|
Post by Gord on Jan 6, 2019 19:31:14 GMT -8
As I reflect on 2018 through the lens of birding my favourites were:
-Birding the Skagit Valley with Jamie and then doing a presentation for the Skagit Bird Blitz in the evening. What a great day and wonderful event.
-Seeing a Parasitic Jaeger closely followed less than five minutes later by a Sabine's Gull at Island 22. Both were new species for the park and one of those things you don't see every day where very unlikely species are seen so quickly.
-The continued success of the breeding Purple Martins at the Chehalis Estuary and the big staging flock that hung out at Island 22 (another new species for the park!)
-While not a birding excursion, taking a little trip to Kelowna and sneaking in a bit of birding here and there
-Seeing all the Snow Geese out here this fall and early winter
-The new yard bird; Hutton's Vireo, on Christmas
-Doing that bird study that allowed for some good birding with Randy, Jamie and Chris
I did a checklist a day for eBird. It was fun to do that and contribute to the worthwhile cause. For B.C., I did 507 checklists and tallied 212 species. For the Fraser Valley where I put most of my bird focus, the total was 478 checklists and 197 species detected.
I'm looking forward to 2019!
|
|
|
Post by paulos on Jan 7, 2019 4:32:15 GMT -8
Great list Gord. Ed and I were talking about your Parasitic Jaeger/Sabine's Gull double whammy the other day.
My year highlights:
-I took the checklist-a-day challenge too. One of the funniest was a list consisting of five house sparrows at an airport--my only chance to be outside around a family wedding.
-We started the new year in Arizona, one of my first bird trips outside of BC and Washington. My first bird of the year was a flock of Montezuma Quail, and I added a few other great that day and in the days to come (Arizona Woodpecker, Inca Dove, Green-tailed Towhee and Burrowing Owl among my favourites).
-One day in March I woke up early before a trip to the island. I found a singing Western Screech-Owl on my way to the ferry. In Victoria I found my first Eurasian Skylark and Surfbirds.
-We took a late spring trip up the Peace, which was unreal. One highlight was exploring the expansive Pink Mountain, which included a displaying male Rock Ptarmigan on the top, and some great warblers on the way up (Palm and Blackpoll). Big Bam Road and Johnson Road across the river from Taylor were great, yielding my first Canada Warblers, Mourning Warbler and Philadelphia Vireo. I also got to bird a couple times with Chris.
-I spent some nice time in the Cariboo this spring and summer, including some great shorebirding on Becher's Prairie and other ponds around Williams Lake and 100 Mile House. I loved seeing the phalaropes, peeps, Baird's Sandpipers and Sanderlings (and the probable but not certain Buff-breasted Sandpiper that got away!).
-I took some great fall hikes around the Fraser Valley and perimeter, since the dryer fall permitted it. I enjoyed coming across Goshawks, Bohemian Waxwings, some nice mountain finches and, my favourite bird of the year, a Northern Hawk-Owl.
-And I loved my walks around Ryder Lake nieghbourhoods and seeing other birders out around the valley.
Peace!
|
|
|
Post by birder1942 on Jan 7, 2019 17:30:07 GMT -8
Happy New Year, and awesome reflections. My bit:
I really, once again, appreciated Gord's Fraser Valley Birding website
I also appreciate Mel's BC rare birds blog
It was great to be able to do some citizen science with eBird
I benefit from a great group of fellow birders, especially Ed Klassen, Larry Hooge and Joel schmidt
I love birding my favourite Fraser Valley patch--Sumas Prairie. Three new birds for the prairie in 2018: Pileated Woodpecker, Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch and Yellow-headed Blackbird.
It is tough for me to get new ABA birds, but I managed two in 2018: Little Stint at Boundary Bay and Fieldfare near Salmon Arm
How neat to start the New Year with an Abbotsford bird: Cape May Warbler!
John Vooys, Abbotsford
|
|
|
Post by Gord on Jan 7, 2019 18:02:22 GMT -8
Good ones all. I enjoyed hearing about your highlights.
I have one more I forgot which was getting a pond pump from Randy who was upgrading his pond and making a little water feature with the kids in the backyard. Moving water sure attracts birds as the little stream easily outperforms our static water bird bath. Thanks Randy!
