Post by Gord on Sept 29, 2015 21:58:30 GMT -8
Over lunch I walked the old decommissioned road from the lower parking lot at Sumas Park. The habitat here is a two-three year old cut block. On my way back down an odd bird flew up from the side of the road and flew a few feet before landing again on the ground. I would see it about eight more times repeating the jump up and fly when I got close routine. Despite my efforts to mark where it seemed to land, I would never be able to see it as it would pop up again making several soft "plut" sounds as it went. The flight was floating and bouncy and very unique. The closest I've seen to this flight style is Common Nighthawk. The bird was brown with buffy-brown markings mostly on the wings but otherwise tail, back, wings and head were fairly uniformly the same colour. There was buffy-white on the tail and while it seemed to almost cover the whole tail tip in the field I suspect the way the tail was spread gave this illusion. The bird was around the size of a robin with wings that seemed a bit large for the body. I say all this to say I worked on this bird a bit as I've never seen a Common Poorwill before! Very exciting and quite unexpected. Sumas seems to be the place for Interior bird species as earlier this month there was a Rock Wren.
Jamie and I went up tonight with our flashlights to take a look hoping it had come out from the slash in the cutblock to feed on the road. We had no luck unfortunately but had a falling star and the moon rose at the end of our outing looking very nice. We did mark on the road with three rocks and a big branch laying on top where I last saw it before it went a bit deeper into the slash. I first saw it about 50 yards further up the road just past a few very large trees on the right (west) of the road where the road widens and someone had a campfire here. To get to this road, drive past the big main gate at the end of Taggart Road and about a minute or less you'll see a small parking lot on your right. Park and walk north up the road past a big culvert. Just past the big rock that blocks the road there is a fork in the road. Keep to the left.
I also saw here my first Anna's Hummingbird for the Sumas site and there seems to be some hawk watch potential here too as I noticed a Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cooper's Hawk and a Turkey Vulture fly over until I got distracted and started watching the ground. If one does not want to drive all the way up to the upper parking lot for hawk watching and they dont mind a little walk for some needed exercise this site might be a good alternative. Poorwills certainly increase the enticement!
Jamie and I went up tonight with our flashlights to take a look hoping it had come out from the slash in the cutblock to feed on the road. We had no luck unfortunately but had a falling star and the moon rose at the end of our outing looking very nice. We did mark on the road with three rocks and a big branch laying on top where I last saw it before it went a bit deeper into the slash. I first saw it about 50 yards further up the road just past a few very large trees on the right (west) of the road where the road widens and someone had a campfire here. To get to this road, drive past the big main gate at the end of Taggart Road and about a minute or less you'll see a small parking lot on your right. Park and walk north up the road past a big culvert. Just past the big rock that blocks the road there is a fork in the road. Keep to the left.
I also saw here my first Anna's Hummingbird for the Sumas site and there seems to be some hawk watch potential here too as I noticed a Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cooper's Hawk and a Turkey Vulture fly over until I got distracted and started watching the ground. If one does not want to drive all the way up to the upper parking lot for hawk watching and they dont mind a little walk for some needed exercise this site might be a good alternative. Poorwills certainly increase the enticement!
