314 : Western Tanager

Western Tanager - Piranga Ludoviciana

My definition of a "win-win" is a trip to a botanical garden on holiday. The kids perhaps have to raise their game a bit but if there are outdoor sculptures and a maze and a decent foodie cafe then its not a hardship. For Mrs C the Van Dusen Botanical Garden  was a delight and I craftily picked up a couple of birds. I am quite a fan of ornamental vegetable gardens in any event - they even had bees. As a morning out then a bit of a slam dunk.

It even had a great bookshop where I picked up the "100 mile diet" which is a Vancouver book I had not heard of before but a really good read for foodies coming out of the food miles movement. I always come back off holiday with ideas as well as photos but I am not sure that that one will fly in Dubai. I have posted the link to the original blog - the book that resulted has been a catalyst in the local food movement. I am hooked anyway for a number of reasons on questioning my food chain.

The general premise is that you only buy or eat food that has been (including its ingredients !!) created within 100 miles of your home. A challenge even in Hippie Vancouver as there was no wheat or sugar grown so its all potatoes, chick peas and honey ! They did have organic pinot noir and wild salmon so I wouldn't pity them too much. Living in Dubai that would be challenging. A move way from processed foods and ones as close to home as can be achieved has got to be a health winner though. Jane has a thing about "sugar" at the moment. I think the Al Barsha villa might be about to go Hillbilly - if it wasn't already a small island of home grown tomatoes in a suburb of Sodom and Gomorrah. It would be nice to have a run to Hadleigh this morning or tomorrow (half way home in Suffolk) and look at the seeds anyway and the books in the second hand bookshop. It never hurts and it usually marks the end of my "Summer" at least. I say this every year but then get distracted - I would like to grow and make more of my own food. Bread, vegetables - still to make a sausage in anger and no Crossley hen has ever yet delivered an egg. Chickens - now there is a thought. Air conditioned Egglu ? I think I should start with one bean - thats a quote stolen from a hippie again but everybody should plant a bean in any event and everybody who wants to eat meat should keep 1 animal as  a minimum. I am facing a move to Jebel Ali and a goat and a chicken and a small allotment. Perhaps I just buy a fishing rod ??

Back to Tanagers as its a whole new family for the Daily Bird - Thraupidae. We are catching them at the very North of their range in Vancouver which is mostly South and Central America - 283 species in all of beautiful colourful passerines. They could become a real favourite. "Orange-headed", "Flame-Crested", "Paradise", "Black-goggled", "Masked Crimson", "Lemon Rumped" - that's quite a nice door that has just been opened ! Roll on the Tanagers - "Emerald", "Gilt-edged", "Burnished Buff". Saying the names is fun of itself. Time to have a look at some old Audabon prints ! On the colour front the North Americans really outdo the UK for birds - Golden Oriole, Kingfisher ? Some of the Tits - We have nothing on say a Northern Cardinal though - Just think crimson finch with a black bib. Even their goldfinch was a show stopper.  They even had humming birds in Canada with metallic green tail feathers and orangey plumage (sadly my camera stayed at my side and my jaw dropped and away it zipped).

Even the adult male breeding bird of the Western Tanager picks up a scarlet head through the Summer months so this is either female caught above or a non-breeding male ( I guess that's a juvenile bird). There were quite a few flitting about but I didn't notice any bright red heads. A new world of colour though - or color.

Western Tanager, Piranga ludoviciana
Van Dusen Botancial Garden, Vancouver, British Columbia
12 August 2014

313 : Belted Kingfisher

Belted Kingfisher - Ceryle alcyon

I am back in Vancouver City itself after a week of paradise at Tofino on Vancouver Island. I am not sure I really pounded the birds - e.g. I dipped out on hiring a guide who might have wracked me up 40 or 50 species in an afternoon. I was content to just fit the birds around the family holiday. It's not as if they didn't make an appearance and its not as if I won't go back at some point in my life. Thats mentally booked in for a passage season when the huge flocks of wildfowl and waders are pulsing through from the Arctic.

We went on a bear watching boat trip one afternoon on a smaller less commercial boat skippered by a nice guy called Mike. The bears around the islands and coast near to Vancouver island are mostly the younger bears who will have been separated from their mothers after about 18 months. The larger adult bears tend to trek up into the mountains. On the shorelines the black bears (not a threat to people really - just a nuisance at times) feed on barnacles, small crabs (that they uncover by rolling over large stones with their paws), berries and even grass. They are truly omnivorous.

They were great fun to watch - not as big as I thought but clearly powerful animals.

This was a mother bear - much bulkier and filling out its fur if that makes sense.

A smaller cub just separated from its Mum that season. The Mum turned up and chased him or her off a couple of times - no longer wanted as the cub was cramping Mum's style and a risk if a big male bear turned up.

