Malcolm Island isn’t an easy place to get to, but it’s an easy place to be. On Sunday, I joined up with the group to conduct their 15^th annual Spring Bird Count, now named after one of their own, Doug Innes.

The birds on Malcolm Island know about island living and island time. Despite sunrise being about an hour earlier, they really didn’t become active until about 7 am. Perhaps more surprising (and civil), the bird count didn’t get underway until 9! As a result, they generally get a pretty good turnout, and since it’s a reasonably small island, all important areas can still get covered in the allotted time.

I was put on Gordon Curry’s team and rode with Ross and Linda Weaver.  I “know” Gord from eBird; most of the Malcolm Island eBird records are his.  The weather was about what you might expect for a Christmas Bird Count in Victoria.  The only problem was that it was a Spring Bird Count!  Windy, cold, and with a few showers, our team started out the day at Mitchell Bay with a Greater Yellowlegs.  Gord had picked up a few others by ear en route.

 

The bay offers shelter to ducks and other seabirds, but the highlight (really, really high) was a flock of about 350 Greater White-fronted Geese flying over the mountaintop on a nearby island.  Normally, you get alerted to these birds as they call while flying overhead. Their “V” is easily recognized as probably the worst “V” you’ve ever seen.  It looks like they are trying to form a proper “V” but the lead birds are reluctant and let the others catch up, forming more of a “U” before it all falls apart and they kind of bunch up and have to start all over again.

One of the greatest challenges was learning the Malcolm Island version of a Townsend’s Warbler song.  These were easily the most common migrant we came across, but they sound very little like the songs of the birds on the south Island.  Doug Innes was investigating the dialects of the birds from the northern Gulf Islands before he passed away.  I hope someone picks up the torch as this would make a very interesting study. (Ignore the raven at the beginning.)

To get out of the wind, we headed into the forest and picked up a Hutton’s Vireo as well as the expected Chestnut-backed Chickadees and Varied Thrushes.  A few years ago, Gord hosted a Mountain Chickadee at his feeder, but he couldn’t produce another one for this year’s count.

We headed back to Mitchell Bay to do the shoreline and adjacent properties.  We were about half way around when I got a call from Claudia Copley telling me that one our Victoria’s long-time birders was missing.  Bob Chappell had gone out the previous day and not returned. A few years ago, we had a similar situation when Daniel Bryant got lost on Salt Spring Island and had to spend a night in the woods.  Claudia asked if we could rally the troops to find Bob just as we had for Daniel.  Although I was hundreds of kilometres away, I promised to get right on it.  Thanks to modern technology, we really can do something like this.  I went to the Victoria Police Department website using my phone, with the intent of getting the URL of the relevant information, but instead I saw the good news.  Bob had been found and was safe.  He had needed assistance, though, and I feel bad that we didn’t know earlier.  I know the birding community would have been out in droves to help find him.

Emergency resolved, I was back to the bird count. The next stop was a private home with hummingbird and other feeders.  Their hummingbird feeders were abuzz with Rufous males and females taking their fill.  We only counted about fifteen at one time, but based on the food-use calculation of 1 cup a day to 30 hummingbirds, we estimated that around 500 birds were visiting their feeders. When the fledglings start coming, the consumption doubles.

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After all this hard work, it was only appropriate that we stop at team members Iris and Bob Field’s place for some warmth and lunch, don’t you think?  They have a charming cottage that they built themselves many years ago that overlooks the strait. It may have been modest in size, but everywhere you looked you could see the loving attention that had gone into their home.  We managed to pick up a couple of good species there as well: Red Crossbill and Band-tailed Pigeon.

After lunch, we headed to a beautiful beach known locally as Sam’s beach.  I can’t tell you where it it—they told me I’d have to kill all of you if I did. Truth is, I probably couldn’t get you there if I tried.  What I can tell you is that if you value the paint on your vehicle, you can’t go there.  Although someone has clearly trimmed the salal and other bushes over the years and there is something resembling a road, you definitely want a truck with good clearance and a strong sense of comfort with the sound of branches scratching the sides of your vehicle.  Oh, and should you go there, don’t drive over the bridge. It’s not safe.  Just drive through the creek beside the bridge! 

It was worth the trip, though, as we picked up several more pelagic species on the open water of the beach.

Out last stop of the day was at the community hall for more goodies and a presentation by Art Martell.  Art had looked at trends from this count over the first 14 years and gave us an overview of the birds that are always seen, birds that are rarely seen, and trends for some of the birds that are seen most years.  This was followed up by a presentation by Annie Koch with photos from previous Spring Bird Counts.

 

If you would like to join the Malcolm Island Bird Club, it’s not an onerous process.  Go to Malcolm Island.  Bird.  That’s it.  I suspect you can also join if you just say you want to go to Malcolm Island to bird. Buy your vest at the Co-op!  This is a great group of people who enjoy each other’s company and are anxious to learn more about birds.  What more could you want in a bird club?

A few of us headed back to the big island on the 7:10 pm ferry.  I was first on board.  After the crew member put chocks under my tires, he came to my window and said, with a smile, “This is only a 25 minute trip!”  Sheesh, my first trip to the island and I apparently already have a reputation!  He said that the captain doesn’t like it much when there’s a vehicle on the deck without a person.  There have been some “incidents” over the years, so that scenario makes everyone nervous.  I was first off the ferry this time around.

Heading towards Port Hardy, my destination was the Quatse River Campground, recommended by several people.  I arrived in time for a little sunset birding.  The Varied Thrushes were in fine form, but were outnumbered by robins. It would be interesting to see what might be in this area in the morning!