Wednesday was a day of ever-changing plans. I started out early, heading to the top of Observatory Hill to try again for the solitaire before heading to the Duncan area for the day. On top of the hill, I had good looks at Pine Siskins feeding and Violet-green Swallows attempting to turn the main telescope housing into a giant bird house, but no solitaire.
These days, I try to stick pretty close to my phone for several reasons: I keep bird lists on it using BirdLog, I get hourly reports if anyone reports a bird I “need” anywhere on the island, and I get audible alerts if my birding friends send me an email or anyone posts to the BCVIBIRDS Yahoo group. Needless to say, I was at a loss when I discovered that I had left my phone at home. Definitely time to turn around!
When I got back to the house, I found out that my housemate, Mike, was going to be available to work with me to replace my van brake rotors a little later in the day, so I decided to stick a little closer to home. I headed up Mt. Newton to John Dean Park. No one had reported a solitaire there, but then again no one had reported that they’d looked and hadn’t found one. In the winter, the summit is a long walk, but this time of year, you can drive almost to the top. The hike up from there is still quite steep, but on a roadway and relatively short.
The summit of Mt. Newton holds the giant “soccer ball” that can be seen from many locations in Victoria area. This is a Doppler radar device used to generate the maps that you see on the news and online. Environment Canada filters out the “noise” that we like to call “birds”, but US weather radar leaves it in.
Other human artifacts you will find near the summit include the Coast Guard radar and the first survey marker for the North Saanich area.
Wildflowers, including the beautiful Calypso Orchid, grow throughout the area.
I found an extensive patch of miniscule white flowers. I don’t know if these are wild or weed, but I’m hoping one of my botanist friends can enlighten me!
A Yellow-rumped Warbler was gathering nest material. During the BC Bird Atlas, I searched for signs of breeding Yellow-rumps without success, but now I know where they were hiding!
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John Dean Park has its share of visitors–hikers, dog walkers, and runners in particular. The fellows in the photo below crossed my path a couple of times. They asked what I was doing, so I told them about the birding quest, and that I hadn’t found the bird I was looking for. When I said I hadn’t taken many pictures, they asked if I could take one of them and put it in my blog, so here it is, the half-naked running men of Mt. Newton!
With that done, it was time to head home for some van maintenance! From the time I purchased my first car (a 1964 Austin Cambridge), I did a few of the necessary repairs. Manuals and friends were invaluable, but a lot of the work was pretty straightforward. Not so with newer computerized vehicles, but my van is older and replacing the front brake rotors isn’t a particularly onerous task. My friend, Mike, and I had the job done in just a couple of hours.
Wednesday evening I had planned to meet up with Michael Simmons, Christian Kelly and Warren Drinnan to stake out a barn with a known Barn Owl family inside. First though, I thought I’d go to Maber Flats to look for shorebirds and a Sora.
As I arrived, an ambulance and fire truck went down Wallace Drive with sirens blazing. When they were gone, I heard a “buzz-buzz” sound quite a way from where I was standing. It was faint and sounded quite mechanical, so I figured it must be an alarm related to the emergency vehicles. As I looked for the birds, the sound continued until just before dark, it changed to a single longer buzz. That got my attention! What could possibly make that sound? A Clay-coloured Sparrow, that’s what! I had only ever heard one once before, but now it seemed so obvious! I headed in the direction of the buzz, only to have it stop, never to return.
Here is where lack of proper preparation can come into play. Because I don’t know the calls of the rarities, it’s possible for me to fail to recognize a bird calling or even singing. As confident as I am that I heard a Clay-coloured Sparrow, it won’t be added to my list unless it is relocated. I know that my description is not sufficient to meet the standard of the local records committee, so it’s there but not counted–yet.
THe Barn Owls were considerably more attentive, and the four of us saw one of the adults return with dinner to the nest!
The sparrow was a screwup on my part, but I think I learned some valuable lessons in the process.