Belted kingfishers seems to be a relatively common and widespread. I got a few half decent shots but its hard on a moving boat as ever !

Belted Kingfisher, Ceryle alcyon
Tofino, Bear Watch Cruise, British Columbia
6 August 2014

312 : Marbled Murrelet

Marbled Murrelet - Brachyramphus marmoratus

This was a lovely reward for a long walk down a board walk through a rain forest from the Kwisitis information centre in the Pacific Rim National Park. The "Long Beach" section of the park has miles and miles of unspoilt coast. There are heaps of driftwood, rock pools, birds, and pristine rain forest down to the waters edge.

The link between the Marbled Murrelet and the old growth rain forest with stands of trees 5-800 years old is a strong one as unlike any other Auk these birds nest in the trees sometimes 15-20 km inland. Once old growth rain forest of Red Cedar, Western Hemlock and Douglas Fir is logged and then cleared again every 50-100 years it is useless to these birds. These birds have then become a front line in the battleground against logging the old growth forest.

The British Columbia environmental authority has produced this fact sheet. 

Marbled Murrelet, Brachyramphus marmoratus
Pacific Rim National Park, Vancouver Island, British Columbia
6 August 2014

311 : Great Northern Diver

Great Northern Diver - Gavia Immer

In my Sibley the name is Common Loon but I am going to stick with the naming from the Handbook of the Birds of the World. Latin names usually correspond apart from when there is a difference of opinion as to whether something is a separate species or not.

These are enigmatic birds - beautiful, sleek, carefully plumaged. I have seen these perhaps 15 years ago on a large reservoir in West London. The days when a day out for me was a walk around a reservoir. I loved my birding then - really dug for my birds. I was a year lister as well as a life lister so every year every bird was new and up for grabs. I no longer have the same competitive concern to see say a Bullfinch every year of my life. These days its a decent shot and a moment with a bird - up goes the page and its logged.

I remember a children's nature programme that was on during the long Summer holidays - a bloke who seemed to paddle up and down a big lake looking at beavers a lot -  at the end a sunset over a conifer fringed lake and the haunting echoing cries of "Loons".

My Loon was in a small bay after a walk through a tribal first nations landscape with descriptive boards detailing the peoples relationship with the land.  I would love to come back here in the Spring to hear their haunting cries - perhaps paddle down a great lake.

Great Northern Diver, Gavia Immer
Pacific Rim National Park, Vancouver Island, British Columbia Canada
5 August 2014

310 : Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Chestnut-backed Chickadee - Poecile rufescens

I have very sore feet this evening having perhaps only walked 5-6 miles or so. I don't have very good walking boots with me and a poor decision on the way back from a national park trail to our car left us walking along a hard roadside for about 2 miles. The irony of long birding walks is that more often than not some of the nicest birds you see are hanging around the car park albeit in this case a very nice conifer lined car park in a national park.

So the North Americans call a Tit a Chickadee. This a western specialist of the pine forests - its range hugging the Pacific coast from Alaska all the way down to Northern California. The twittering sounds reminded me of long tailed tits and the flock seemed to be 10 birds or more strong.

Completely off subject but my aching feet do seem to be reacting to the restorative qualities of a Brufen,  two panadol and the first few glasses of my "growler" of the Tofino Brewing Company's session ale. Jane has opted for a smaller "Growlita" of the Spruce beer - doctored with fresh spruce tips. I love the idea of your local brewery where you just pop in and fill up your Growler on the way home and the staff are all happy and the clientele is lined up at the bar in this case discussing surf and beer. It may be Canada but Tofino is very much a surf town and people are turned off and tuned in or whatever the expression is. People here are very nice. The sense of humour is great - we ate beautiful food last night at the Wickanish Inn - the best I have eaten in a long while. Interesting flavours and great produce. Even fish and chips from a van is made beautifully - sustainable Pacific cod. Don't get me on British Columbian wine - too little to export - I had a Chardonnay last night that I felt was as nice as a decent Burgundy - Quail's landing was the producer. They also made a desert Reisling that went very well with my British Columbian artisan cheeses. This place is just to die for really.

Back to my beer ! So a growler is the bottle you purchase with your first order of beer from your local craft brewery (a kind of non-refundable deposit system) and then your next fill up is half the price. Its a great system and a good business model. The more you drink the cheaper it gets. The man behind the bar told me that eventually he would be paying me to drink the stuff. Very witty.

More Chickadees !

So there we have it ! Growlers are a new one on me but once you are over (in my case) the $12 deposit for the bottle you are locked in for refills at just $12 for 2 litres which seems quite reasonable - 4 pints of so for 8 pounds. Four very nice pints that is and straight from the brewery. 

