on one of the Jamie’s Whaling Station trips in May.  We’d missed puffins by a day. Time was running out for the best chance to see this species, so I inquired specifically about them.  They had been seen this week, but were only seen a few times a week—no guarantee.

When I boarded the vessel, I explained to the crew why I was looking for a Tufted Puffin. Tofino is one of the few places you don’t have to explain what a big year is—much of the movie “The Big Year” was filmed in Tofino, so they are well familiar with the term.  Captain Wayne Dolby chose a route that gave us the best chance to see puffins, and the crew, Michelle, Étienne and Rachel kept their eyes out for the birds. They even radioed the other whale watching boats to see if anyone had seen them recently. En route, three Red-necked Phalaropes flew in and landed near some floating kelp, answering the question about what bird would be 232. Would Tufted Puffin be 233?

Fortunately, the best route for puffins also gave everyone great looks at Sea Otters and stellar views of Steller’s Sea Lions, so no one was too put out by the bird search.  Despite the crew’s best efforts, Cleland Island once again failed to provide puffins.

 

The Gray Whales near Flores Island were much more cooperative, with a mom and calf, and two others putting on quite a show.

The crew of the Leviathan hadn’t give up on puffins though, and the route home took us out just a little farther.  We were just about half an hour from the dock when Captain Wayne spotted a Tufted Puffin on the water, and then another!  I not only got a look, I got a photo or two!

 

With that, bird 233, a tough Tufted Puffin was in the bag, thanks to the crew of the Leviathan going above and beyond!  We heard later that a few of the passengers had not been feeling too well, and while the puffin chase probably didn’t cause the seasickness, it probably did prolong the discomfort.  I’m truly sorry about that!

On landing, I found this interesting bird. I think it might be the first known occurrence of the Vancouver Island Antpitta!

Of course, that species is not yet recognized, so I can’t add it to my list. 😉  Molt does strange things to common birds!  This is actually a Song Sparrow in the midst of a molt.  It has managed to lose its tail as well, possibly to a predator. Pro-tip: the block of greater coverts in simultaneous molt identifies this bird as a hatch-year individual.  An adult bird would lose each covert in turn with the secondary feather that it covers.

There is more to tell, but time is short before the next alarm clock rings.  Species 234 was found on Saturday.  Can you guess what it was?  (If you look at the species list, that’s cheating!)