A Magnificent Week of Birding Ends in the Tropics?

 Fresh off a week which saw me add a Connecticut Warbler, Sabine’s Gull, Ruff and Glossy Ibis, I was looking for yet one more challenge out west.  A trip to British Columbia to hunt for the last ptarmigan on my wish list.  I had seen Willow and Rock Ptarmigan in the Yukon and was unable to complete a mountain hike that may have resulted in seeing the White-tailed Ptarmigan.  I was determined to do what I thought would be an easier hike in BC to add this one to my Life and Year list.  Boy, was I wrong.

My first stop, after landing in Vancouver was to drive up to the small town of Merritt and search for a Dusky Grouse.  Even before I became a birder, the Dusky Grouse was one the first birds I identified, on a cycling trip to Montana, and the first species on my ABA List.  I had previously seen them in BC and now needed to find at least one for this year’s list.  I took a drive up the quite interestingly named Midday Valley Road, not early in the morning, or at dusk, when grouse might be more likely out on the road, but around midafternoon, or well, midday.  The road lived up to its afternoon promise and provided me with a lone Dusky Grouse, just sitting, biding its time enjoying the, ahm, midday sun.

I saw it ahead on the road from my car and was worried that it would duck into the long grass before I could stop and get a photo.  However this guy just hung out, let me drive by, grab a quick photo thought my open window and then watch it from a distance down the road.  That was species 438 for the year.

After a long day of flying from Toronto, after an early afternoon appointment with my gastroenterologist, and driving up to Merritt, I headed to my Holiday Inn Express for an early bedtime and was well rested the next morning, fortified with a good breakfast, for the three mile hike to the mountain lake where the White-tailed Ptarmigan were last seen.  As has been the case previously this year, I was reminded that my legs, though capable of walking long distances on gentle slopes, were once again unable to cope with steep mountain paths.  Just too many sandy and rocky slopes and tree limbs to climb over.  It is the trade off I had to accept after surgery to repair my damaged spine and live a pain free life.

I made it just over half a mile before admitting I would have to turn back.  Another group of hikers, coming up behind me, gave me encouragement and one even offered one of her walking poles to assist me.  But I knew I would not be able to keep up with them and couldn’t accept the her offer of the pole, as I didn’t want to have to abandon it if I had to turn back.  With some cheerleading from the group I gave it another go, but within 5 minutes they were long gone, and I knew it was hopeless, so cut my losses and turned back.  You can try, but you can’t get every bird and, as I have learned this year, you have to listen to your body and not be too proud to admit there are some things you just can’t do.

 I next headed over to Victoria on the ferry that afternoon to search the outer fences of the airport for a Eurasian Skylark.  I had seen one back in 2014 and though they hadn’t been reported in the past month, I was willing to give it a try.  But, typical of how my concussion damaged brain works, by the time I got there, I had completely forgotten about the skylark and spent the rest of the day looking to pick up a few missing birds from my year list.  I had a nice time birding that evening, and a surprisingly good steak dinner at a Denny’s near my Bed and Breakfast.

The next morning after a lovey night at the Dashwood Manor Inn, I went on a hunt for the small population of Indian Peafowl that I recently discovered had a thriving breeding population on the island.  On my way to one particular Hotspot for them, I had to slow down because at the park adjacent to the St. Ann’s Academy, about a dozen peacocks and peahens were leisurely crossing the road.  Unexpected, but quite spectacular.  I slowly maneuvered around them and found a place to park. The Indian Peafowl were species 439 for the year.

I had a ferry to catch back to the mainland, so after spending the rest of the morning enjoying birding on the island,(once again forgetting to look for skylarks), I headed back and spent my last night in Vancouver, enjoying a nice dinner at Boston Pizza and was up early the next morning heading for Cypress Provincial Park and a date, I hoped, with a Northern Pygmy-Owl. 