I really am falling in love with this place - it is charming and so are the people. The guy who introduced  my main course last night at the Wick laughed with me at the description of my "rasped" egg on warm salmon. They really don't take themselves so seriously. They take their food, wine and beer quite seriously though - they do seem to have a craft. 

Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Poecile Rufescens

Pacific Rim National Park, Vancouver Island, British Columbia

5 August 2014 

309 : American Goldfinch

American Goldfinch - Carduelis tristis

What a joy these small finches are and all the more so for feeding on these photogenic thistles. They are almost at the Northerly edge of their range here on Vancouver island and typically belong in more deciduous landscapes.

Yesterday was the foggiest day we have had on holiday - a huge bank of fog blanketing the beach and landscape for most of the day. Unsuccessful whale watching was carried out in a pea-souper, although we did see a Sea Otter which was charming. Rafting in a small forest of kelp, when he saw our boat slow down he cruised off with his (or her) backwards stroke. Paws penitently held together and hind paws more like flippers held akimbo in the air. A truly charming creature almost wiped out by the fur trade in the last century.

Like furry Klondike backwoodsman having his first bath in 6 months - tangled beard covering his face. - reclined in the back room of some saloon.

So no Grey whales - although we have a voucher valid for a year for a new trip (such was the utter embarrassment of the whale watching outfit). I think thats a bitt harsh myself - wildlife is wildlife - if I could guarantee my birds what would they be worth ? I am sorely tempted but more for the seabirds that were proving very difficult to photograph. so I have a bunch of blurred auks to contend with in my files as well but a voucher for another foggy pelagic. Time permitting. The rain forest awaits.

Amercian Golfinch, Carduelis tristis
Pettinger Point, Tofino, Vancouver Island, British Columbia
5 August 2014

308 : Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle - Haliaeetus leucocephalus

I popped into Tofino yesterday afternoon to do a bit of shopping and this handsome bird was sat in a tree near to the Co-Op. That's the UK equivalent of a Golden Eagle sat on a contoneaster outside of Tescos or in UAE terms where I live a Great Spotted Eagle sat on a palm tree next to Spinney's. It gets better - I had ran down the road from the little car park as I had seen two birds fly off into the distance. A couple of minutes before I had been wondering, out loud unfortunately like a ranting mad birder whether this was the best shot I was going to achieve of these wonderful eagles.

The Bald Eagle is doing well along the North West coast of the American continent with perhaps 100,000 birds in British Columbia and Alaska. Compare that to main part of the US where there are possibly only 4,000 birds in all (a rise from just 1,118 birds counted in 1980). Clearly these eagles were heavily persecuted, shot a competing fisherman. In Alaska a bounty was placed on the birds and 150,000 were shot between 1900 and 1945. It does make you wonder why a nation would choose to adopt such a magnificent bird to appear on flags, coins, crests and so on but simultaneously blast it from every inch of its skies. I seem to remember that it appears on a carpet in the oval office. I wonder if Reagan ever bothered to ask how many were left in 1980. I expect Jimmy Carter would have.

So these birds feed on birds (waterfowl) as well as fish. Huge numbers gather to feed on the dying salmon after the spawning runs - gatherings of 1000' s of birds in certain rivers. I went zip lining yesterday down the Fraser River canyon and our guide told us that the river system is considered "dead" as there are only currently 400 spawning salmon making the run. A cannery had been situated at the end of the river that fed half of the caught salmon for North America at one point. There must have been millions of salmon taken out of the river. I didn't see any fish as I zipped down the river.

As well s fish the eagles take birds and will knock a whole Canada Goose out of the air. That must be a sight. I am off whale watching today - I am looking forward to trying to see Orcas and Grey Whales in particular. Fingers crossed they are just floating off the maritime equivalent of Sainsbury somewhere.

I am not sure why Bald Eagles are bald - I will leave that as a mystery to be googled another time.

Bald Eagle, Haliaeetus Leucocephalus
Tofino, Vancouver Island, British Columbia
3 August 2014

307 : White-winged Scoter

White-winged Scoter - Mellanita Fusca

Being alive to the possibilities and the detail is always a good idea when you are birding. On my 6 am session this morning I came across a raft of sea ducks. The first few blow ups showed me quite categorically that I had stumbled across a Pacific bird the Surf Scoter (clink on the link to review and pay attention to the bill and wing colour and then navigate back here).

So nothing prevents sea ducks from hanging out in mixed flocks just in the same way that ducks on a lake would mingle So the bill here is just orange and black with no white. We have a distinctive tear shaped white mark behind the eye and a white secondaries visible.  Compare to the Surf Scoter which does not have white wing panel and therefore would need show a white wing bar when not in flight.

Two ducks for the price of one.

