BIRDQUEST2004

After the success of the Bluetail, our focus was on the Brambling.  Next morning, we woke up to rain.  On these type of days I generally don’t even go out of the house let alone take out my camera.

Time was short so after breakfast off we went.

A short drive through traffic and we were at Laurel and West 17th in Vancouver.  We went to the back lane of the house and looked around the yard, and saw many birds, including Anna’s Hummingbirds, House Finches, Black-capped Chickadees, Song, Fox, Golden-crowned and House Sparrows, and Juncos but not the Brambling.  There was a man standing in the laneway and we asked if he’d seen the bird.   “it was just here 5 min ago” he replied and I thought here we go again, another hour wait for it to return.

About 1 minute later up it came from inside the bush/tree/shrub and put on a show for us.  It never came out in the clear but species photo #633 for my files, was in the books.

Bramblings are a Eurasian species common but irregular in the Aleutians.  Regularly seen most years somewhere on the west coast in winter.

The photo is crappy but they all count.

Ciao for now…Thanks again, Dave

Some years there are rare birds that show up, all around North America.  This year they settled on British Columbia.

First in Comox, BC, which is on Vancouver island, a Citrine Wagtail (Code 5) was found by David and Adele Rutledge.

Second in the month of December, 2 Bramblings (Code 3) were reported, one in Victoria and a second in Vancouver.

I could have probably resisted had there only been one but knowing there was a Wagtail and a Brambling….I had to go.   I called my good friend and fellow avid birder, Dave Shutz, to see if he was up for a birding trip.  He was was up for it and asked me if I’d heard about the Bluetail that had been reported.   Nope!

Doing some quick research online, I found the ABA Birding News article about the Bluetail.  On January, 13th a Red-flanked Bluetail (Code 4) was discovered in New Westminster, BC.    Now all I could do was wait out the 9 days and hope for the best.  Well as luck would have it, the Wagtail wasn’t seen again after the 13th of December.

As soon as I got off the airplane, we went in search of the Brambling, we waited for 2 hours but it never showed.  Thing were looking a bit grim,  off we went in search of the Bluetail.  It did not disappoint, very easy to find, getting a photo was another matter.

This bird was hanging out in Queens Park, it was rainy, overcast and under the trees there was almost no light.   I tried various settings but the bird would not sit still for long and most photos were blurry. I boosted the ISO of my camera up to 6400, knowing full well the images would be grainy but it was the only way I could get a resonably sharp image of this bird.  The bird seemed to fly in a circular pattern and all we had to do was wait.

A few minutes went by and the Red-flanked Bluetail was in the books. Species photo #632 for my files.

The photos are not the best but this is the first time a Bluetail has been seen in Canada and may never be seen again in my lifetime.

The first photo is the first I took in the rain and fog, the second is my best.

Ciao for now…Thanks Dave