Island 22 Sept 13

[Gord]

Jason and I met at his shop this morning and went out to bird the Island 22 east equestrian area for an hour from 7:15 - 8:30.

The wind was up a bit, and the sky was overcast creating poor viewing conditions unless things were up close.

It was a little quiet at first, but we found a pair of flycatchers we agreed were pacific-slope flycatchers. Then the warblers starting coming in. Lots of yellow-rumped and black-throated grey and a different one Jason worked on but couldnt quite get a good enough look at.

Near the end while checking the hedgerow at the pond near the parking lot, we both spotted this tanager at about the same time. It was hard to miss. Its head, breast, sides and undertail coverts were a orange-red-with a hint of yellow wash. There was a pair of wing bars like one would see on a western tanager, and the top bar had yellow-red colour on it as well. The wings were green/black and the back and rump was a dark olive. It appeared to be slightly larger in body and bill department. There was a female western tanager close by to compare to.

I snapped a couple of pictures, but aside from showing the colour of the bird, they are quite possibly the worst pictures Ive ever posted to this site in its almost one year life. Happy Birthday!! ;D





Now if this bird didnt have strong wing bars, Id think it was something good, but I think it might simply be a whacked male western tanager (thus the appeared tad larger size?). Neither Jason nor I have ever seen such a sight, how about anyone else? Funny thing to me though, is why no colour on the rump? It was the same colour on its back to rump with no indication of any contrast. Weird.

Any comments thoughts on this?

Here's what we saw:

Pied-billed Grebe 1
Great Blue Heron 1
Canada Goose 9
Mallard 1
Turkey Vulture 2
Osprey 1
Merlin 1
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Vaux's Swift ~30
Northern Flicker 2
Downy Woodpecker 2
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Western Wood-Pewee 2
Pacific-slope Flycatcher 2
Warbling Vireo 1
Steller's Jay 2
Northwestern Crow 5
Barn Swallow 7
Black-capped Chickadee 15
Brown Creeper 4
Winter Wren 1
Bewick's Wren 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 6
American Robin ~35
Swainson's Thrush 1
Orange-crowned Warbler 5
Black-throated Grey Warbler 15+
Yellow-rumped Warbler ~80
Western Tanager 3 (4?)
Pine Sisken 2

Yesterday afternoon, Jamie and I did a short walk from 2:00 - 3:00 in the east section of the equestrian area. It was sunny but quite windy. We found one area fairly busy with birds;, the highlight 3 Cassin's vireos.

Glaucous-winged Gull 4
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Northern Flicker 1
Downy Woodpecker 3
Pacific-slope Flycatcher 1
Cassin's Vireo 3
Warbling Vireo 4
Black-capped Chickadee 8
Brown Creeper 5
Golden-crowned Kinglet 2
American Robin 2
Orange-crowned Warbler 1
Townsend's Warbler 3
Black-throated Grey Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 10
Western Tanager 4
Evening Grosbeak (small flock heard flying over)

[Gord]

Ok, after consulting a few bird guides, some online sources and more knowledgable birders, looks like we could very likely have had a first year male scarlet tanager this morning. It isnt a western tanager, that is now for certain.

Some scarlet tanager first year birds do indeed have wing bars and that was what was throwing us off at first because at the time, nothing worked.

I didnt have time to discuss hybrids (brrr!) but there are few cases known where western and scarlet tanagers have hybridized from my online searching.

I would think a hybrid quite rare to be found here. Was this a species commonly known to hybridize, I would think it more likely/possible. But the fact a hybrid of a species that to my knowledge has only been seen this side of the Rockies a handful of times or more accurately, countable on both elbows makes it even more unlikely, but not impossible I guess.

But since scarlet tanagers can have wingbars, and there was nothing else on that bird that suggests anything western (to me) Im pretty confident it wasnt a hybrid.

That's all items explored.

Here are more intimate details of the sighting.

We had walked down the little trail to the lake from the southeast corner of the big parking lot at the east end of the park. Jason and I must have spotted this bird at the same time judging by the gurgled sounds of surprise and trying to say something coherant. It was just above eye level at about 15 feet away. The light was to our backs. Sure wish I snapped a picture then, but a rowdy yellow-rumped warber went after it on a brief but spirited chase. It then landed in a cottonwood about 20 feet up near a western tanager. This is when I got the pictures. It preened for a few minutes, jumped up a couple branches and otherwise ignored the two clowns down below moving around in the overgrown trail trying for different angled looks and complaining about wing bars and blackberry thorns. The western tanager then chased him briefly and it looked to have ended up over the horse corrals and into the trees in the equestrian area. Sadly, the store needed to be opened, and I had to get home so we had to leave.

Im torn to go back tomorrow morning, but have a Boundary Bay trip planned, and the tides are only good (and not really that good) tomorrow for the remainder of my holidays. If it's still there, then it is likely to be there again for Friday considering the weather is poor (this is what I tell myself). Sadly, I strongly suspect it will have kept moving, but you just dont know. I know that Jason went back for another look this afternoon.

Good luck to all who go for a look!

[josterhold]

hello birders
i had a brief look for the scarlet tanager this evening between 6:30 and 7:00. no luck. there were still quite a few birds around but nothing close to the numbers we had in the morning. thanks to rick toochin for helping id the bird and i understand he had some killer birds today as well.
cheers,
jason
ryder lake,bc

[woodpecker]

I looked for this bird on the afternoon of Sept 14. I found a large flock of birds over near the equestrian centre that included six species of warblers and at least 4 Western Tanagers but no sign of the Scarlet Tanager.

Also seen in the area were a Chipping Sparrow and 1 (or maybe 2) White-throated Sparrows.

Dale Jensen