Torfino, Vancouver Island, British Columbia
2 August 2014

306 : Warbling Vireo

Warbling Vireo - Vireo gilvus

I could be so wrong with this its ridiculous but I have done the best I can - From bookwork. My Sibley (the equivalent of say Collins Bird Guide for the UK) is just awash with small yellowy birds - I have ignored a slew of wood warblers - well not ignored them but just discounted by range and likelihood. I need a kind North American birder to drop past and point me in the right direction.

Basically yellow below and grey and olive above with quite a plain face.The alternative is a Yellow Warbler (?) - a juvenile which can show the grey and yellow (?)

I will stick with my Vireo almost as my 80 % place marker and I am sure that if there is an error the great teacher - time in the field - will help me out in due course. Its not unknown for whole pages to be relabelled retrospectively on this site. It is confidently though the 305 th bird in the collection - whatever the hell it is !

I have to finish with a picture to give you some idea of the sea mists here which are spectacular. One just rolled in like a great cotton wool bank and smothered the whole place for two hours. I caught this earlier today from the promontory rolling across the bay into Chesterman Beach. Cold sea and warmer air. Makes for good wine as well.

Warbling Vireo, Vireo gilvus
Torfino, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada
2 August 2014

305 : Northwestern Crow

Northwestern Crow - Corvus caurinus

Its such a special part of the world it turns out it has its own species of crow. Not a subspecies but a whole separate split from the American Crow. This really is a specialist restricted to the temperate rainforest coast of the Pacific North-West. In the main it forages on the intertidal mudflats and rocks for clams, mussels and crabs.

It looks as if the American Crow is expanding into its range though and will literally breed it out. It only exists now on the islands and less densely populated coastlines. The notes I have read suggest that DNA sampling is needed to "test" the extent to which the population is holding out. Where towns build up and the opportunities with rubbish and so on the American less specialist crows move in and the truly wild Northwestern crows get squeezed out. I would like to think that here just next to the Pacific Rim National Park this crow perched above some mussel covered rocks is a true representative of the specialist species. They are certainly everywhere on the coast - hacking away at shell fish and bouncing through the stranded kelp.

I will leave you with sunset from last night. The same promontory I walked out along to catch my Surf Scoters this morning. The light here at all times of day is striking. As I am typing a sea mist is rolling in off the beach swirling past the beach houses - the clouds of vapour visible between the pine branches. It's Jurassic.

Northwestern Crow, Corvus caurinus
Torfino, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada
2 August 2014

304 : Surf Scoter

Surf Scoter - Melanitta perspicillata

We have arrived as a family at Tofino on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. The vast Pacific lies on the doorstep of our glass-fronted beach house. The water is cold and clear and its a different ocean let alone a different continent to bird.

Jet-lag is still hanging around so I woke this morning at 5.50 am (its getting better) having stayed up until 10.30 pm. I almost don't want to go birding sometimes - its a faff getting equipment sorted - I don't know what anything looks like. I will miss all the shots. I wasn't very optimistic when I headed out shortly after 6 am, hungry, sore feet, tripod mounted with the bird canon.

The lichen and fern filled stands of conifers were filled with the little peeps of alien birds. Its a recipe for  neck ache and frustration. Thank god for the open water. Sea watching is something you do when you are not really birding. You scan the water in the hope of seeing a few black dots ! The Pacific was obliging.

This is what we call a "raft" of ducks. A good 1/2 kilometre away plus with a the lens on full 400 mm zoom. I knew they probably some form of sea duck - probably scoters but this type of view wasn't going to get an ID. I picked my way out along a rocky promontory, twisting ankles and clattering tripods and over balancing. I am not a mountain goat.

I started to get some better views and the views through my new 10 x 42 Avians clinched it or did it. Surf Scoters (these are my first) have a strange roman type nose (see the first shot) with a bright orange and white bill. The bird in the first shot is certainly a Surf Scoter. It has a multi-coloured bill with black running down the top edge. Also there is no white in the wing feathers - that could be a clincher for another tick if I post again later today. I do love a bit of book work on new birds.

So what are ducks doing out on the sea ? These birds breed on boreal lakes - plenty of those around in British Columbia. Typically though they Winter on the sea. I would guess that breeding is now complete and the birds have dispersed out onto the Pacific. There diet in the Winter consists of blue mussels and a walk along the beach yesterday evening turned up hundreds of smashed large mussel shells the size of a small hand. The birds dive down to the bottom - perhaps for 30 seconds or so and grab and smash the bivalves. I observed a few ducks swimming along with their head under the water before upending and diving down. They do tend to dive together. They rest for a couple of minutes then the whole raft will disappear and pop up like a bunch of corks.

I think is the first sea duck species on the Daily Bird. More to come.

Surf Scoter, Melanitta perspicillata
Pacific Sands Resort, Chesterman Beach, Nr Tofino, Vancouver Isaland, British Columbia, Canada
2 August 2014