|
|
|
Post by nickinthegarden on Jan 7, 2019 19:40:44 GMT -8
Birding during 2018 had some great moments: -Spending time with Mountain Bluebirds at Surrey Bend Park. -Seeing an Osprey catch a fish at Willband Creek Park and as it was flying away have it be accosted by a Bald Eagle who was being chased by a flock of crows and watch as the eagle tried to chase the dropped fish all the while being chased by crows. -Trying to learn how to photograph Swifts and finally getting to see what they looked like. -I finally succeeded in finding Williamson's Sapsuckers at August Lake and then finding another in the Kane Valley on the same day. -I made a one day trip to Kamloops and back and got to spend some amusing time watching Black-billed Magpies playing and got very close to some Western Meadowlarks -I spend a few glorious hours at Whidbey Island watching American White Pelicans. - I visited the Jackman Wetlands many times and got to see and photograph Raccoons, Beavers, River Otters, Coyotes and a lot of shorebirds; mostly Killdeer and Yellowlegs but I got a few lifers, Baird's, Solitary and Buff-breasted Sandpipers. -At Blackie Spit I was trying to photograph as small group of Least Flycatchers and discovered that a large flock had settled in all around me, I had to be very careful tiptoeing out. -The month of November was mostly dry weather and it gave me multiple days in which I spent hours and hours watching and photographing Bald Eagles feeding on Salmon. I came to a greater understanding of how and why they do what they do and now I have so many more questions!
2018 I spent a lot of time out birding and photographing as much as I could but I also tried to contribute to Ebird more and record what I was seeing. Good people before had shared their sightings and this allowed me to have some idea where to go and what I could pursue and it was only right to pay it back.
2019 has started out with the Cape May Warbler only a very short distance from home and I have made multiple visits and spent some time attempting to be a positive and useful informant to the public who were asking what those people were looking at. I have seen more birders in the last week than I have seen in all the 3 1/2 years I have lived in Fraser Valley.
|
|
|
Post by kestrel on Jan 7, 2019 20:49:04 GMT -8
Here are mine:
- Seeing almost ten Sharp-tailed grouse (lifer) at Nicola Lake in February.
- Seeing the Hudsonian godwit and Whimbrel rarities (also lifers) in early May.
- Going on the weekly bird walks with A Rocha during my summer internship.
- Helping out with banding/measuring hummingbirds, Barn owls, and Cliff swallows, also during my internship.
- Hikes up Flatiron Mtn, and Twin Lakes/High Pass in October, during which I saw Bohemian waxwings, and finally laid eyes on a Sooty grouse after only ever having heard those birds.
- Seeing an owl (Barred) on my birthday.
- Starting to help out with A Rocha bird walks, as well as enter sightings data for them, in early November.
- Getting a Wilson's warbler and Harris's sparrow during the Chilliwack and Abbotsford CBCs.
- And going to see the Fieldfare near Salmon Arm on December 21.
I had a great year birding-wise.
Joel
|
|
|
Post by expiallyd on Jan 8, 2019 17:11:05 GMT -8
This is a fun thread! Here are my 2018 highlights:
- Watching a mallard gobbling up enormous bullfrog tadpoles at Willband
- FINALLY seeing a mountain bluebird at Hope Airport, after several fruitless attempts; have seen them elsewhere, but this was a Fraser Valley first for me
- Close encounter with a cooperative spruce grouse at Manning
- A couple of Lower Mainland lifers added with only short deviations from my usual transit ride home: grey-crowned rosy finches near Waterfront Station and Nashville warbler near Lonsdale Quay
- Two lifers within half an hour at Elizabeth Lake, Cranbook: vesper sparrow and northern waterthrush
- An almost-daily highlight is watching the antics of a pair of Bewick’s wrens at my suet feeder; they seem to have so much personality and are my favourite birds to watch
- Bald eagle vs. cormorant at GBHNR: it looked like the eagle made contact but the cormorant dove and had a narrow escape
- Fourteen western grebes seen from Matsqui Trail one windy day in November
- Occasional yard visits from a barred owl
- Two ravens hanging around the trees in the yard for a few weeks in early winter and causing a commotion among the usual crows and jays
- Picking up a handful of lifers on a trip to Corfu and a day trip to Albania with impatient non-birders. Albania life list: only 3 birds ☹
- Meeting other birders out on the trails from time to time
- That one single walk at Willband where I did not encounter any off-leash dogs ...
Let's hope 2019 is as enjoyable as 2018! It's off to a good start with the Cape May warbler.
|
|
|
Post by Chris on Jan 8, 2019 19:54:22 GMT -8
Gord, thanks for starting this!
In no particular order.
Going up to the Northern Rockies and doing some exploration around Fort Nelson and west. It is an area I never been to, and exploring a new area is always awesome with new scenery, mammals and birds. Neat to see some breeding birds especially Mew Gulls around Muncho Lake. Bison was the highlight though.
Doing alpine hikes in Tumbler Ridge. Seeing a few breeding species I rarely see was nice but the Mountain Goats and the Grizzlies were the highlights.
It is rare to see birders from other parts of the province up here but May-July seems to be the most common. I bumped into a few unexpectedly, and it is always great to see their excitement when they encounter a species they rarely see, but I often see. Paul, also enjoyed our birding outings up here as well.
My weekend outings. After the work week I typically get out in the morning on the weekends to do some birding. Nice to get outside after being inside all week and a good way to relax. Once spring migration starts it is also great to see the weekly changes of species arriving.
