Okay, so it’s not a song lyric–yet–but it was my favourite quote of the week. This was Dave Fraser’s response to my adventures on Quadra Island, a location that was overrun by Barred Owls when he was last there.  Despite many visits since January 2, the only owl I have come across is a distant hooting of a Great Horned.  Others have seen Northern Pygmy Owls recently and of course, there’s THAT owl, the Great Gray.  I’m not sure whether I’m happy or sad that it hasn’t been seen since Friday, Feb. 20.  It could still reappear, though, and I’m ready to return!

In the meantime, there are other places to go and other birds to see. Since my return on Tuesday, I have added 3 species to my year list, now sitting at 151.

On Thursday morning, visiting birder Ivan Dubinsky and I headed to Island View Beach to look for an unusual towhee that had been reported by Jody Wells.  I think we found the bird, pretty much exactly where Jody had seen it.  What made it unusual was the lack of white spotting on the wings.   In fact, I could make out some tiny white dots with my binoculars, but without them, the bird looked plainly black.  The only towhee calls we heard coming from that area were decidedly Spotted Towhee.

Several birders have managed to see this bird, and the concensus seems to be a very dark Spotted Towhee.  Too bad.  An Eastern Towhee would have been a great addition to the year list!

Later that afternoon, I made a solo trek up Skirt Mountain, more commonly know these days as Bear Mountain (or Bare Mountain). I wasn’t really expecting to see anything new, although Golden Eagles live here.  This was really a trip to see how things on the mountain had changed.  Skirt Mountain is a special place to me.  I’m surprised I haven’t visited more, except that access used to be quite difficult.  Not so now.  The Leigh Road overpass in Langford takes you well up the mountain with a wide roadbed that ultimately will be the main access into a luxury subdivision.  For now, the road is blocked to vehicles but is easily walked.

The trails used to look like this:

 

Now many of them look like this:

It’s really quite astounding how much they have cut through this hillside.

You might be wondering why Skirt Mountain is special to me.  Back around 1996, I was a member of a contract bargaining team at the University of Victoria.  Other members of that team included Jan Brown, John Goudy, and Professional Employee’s Association Executive Director Alan MacLeod.  It was very early one May morning when several of us met at the house at the top of Skirt Mountain, owned by John Goudy, for my first ever bird walk. Along a trail like this one–maybe even this one–I learned that you could identify birds by their songs, as Alan “knocked my socks off” by calling out the bird names as each phrase of the dawn chorus rose into the air. I was hooked.

As I approached the crest of the new road, an eagle flew over me from behind.  It wasn’t just any eagle.  It was the first Golden Eagle for my year. A little farther along, the road provides a view of the summit of Mt. Finlayson–a future destination.

Friday morning, I was back at Maber Flats for a weekly bird survey.  Most of the ducks have moved on, but there were still about thirty swans.  Best of all, three Tree Swallows flew through, and were species 150 for the year.
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Saturday had a mid-day commitment, so birding didn’t start until after 2 pm.  I persuaded Daniel Donnecke to come with me to try to see if we could find the Rock Sandpiper at Cattle Point.  On arrival, we could see that the gorgeous weather had brought out the masses–and their dogs–so there were no shorebirds except for a couple of Black Oystercatchers on an inaccessible rock.  We hit all of the  normal shorebird spots heading west, turning up more oystercatchers and one Black-bellied Plover.  No Black Turnstones, no Surfbirds, no Dunlin!  The light was beautiful, though.  Perfect for taking pictures!

 

There was one last hope, though, as I still needed Sanderling for the year.  We headed to Dallas Road near the Ogden Point breakwater, and sure enough, we found two Sanderling. #151!

 

Our timing was just about right, because before long the sun started to set.  Hundreds of starlings zoomed into openings on the buildings on the other side of the breakwater.  It may be worth heading down there some evening just for the spectacle.

I wonder when that wacky owl might show up again…