As I noted in my introduction to my Vancouver Island Big Year, if I waited to have a commitment-free year, I’d never even start this adventure. I am currently en route to the Morro Bay Bird Festival, an event I’ve wanted to attend for several years.
This morning, I left Victoria with high hopes of adding maybe three species to my list as I travelled on the ferry between Swartz Bay and Active Pass. Here was the view just as the bird activity should have been picking up.
Needless to say, my list remains at 121 species for the year, and will do so until I return to the “zone” next week.
In the meantime, I will be making the trek southward with Shawneen Finnegan, and I couldn’t be happier. Shawneen will be a keynote speaker at the festival, is an amazing artist, one of the top birders around and just an all-round good person. We will be stopping for birds and people along the way there and back. This will be an excellent week!
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I won’t update this blog with birds that I see over the next week or so, but I will do periodic updates if there are any special birds that I hear that I am missing, just to get them on record. When I return to Vancouver Island, I’ll also be launching a new page on this blog which will allow you to see where I’m birding in real time, and invite you to join me if you wish. That could be fun, and will definitely keep me motivated to get out there a lot!
Good birding!
Hi Ann,
Happy and safe travels. Sounds like a fun week for you with some very nice birds too. Always enjoy reading about your adventures.
Not sure I should share this with you having read and heard the difficulty you had seeing the Redpoll. Jeremy Gatten did tell me exactly where to find this bird and sure enough it came in within 50 mins, at 10.50 am, of my being at the location. It seems to like sharing the feeder with American Goldfinch, when it can. The AMGO are pretty determined to take over that feeder from any other bird. The AMGO was a bird I needed for my Jan list so two birds today. I returned at 3pm again and there it was, so I am sure it will be AROUND when you return. 😉
Yesterday was a great too at Clover Point. Two Palm Warblers and one Yellow-rumped Warbler. A special find since I found my way to Maber Flats on Saturday and found nothing worth mentioning.
Enjoy yourself.
Marie