Birding with Randy, Gord and Jamie when I was down.
Using Ebird consistently. I tried to have 400 checklists this year for about the fourth year in a row. Still haven’t done it yet but maybe this year! I also hit 3000 total complete checklists on Ebird this year.
|
|
|
Post by Randy on Jan 9, 2019 8:45:52 GMT -8
Great idea for a thread Gord and thanks for posting this! My birding was limited somewhat due to young children but here are a few of mine:
1. My only lifer of the year - grey-crowned rosy finch in Sumas prairie. What made this most memorable is rushing out late afternoon with my 4 month old, trying to look and take some photos with her kicking around in the front carrier, then changing a dirty diaper in my trunk. I will never forget that lifer!
2. Weekly birding with Gord (and Chris when he was in town) at Willband.
3. My regular weekly surveys around my place. I really enjoy seeing what comes and goes at a particular site and I had a good year in my property. My highest species total in the 3 years I've lived here with 89 species.
I added the following this year to bring my yard total to 109 species:
Mew Gull Mourning Dove Northern Harrier Hermit Thrush Olive-sided Flycatcher Red-eyed Vireo Tree Swallow Rough-legged Hawk
Other yard highlights included black swift, solitary sandpiper, common redpoll, and lazuli bunting.
4. A visit to Saskatoon to see my parents and sneaking in some birding a couple mornings while I was there.
5. Getting great views of black and Vaux swifts together at Willband in the spring. A great opportunity to compare the two species!
|
|
|
Post by neal on Jan 9, 2019 16:35:27 GMT -8
Great stuff everyone. My highlights were:
Setting a goal of seeing 100 species locally (Fraser Valley/Greater Vancouver) in the first hundred days of the year and actually accomplishing it on the last day of the personal challenge.
Getting in some birding on my annual golf trip and getting several new species, including the beautiful Vermillion Flycatcher.
Going to Denali National Park in Alaska and although birds were not the focus, seeing several species including my first Willow Ptarmigan.
Just getting out on a regular basis and enjoying the nature we have all around us. And meeting some nice people out birding.
|
|
|
Post by Dave on Jan 9, 2019 16:39:09 GMT -8
Birding in 2018 was feast or famine for me. A great year with lots of new birds but long spells without any birding at all. Ended the year with 27 ABA lifers. Best year in a long time and will be tough to beat in the future. Here are the birding highlights: -A family camping road trip in July after basically not birding for the first 6 months of 2018 headed to Nevada and Idaho and yielded 3 new birds for me. Highlight was hiking up to Full House Peak and along the rim above Island Lake in the Ruby Mountains and enjoying 13 Himalayan Snowcocks. Other new birds of the trip were Black Rosy-finch and Cassia Crossbill. -A self-arranged, independent trip with birding relatives to St. Paul Island in the Bering Sea for 4 days in mid-August and a few days on the mainland yielded 20 new ABA species, including White-tailed Eagle and Common-ringed Plover along with Parakeet, Crested, Least Auklets, Horned Puffins, Gray-tailed Tattler, Red-faced Cormorant, Short-tailed Shearwaters, etc. The mainland had goodies such as Arctic Warbler and Kittlitz's Murrelet. It was actually easy logistically birding St. Paul on our own with a local rental truck that was falling apart. A small island that we crossed many times in the 4 days. We also had warm, sunny weather which apparently is quite unusual. No storms to bring in rare birds but sure made finding the resident birds and comfortable experience. Lodging was comfortable and we supported the local economy with food and fuel purchases. I really enjoyed this island and the local people. It wouldn't take much convincing to head back there sometime . Glad to share some advice if you are thinking of doing an independent trip there. -Little Stint at Boundary Bay was an awesome local lifer for me. A real highlight and successful chase. -A trip over Christmas Holidays to Arizona yielded 4 lifers - Rufous-capped Warbler, Bendire's Thrasher, Green Kingfisher, and Rosy-faced Lovebirds. Rufous-capped Warbler came while hiking with Thor Manson - always a treat to meet up with him in his new location. Blessings to you all for 2019! Dave
|
|
|
Post by birderbert on Jan 10, 2019 9:28:58 GMT -8
|
|
|
Post by Gord on Jan 11, 2019 20:17:30 GMT -8
expiallyd Anne, I know what one of my 2019 highlights will be is your post on your 2018 highlights. I got a good laugh out of the no off leash dogs especially. Dave, that St. Paul's trip sounds neat and has my interest. Randy ?
|
|
|
Post by Randy on Jan 11, 2019 21:28:37 GMT -8
expiallyd Anne, I know what one of my 2019 highlights will be is your post on your 2018 highlights. I got a good laugh out of the no off leash dogs especially. Dave, that St. Paul's trip sounds neat and has my interest. Randy ? YES!!!!!!
|
|