I had a general location to look, but as always, I failed to read the map correctly and ended up spending an hour in the wrong spot for Northern Pygmy-Owls. However, I was in the wrong place at the right time as I headed back down the trial to my car.  I paused at a turn and a treee full of birds flitting around.  And Lo and Behold, a pair of Red-breasted Sapsuckser!  I could hardly believe it and and my dumb luck.  I had spent hours on every trip to British Columbia this year combing the forest habitats for this bird.  The one that I had thought harder, the Red-naped Sapsucker, I had had seen on a previous trip.  This bird had frustrated me for nearly ten months, and finally I was seeing them.  Eventually one even flew down to eye level and stayed long enough for a few photos.

Afterwards I recalibrated my map and discovered that I had turned one road too early for the the Pygmy-Owl habitat and with a few hours left before heading to the airport, drove to the parking area and began my hike up to the Hollyburn Cross Country Ski Lodge.  This was an easy hike, on a smoothly ascending slope.  Thankfully.  When I got to the top, I began looking and listening for the owl.  I was beginning to think I wasn’t going to find it when, out of nowhere, the owl flew a few feet in front of my face and off into the woods.  Seen, identified, counted.  Species 441 for the year.  

I kept looking, trying to get a photo when from across the woods I heard one calling.  Then the first one I had seen began hooting too.  They tooted back and forth to each other for quite some time, and by that time my time was up and I had to call it a day and head back to my car and make my way to the airport and my flight home to Toronto.  I got three of the four birds I had come for, plus the  Indian Peafowl.  All in all a great trip.

When I got home I was barely unpacked when I heard that a Magnificent Frigatebird was being seen in Essex County, Ontario and early the following morning drove out to Lighthouse Cove to see it.  It wasn’t in good shape, either from exhaustion or perhaps Avian Influenza.  Likely this bird was blown off course by one of the recent east coast hurricanes and was not in great condition by the time I arrived.  It was sad to see a bird in distress even while counting it for my Big Year List. I have seen plenty of these magnificent sea birds in Florida, as pictured below the Essex bird, but this was yet another Canadian Lifer and would not be the last one this week.

And as happened a couple of weeks ago, when I went to Ajax, Ontario on back to back days for a Ruff and Glossy Ibis, no sooner did I get settled back in Brantford then a report went out of a Tropical Kingbird not far from where I saw the Frigatebird, near Windsor, Ontario.  It was about a two-and-a-half hour drive and it was close to 3:30 so I decided to take a chance and wait until the next morning, so I could have dinner with Sue and not be told, after saying I had to go see this bird: “You don’t HAVE to go!”  

So I waited and the next morning got to Brock-Mills Park along the Detroit River just on time to see the second tropical bird in three days make an appearance.  Many birders I knew from the Greater Toronto Area were there and even a CBC reporter who interviewed a couple of us for a feature on the rare bird.  The reporter turned out to be a birder and wanted this storm blown vagrant on his Life List too.

Rare Tropical bird sighting has birders flocking to Windsor this week

So, I am now back home for the next few weeks hoping for a few more rarities and vagrants to show up wihin a few hours drive from Brantford.  With multiple appointments near home, including an MRI to assess my various brain injuries over the years, and Sue heading to Florida for a week at the end of the month, this is a good time to relax, recharge and prepare for the final stretch of my Canada Big Year.  

At 443 species I am pretty happy with my total, so far.  Only a pair of birders, Neil and Andrea MacLeod, have ever seen more, 457 in 2018, species in Canada in a single year.  And I am okay with that.  Second all time is pretty good.  I still have competition for top spot in 2022, and though it would be nice to finished first, I never set out to or actually thought I would.  This was and always has been a race with my self.  A personal journey.  I just wanted to see the entire country I was born in and try to see at least 400 species. I have already accomplished that goal and much more.  If I don’t add another new species the rest of the year, that’s just fine with me. But, seeing seven more species would hurt, either.  450 is a nice round-ish number.