What I couldn’t tell you in my last post was that I was going to sneak away from the island last Friday  for a couple of days–always a dangerous thing.

A surprise party in Portland for Shawneen Finnegan had been in the works for several months, and I was determined to go.  It gave me another opportunity to find a Red Phalarope or other marine bird on the trip across to Port Angeles, but I had to turn my GPS tracker off after that.  Didn’t want to tip Shawneen off just in case she checked my “where’s Ann” page!

The weather was good, and while the seas were not flat, I was sure that if there was a Red Phalarope or Brown Pelican out there (or even a kittiwake to add to my Victoria list), I’d have a great shot at seeing them.  Alas, it was not to be, and I hit the US border without a new species.  Jim Danzenbaker hosted me and I almost blew the subterfuge by posting an eBird checklist from Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge when we birded there on Saturday morning.  I deleted the list within a minute of posting it, so nothing was given away!  Shawneen’s surprise party was a great success, with guests from New Jersey and California as well as many members of the Washington and Oregon birding communities. Not only did we get to celebrate her special birthday, two days earlier David Irons had proposed and she said “Yes”!  Great reasons to celebrate with friends!

Even though I was only gone for two days, I watched the bird reports nervously.  Thankfully, nothing new was reported on the island while I was out of range.

It was a quick turnaround, travelling home overnight Saturday to catch the first ferry from Tsawwassen so that I could head to Bamfield for their Christmas Bird Count.  I arrived at the terminal in a gale; the last four ferries of the day on Saturday had been cancelled.  I was definitely concerned that the first Sunday ferry might be cancelled too, but we managed to leave the dock about 30 minutes late.  Given the wind at 2 in the morning, I was surprised by how calm it was once we got to the Gulf Islands.

I met up with Daniel and Leo Donnecke in time to make the trip to Bamfield in daylight.  Thankfully, Daniel was driving, so I just got to snooze in the back seat.  While we were enroute, though, the reports started to come in.  Fork-tailed and Leach’s Storm Petrels in Sooke, Black-legged Kittiwakes all over Victoria during the next two days.I have  all of those species on my year list, but sadly not on my Capital or VNHS Checklist list.

We arrived in Bamfield with just enough light to visit Pachena Bay, the first time I’d been there since the early 1980s. 

 

A surprise was the number of California Gulls still in the area. A Barred Owl was an interesting addition to our first evening’s list.

The Bamfield Christmas Bird Count included two parts–the morning on the water and the afternoon on land.

 

It was a beautiful but cold day in Bamfield.  I was assisted by new birders Nelson and Jan and driver Dylan as we travelled north and among the islands along the coast.

We got a good variety of species, although nothing really unexpected.  It was a very scenic way to spend the morning.

Barrow’s Goldeneyes and Buffleheads dodged the logs in the log sort. A large flock of Surfbirds flew past and settled on small rocks along the shoreline.

Western Grebes appeared first in ones and twos, but ultimately we came across a raft of more than 150.

Black Oystercatchers put on a show for us. Note the dark bill tip on the individual at the top. This is a sign that it is a younger bird.
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Daniel and Leo got a much rougher ride out into the Broken Group on the Coast Guard boat.  We joined up after lunch for a return trip to Pachena Beach with local birder Gordie.

At the Pachena Campground, we came across a lone Tundra Swan, possibly the first for a Bamfield Christmas Bird Count.   We finished up the day rounding up a few ducks on the small lakes in the area.  One crossbill flew over, making a strange enough call that we wondered if it was a White-winged, but we couldn’t get our eyes on it.

Thanks to Anne Stewart for coordinating this count and making arrangements with Shirley at the Bamfield Marine Station for accommodation for us!  It was great to have a clean warm place to call “home” while we were there.

Tuesday was a travel day back to Victoria and just enough time for me to put up my Christmas tree before heading north again for the Deep Bay Christmas Bird Count.   I met up with coordinator Bill Stewart, team leader Mike Miller, and several other experienced birders to cover their traditional area.  We had the south part of the circle, from the Big Qualicum River area up to Jamison Rd.

It was another beautiful day, and the comeraderie was good!  I kept mentioning White-winged Crossbills (you know if you say the name enough, the bird will show up, right?) to the point that I was getting teased a little about it.  Several groups of crossbills flew over and even landed in view, but no white wing bars to be seen.

Shane Tillapaugh found a Western Meadowlark on the north side of the river, a good bird for this circle.  At the hatchery, eagles were “singing” loudly from the trees.

 

We found a few birds we couldn’t count, but we still could photograph.

We had about a dozen places to visit, including a playing field off Lions Way.  It was pretty quiet there with just a few  Killdeer in the field and a few birds in the trees.  I started scanning the treetops with my scope looking for falcons, when a small flock of 15 crossbills crossed my field of view.  Plain, plain, plain, white wing-bars, plain, WAIT!  White wing-bars!  I finally had my White-winged Crossbill. There was a pair in this little flock.  Species 267!

Another great sighting was an iceberg in Georgia Strait.

Okay, it wasn’t really an iceberg.  This is the tip of Mount Baker, barely visible above the horizon.  If you didn’t know local geography, though, it would have been easy to mistake this for an iceberg.  we birded until dark, then I headed home.

Thursday was an errand and prep day.  WIth Christmas Bird Counts on the next three days, I was a little grateful for the rain.  I did a bit of gull watching at Esquimalt Lagoon, but it was not a good day for birding.   The weather gave me an excuse to take care of business–well a little bit of business, anyway.

In a few hours, I head to Nanoose to meet up with Guy Monty for the count there, then Saturday is Victoria’s and Sunday is Sidney’s.  Will we turn up a couple more species this weekend?  Only time will tell!